For my own sake, everyone on the isle of St. Maarten speaks English, even though the island was originally a Dutch settlement. If I knew any Dutch, I would likely make them speak Dutch, but I don't, and I don't want to make Reanna know how to speak Dutch and then translate it to Devon, or vice versa. So deal with it!
Lol.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Like a Charm
"So, where exactly did you meet your employers?" Reanna asked Devon as they explored the streets of St. Maarten.
"I met the one that hired me in a tavern called Lady's Feathers. He was an underling, though, I never actually met the man who is really in charge of the whole operation. I don't even know his name," Devon replied.
Reanna had already booked four rooms in an inn for the crew that wished to come ashore to stay in. Of course some of the crew members had to be left on the ship at night--it wouldn't do to leave the ship untended to be stolen, after all. After they had left the inn, at which Reanna had haggled the innkeeper's price from sheer robbery down to something resembling reasonable, she had proceeded to interrogate Devon as they walked through the streets. Devon would have liked to be vague, but he knew from experience that she fired off questions so quickly that it was impossible to answer with anything but the entire truth.
And she had a way of looking at a person that made him feel as though his soul had been bared for examination. He felt like she knew even the tiniest of secrets about him, and this made him increasingly skittish around her. He knew, of course, that she couldn't possibly know his thoughts. Her rapid-fire questions proved that to him beyond doubt, and so his secret thoughts remained safe.
Devon realized that if Reanna had been even the slightest bit suspicious of the thought that had been circling through his head he would be dead in an instant, but he had done very well to keep it to himself. Every time she looked at him, he couldn't help but feel a flare of guilt at the treacherous thoughts he was entertaining, and he would put them from his mind--for that moment. As soon as he was away from her he would find himself thinking the same things again, and his conscience always seemed to scream at him for these thoughts and serious considerations.
He was getting tired of his conscience.
The fact was, his pay had been suspended for two months due to his losing the wager, and his purse was very thin. What had been left of his money had been burned up with his ship. He had but a few coppers to his name at the moment, and from the headache he was getting it looked as though those few coppers would go to a bar selling rather cheap liquor. For a man that had grown used to having more than sufficient funds for whatever he chose to do, he was very much disliking a lack of money.
He looked at Reanna, measuring her. He would have to be very clever should he decide to go through with the wicked plans brewing in his mind. Very little seemed to escape her. The only way he could get it done would be to make her trust him, and how better to make a woman trust a man than to share a bed? He would tell her about his childhood, his hopes and dreams. It had never failed him before. If there was a woman that he had difficulty coercing into his bed, all he had to do was buy her a few drinks, spill stories about his poor childhood, and she would be his.
It would work like a charm, and he could use it to his advantage should he decide to go through with the plan that his conscience fought tooth and nail to dissuade him from. He had chained up that nasty little voice and locked it in a chamber inside where he couldn't hear it, though.
"Reanna, what say you we go back to the inn for a while?" he asked.
"Why?" she replied, answering his question with a question and looking sharply at him.
"I'm tired of walking, and this blasted sun is so hot, I thought you might like to sit down and have a cool drink," he said smoothly.
She didn't buy it.
"You go on back to the inn if you want, but I'm going to keep wandering. I like to know exactly what my surroundings are, in case something should happen and I would need to know the ins and outs of wherever I'm at." She said all this without once looking him in the eye.
He shrugged, and considered continuing on with her, but he hadn't lied--it was damnably hot. Maybe he'd duck into the nearest bar and sit there for a while. They should be opening up around now, anyway. The sun was halfway through its descent in the sky.
"I think I'll just be on my way into a bar," he said thoughtfully to Reanna. She shrugged and waved him away, uncaring, so he left her side and went into--surprise, surprise--Lady's Feathers.
He remembered this bar quite well. It stank of vomit and piss and other things too foul to put a name to, and had some of the worst-tasting liquor to boot. He supposed he had been told to come to this place because there was nothing really of value here, and the only people that came in were generally drunk long before the came through the doors and would remember nothing by the time the night was through.
At least he could get something down his throat, even if it did taste like horse piss. It would at least get him drunk, thereby ridding him of his headache. He counted his money, and smiled wryly. There was just enough to get himself quite drunk, but not quite enough to get him a hangover the next day.
...Unless of course he could convince someone to buy him some more alcohol. This was likely, since he was apparently charming enough even when he was drunk.
He slammed his money down and demanded all the ale that it could buy him.
Some time later, when he was well into his cups and singing with someone he had just met, someone clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"Why, Devon! I don't believe you were actually stupid enough to come here! Come, tell me where she is."
Devon went still, a cold shock bringing him out of his drunken stupor. God, he had been found by the seer, what was he going to do? Reanna! Where was she?
Something sharp cracked him on the base of his skull, and he slid down into the darkness of unconsciousness.
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Alright, so I guess it really didn't matter that the people speak English, it didn't come up in this chapter...but that's ok, it probably will later. I hope you guys enjoyed, and PLEASE review...it makes me all happy and stuff to get reviews, and I'm so depressed when there aren't any new ones!