She shook her head as she walked through the doorway, part of her in disbelief that she’d come to think of both the dwarf andraccoon as family. Then she stopped short, her breath catching. All thought of Thrain and Bramble evaporated as she took in the captain’s quarters.
Instead of a cramped room with swinging hammocks, Bonnie One-Eye’s room was an open space with gleaming wooden floors that glowed from the flickering wall sconces and a four-poster bed under a wide window. But it wasn’t the bed dressed in colorful silks, or even the round table set with an ornate silver candelabra and bone china, that made Cali forget to breathe. It was the walls lined from floor-to-ceiling with books.
Fourteen
“Books?”The word tripped unplanned from Cali’s tongue.
Bonnie emerged from behind a screen, her long hair loose around her shoulders. She’d changed from her leather pants into a black skirt hitched up on one side to reveal crimson ruffles underneath. Instantly, Cali worried she was underdressed. Not that she had a skirt to change into—or would even consider it.
“Quick one, isn’t she?” the dwarf cook said, with a wink to the captain as she took the basket from Bramble and plopped it on the table.
Cali didn’t get the chance to explain her surprise to the cook before the woman had bustled from the room with Bramble waddling after her.
To her credit, Bonnie didn’t act as if she’d heard the cook. “From what I understand, you’re familiar with books, yes?”
Cali managed to clear her throat and pull her gaze from the captain’s exposed leg. “Of course, I mean, yes. I didn’t expect that you…”
Bonnie sauntered toward them, one brow arched as the pantheri spluttered to a stop. “You didn’t think pirates read?”
Cali frowned. If she were being honest, she hadn’t thought of pirates as big readers. Expansive libraries had never been mentioned in the pirate romances she’d devoured, and she couldn’t imagine that humid, briny air was good for so much paper. “I didn’t imagine anyone would have such a library on a ship.”
The woman ran one hand along the leather spines of a row of books, the embossed gilded lettering glittering in the light from the sconces on the wall and the table’s candelabra. “I like my crew to be literate, so this is as much a lending library as a private one. Anyone can borrow a book.” She leveled her gaze at Cali. “Even guests.”
“Don’t know if you’ll catch me reading one.” Thrain snorted a laugh. “Not unless you have books on dwarf rune strategy.”
Bonnie slid her gaze slowly to Thrain, her smile broadening. “I don’t believe we do, but any crew member can also add books to the library. There’s always a chance that Marvella has tucked some dwarf stories in here.”
He clasped his hands behind his back as he eyed the books with slightly more interest. “Aye? Is there now? You don’t know if she plays runes, do you?”
Bonnie chuckled and gestured toward the table. “If she does, she’s never challenged me to a game.”
Thrain muttered something about dwarf gaming, but Cali was too distracted by some of the book titles to pay close attention. Even when her friend scraped a chair out from under the table and sank into it, she didn’t join him.
“Are these pirate chronicles?” She took a step closer to the shelves, squinting to make out the swirling letters adorning the book spines.The Travels and Travails of Peg-Leg Willie. The Unabridged Journals of Captain Blackheart. Across the Sea and Back Again: My Journeys with Jack Dandy.
Bonnie joined her, her skirt rustling as she moved. “I like to read about my predecessors. Plus, I’ve gotten good tips about easy passages and friendly bays.”
Cali flicked her gaze down the row of books, her attention snagging on a drawing propped up at the end. She reached for the sketch depicting what appeared to be the docks of Eldu. “Who did this?”
Bonnie beat her to the paper, her cheeks coloring. “Nothing. A pastime of mine.”
Cali got a last glance before Bonnie pulled it from the shelf. “It looks just like Eldu.”
Her blush deepened, and she opened her mouth, but Thrain’s loud moans preempted whatever she’d been planning to say.
“These yeast rolls might give Pip’s a run for their coin,” he mumbled through a mouthful of bread as he slapped his palm on the table. “They’re not filled with fruits or covered in icing, though, so it might not be a fair comparison.”
Bonnie straightened and swiveled to him, striding toward an empty chair. “Marvella is known for her rolls. It’s why I poached her from a bakery in Frostmoor.”
The dwarf’s whiskers were already shiny with butter as he vigorously licked his fingertips. “Frostmoor, eh? Decent numberof dwarves on the border with the Ice Lands. Never knew one who could bake like this, though.”
Bonnie took her seat, and Cali followed her lead, picking the chair between the captain and Thrain. She drew in another breath, her growling stomach reminding her how long it had been since her last proper meal.
“Marvella doesn’t do sweets or pastries. Nothing like the treats your friends sent with you.” Bonnie eyed the door as if afraid the dwarf might overhear her. “But we’ve never had complaints about her rolls and stew.”
Thrain patted his belly below the end of his beard. “Nothing quite like dwarf stew.”
Cali fought the urge to cringe. She agreed with Thrain, but probably not in the way he meant. Her experience with dwarven cuisine hadn’t left her with the best impression, although she vastly preferred it to troll cooking, which comprised various kinds of gruel—breakfast gruel, mid-day gruel, evening gruel, holiday gruel—none of which she could tell apart.
