Captain Teague pulled Robert to the table and sat him down in a chair before sitting down next to him.
"Alright whelp. Tell me everything you know about this Durnhelm, how many he has in his crew and employ, what's his ship look like and more importantly what does he look like? And don't you lie to me either, whelp." Robert looked at Captain Wallace and back to Captain Teague again. " I don't know how many he has with him, but I do know that his First Mates' name is Thomas. He's the large fellow what shot me and he's the one that collects the ransom. His ship is called The Grey Vale and she has blue sails, with a white Jolly Roger on it. I've never seem Durnhelm up close before, but I do think I saw him on his ship from the dock once. He's a black haired man with shoulder length hair. He uses other's like me to do his dirty work and picks up the ransom from Thomas. I got word from him about Lord Ascots charge traveling to China and I was supposed to find out when and on what ship and when she would be leaving. When I found out about Lady Alice, I was supposed to tell Durnhelm but I didn't. I don't know how he found us, but as far as I know, he doesn't know what she looks like."
I was still nervous about being discovered by these people but I was also relieved to know that they at least didn't know what I looked like. But that wasn't enough for Latham, who promptly punched Robert dead in the face, knocking him out cold.
"And to think we blew up a tavern for him." Latham nodded his head in agreement. Both Captains looked up and us, eyes wide. "So that was you two, blowing things up? Dare I ask why you blew up the tavern of all places? And how you didn't think to make sure I wasn't there before you sent it flying high?" Latham and I just smiled at Wally, who looked as amused as we felt.
"But what do we do now? I mean, we can't just sit here and let them get away with all of this!" Black just sighed, took a seat and poured himself a drink. Downing that, he looked at me again. "Ally, you know if word of this gets back to London, your family will never let you sail again, right?" "I know that, Wally. That's why I'm so angry, because I have worked so hard to get here and now this...Mongrel, is going to ruin all of mine and my fathers' hard work!" I was livid. All my fathers hopes and dreams that I had striven to do, my own hopes and dreams and all of my hard work, would be ruined by this man. If my family ever caught word of the troubles that I had now, my mother and sister would do anything to stop me. Not to mention Lord Ascot himself may refuse to keep me as his apprentice any more. Damn this Durnhelm fool! "I understand how you feel, Ally, but I want to focus on keeping you safe. I think we need to get The Wonder back in order and get what's left of my crew scraped back together." Black sighed and ran a hand down his face and through his hair. "I'm getting too old for this shit."
I had to wonder if there was really anything more than passenger and Captain business going on between the Lady and Black. She walked up to Black, wrapping her arms around his neck and rested her cheek on his grey head. "It'll be alright, Ally cat," Black murmured as he gently patted her arm. "One way or another, we'll get through this." The first mate was still glaring down at the unconscious whelp with a hateful sneer on his face. "Can we leave Alice here while we check on the ship and crew? Or do we need to think of something else?" Everyone turned to look at me of course. It never failed that when I think I'm going to get some time to sail at my leisure, something comes up and I have to get back to work. "Alright Black, you take whatever of my men you can find on board still and check on your crew. I'll look after the Miss Alice here." Black nodded and got up to leave, giving his thanks. "But before I go, I'll be takin' this one to the brig. After all this mess, there is no way I'm leavin' him to his own means." Black and his first mate grabbed the whelp and threw him out to the deck.
Before Latham and I left Ally and the Keeper, we put the knocked out wimp in the brig. As I said, after all the lies and trouble he brought to my ship I was not about to let him out of sight. Though I could almost believe him about being too fond of Alice to tell on her. Almost. I knew that Alice would be safe with the Keeper but it didn't mean I don't worry about her. "Alice, Latham and I will see you in a bit. In the mean time I want you to stay out of sight until then. Maybe longer." She looked at me with those doleful eyes that always won me over. "You will come back?" I can't promise that but... I looked at her for a moment before going to Teague. "If I don't make it back, will you see to it that she gets back to London safely?" The Captain looked at me for a good minute before giving a nod and motioning for Alice to come closer. "Have a seat Miss and I'll explain something." When she sat down next to me and took a breath, still looking unsure my heart went out to her again. "Now, once again I'm Captain Teague and this here is my ship The Troubadore. From what Black tells me, you're a lady who's got some people lookin' for her. Now Black here knows what he's doing, but if things get bad, or rather get worse, he's asked me to see you back to London. And I have a feeling that even if Black does get his ship back I'll still be seeing you back to England myself. They would expect to see you on a proper passenger ship. They won't expect to see you on a ship like this." Her eyebrows shot up and she smiled again. "You mean a semi-retired privateer ship." Teague just smiled and I laughed. I don't think there is anything that gets passed the Ally cat. "Now that this lovely chat is out-of-the-way, Latham and I can get moving." Before I could make my way to the door, I found myself with an armful of Alice.