Chapter Six: Without A Peg To Stand On
Half an hour later, Emily had made herself presentable and was being carefully lead down the plank and onto a very rickety dock. She gazed ahead to the very dilapidated town the dock lead to; the streets were uneven and most of the buildings were leaning precariously on their foundations. Unseemly people littered the streets, and the smell of fish was overwhelming and Emily tried to plug her nose without being obvious about it. Naomi tired to hid her smirk; it was possibly the most disgusting port she had ever been to, but she knew the people of Aberthol well and she trusted her contacts here.
As they entered the street, men leered at the two of them, but were quick to avert their gaze when Naomi gave them a stern look. The blonde shuffled the girl quickly into a store just off the main street and greeted the shopkeeper cheerfully. The stocky woman limped quickly from behind the counter and began riffling through the racks of dresses, guessing Emily's size with a few quick glances. She held up a few dresses and gave them a quizzical look; the blonde elbowed her hostage lightly and the redhead stammered and pointed to a few of the options and the merchant tossed them to the counter and continued down the line in search of a few pairs of pants, then shoes, and eventually under garments. By the time they left the shop, they had three changes of clothes for Emily to call her own and Naomi carried them in a large crate until she spotted one of her crew and called him over to take the items on board for them. The captain took a moment to scan the dock for a quick check on the crew's progress; she barked a few orders to some of the deckhands that were already in a scuffle about who was in charge in her and Cook's absence. Finally, Naomi was reasonably assured they could work together again and turned to realize Emily was gone.
Emily had seized the moment and slowly edged her way onto a side street while the captain was distracted, then she broke into a run. She regretted not changing into the shoes they had purchased at the store because these were a little too big and the road was terribly patchy as she ran. She rounded a few corners trying to be sure she wasn't simply circling the same block; her foot wedged in a pothole and she lost the right shoe, but didn't dare go back for it; she hadn't even looked back once yet. Rounding another corner, she found a dead in; several men huddled around the back door of the building and sneered at her as she stood just inside the alley way, her brown eyes large and frightened and her impossibly red hair in disarray. She stood frozen unsure of what to do.
"Can you help me?" Emily panted.
"Oh aye, we can help you," one of the men said gruffly.
"Sure'n we'd be glad to give you a hand or two…" another one said as he spat out a wad of tobacco.
Emily immediately regretted not running the minute she had turned into the alley and she took several quick paces backwards before running into another grizzled looking man behind her.
"Sorry, excuse me," she said out of habit.
"Oh no, begging yer pardon me'lady," he sneered.
The redhead found herself pinned in, still out of their reach, but without enough room to slip away. "Please," she pleaded, "please just let me go…"
The tallest man had a patch over his left eye and directly next to him was a very scarred man, who was just a little shorter than Emily. The other two where hard to tell apart with the exception of hair color, their faces covered in large unruly beards and even more unruly hair. They had surrounded her and were slowly closing in, their eyes flashing like wild dogs; she wanted to shut it all out and pretend it wasn't happening, but she couldn't close her eyes. She spun around desperately trying to keep visual contact on all four men at once.
The tall man grunted as an object came out of nowhere to clock him on his blind side. The men rumbled as they turned to the mouth of the alley way and erupted with laughter when they saw a blonde girl had been the one to throw it.
"Step aside boys," Naomi said smoothly as she pulled two large pistols out of their holsters and took aim. "I'd hate for it to get bloody unpleasant."
"Those are mighty big guns for a slight lass like you," the shorter man spat again.
"Yeah," one of the hairy men added. "Unless you be wanting to join our pretty new lass."
The captain cocked the guns and one of the men commented that a blunderbuss that size would knock her to the ground in one shot.
"Well let's test that then," Naomi smirked, squeezing the trigger and hitting the tall one straight through the eye patch.
Emily screamed and crouched down, covering her head. The men were visibly shaken and the blonde was still standing, her hands steady as she pulled back the hammer on the second gun. The remaining three made a mad dash for the door and disappeared into the house. Naomi slammed the pistols back into their holsters and grabbed Emily quickly by the arm.
"Get the shoe," she said calmly, and the redhead reached out to retrieve it. "No time to put it on; they'll be back out with friends."
The captain pulled her through the crowded streets and into a tavern just on the dock, where she was finally allowed to put the other shoe back on. Emily peeked from behind her disheveled hair and saw that the blonde was trembling a little and rubbing one of her wrists. The kick back from the gun had obviously hurt more than she had let on. Once again, Emily felt foolish and guilty and she could tell that Naomi keeping an eye on her and trying hard not to make eye contact while doing so.
"You said you liked back bone…" the redhead said, testing the waters.
"Only when the back bone has a brain backing it up," the blonde snapped, giving her a sideways glance.
Emily sat back in silence and watched the floor for a moment, becoming lost in thought as she listened to the murmur of people talking and the scuttle of tavern customers. So much so that she didn't notice the older woman approach them both excitedly.
"Naomi love!" The blonde woman embraced the captain, "Why didn't you come here straight away?"
Naomi returned the hug. "I had business to deal with."
The woman turned to Emily and gasped excitedly. "And who is this?" she asked, brushing the girl's red hair back to get a better look at her face. "Why she's lovely dear."
"Mom." The captain cleared her throat.
"What's your name dear?" Naomi's mother asked with a genuine smile.
"Emily," the girl said uncertainly.
"I don't bite deary." The woman smiled again. "You don't need to be nervous."
"Mom," Naomi said again.
"Why does she look so sad?" Gina asked. "Is my daughter in a mood? You get used to it. She gets so grumpy when she's on business, but once she is done she'll remember she's lucky to have…"
"Emily is a…new business partner…" Naomi interrupted desperately.
The blonde shot the redhead a sharp look and Emily nodded her head hastily. Gina sighed, but smiled none the less. The brown eyed girl straightened up in her chair and tried to look business like. There was something likeable about the captain's mother; though she looked quite weathered by a clearly difficult life, and yet she had an aura of cheerfulness about her. It intrigued the captive girl and she found it surprisingly easy to pretend to be carefree and normal with her at the table. Naomi, on the other hand, seemed nervous and ill at ease with her mother questioning the redhead about her life and how they met. The captain was impressed by Emily's quickly thought up dodges and half truths; it seemed that the girl had a natural knack for hiding the truth carefully within guarded words and specifically phrased answers.
Another woman called from the back room and Gina answered her with a strained smile.
"Excuse me girls," she said wearily. "Many of the village foundlings have been very ill…"
"Still saving the lost causes?" Naomi said, her voice warm and with a touch a pride in it.
"Fighting the good fight still," Gina said. "Don't know if it's the remedies or learning to read they hate more, but they are getting both."
The older woman stood up stiffly and her daughter handed her a coin purse.
"I'll bring more later…" the captain said.
"You don't have to do that dear…" her mother soothed. "You've got to make yourself a living…"
Naomi stood up quickly before Gina could try to give her back the money, taking Emily by the arm, and giving her mother a quick kiss on the cheek. She pulled the redhead out of the tavern and back down to the pier. Mr. Cook stopped them at the ramp of the ship to let the captain look over the inventory list; she felt around her pockets for a pen to check off the list and found the coin purse she had given her mother. The blonde huffed and rolled her eyes and then instructed her first mate to take it back to her mother.
"Don't let her hug you," she called after him.
The captain turned her attention to the three young men on the dock; they were the messengers that would be taking the ransom proposal to Emily's father. After a few minutes of instruction they set out to their much smaller ship and the redhead watched them set sail and head out to sea. The sun was setting and the ship looked like a black shadow shrinking into a pool of orange. Naomi motioned for her to sit down on a stack of crates across from the ship and handed her a green apple from a nearby barrel; they had both forgotten how hungry they were and they both devoured several apples contentedly. Emily still felt shaky from her adventure in the alleyway but she somehow also felt cheery from meeting Gina; the woman was unlike anyone she'd ever met, she was like the mother from stories, warm and genuinely interested.
In the dim pink light of sunset, Emily saw the ship she had been living on for the first time. It was surprisingly larger than she had expected it, being as she had only seen the inside of the captain's quarters, and the wood shone almost gold in the warm light, causing the metal on the ship to contrast darkly. At the moment, the sails looked peach, and her eyes trailed along the sails to the bowsprit; below it the figure head stretched down the front of the ship. Emily gasped in awe of the intricate detail of an angle—its wings parallel to the sides of the bow, its hands covering its face and its hair carved to appear blown forward by the wind. The girl slid off the crates, followed closely by the blonde, and crossed the dock to inspect the statue more closely, her brown eyes sparkling with fascination. Naomi sighed as a smile crept across her face despite herself.
"Thank you," the captain said without thinking.
Emily gave her a shocked look. "For what?"
The captain blinked and then shrugged and then led her back on board.
I apologize for the lack of Keffy in this chapter. I will try to make up for it sometime. Please keep the comments coming and hope you are all still enjoying the story.
