Ambrose pointed to two of the sailors and Mister Kearns. “Here, now, Franklin, Thatch, and Kearns, you three go and find us some firewood, we’ll be needing a warm fire come nightfall.”
“Anything else you be needin’, Cap’n?” Thatch asked, picking up one of the machetes from the contents of the boats.
“Shiver my timbers, Thatch, use your damn head,” Ambrose said with a roll of his eyes. “Do I have to tell you to do everything?”
Bosun let out a screech on his shoulder. “Shiver me timbers, rawk!”
Thatch bowed his head. “I got it, Cap’n.” He turned, and he, Franklin, and Mister Kearns disappeared into the trees, Kearns taking the lead, as he was wont to do.
The squire was red-faced under his wig, and I grabbed a skin of water and pointed to a large piece of driftwood down the beach where we would be out of the way of the men working. “You need to sit down, Squire,” I told him gently but firmly, for he was a proud man who did not like to admit he needed help.
“If it will not inconvenience the crew,” he said with an apologetic smile at Ambrose.
Ambrose waved his hand absently, too busy with directing his men to their tasks to give us much notice. I offered the squire my arm, and we walked the short distance down the beach to sit on the wood. I gave him the waterskin, and he took it gratefully, taking a long swig before handing it to me. He stared out at the rolling blue waves, a small smile on his lips. “We made it, Jamie, by God, we made it!” he declared.
I nodded, and the squire took off his hat and wig to wipe at his forehead with his handkerchief. “I am very sorry, my boy, that I dragged you into this whole mess for my own inadequacies. You should not have had to endure a trip such as this.”
I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t blame you in the least, sir. I am glad to be here to help you. And once we have the treasure, we will settle your debts and make things right again.”
The squire nodded at that. “Indeed. And you shall have your share, Jamie. And… I will understand if you will want to take your leave of me once it is done.”
The idea of having money of my own to do as I pleased had been an incorporeal dream for so long until now that I was unsure what I might do with more than a few shillings in my pocket. That is, if we found the treasure. I could only hope that no one else had before us, and that the map was genuine. For if it was not, the squire would be quite lost, and I had no idea what either of us would do.
The squire surprised me further by giving my shoulder a squeeze. “Would you perhaps go on to serve under Captain Ambrose?”
My face reddened, not sure what the squire was implying. He had not ever commented on my relationship with Ambrose beyond basic pleasantries. But the older man just smiled softly. “If you are happy with him, I would not want you to hold back on account of me.”
I flushed deeper, ducking my head a little, giving the squire a grateful smile. “I… don’t know yet,” I said honestly. “Let’s find the treasure first before any decisions are made about the future.”
“Quite right you are, my boy,” the squire said, giving his knee a jovial slap. He reached into his jacket and drew out the oilskin-covered map, handing it to me. “Will you hold onto this until we are settled? I shall try to help out the crew as best I can with this creaky back, but should not wear my jacket while I do. This poor old coat has seen enough wear in its day. That shall be one of the first things I purchase for myself, a new wardrobe. My old Maggie would have been pleased with that.”
I tucked the packet firmly inside my shirt, the slick outside of it cool against my sweat-dampened skin, as the squire placed his wig back on his head and fanned himself briefly with his hat before putting that on as well. He took another sip of the water before sticking it into the pocket of his jacket and rising to his feet. “Not as spry as I was in my younger days,” he said with a chuckle. “Enjoy your youth while it lasts, Jamie, my boy, tally-ho!”
“I will, sir,” I said with a laugh, offering him my arm again, which he took for the walk back through the sand to where the crew had started to erect some poles into the ground.
“Shiver me timbers,” came a squawk from nearby, and I spotted Bosun perched on one of the nearby crates, cocking his blue and yellow head to look at me as we approached. “Shiver me timbers.”
I reached out my hand toward Bosun for him to give my fingers an affectionate nibble as the squire let go of my arm and wandered a few paces ahead over to Ambrose, the two striking up a conversation.
The next moment seemed to happen as if I were seeing it from the bottom of a deep well. Duncan suddenly appeared behind the squire, and quicker than my eyes could track, there was a flash of silver across his throat, followed by a gush of red. The squire’s eyes bulged for a moment, like he was not sure what happened, and they turned to me in confusion. He opened his mouth to say something, but another rush of red flowed over his lips and down the front of his shirt, turning the faded white to a shocking crimson in moments. He dropped to his knees, wavered, and fell to the side, convulsing as his body fought alternately for air and blood, and I could do nothing but stare at him until he went still, slumped on the ground as blood soaked into the sand beneath him.
And then my eyes turned up to Ambrose, who stood, unmoving, near the squire’s prostrate form, watching him slump with impassive eyes. I waited for him to yell, to draw his sword or his pistol, to do anything at all as Duncan stood only steps away, the knife still in his hand. I heard my heart rushing in my ears, louder than the nearby crash of waves. Was I about to join the squire on the sand in a puddle of my own blood? Was Ambrose about to fall to the hands of a mutiny? I opened my mouth, sure that I was about to scream for lack of anything more helpful to do, when Ambrose’s dark eyes met mine, and the sound choked in my throat like an unchewed piece of meat.
The captain gazed at me for a moment, and I stared back, unable to make myself do anything more. I stood frozen to the ground as if I had grown roots there. I could not move, I could not speak, I am not even sure I breathed, for fear it might be my last. And then he smiled, that silver smile that I had grown so fond of. “My apologies you had to see that, lad,” he said, as if he were apologizing for Duncan kicking a stray dog, not murdering a man in cold blood on a beach in bright sunlight.
And then came a great shout of laughter and jeers from the trees, and two of the sailors came through, dragging a third man by the arms as if he were nothing more than a grain sack. His head lolled, and I could see crimson painting his shirt as well. My stomach dropped inside of me as I recognized Mister Kearns, also dead.
Thatch and Franklin dragged Mister Kearns over and dropped him atop the squire’s body in an unnatural tangle of limbs. I felt like I might be about to lose my stomach, my legs trembling, as several members of the crew turned to look at me, and I suddenly felt like a wild hare pinned by the gaze of bloodthirsty hounds.
“What about the pup, Cap’n?” Miller asked, and his leer sent dread into the marrow of my bones as the implication of the words settled upon me like lead. This was no mutiny, at least, not one against Ambrose.
“Leave him be,” Ambrose said, his tone light, waving one of his hands with a casual flick of his wrist. “He is of no threat to us. Right, lad?”
I nodded numbly, for I knew not what else to do as I stared at the two dead men only steps from my feet. One of the other sailors, I thought it might have been Roderick but could not be sure, said, “Can we at leas’ have some fun with ‘im, Cap’n?” and I felt an icy chill in my spine.
“I said, leave him be,” Ambrose said again, his voice suddenly much darker and rougher. “No one touches him without my say-so, or I’ll see the color of his insides.”
There was a grumble through several of the crew members, but a vicious look from Ambrose made it fall silent again, and I forced myself to breathe. Ambrose waved his hand at the bodies of the squire and Mister Kearns before he moved over to me, suddenly blocking out the sunlight. I had always felt protected and comfortable in that shadow, but now I realized how much taller and stronger he was than me, and I had nowhere to run, even if my legs had been listening to my brain.
