"That is my point," she said. "When I let you know there could be more between us, you ran the other way."
"Did not."
"Did so."
Impasse. Finally I asked, "What does any of this have to do with getting off this boat? In one piece?"
"Your plan seems to entail seduction."
"I said it was an option, yes. And it is. One of the oldest in whatever book you care to read." Which meant it might not work; then again, it had been used with success enough times to end up in the book.
Del's turn to sniff. "You were quick enough to volunteer me for the option-except the captain isn't a man, so that won't work."
"It was you who said I was looking at her!"
"You were."
"So were you."
"Tiger, I do have some acquaintance with the look in a man's eyes when he notes an attractive woman."
She would. "It doesn't hurt anything to look."
"Of course not."
That sounded suspiciously like she was pulling my leg-or else saw my point. Which raised another issue. "Do you look?"
"Of course I look."
"At other men?"
"A woman looks at other men the way a man looks at other women."
"She does?"
"Of course she does."
I had never considered that. It was new territory. Negotiating carefully, I said, "You mean women who aren't married."
"I mean any woman, Tiger. If she sees a man she considers attractive-or thinks he might be attractive, but needs additional study-she looks."
"Even if she's married." I paused. "Or sharing another man's bed. For three years."
Del smiled. "Yes," she said gently, "I look."
"How often?"
She was laughing at me. "Ask yourself the same question."
"That often?"
She crossed to the coil of rope, sat down beside me. Leaned her shoulder into mine. "You look. I look. Looking is not leaping."
"And is there any man here you might look at? Without leaping?"
"Oh, I might look at the first mate."
"Him? He's bald!"
"He shaves his head; I've seen the shadow. And the shape of his skull is good."
"He's got those blue tattoos all over it!"
"They are beautiful designs, too, so intricate and fluid."
"He has rings in his eyebrows!" And, for all I knew, elsewhere.
"That, I admit, is not so attractive. But-different." She shrugged. "He's interesting looking."
"Anything else?"
Del nodded, then tipped her head into mine. Softly she said, "He has your eyes."
"My eyes? "
"Green," she said. "And while one can see the competence in them, the confidence and willingness to risk himself, one can also see the laughter."
I digested that. "I don't see that there's much to laugh about, in our present situation."
"He does."
"He should!"
"Then it's up to us to find a way to stop the laughter in his eyes, and put it back in yours."
I twisted my mouth. "Which brings us around to the captain again."
"So it does."
"And if she's as smart as you believe she is, it might take a while. This-seduction."
"It might."
I scowled into sea spray. "You don't sound all that upset about it, bascha."
"Because I will have my own task to do."
"What's that?" I asked suspiciously.
"Seducing the first mate."
"De-li-lah! "
"Think with your head," she admonished, "not with-something else. If you should succeed in winning the captain's favors enough that it gains you a knife or sword so you may take her hostage against our safety, her crew will come for me."
So they would. I'd never believed otherwise.
"And so," she continued, "I should arm myself as well so they can't take me to force the issue, and then they will have no choice but to let us assume command. And have our captain freed, so he can sail this boat."
"Ship," I corrected. "And this is about the silliest plan I ever heard."
"Men who want something have seduced women throughout the centuries, Tiger. You yourself admitted it."
"I hope you're going to point out that women have used seduction to gain things, too."
"Of course they have. Men are ridiculously easy to manipulate from between the blankets."
I glared at her.
She shrugged. "You only think it's silly because we'll both be doing the same thing at the same time for the same reason."
"This is your revenge," I accused.
"You have no problem with me going into the circle, Tiger. Or killing to save our lives."
"Of course not." Now. Once I had, on both counts.
"And you were suggesting that I might seduce the captain, were he a man."
"I said it was an option –"
"But now that I'm so willing to seduce this first mate even as you are seducing the captain, the plan makes you uncomfortable." She paused. "Why is that?"
My head hurt. "I don't know!"
Del sighed. "Small steps," she murmured, "But enough of them lead to the same destination."
She was being cryptic again. I hate that. "What in hoolies are you talking about now?"
"I can fight enemies with you, kill with you, sleep with you. But not seduce someone else even as you are engaged in the same activity." She arched pale brows. "You do not-yet-care to share this thunder."
I hunched over on the coil of rope, elbows on knees, chin in hands. Aware of aches and abiding frustration. "I have a better idea."
"Yes?"
"Teach me to swim," I growled, "and then neither one of us has to seduce anyone!"
"Ah. Well, that, too, is an option. And then there is yet another."
I turned my head to glower at her. "I'm biting, bascha. See me biting?" I displayed teeth.
The Northern bascha was innocence personified. "You're the jhihadi," she said. "Why don't you just magick us up whatever weapons we need?"
I put the plan into action on captain's watch, just before dawn. It wasn't particularly difficult: I wasn't sleeping well, was stiff and sore, and desperately needed the exercise. So, taking my lead from Del on the other ship, I went up on deck and began to loosen up.
I'll admit it: there are times when a man postures and poses merely for effect. I'd seen it in the stud around mares. I'd seen it in male dogs as they gathered around a bitch in season. I'd certainly seen it in cantinas when a pretty wine-girl was the desired object in a room full of men just in off the desert. Sometimes one can't help it. Other times one-can. But chooses not to.
This was one of those times.
However, I had reconnoitered before undertaking the plan. Even as I had counted the crew, I assessed them as well. Eight men. All tall, all strong, all in condition. A small woman, no matter her personal skill and abilities, had surrounded herself with large men capable of using brute strength individually or jointly to protect their captain. I didn't question their loyalty; if they were not loyal, she'd be dead already. And if not dead, she certainly wouldn't be in command of a ship, leading renegadas bent on stealing from other ships equally full of men.
In the South, I am taller, heavier, stronger, and faster than other men, not to mention very good with a sword. It afforded me tremendous advantage in the circle, as well as in most other circumstances. But here, in these circumstances, I was enough like her sailors in height, weight, and bulk, not to mention coloring, to be one of them. Therefore I had to offer her someone other than what she knew.
Though Del was frequently rough on me with regard to physical aches and pains-not to mention opinions-I'd seen her with enough babies, children, and animals to know what got to her. She was without a doubt the toughest woman I'd ever known in strength of will, mind, and sheer physical gifts, but she was, after all, a woman. She had her soft spots.