Light, laughter, and the sound of a fiddle spilled out from the house. I stood in the doorway for a moment, blinking at the scene before me. The outer room, used for general mingling purposes, was packed with men, all of whom had tankards in their hands. A small group was playing cards, others were rolling dice, while in the corner, a couple of men amused themselves with a fiddle and concertina, playing a snappy jig.
“Oh, man, I forgot the guys would make a beeline here from the blockade ships,” I said as I pushed my way into the room. A couple of men looked up hopefully at me, but when they got a good look at me, they quickly averted their eyes. “I hope to God that response is due to the fact that I’m the governor of the town, and not because I look so horrible,” I murmured to no one in particular.
“Aye, that and the fact that ye’re Black Corbin’s wife,” Bas said.
“You’re supposed to keep quiet about that,” I reminded him as we went into the common room. One look at the activities there (the room was also filled with men) was enough for me to slap my hand over Bas’s eyes. “Oh, Lord. Tell me you didn’t see anything.”
“Nay,” he answered. Bran the raven rubbed his beak on my fingers. I sighed in relief and avoided making eye contact with anyone as I pushed Bas through the room. “Just a bunch of men as naked as the day they was born playin‘ cards and dicin’ like the others was.”
I gritted my teeth and shoved him through the doorway to the small back area that sat at the head of the hallway. “Do me a favor and pretend you didn’t see anything, okay?”
“Aye, aye. Why was all of those men naked?” Bas asked as I released him, ruffling his hair in a gesture of affection. Bran bobbed his head and flapped his wings until I gave his head a ruffle, too.
“ ‘Tis something Amy told us,” Mags said as she emerged from her room, a man following her who was holding a pair of boots and shirt, clad in the ubiquitous striped knickers. He grinned at us, handed Mags a couple of coins, and went out the back door.
My jaw dropped at such a thought. “What? Are you insane? When have I ever told you to fill the living room with naked sailors?”
“Ye told us we had to be efficient in order to make a profit,” she said, giving herself a quick look in the cracked mirror that hung next to the door. Mags, thankfully, had thrown on a cotton bathrobe. “Ye said we had to streamline our production, and increase our turnaround time. That’s what we’re doin‘—we strips the men down first, in order to cut down on wasteful time spent takin’
off their clothes and such. ‘Twas good advice, that. They seems to like it, too.
And ye know what they say—a happy Jack is a Jack who’ll not linger after his guns has fired.”
I stared at her for a second. “I was talking about your production of elderberry wine and the dresses you ladies make! Not… er… guns firing!”
She shrugged, consulted a ragged scrap of parchment on the desk, and opened the door to the common room. “No matter. Works as well with one as another.
Number twenty-three!”
A man sitting in the corner reading a book jumped up and hurried toward Mags, a strip of cloth in his hands. “I’m twenty-three!”
“First room on the left,” Mags said, pointing to her bedroom, taking the numbered bit of cloth. She gave me a questioning look. “Ye look all stove in.
What happened to ye?”
“Kidnapping, near drowning, almost having a heart attack when Bas appeared out of nowhere,” I answered tiredly, limping my way down the hall toward my room. I wanted nothing more than to fall down onto the bed and lie there an eternity or two until Corbin came to carry me home.
“Ah. Ye’re bleedin‘. Ye want Jez?”
“Yes, please. When she’s not busy.”
Mags nodded. “I’ll tell her.”
“Thanks. Is my room still—oh, hoy, Renata.” The old woman, coming in the back way, stopped in midstep and stared at me with eyes wide with surprise.
She blinked twice. “Renata? Is something wrong?”
“Nay, dearie.” She shook her head, her eyes avoiding me. “I wondered when we’d be seein‘ ye again. Ye’re injured?”
“Not too badly, but enough I want to see if Jez has something to keep the cuts from becoming infected.” I hesitated, bothered by something in Renata’s manner. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just rest in my old room until Jez has time to look at me.”
“Aye, ‘tis a good idea, that. Where be yer man this evenin’?”
Red Beth and one of her customers (clad this time) emerged from her room.
The man, whom I recognized from Corbin’s flagship, kissed her noisily, made a little forelock-tugging gesture at me, and went off with a song on his lips. Red Beth smiled smugly and went to fetch her next customer.
I gave Renata a long look. She wasn’t on my list any longer now that Bart had been uncovered, but she was certainly acting in a manner that had my radar pinging. “Corbin is out seeing to the last couple of blockade ships. Why do you ask?”
