“How ya been, Seastorm?”
“What are you doing here, Seastorm?”
“Causing as much trouble as I can get away with, and then some,” Marc answered the last lad.
“You bring us anything?” another wondered.
Marc laughed. “Nothing like what you want, Jimmy.”
Jimmy’s face fell, and he scuffed the ground with his foot. “I don’t want much. Just a gold statue or something.”
The other boys laughed at his ‘modest’ proposal. “We could all use one of them, couldn’t we, boys?” one of the older fellows shouted.
“Aye!”
“I’d like mine in silver!”
“Silver ain’t worth anything!”
“It’s worth more than your face!”
“Who’s the dame?” More than one of the boys gave me a thorough looking over.
Marc puffed out his chest a little as he gestured to me. “Boys, this is Miss Rose Larkin. She’s on her first voyage.”
One of the lads, a boy of about fourteen with a crooked cap on his head, offered me his grimy hand and a wide grin. “Pleased to meet ya, Rose!”
“That’s Miss Larkin to you!” one of the younger lads corrected him.
The older boy glared at him. “I’ll call her what I want, Fred, and don’t you go telling me what I can or can’t do!”
“The boy who had first called to us slipped up to me and bowed his head. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Larkin. Any friend of Seastorm’s is a friend of the Sparrow Syndicate.”
The name made the corners of my lips twitch upward. “The Sparrow Syndicate? Is that what you are?”
He puffed out his chest a little. “Yes, ma’am. My name’s Henry, and I run the group.”
“And I’m Jimmy!” the gold-hungry lad spoke up.
“The name’s Ben,” the fourteen-year-old told me.
More names were yelled, too many for me to remember.
The youngest in the group, a boy of five, bounced up and down to be seen through the forest of adolescents. “And I’m Petey!”
I smiled at all of them. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all, and please call me Rose.”
I felt a soft tug and looked down to find Petey staring up at me with a pair of doe eyes. “Did you bring me something, Rose? Mr. Seastorm always brings us something to play with.”
“Nothing that exciting this time,” Marc announced, and more than one face was crestfallen. He dug into his pocket and drew out a leather purse. The contents chinked like coins. “But you can have your own fun with this.”
A roar erupted from the group, and they eagerly crowded around him. Marc opened the purse and drew out a heaping handful of coins. The boys scrambled to snatch one of the precious gold items from his hand, and then scuttled away to paw at their treasure. Only one problem passed among them.
“You took two, Jimmy!” one of them shouted.
“I did not!” Jimmy snapped as he hugged his clasped hands against his chest. “There’s plenty for everyone!”
Marc’s sharp eye fell on the lad. “I drew out enough coins for only one a piece, sailor. No more and no less.” He tucked the bag into his coat and held open his once-filled hand. His palm now lay empty. “So where’s it gone?”
