When he finished, Jane smiled and said, “Pleasure doing business with you.”
The nearest bodyguard jabbed her shoulder with his fingers and prompted, “My lord.”
Jane’s glare could’ve melted rock. “Poke me again, lard bucket, and I’ll fold you up so you can lick your balls like a dog.”
“The prisoner is ensconced in his cell?” Corrett asked in a blase near-yawn. His voice was like the tines of a fork scraping across a plate.
“Yes, sir,” the jailer said. He stood at attention beside the cell door and gestured inside. The young man sat on the straw, rubbing at the metal collar clamped around his neck. When he saw Corrett, the boy hissed, “Proud of yourself, my lord?” He spat the last two words.
“My pride has nothing to do with this.”
“This is all about your pride! Elaine prefers me to a driedup prick like you, and your ego can’t stand it!”
“Gag him,” Corrett said with a casual wave of his hand. The jailer pretended not to hear.
I asked Corrett, “What exactly did he do?”
“He stole my best horse, not that it’s any concern of yours.” His accent on the final word carried enough contempt to bury a man standing up. He gestured at the portly escorts. “My guards found it tied outside his hovel.”
“That’s bullshit!” the boy yelled. “They planted that horse and you know it!”
“Gag him,” Corrett said again, enunciating each word. “And now you must excuse me, I have a young woman to visit. She’ll be delighted to learn that this rascal will no longer be forcing his attentions on her.”
He and his entourage swept from the jail. The jailer sighed, took the uncomfortable-looking leather gag from its wall hook, and opened the cell.
Jane watched the jailer buckle it around the boy’s head. She asked quietly, “You really didn’t steal that horse, did you?”
The boy shook his head. Drool already trailed down his chin.
“Course he didn’t,” the jailer said as he emerged from the cell. “Doesn’t matter, though. Man like Corrett can do what he wants with us commoners. He even owns the boots on our feet.”
He froze when he felt the tip of Jane’s dagger at his throat. I took the keys from his belt and went to unlock the gag. He raised his hands and said, “Just beat me up so it looks like I put up a fight, okay? I need this job.”
Later, as we sat in the nearest tavern, we heard the commotion when the jailbreak was discovered. There was lots of shouting, and eventually a half-dozen men on horseback tore out of town.
All innocence, Jane asked a stooped, bearded man who’d just entered, “Wow, what happened out there?”
“Horse thief escaped,” he said. “Beat up Clyde over at the jail. Lord Corrett’s guards went after him, but it looks like he’s got a good head start.”
Jane thanked him, then raised her ale mug in a toast and said softly, “To the good guys.”
“If only there were more than just me and you,” I added as we clinked mugs and drank.
“Guess we won’t be coming back to Barre Dumoth for a while,” Jane said. “So now I’m on your payroll. We’re looking for a pirate, who may or may not be dead, somewhere in the whole wide wet world. Where do we start, boss?”
“At the scene of the crime,” I said. “Where he met my client.”
Chapter Three
As we rode away from the Argo cottage, Miles watched us from the door. Jane had unchained him, since we had no idea how long we’d be away. Neither he, she, nor I harbored any delusions about what he’d be up to in her absence. When he was out of sight, Jane asked, “Since I’m working for you now, trying to find a long-lost pirate and his treasure, shouldn’t you tell me who our client is?”
“Not the treasure, just the pirate,” I repeated. “And the client is-” I hesitated because I knew what her reaction would be. “-Angelina.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Angie?” Jane barked, laughing loud enough to startle birds from the nearby trees. My horse, Baxter, tossed his head, annoyed by the sharp, shrill noise. “The great ice queen Angelina hired you to find her old pirate boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“That’s crazy! I’ve been passing through Neceda and stopping at her tavern for years, and I’ve never seen her interested in a man. Or a woman. Or anyone.”
“Yeah, she’s been the reigning Miss Anthropy as long as I’ve known her. But I think this guy Edward Tew is the reason.”
Jane giggled like a princess with a secret. “Crazy. That’s the only word. Angelina in love. That’s like imagining me cooking dinner. So where did they meet?”
“Watchorn Harbor in Cotovatry.”
“I know it. Fairly big port. What do you think we’ll find there after all this time?”
“Nothing, probably. But maybe somebody remembers them, and knows what happened to Tew. It’s one end of the string that’s tied to our man.”
“And his treasure,” she added.
I glared at her. “Stop that. Seriously.”
She threw up her hands in mock surrender. “Okay, you win. But you know, pirates don’t generally last twenty years. It’s a tough trade. If he’s not dead, he’s probably changed his name and started a whole new life.”
“Are you going to be such a beacon of optimism on the whole trip?”
“Just so we’re clear, I get paid whether we find him or not, right?”
“That’s the deal.”
She sighed and shook her head. “That soft heart of yours is going to be the death of you one day, Eddie, you know that?”
I said nothing. My heart had once hardened beyond recognition, and I hated the man I became then. If being softhearted took a few years off my life, it seemed a fair trade for being human again.
Five days later, we stopped our horses on the ridge overlooking Cotovatry’s coastal plain. Mine stomped around, refusing to stop until he’d reminded me yet again why I disliked all horses except the late, lamented Lola.
“I hope you handle that redhead of yours better than that,” Jane said.
“Yeah, well, maybe you should consider gelding your husband, it might calm him down,” I snapped back. She laughed. Mile after mile of sand and scrub stretched away in either direction. Here and there, trees grew in tight-packed spots where the sand gave way to actual soil. Behind us stretched a vast woods crisscrossed with trails and roads.
In the middle of the vista before us lay Watchorn Harbor.
The town’s buildings clustered along the water’s edge and spread inland from a central point like a lady’s fan. A forest of masts and canvas filled the harbor, backlit by the afternoon sun that glinted blindingly off the water. The first gusts of eve ning wind brought the distinctive odors of salt and dead fish.
“How many ships do you think are out there?” I asked.
“About a hundred,” Jane said. “See those two far out at anchor? Those are naval ships stationed to protect the harbor. And those little ones all in a row there? A fishing fleet.”
“Any pirate ships?”
“Not in this harbor.” She snorted. “Unless they’re on the bottom. Those naval ships aren’t just for show.”
It was sundown by the time we reached the town, and people packed the thoroughfares, mostly men with the distinctive leathery look and rolling gait of sailors. On the dreary streets, the odors were much more vivid and considerably less pleasant, but like anything, we eventually got used to them. Languages both known and unknown blurred in my ears. Neceda was like this, but on a far smaller, slower scale.
Jane, though, was in her element. She tossed her cape behind her shoulders, pulled her hair up in a loose bun, and rode along, confident her way would be clear. It was.
First we sought the town magistrate’s office. I always cover my bases by trying official channels first. Usually it gave me no direct information about my case, but it let me get a sense of the local constabulary. It also means people would know I was looking, and sometimes stirring the pot was the best thing. We found the town’s magistrate, a Mr. Tallarico, in his office going over a voluminous stack of shipping forms. The office was in a small building next to a warehouse and corral.