As I followed the busy crowd, I spotted Mr. Gates and the young boatswain, Billy, standing on a balcony while they surveyed a scene with two men debating over one painting who had copied the other in an ugly way.
"FRUIT, FRUIT, TITS, TITS, PLANT.... PLANT. IT'S THE FUCKIN' SAME!"
~~~
"COME UP HERE, CAPTAIN JONES!" He shouted and waved enthusiastically at me. I waved back and instead of using the stairs from the inside, I took a shortcut and climbed my way up with the wooden pole leading to the balcony they were on. It was worth almost the fall because it didn't take me as long as it would have taken me if I walked around.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Gates and-...."
"Billy Bones." The younger man pushed himself back from the table to offer me his hand which I politely took.
"Good afternoon to you too, Billy Bones. My name is Naida." The boatswain nodded shortly and released my hand.
"I'm guessing you already know what happened?" Gates interrogated and I watched him sideways, raising one of my eyebrows before I closed my eyes for a short amount of time to indicate he was right.
"Yeah, I do.... it's hard to keep things quiet on such a curious island." I responded and noticed that Billy looked me up and down with a curious look in his eyes, no strange intentions behind it.
Something was on his mind.
"Captain Jones.... you're way kinder than the stories tell.... I doubt those rumours are real if I speak to you like this." Billy raised his voice in an uncertain tone, but still had the courage to talk about what was wandering around in his head and I appreciated it.
"Oh, Mr. Bones. Those rumours, or what ya want to call them, are real and if I'm being honest.... I'm not afraid to do it all over again. In fact I would love to use a new style of torture on that cook of yours." I kindly grinned and he immediately backed off a little, glaring at the ground. He wasn't afraid and it wasn't my intention to get him scared, but he did become more cautious about what I had answered. Mr. Gates silently laughed and Billy's alert face expression changed not long after Mr. Gates spoke up, saying he loved this town while still focusing on a not so smart captain and appraiser of Nassau arguing about the two complete unalike paintings.
"I'm sorry, weren't we supposed to be looking for the cook?" Gates watched Billy with a huge smirk on his face while Billy shrugged at me.
"We are, any luck?" Billy seemed more bothered by Mr. Gates than before and I raised an eyebrow as well.
Why was Mr. Gates sitting on the balcony all day?
Leaning over the railing, my eyes met those of the appraiser. Perhaps the cook was willing to sell the schedule, but that would betray his hiding spot.
"No, and I've looked all over. Meanwhile, you haven't moved from this stump all day." Mr. Gates stared at me silently and it appeared that he enjoyed annoying Billy.
"Billy, take a load off." I could see the young man sigh before slowly sitting down once again, his arms resting on the table. I myself sat down as well, but took a seat on the wooden railing of the balcony because there were no chairs left. The conversation between Billy and Mr. Gates was none of my business as the older man tried to make Billy feel better after lying about the page and so I switched my gaze towards the two debating men downstairs. The appraiser tried to explain that one was a beautiful masterpiece made by a famous painter and the other a copied abomination, but even so, the stubborn Captain kept his opinion. "Fruit, fruit. Tits, Tits, Plant.... plant!" I giggled to myself.
Some men on this island.
The two men behind me suddenly started a conversation about something that caught my interest very quickly and I jerked my head back.
"Flint baited him into that fight, then he killed him."
"Well, he was no saint." Billy and Mr. Gates both looked up at me and although they agreed, Billy found it hard to understand why Mr. Gates and I talked about this so easily.
"Naida is right, Singleton was no saint."
"You both are unbelievable, but that's not the point. The point is, I lied to my own crew to protect the Captain."
"That's loyalty, Bones." I wasn't the best at assuring someone, but I still felt the need to help and he was really feeling down about his actions.
"Loyalty to my Captain, not towards my crew."
"Billy, you lied to protect the crew. You saw the Scarborough, mate. You know what's coming. We can't thieve forever."
"But it would be easier if we could." Billy grinned at my comment, but brought himself back to earth as soon as Mr. Gates hit me with his elbow.
"Flint said that we need a king." The boatswain sounded very concerned.
Flint wanted to be king?
Well, let's see how long it takes for him to discover that he has competition all battling for that title.
I jumped off the railing and approached the two others, slamming my hands on the table as I did so.
"You have a fucking legend standing here so fuck Flint's fantasy." I leaned across the table on my hands and I straightened my back afterwards to maintain my confident attitude.
"See, Billy, we already have one... so don't worry about that. Five million pieces, think about that." Mr. Gates played along mockingly.
"I guess we just keep looking then."
"No need."
Mr. Gates slapped Billy on his chest and pointed at the appraiser who was speaking with a messenger around 12 years old at the moment. The older man slapped Billy again as a sign to follow him and the young man and I exchanged some looks before we brought our attention back to Mr. Gates. He pushed his chair back with his legs and hurriedly followed the appraiser with me following him on his heels. It took a moment until Billy finally managed to move down the balcony with us, but eventually he joined us. That didn't mean Billy understood what was going on, so, as I kept an eye out for the appraiser, Mr. Gates tried to meanwhile give an explanation of what we were doing to the disoriented Billy.
"Why are we following the appraiser?"
"Cause if I'm this cook and I want to sell the schedule and leave this place as a rich man-....." Mr. Gates stopped and tapped me on the shoulder. "Naida?"
"Mhuh?" I hummed as I had the appraiser locked in my eye sight like a hunting eagle.
"Finish it for me, will you?" I inclined my head in understanding and Mr. Gates made a shortcut through some alleys leaving us by ourselves. I held out a hand and rested it on the shoulder of Billy as I guided him to where I went.
"Well, if I was the cook, I would need two things— I need a boat and I need a method of payment."
"A method of payment? Gold?" I shook my head at his answer.
"In my doing of business, gold is too heavy and attracts too much attention if you want to sneak through the streets, so.... I was thinking more about pearls and of course I want to know the exact value of what I'm getting."
After a while, we ended up at the brothel.
It made me pretty uncomfortable to stand inside the brothel as a woman because all the men were staring at me. Probably because I was new here, but still. My back was supported by the cold wall as I observed the men with a challenging face expression, making sure they wouldn't dare to touch me or else the first thing they would lose were their cocks. In the meantime Mr. Gates had caught up with us and I signed to one of the upstairs rooms the appraiser disappeared into. Mr. Gates had seen it too and before he could say anything, he was addressed by a man of The Walrus. He appeared to be quite drunk in the way he walked and talked and a white was attached to his side, curling his hair around her fingers.
The drunk man began to talk and my mind drifted off to the thought of us just waiting for that man to be done with his quick fuck and that he wasn't here for his job at all.
As if Billy could read my mind, he asked if we didn't have a big chance he was here for a quick fuck and not for his work or the schedule and Mr. Gates immediately disagreed with him.
"I don't think the man would have a quick fuck with Anne Bonny standing guard." I looked back up at the door of the room he had disappeared in and there was indeed a red haired woman, apparently named Anne Bonny, standing guard. Damn, this will take longer than I thought it would be. I ordered a bottle of rum to quench my thirst and after I paid for it, I thanked the woman working behind the bar who felt very flattered subsequently. Right when I took a big sip of my rum a tall, muscular figure ran into the brothel and I almost choked on my rum when I saw the man properly.
Vane.
I had spit out the rum that I couldn't get myself to swallow and the whole brothel went silent. Fuck, Captain Vane was aware of me. He angrily turned around and gazed at me with a dead man's glare, though, on the other hand, I casually smiled back at him and winked before I instantly turned my face back to the confident look I had worn on my face before he fucked up the mood in here.
I could feel his oceanic eyes follow my body from the bottom up and I spotted him clenching his jaw. It made me feel like he wanted to say something to me, but didn't have much time to do so when he suddenly ran up the stairs, not paying any attention to me anymore. The music had afterwards started to continue again and the people continued talking cheerfully. I took a deep breath and then exhaled.
"I see you have already encountered Vane." Mr. Gates switched his eyes at me with a big smile, but his expression changed into pity one when he saw my concerned face. "Not in a good way then, eh?"
"Nevertheless, it was a great encounter. Though, sadly, I think he and I are, as it is called, enemies after the little problem at the coast."
Mr. Gates and Billy bursted out in laughter and I followed, making the three of us laugh like we just escaped death. I could get used to this island. After a long time of waiting and hearing men's drunk conversations, Vane and his quartermaster walked downstairs, completely ignoring us while walking outside. They seemed beyond angry. Quite by accident, Flint and Eleanor walked in a few seconds afterwards, telling that a French whore had a part in all this nonsense. Of course we had to handle it with speed so we quickly found ourselves in front of her room while Eleanor entered on her own first. We could hear the whore saying that they could flee together and I looked at Flint with an disgusted look.
"How long is this gonna take?" I questioned.
"Naida, let them be emotional for a little bit of time." Mr. Gates laid his hand down on my shoulder and I watched him with confusion in my eyes as he just smiled and stayed quiet.
"You brought them here?" The whore's French accent was very thick and then Flint, amazing timing by the way, opened the door and walked inside with the three of us following him involuntarily.
"Max, I need you to tell me where the page is."
"And if I don't, then what?"
"This doesn't have to go badly."
"I want her to say it! I want her to say that she would sit there and watch as you beat the answer out of me to save this place. Say it! SAY IT!" The French whore, Max, called out with tears in her eyes, clearly in love with Eleanor. However Eleanor had different plans as she shook her head, making Max back off.
"The Wrecks at sun down."