The Jaded Saphire rocked calmly amongst the waves, the break in the weather welcome. They had not endured many storms, something that the crew was thankful for, but despite the lack of storms, they had encountered a fair amount of rain, causing anyone who wasn't needed up on deck to remain in the hull of the ship most of the days they passed through the stormy weather.
Watching over the crew at their stations, Jim stood at the helm. He knew that because of recent conditions, they would need to find land soon. He glanced up skyward, seeing the heavy gray clouds. They had still yet to encounter a storm, but he knew their luck would run out soon enough.
He stared at the horizon, knowing that as they neared Port Bonnet where Rick's letter to them was posted. They knew they risked a chance of encountering the pirate unprepared or unexpectedly here, but that could happen anywhere. The man was tenacious, a trait he knew from personal experience.
Releasing a heavy breath, Jim knew that they had to decide where next to make port, very soon. He saw William only a short distance away, calling his nephew to take over his position at the wheel. Stepping off the quarterdeck, he sought out Melinda and Daniel, finding both in the kitchens.
"Brother, we need to chart our course," he said when he approached. Jim gave a slight smile when Melinda reached out from beneath her heavy cloak to take his hand in hers when he came beside her. He squeezed her hand gently. "We need to change our course. We've been lucky so far, not only with the weather, but we need to prepare for when we come across Rick."
Daniel nodded. "Aye, that sounds like a good idea."
After giving him a parting nod, his brother turned to leave, but he turned back to his wife. "How has your afternoon been?" He asked.
"Boring without you," she chuckled, finishing the last bit of wine in her cup. "Shouldn't you be following your brother?"
"Not without you. I'm sure you'll have your piece to say about where we go." He gave her a small smile, gently tugging her hand. "You think I wouldn't include you in this? After everything?"
Melinda looked up at him hopefully as she followed behind him. "It's something I am getting used to," she said.
"Of course," he chuckled. He quirked his head back in the direction of their cabin. "Come on."
Jim pulled the map of the land they prepared to sail once he entered the room, spreading it out across the desk before them. "As I said before we've been lucky, but we can't keep counting on it to hold out," he said, glancing between his wife and brother as he spoke. "A storm is coming- a big one. I know we've survived many storms before, but I have a feeling that this one will be bad. I'd rather be at a port than out here on the water right now with pirates looking down our necks."
Daniel nodded. "Any plans for where to make port?"
"Not at the moment. Just different options for us," he said, shaking his head.
"What are the options?" Melinda asked, glancing over the map. "And where exactly are we now?"
"Approximately here," he told her, moving closer to her and pointing out a spot on the map with her hand in his. "Which means that our closest options are Bonnet, Drake, and Every."
She shook her head. "Not Bonnet. That's where Rick posted that letter, and it will be crawling with men loyal to him," she explained. "We want to find him but if he knows we're coming then we'll lose the element of surprise.
"Melinda is right. It's too risky." Daniel added and Jim already knew that, but it was the closest option in case the storm got bad. "We don't even know if Port Every is still running."
Sighing, he conceded. "Aye. The place was abysmal the last time we were there with our mother and father. Granted, that was about a decade ago." He looked over at his wife. "Any input on that location, love?"
"I don't know. I've never even heard of it." She bit her lip as she poured over the map, leaning against him.
He reached his hand up, resting it between her shoulder blades. "Then I'll take it that the place is no longer functioning," he sighed again.
"I agree. Either way, it's no fit for a lady," Daniel added. He glanced up at his wife. "Are you sure you've never heard of the place at all, lass?"
Shaking her head, Melinda met his brother's gaze. "I'm sure. As far as I know, it's never been mentioned."
"Which leaves Port Drake," he sighed. "Which is farther than I hoped to travel in these conditions."
"What about here?" She asked, pointing out a small mark on the map.
Jim looked down, seeing where she was indicating. He released a heavy breath, defeated in knowing that of course, they would have to go to the one place he hoped they would be able to avoid. "It's a small island," he told her in a tired tone. "It's often frequented by pirates because there is no real law there, but it's also the closest to where we are. We'd just have to "
Melinda turned her gaze to him, knowing exactly what he was thinking of. "You think there's a good chance of us running into Rick there?" Her voice was quiet.
"Or someone loyal to him," he replied. "But that's the reason we're out here right?"
She nodded before resting her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arm around his waist, wanting to offer him some comfort. "If he is there, we'll handle it. Just as we have before." She sighed. "But what we need to is to avoid this storm."
He agreed. "It will take us a little over a week to get there, as long as these conditions hold up." He said, glancing over the map again.
"Shall I inform the crew on the change in course?" Daniel asked.
"Aye." He watched as his brother hung back, clearly wanting to ask about something. "What is it now?"
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck, clearly nervous. "Well, the crew wanted to have some kind of little celebration for one of the lad's birthdays, maybe in the galley considering the conditions. I think it would be good for them."
Usually, that would be a grand idea. Something to take everyone's mind off the dreading days ahead, but he didn't care. Jim just wanted to be home again with his wife and see their daughter. "Just make sure no one gets too drunk," he sighed, dismissing his brother. "Have the men draw cards for who has to sit out and be on the upper deck."
"Are you okay?" She asked as soon as they were alone.
"I'm just... I'm not much in the mood for celebrating," he confessed, finally pulling out a chair and sitting down with a painful sigh. "Not until we are home safe again."
Melinda reached up, resting her hand on his face to gently stroke along his cheek. "It might do you some good. I know you're worried about Rick, I am too. But maybe we might just need this tonight."
He closed his eyes, leaning contently into her touch. "Maybe."
"We should go for a little bit. At least to eat dinner," she said softly.
Jim thought that maybe she was right, that maybe they both needed to relax, even if just for a little while. "We could also have dinner alone together. Drink our fill and make love under the moonlight." He opened his eyes, looking straight into hers.
Giving him a soft smile, she reached up to quickly kiss him. He felt his lips stretching into a small grin when they broke apart.
"I like that much better," she whispered, pressing another kiss to his cheek before she turned toward the door. "I'll have the cook prepare us something special."
When Melinda happened to be alone later, after arranging everything for her private dinner with Jim, she spent her time reading or drawing. Usually, it was something of their daughter, willing the memories of her to stay fresh in her mind but as the days and weeks crawled by it became harder and harder to see her face as clearly in her mind.
It hurt her soul to think about so she stepped out into the deserted hallway. She found Daniel further below, checking the stores of weapons to make sure everything was in order like her husband had told him to.
"My lady," he greeted, raising his brow. "What are you doing down here, lass?"
"I figured I'd stewed in my cabin long enough for today," she replied, shrugging. "I figured I'd wander the ship, see if anything needs to be done."
"And you know you don't need to do any of that," Daniel said with a sigh, turning to look at her. "I'm taking it my brother is busy on the upper deck?" She nodded. "I'm still not gonna let you do any of the work."
She sighed but an idea struck, making her grin. "What if I order you to allow me to help?" She asked. "I am still Lady of Avalon."
"I can see why my brother married you." He sighed and narrowed his blue eyes, fighting a smile. "That's a cheap shot."
"Maybe, but if I ordered it you would have no choice." She teased him. "Unless you wanted to go against not only me but your brother."
"You've been with us Scots for too long," he told her, finally cracking a smile. His light laughter bounced off the cabin walls. "Fine, but leave all of the heavy physical duties to me or Jim will have my bollocks,"
Deciding to lay it on thick, Melinda gave him a dainty nod. "Thank you, Daniel. I just... I need to keep my mind off certain things," she sighed.
"Can't say I completely understand what you're going through lass, but if keeping you busy helps then I'll happily oblige you full run of the ship," he said, sharing a sad look with her. Daniel missed his niece too. "But let's get a move on."
"So what exactly are we doing?" She asked, following him down the rest of the hallway.
"You can assist me in taking stock of the weapons. We're making sure that we know how many are in proper condition for when we may need them one day soon," he answered in the most simple of terms as he opened a door and led her inside. "We're mostly checking for dull or broken blades. Just pull the ones that look like they need work."
She walked inside, taking the lamp off the wall outside in with them. She picked a crate and began sorting as Jim's brother had told her to do, placing a dull sword away from the others to begin their pile. "I've always been curious. I know on navy ships they have a room for weapons, but I thought on a merchant or traveling ships most people typically carried their own." She gestured to his sword strapped to his waist. "I mean, most of the crew has their weapons. So why the storeroom?"
"Well, first of all, this was once a naval ship so we've always had this room stocked." He explained simply and she nodded for him to continue. "Another is that it never hurts to have extra weapons aboard, especially after what happened before and for what's to come."
Melinda checked another blade and set it aside. "It's very smart." She said, trying to working through being caught in the memory of the pirate attack.
After finishing their task, she bid Daniel good night before going back to her quarters, navigating through the ship as the crew began to come down to retire for their meal and a bit of a celebration. She walked into the cabin, seeing Jim hanging his coat up.
"I was wondering where you were, Mel," he greeted, kissing her cheek. "The food is waiting and smells delicious."
She smiled. "I was just with your brother in the weapons storeroom. I was helping him with some maintenance on the swords." She said, wrapping her arms around his waist. "It was nice to take my mind off of everything."
He raised a dark brow curiously. "And how, may I ask, did you get him to agree to that?"
"I threatened to make it an order," she responded cheekily, making him laugh.
He shook his head, grinning. "Sounds like my wife," he chuckled, his hand cupping her cheek before he leaned in to kiss her but only for a brief moment. "Now come on, supper is ready to be served."
They started with steaming hot bread and butter to spread across it, and greens dressed with apples and pine nuts. Then came the honeyed chicken, buttered carrots, roasted potatoes dripping brown with gravy along with a spiced summer wine.
Desert was out of the question after the second course and after undressing each other for bed, they were so full that they laid down together and quickly fell asleep.
Melinda's dreams were anything but peaceful. She watched in fear as Jim and Rick circled each other. The pirate's eyes gleamed with bloodlust, staring at her husband like a predator would its prey. Jim watched him, all the fight and defiance that once burned so brightly in his eyes dead.
She wanted to scream, yell, cry, anything, so long as she could make him fight back. They had to get back to their daughter together.
"So now it looks like your husband is finally showing himself for what he really is, a coward," Rick mocked.
Jim didn't respond. Instead, he turned himself and his eyes to her, silently pleading for her to leave him behind and save herself. "I love you," he mouthed. "Please."
The pirate lunged forward when Rick saw him shift his focus. Jim blocked his move in time, but just barely. Despite the opening that appeared to him, he didn't attack back, only moving in defensive moves.
"A coward who won't even fight back to defend his wife's honor," Rick taunted. "Someone who won't fight for what they want. Because trust me, she's mine the second your blood runs across this deck."
Jim didn't respond and with another quick move, his sword went flying out of his hand. With a final laugh, the pirate struck forward to land a fatal blow.
She jerked awake, gasping for breath, the visions left behind of her nightmare in her head still taunting her. She sat up, trying to calm herself. "It was just a nightmare," she told herself.
Jim shifted beside her as he reached his arm over her body, blindly reaching for her. "My love, what plagues your dreams?" His voice was thick with sleep as he rose behind her, and she knew for some reason that she never would get tired of hearing his voice in this raspy state, no matter how old they got.
She shook her head. "It's fine. I didn't mean to wake you," she muttered.
"Look at me, sweetheart. Look at me." He spoke softly, embracing her and making her feel safe. But even as Melinda turned her eyes to him, she fought the image of him surely about to die from Rick's hand. It was her worst nightmare other than never seeing their daughter again. "You know you can tell me anything."
She watched as he gave her a small nod, a soft but encouraging smile on his lips. "It was just a bad dream," she confessed. "But it felt real... almost like a vision."
He raised his brows, confusion coloring his features, but she could tell he believed her. "What did you see?" He asked.
She tried to swallow around the huge lump in her throat. "It was of you and Rick. He was trying to kill you, but you wouldn't fight back." She told him carefully, not wishing to relive it in any way. "You were begging me to leave you there."
"Why wouldn't I fight him back?" He asked.
"I don't know," she said, laying her head on his chest as he shifted the blankets around them.
He continued he rub her back as his other arm held her to him as she minutely began to relax, feeling him alive around her. "No matter what happens, my love, I can promise you this," he told her in a gentle voice. "I will always fight for you. I'll never stop fighting for our family."
His words washed over her like a warm blanket, his promise soothing her fear. They sat together that way until she felt him stifle a yawn. She fought her own when she drew back slightly. "You should go back to sleep," she told him, tracing the dark circles under his eyes. "I'm sorry I woke you."
"Don't be," he whispered, his hand gently stroking her cheek, his eyes tender. "Let's both try to fall back asleep. Just wake me up again if you need me for any reason."
Nodding weakly, Melinda pulled away enough so that he could lay back down. She laid curled up beside him, pressed against his chest, and comforted by him and his promises until she fell into a dreamless sleep.
The Inn was already near claustrophobically packed by the time they arrived. A motley mix of pirates and locals passing stories back and forth through alcohol loosened lips as if the tales were a form of currency. It wasn't unusual to be so busy, it had become one of the most popular places in the whole city for those seeking half-decent drinks and somewhere to sleep that seemed borderline luxurious for most ships' crews.
It took Rick only a few seconds of searching to spy out his companions.
Seated around a table in a nook in the very corner of the room, were Ceasar, Matthew, and Guliz - all three seemed well on their way to becoming completely inebriated. If the three half-full and eight empty glasses on the table, along with their simultaneous and drunken sounding chorus of 'Cap!' was anything to go by.
"How did it go?" Ceasar asked after he had calmed down, wiggling his eyebrows and managing not to slur the words too much.
"How did what go?" He stole a half-finished drink, pulling a face when he discovered the contents were far more bitter than he had been expecting.
"He meant to ask did you find that English whore yet?" Matthew asked more bluntly.
Rick narrowed his eyes. "How did you know about that plan?" He asked.
"Well, it's not as if you've been particularly subtle about it," Guliz shrugged. "You've been on a rampage since she left, even if you barely went looking in Valencia."
"Does everyone know?" He asked.
"No. Just us," Ceasar said and shook his head. "And Lom, but that's because he's gloating about siring a child with a noblewoman. No one believes him though. You made sure of that."
He rolled his eyes. If Jim didn't kill Lom when they finally saw each other again, which he was sure the mad would, Rick would himself. He couldn't stand him any longer.
"Anyway, what's the plan?" Guliz inquired.
"I made my first move already and Jim's going to come to us," he said. "Watch."
Rick stood, heading toward the bar to fetch a drink for himself and another for when he finished his first. Then he would find himself a whore to share his bed.
Slipping into a gap between burly figures precariously seated on rickety wooden stools, he caught the eye of the barmaid with a slight wave of his hand, who nodded acknowledgment in his direction before finishing the round of orders she'd been halfway through pouring. He tossed a few coins at the barmaid when she handed over his order before he headed back towards his crew.
"Is everything already loaded up onto the ship?" He turned to ask Ceasar this more quietly, anxious for them to set sail the moment they stepped back onto the boat in the morning if possible.
"Yeah, we got everythin' on board," Ceasar mumbled into his cup.
"Cap'n!" Deren hissed abruptly as he came running through the front door. "The Jaded Sapphire was spotted!"
Rick couldn't believe it. She was here, actually here and nothing was standing in his way now. Well, except for Jim.