TWENTY-NINE
"What is it I can do for you, Captain?" My voice is tight, tense with the weight of the unknown before me.
Captain Thorne takes a deep breath that lifts her shoulders.
"Rations have gone missing from the stores."
My whole body freezes, my eyes going wide. "What?" I ask, my throat tight. There are a number of things that are not allowed on a ship, rules every sailor knows from the first moment they step foot on the vessel.
To steal from the ship's galley is mutinous, a crime often met with death.
"How much is gone?" I demand, my mind immediately racing into action. I have not seen anyone out of place with food, and I know like all good ships, Captain Thorne has round-the-clock guards on the pantry. This thus means an inside job. But who? Who could be so gluttonous to risk the lives of everyone onboard?
"At this point, about a week's rations," she says, her eyes cool.
I gape at her. "Was this not noted when we made port? Had I known, I would have instructed the men to purchase more food!"
The weight of captaining a ship settles over my chest, long remembered responsibility of caring for the well-being of a crew creeping back into me.
"Captain," Captain Thorne's voice cuts through the melee of my thoughts. I look up to see her sapphire gaze piercing me, and it takes me only a second to understand why I've been brought here.
"Surely, you cannot think me responsible for this," I hiss, my voice barely containing rage at the mere suggestion.
"You have thus far shown questionable moral judgment," Captain Thorne says, her voice level and cool. "And we have been able to pinpoint a number of thefts happening on the nights you are on watch."
I pace away from her, so angry I can scarcely breathe. "I might be a fool blinded by revenge." I snarl, my eyes cutting loathingly toward the piratess. "I may be a disgraced man, stripped of everything he's earned in this life," I continue, turning back to the Captain. "But to accuse me of putting the lives of this crew at jeopardy…" My voice is low, my body shaking with my fury. "Were I a man of lesser honor, I'd kill you for even the suggestion."
My voice is flat, honest, and I watch Captain Thorne shift back, her shoulders rolling as she takes in my words.
"Your man," she starts.
"Jasper is a better man than any else on this ship," I snarl. "I will not have you tarnish his honor by even suggesting what you were about to."
The tension in the room grows taut, and I can sense Captain Thorne trying to determine what to do with me. I've disrespected her as a captain by threatening her. She is well within her right to throw me in the brig and then deposit me on some African beach, left to fend for myself.
I can see it in her gaze that she does not trust me, but she must hear at least a measure of truth in my voice because finally, she turns to the piratess.
"You have brought Captain Masen aboard my ship," she says, her voice tight. "You will henceforth take all night watches with him. I don't want you to let him out of your sight, our past be damned. Am I clear?"
I can feel a tick in my jaw from clenching my teeth so tightly. To be monitored by that villainess…
"Aye, Captain," the piratess says, her eyes flickering to me. It's impossible to guess what she's thinking.
I want to storm out, to rage and destroy something, but I haven't been excused yet.
"This is your last chance, Captain," Captain Thorne says, drawing my gaze back to her. "One more slipup, and I will kill you. Am I clear?"
I suck in a deep breath, my hands flexing at my sides. It takes me nearly a minute to calm enough to answer her.
"Aye, Captain."
