listen to Scared by Jeremy Zucker for this chapter.
lemme know what you think.
- G.
More than a week had passed since Kenway had set off to aid in Charles Town & Blackbeard's endevours.
He'd asked Liete if she wanted to come along, to warm their beds & to see the town as he'd go about trying to aid Thatch in the quest for medicines but she'd declined. It had struck an odd note in him, but he'd promised before that her freedom was her own and he wouldn't go back on that now.
What he did do, was ask Josiah Burgess, John Cockram and Batilla who still remained at moment to Nassau to keep an eye to her. Drew also remained behind, and some four other men took a heavy amount of gold to remain hyper vigilant on the shanty in rotation.
Yet even as Gerald had stood next to her when he'd opened sail out of Nassau's port, he'd felt at unease.
As if there was something amiss but he just couldn't see.
Batilla had snickered when he'd asked the man to keep an eye, and had offered a quip that she could watch over herself even if her eyes were closed before setting sail himself to some other adventure. He'd laughed then, but he had wondered as he had turned to watch her as she stood with a smirk, eyes spinning on the dock. Wondered if he'd seen after her well enough before he'd gone.
For Liete, she had seen enough, felt enough, to know whom she needed to see now.
Still she'd moved about carefully in the days he'd been gone. Drew, who had forgone returning to working with the shop keep, had kept her company in the day. Quietly watching as she paced within their home, paced along the edge of the shore, arms wrapped around herself in quiet reflection.
She'd been quieter than he'd ever seen her, and he couldn't help himself but ask her if he should run off to find the apothecary for a bit of mercury or opium. She'd already been about purging which many men did while feeling ill, but he'd heard many a man speak on the benefits of opium.
He need not pretend to be any good with knowing but he wouldn't mind passing by the herb shop. There be a pretty girl there who had always been nice to him, offering him a kip or a flower each time he'd passed on to work.
He'd not told Liete of the pretty girl just yet, he'd hardly told Liete of anything as her conversation seemed all but gone now.
It was if she found speaking to be to tiresome, and so he obliged even though he'd been bursting to tell her of the pretty girl & how he thought to try and give her a kiss.
No, he'd keep it to himself for now, as Gerald gave a very human like grumble as he stood once more for the sixth time today as Liete came down the steps from above. Drew had been sat on a crate near the bottom of the stair peeling an orange he'd managed to swipe from a delivery that had come in that morning. Now eight days from his captain's leaving, he'd felt a bit useless but didn't want to leave her alone.
Liete now wore the dress she'd left Great Inagua in, but with no corset or strings, even a stay had been forgone Drew noticed although he had no head for women's fashions.
As she came to the bottom of the stairs, she hesitated and Drew stood dropping his orange to the floor in his haste.
Pulling his hat from his head, one he'd thrown on this morning as he thought his now longer hair that touched his ears may look a little odd when he went past the apothecary shop, he offered Liete his hand.
"Feelin' up fer anotha' walk Miss Liete? I could put togetha a kip to tide over and a blanket should ye get winded to sit?"
Liete looked at Drew then, really looked, and felt a sadness in her chest. She cared for Drew as what she'd considered family, but as she faced a crossroads for herself and the future, the understanding came to her then. That although he cared for her, and he'd been her constant companion in their life together, what came now she didn't think he'd really understand.
He'll understand. He's simple, but with a heart and compassion unknown. You do him a disservice in all he's done, the words were snarled within her mind, anger directed at herself.
Liete shook her head, to throw the thoughts from her head and to negate Drew's ask.
"No, Drew. I need you to come with me to the market, if you don't mind."
"Market? Ye be needin' somethin'? No need fer ye to go 'bout it, Drew'll grab wha'ever yur wantin'?" Drew grinned at her in happiness at the thought to do as she may need but again she shook her head and took his hand this time as Gerald trotted ahead on the path away from them as his massive folds of skin seemed to bounce as he walked.
"I mean to look into something you can't grab for me Drew." As his face fell, Liete squeezed his hand and began to walk forward as she quipped with a hint of steel in her voice.
"Remember, anything we do, keep between us for now Drew."
"I know Miss Liete" Drew mumbled as he glanced down at his legs before realizing that Liete was already well on her way. Hitching himself, Drew rushed forward to catch up to Liete and Gerald.
They walked in comfortable silence, which seemed the normal now.
Around them a few drunkards leaned against patios and dirt floors in the afternoon heat, some mumbling and humming to themselves, others already snoozing.
Blissfully, the rats that had been seemingly multiplying in some areas had disappeared in the light of day. It was bright and clear, so the walk was a brisk one that brought further clarity to Liete's mind.
As they came upon the stall of the cloth merchant, the girl who'd sold her the dyed cloth for Kenway's outfit as well as the hemp tick for their beds leaned against the counter a selfmade fan of a banana leaf in hand.
As Liete came to a stop in front of her, the girl came to a start and stood up straight as a pin needle. The girl glanced behind her to Drew, and her face went red in the summer heat. Glancing behind her, Liete found Drew pulling his hat from his head and smoothing at his hair with a smile on his lips close to a child offered a lollypop.
It gave Liete a pause as the earlier voice that had chastised her for her thoughts of Drew seemed smug with the revelation that although she may have looked to Drew as a simple companion, was indeed a fine specimen of man even with a few of his teeth missing.
As his hair had grown out, and some of his muscle gave way to a slimmer figure, it dawned on her now that with his kind & hard working demeanor he would make a sweet woman a perfect husband.
Clearing her throat, before she may need to pull away lest she be caught in the looks between the two, Liete motioned to the girl.
"I am in need of your mother's aid." The girl pulled her eyes away from Drew to meet Liete's with doe eyes, wide as the day was long.
"My m'um Miss?" Liete pinned her with eyes that chilled the gir to the bones, the silver within them churning at the question. As the moments ticked by, Liete raised her eyebrow slowly moving to reach forward until she caught one of the girls curls in her hand. Her brown hair was soft and limp, a bath having been far off for the young girl.
"What is your name?" It seemed as if once Liete had touched her hair the girl had lost the ability to breath as she glanced down at the woman's hand as if it meant to burst into flames at any moment.
"Jane, Miss." Liete released the curl slowly, before reaching down to her hand as the girl still held like statue. Taking her hand in her own, Liete lightly curled her fingers to rub against the palm of her hand in an effort to calm the girl even as her own actions and words made Jane not so.
"My name is Liete, Jane. And I have need of your mother, I've been told she was a wetnurse sometime ago."
Jane raised her eyes once more to Liete's and although no smile lit the mad woman's lips, the girl felt for the first time since the woman had come to Nassau a year ago, that there was some understanding between them as most women come to find.
This understanding found Liete ascending the stairs to a small home above a shop, Gerald flopped at its base, while Drew and Jane entered into the shop below with quiet backwards glances from the girl as Drew simply walked behind grinning sweetly following behind with puppy eyes with hardly a look to Liete as she'd broken away from them.
Now the sadness that came to mind was that of quiet pride, that her companion looked to a future elsewhere.
All thoughts though quieted as she opened the door to a home lit with the sun, as an older woman with salt and peppered hair sat at a table with a tea pot wafting a delectable smell of chamomile.
The room although Spartan, was immaculately clean, and it radiated warmth that held nothing to do with the weather.
The women looked at each other then, with high cheeks bones tinted red with rosacea, and lips with an angel's kiss at the top. She was beautiful, even in the old age that brought deep laugh lines to the edges of her eyes and her mouth.
Liete, who had spent so much time looking into those around her with eyes that seemed to read into their very souls was no match for this woman as her eyes flashed with honey & intelligence. Where Liete ruled men's hearts with fear, this women did so with calm and sagacity. Maybe, just maybe, there was something to it.
She looked her over with eyes that lingered every so often, before sighing & pointing towards cabinetry towards the left.
Liete as if her feet weren't her own, moved forward to do as the woman silently asked, opening the first cabinet. Full of glass bottles with dried teas, herbs, seeds and dried goods packed within them.
"The barley, and the wheat."
Liete hesitated, unsure of what either of the seeds the woman asked for. It was an uncertainty that put a cold shiver of fear in her. Something so common, and she had no idea from hand or foot. She'd been so separated from the normal world in all this.
Just as a second wave of uncertainty meant to over take her, a delicate hand full of sun spots reached out to pull a large jar of yellowed grains, and then another that looked almost identical.
"No use fretting, they look exactly bloody alike." The woman's voice tinged with a lovely accent, akin to Kenway's, full of mirth as she moved back to her table setting the glass down before returning once more to the cabinets to pull a chipped china cup that had seen better days.
The older woman then held it out to her with a cheeky smile, and although she stood a few inches shorter than Liete, seemed to be a radiating force of movement.
"There be a chamber pot in the next room, care to brew me a cuppa?"
When Liete returned with the tea cup half full, the older woman with zero qualms reached for it as if it was nothing more than water. Liete must have shown a surprise, and the older woman's lovely angels kiss spread in laughter as the women looked at her over two new clay bowls now on the table.
"That look could sour milk. How do you think them fancy clothes dye'd all sorts of colors get so? Wee is worth a pound a penny in truth. A woman's is worth more, and it is what we'll use to get to the bottom of your question."
"And you know my question with little to no words Mrs..?"
"No use for formalities, I have your wee in hand. You may call me Faith. Now come closer and let me explain what it is I mean to do."
Liete nearly grinned, as she moved closer to the table to find the two bowls each with a handful of seeds.
Faith referenced both with the tea cup speaking calmly and instructionally.
"This comes from the Egyptians, smart bunch. I'm going to splash your wee in both bowls and yur' ta set it to the sun. Come a few days, if the wheat sprouts, we've a girl on our hands. Barley and we've a boy." As she spoke, she poured half of the contents of the chipped cup in each bowl.
Liete held her breath as the woman moved to seemingly toss the cup into a bucket of murky water in the corner.
"And if neither sprouts?" Liete's voice was so low and even, it sounded like a ghosts whisper even to her.
Faith turned and rested a hand on her shoulder meeting her eye to eye. She felt her eyes turning, churning and with the moves of a cat, Faith ran to pull another chamber pot from another room to the right in time for Liete to empty her stomach.
Rubbing her lower back ever so softly, the older woman smiled sadly her own voice low nearly to a whisper.
"I don't think that'll happen, lass. Not now."
"You are lookin' rosier each time I see you." The Irish lilt was playful as Anne looked into the window of Liete's home as she fussed at her hair.
The woman had taken to stopping by Liete's home on the way to her time at the Old Avery, and today's visit was no different. It found Liete stood over her makeshift kitchen, staring at two bowls set to the window.
Anne had thought it odd the first two times she'd seen it but upon closer inspection had found seeds & simply inferred the woman meant to sprout seeds for some yield.
No idea why she would, she thought to herself, there was hardly any space in any allotment on this island any how.
The Jackdaw had made port two days prior to now, and Anne was surprised not to find Kenway warming the woman's doorway as she'd come for a small chat before heading to work.
She couldn't quite speak herself, as she'd been letting Jack Rackham sweet talk her more than she ought as a married woman.
Liete's eyes rolled towards the back of her head for a moment as she looked to the woman.
The reunion between Kenway and Liete was a quiet one. When he'd come to her door, she'd let him in and they'd spent the next two nights wrapped up in one another. He told her that Blackbeard wasn't coming back, that he'd fell into some form of insanity and anguish that he'd never seen, and Nassau seemed to be its root. She'd listened with eyes filled with sadness and simply let herself remain wrapped up within him.
She hid her sickness, and her panic, unsure of how to tell him what her future looked like. How could she tell her Death, the man who risked everything for freedom and gold that a rope was currently hanging over his hands beginning to close. That's what he'd see it as, just as much as she. Liete simply held him to her in the quiet hours, with whispers of sweet nothings, holding onto it with everything she had until she could no more.
"You're looking similar to the red light with how far that slit has come up in your skirts." Anne giggled as she turned to look at Liete who although now moved to take a seat at her table, looked exhausted.
"We live as we like here. You know that best of all."
"I'd like you to head off with that cheer." Liete's words were hollow as the woman laughed once more before heading towards the table to take up a chair opposite Liete with a flourish of the skirt mentioned.
Anne was silly and full of mirth used to cope with the loneliness she felt. It was the loneliness and the need for human interaction that made Anne look past the alarm bells and fear that erupted in all those who were pierced by the silver eyes of Liete. Even now she felt the chill of it sink into her skin, but Anne had taken to thinking of Liete similar to a toothless old hound dog. Bark, and no bite.
Mind, Anne had no doubt that the smaller woman would take down even the toughest of men, but she had the sense that Liete only held that talent close until she'd truly need it, to all others fear was her weapon to keep them afar.
It occurred to Anne that Liete was lonely too.
"Ya old windbag, have you any sugar lumps? My head is aching, and I daren't think to go about servin' the men with my head feeling as big as a whale." Anne smiled brilliantly at Liete, who looked at her with a droll stare before jerking her head towards the small tea bowl with a top in the middle of the table.
Reaching for the barley sugar lump, Anne glanced behind her to where the bedroom lay.
"Where be your old man?" Liete huffed before standing and shuffling over to the kitchen window once more to glance at the unsprouted seeds drinking in the sunshine.
"I'm sure you'll find him drinking with the others as your work begins. He'll do as he pleases, I've no mind to track him." Anne grinned, before standing once more heading towards the door as she suckled at the sweet. Leaning against the door way before she meant to leave, Anne inquired with a lilt of teasing to her voice,
"Were I to come upon Kenway, should I send him on to wipe that crease off your brow? I don't think I've ever seen a prettier face so topsy."
Liete pinned the woman with an expression of cool indifference before shrugging her shoulders just slightly as she pulled a piece of hard jerky from within her cabinetry holding it out to her.
"Take it on to Gerald. He'll be the only man I'm looking too." Anne scoffed grabbing the dried meat before giving her a light tap to her arm.
"Pretend all you like a chara, I've seen you along the shore line looking out to the horizon." With a final grin, Anne opened the door to Liete's home.
Before the fire haired women disappeared, Liete couldn't help herself as she took one step forward her voice a bit louder than she meant.
"If, only if, you see him there, can you send him on?"
Anne answered her with nothing but a laugh before disappearing down the stairs letting the door clack closed.
Liete sighed to herself at her lack of self restraint. At one time not long ago, she'd barely given a second thought to whatever Kenway did or was at. She'd cared less for danger and stood on the bows of ships in exhilaration.
Now for the first time since the Jackdaw had left port nearly two weeks ago, she was alone as Drew had gone off mumbling something about needing a tonic but she knew he really meant to see Jane.
Resting a hand against her stomach, she felt that same exhilaration now from her time at the front of warring ships.
It would be pure insanity to ignore the anxiety within her now. Before she could hide the weight in her chest that came when she thought of Kenway and his whereabouts, of Thatch and his adventures, of Drew and his constant modes of fancy. As if at any moment they'd be pulled away and sent to some far off island to rot away from memory, and time.
She'd not liked to give them thought, to think on it gave them life, and it shone through the cracks of her mind more than ever as she paced back to peer at the seeds sitting in Faith's bowls.
A boy or a girl.
It seemed so easy when the wetnurse had spoken, as if the very thought that had whispered to her in the dark was nothing more than a shadow and not the darkness of fear that latched to her.
It had never occurred to her in all this, that there may come a time that it'd be more than her choice in this new life. She'd not even taken into account Kenway's most days, and when she did, it was often in tit for tat.
Liete wrinkled her nose momentarily at the very faint smell that wafted up from the liquid in the bowls, as she drew even closer looking for any sign of green among the yellow seeds.
A part of her hoped that nothing would grow from either bowl, putting an end to an adventure she was not prepared for.
This, this was too big even for her and all her grand posturing.
Death had been her friend, madness her mother's milk in all this. What did she have to give to a growing soul when her own had been so warped, past recognition by most of true humanity?
Kenway was not hers to capture, and she'd not been naive in all this. She'd held no blind eye to his tattoo on his arm, nor the quiet mumble of a name in the deepest of sleeps. It had not been hers to care, she would never see it fit in her to ask for something she was not prepared to give in return.
It had been clear in her mind that for the love she held for Kenway, for only him that would hold in her heart till her last breath, was not possessive. He'd chosen a life that no matter, would one day lead to the destruction of them all. Her coming along meant she'd lose just as well but it was her choice and her life.
Not just yours anymore, went through her mind treacherously.
It was time to tell him, if only so he knew why she'd now have to pull away from him. She could disappear as she had once before, but it wasn't in her now. Liete had only felt the beginnings of love then, and it had raked her heart through a bed of nails in her endeavor for her own freedom.
Now, now she loved him with her entire being, and pulling away now would bring her right to the edge of madness. But it was the right thing to do. She wouldn't make him choose, as she'd sensed he'd done once before.
But she wouldn't leave him with nothing. He deserved an explanation.
Ever watching from windows.
As she leaned against her makeshift kitchen in deep thought, suddenly a series of cannon blasts as loud as fort mortars rocked the air. Quiet ruled the world of Nassau, and although cannons had sounded here and there, nothing to this level…
Something was wrong.
She had to reach the Tavern.
Gathering herself, and slipping into a new pair of soft leather shoes she purchased in a larger size, Liete rushed outside to be met with Gerald standing at full alert looking north to where Nassau's port lay.
With no hesitation, Liete moved quickly towards the market and city center for the smoothest path to the Old Avery for her easily tired and nauseated body with the panic setting a single thought flashing in her mind.
Kenway, she needed to find Kenway.
A Chara - friend