"Hey, Santo," he shouted in a poor mixture of Portuguese and English. Then he turned back to her. "You can talk, but not at the bar. I got payin' customers."
Elyse nodded as the man Santo came up beside her, giving her a questioning stare. He wiped his hands on the apron tied around him."Sí?"He watched her warily.
"Your cousin's husband said I should see you." Again, that guarded look. "He said you might know of someone with a ship going to England."
"England?" With a noncommittal shrug of the shoulders, he turned away, crossing the tavern to serve the drinks. When Santo came back, she asked again.
"I need passage, on a ship to England."
"I understand," he replied.
"Do you know of someone?"
He looked at her speculatively. "Such a thing would cost a great deal of money. Where would a boy like you get that?"
Elyse started to say she had it with her. But looking around she hesitated.
"I can get it," she replied.
Santo only snorted as he moved behind the bar, nodding to a customer at the far end. Elyse's gaze followed him as he took a bottle to the customer. Her eyes widened. If there were such things as pirates on the high seas, this man surely was one.
He wore bright red pants, a sash wrapped around his waist with a broad black belt that barely controlled a belly that was bulging through the strained buttons of his soiled white shirt. The long, leather vest he wore hung practically to his knees. His girth almost matched his height, with black leather boots, cuffs rolled to just below his knees.
He was bald except for a matted fringe of hair that grew around the perimeter of his skull and fell past his shoulders. His gleaming forehead set far back on his head, and was accentuated by what should have been black, bushy eyebrows. Instead, they were just one continuous, shaggy brow that grew out of the area above his eyes. And those eyes frightened her.
They were like narrow slits, pig eyes in the flat face, pink rimmed, without lashes. They were cold eyes, gleaming with strange lights in spite of the fact that the tavern was dimly lit.
He reminded her of a great black bear she'd once seen dressed in fine clothes at a fair in London. But fine clothes hadn't kept the bear from breaking its tethers in a fit of rage and turning on everyone within reach.
Now, as Santo spoke to the man, the man shifted his gaze to her. The pig eyes narrowed, and fear tightened her throat.
"So, little man." With this gruff acknowledgment, the bear shifted his weight and came toward her. "You are looking for a ship bound for England. I might be setting a course for England, if the price is right." Then he leaned toward her, his stench preceding him so that Elyse was forced to hold her breath.
He laughed again, a humorless sound. "But it doesn't look as if you have the price, little one."
Elyse's head came up. Zach had called her that; the nickname had seemed endearing on his lips, a casual caress spoken as he'd made love to her. Dear God, how far away all that seemed now, and in spite of the anger that had sent her from theRevenge,she found herself longing for that safe haven. Elyse swallowed hard. She hid her pale, small hands beneath the cape, lest they give her away. She was here and must see this through.
"I have the price,"she boldly informed him, lowering her voice as much as possible.
"Ah! So the boy can speak. I was afraid you might be a mute." The bear roared with laughter. "Like the last one I had." He turned and nodded to men at a nearby table. Were they friends, fellow sailors?
"So what do you say, my little friend." The bear clapped her so hard on the back he almost sent her to the floor. Then he patted her, his hand squeezing down cruelly at her shoulder.
"You are soft, little one. I would almost think there was a girl beneath that cape you wear. But I don't mind the softness. So, tell me, if I were to risk my ship and my crew on this voyage to England, what would you pay us?"
Elyse straightened, pulled the hat more securely down atop her head and lowered her voice once more. "I can pay you and there would be more when we reach England."
"Ah, more." He winked a pig eye at a companion nearby. "But what if you are lying? What if you only have a few coins or none at all? I make the trip for nothing, at great expense to myself and my crew. But if you have something more to offer..." he suggested.
"When we reach England," she repeated. "I have nothing else."
A smirk distorted the bear's face. "There is always yourself, little one."
Elyse gasped. Had the man seen through her disguise? Was some of her hair hanging below the hat? My God, what should she do now?
"I am sorry," she apologized. "I will look elsewhere," she mumbled, backing away from the bar. Neither she nor the grinning bear paid any attention to the shadowy figure that moved into a darkened corner of the Green Dolphin.
Zach had arrived in time to hear the last of the exchange. He'd tracked the'boy'with those exceptional blue eyes from the shop where Kimo had purchased the silk, to the cafe, then to the Green Dolphin.
