On Caribbean ground
"Missus? Missus, wake up."
The smoky voice got me out of my chaotic dreams. Fuzzy images and feelings, making it difficult to pull away from them. Even before I opened my eyes, I wondered where the crashing of waves against a solid surface came from and why I was rocked like a child in its cradle. Only as I opened my eyes and looked into the sun-tanned face of Mr. Pollux, I remembered everything. The message saying that Connor and his whole crew had gone missing in the Caribbean. My immediate decision to travel there. Me, pleading to Mr. Pollux so that he would take me and Emily with him and finally our departure from Boston on a small trading schooner a week ago. With no more than a few blankets in a corner between crates full of fabrics as a place to sleep. I hadn't slept well for days. Contrary to Emily, who was now lying peacefully on her back, her arms beside her head, her mouth opened and drool dropping from its corner. I smirked with the sight before slowly sitting up and giving Mr. Pollux a questioning look while running a hand through my hair.
"What is it?"
"We are at the northern tip of Cuba. It won't take us an hour to reach Havanna, Missus", Pollux explained. "I think you should pack your things and come on deck."
Every bit of remaining tiredness vanished and I would have jumped up if Emily wasn't lying next to me. We were almost there. Havanna was our first destination before getting on another ship to Great Inagua, the Assassins' island. Excitement and nervousness spread, but I tried to suppress them as I nodded, thanked Mr Pollux for the information and assured him that we were going to come on deck soon. After he left, I sank back onto our bed, propped my head up on my hand and looked down at my daughter, who was wrinkling her little nose in her sleep. Smiling I reached out my hand and ran a finger over its back, watching it wrinkle even more.
"Emily, wake up", I said gently and stroked her head. "Come on, my little angel."
Emily grumbled quietly, turning her head to the side while her eyes slowly opened. When it came to her grumpy morning behaviour, she took after me. Even though it was difficult to get her to sleep in the evening, she normally would only get up, when she had slept long enough, which I appreciated.
"We need to get up. We're almost there."
I wasn't sure if Emily understood where we were heading and why. I had hardly dared to speak of Connor in her presence because she seemed to know immediately when it was about him. To fuel her hope to see her papa again soon, even though I didn't even know if he was well, seemed wrong. It was enough that she could feel the tension that I tried to suppress as well as I could in her presence. Right now I hardly felt it, because I was fully concentrated on Emily, who was still rubbing her eyes and gave a hearty yawn. Smiling I leaned down to her, kissing her forehead, before I straightened up and helped her sit up as well. Sleepy, she sat there, pressing her doll to her chest, rocking back and forth in the rhythm of the waves and letting me run a comb through her hair. Finally, I braided her hair, wrapped a scarf around it to protect her from the sun, got ready myself and then started packing up our things with Emily's help. Being done, I lifted Emily onto my arm, grabbed our bag and made my way to the main deck.
The Reyes, the ship we were on, was only a small schooner under the Spanish flag, hardly armed with a lower deck and the main deck with the steering wheel. Ridiculously small compared to the Aquila I was used to travelling on and I felt like being in a nutshell. To be able to leave her soon was a relief especially since the crew and her captain had been quite rude to me. It was only thanks to Mr Pollux's eloquence and certainly, some coin that Emily and I had been allowed on board. There they had stuck to ignoring us and I couldn't say that I was bothered by it. Even now I walked past the sailors without acknowledging them, while they turned away from me. Mr. Pollux, smoking a pipe, stood by the prow and looked at the land ahead. Since we had reached the Caribbean Sea I had walked on deck with Emily multiple times to look around. I had heard so many fantastic stories about the Caribbean. About its incredible beauty and unique countryside. At first sight, it had been a disappointment. Certainly, because there had been nothing more than the sea and a boring sandbank here and there. But the farther we had gotten into the Caribbean and the warmer it had been, the more I had noticed about it. The clear colour of the water. The sunrises and -sets I believed were more colourful than at home. And the palm trees I discovered on small islands. I had become euphoric with the thought of setting foot on one of the bigger main islands and there it was, ahead of us. Mostly covered by luscious forests.
"This is Cuba?", I asked as I stopped beside Mr. Pollux, put down the suitcase and readjusted Emily on my arm. By now she had become quite heavy to carry her for long.
"Aye." The man with the copper hair nodded and pulled at his pipe, only to blow the smoke out of his nose. Emily squealed in delight as she saw it and tried to grab for the white fume.
"As soon as we have dropped anchor, I will pay a visit to our bureau and prepare the rest of our journey. You decide whether you want to come with me or run your own errands."
"If you can tell me where I can find a tailor, I would like to run some errands." I set Emily down, who had become restless on my arm and grabbed my skirt as she realised that her tiny legs struggled with the motion of the sea. I caressed her head and felt the sweat forming on her temple. Despite the summer clothes I had packed for our travel into the South, she wasn't the only one getting hot.
"I guess I have to buy clothes more suitable for the Caribbean", I said and gave a pained smile. Mr. Pollux smirked and nodded.
"The summer heat in the North is a joke compared to the climate here, huh?"
"That's one way to put it." The hottest days in the North were still more pleasant than these temperatures. Despite the wind on the sea was pleasantly cool, the sun in its zenith was a force to be reckoned with. Pollux had already explained to me, that summer was only starting and so I didn't feel quite optimistic. I just hoped Emily and I would get used to this climate quicker if we got some lighter clothes.
Silently Mr Pollux and I stood next to each other, watching Cuba's coast coming nearer. Eventually, the ship set course for a bay and that was the first time I set eyes upon Havanna. A colourful cluster of houses between hardwood and palm trees and a lavishly green jungle behind it. It was remarkable even though I had expected more from the city itself. It seemed simple and this impression didn't change as we finally anchored at the harbour. After I had bid farewell to the captain as politely as possible, and even had thanked him for his non-existent hospitality, I slowly and carefully walked down the plank, Emily's hand in one, our bag in the other hand. The harbour of Havanna was hardly recognizable as such, at least if you only knew the spacious areas in London, Boston or New York. It only had some withered wooden footbridges that were crisscrossing the water and crowded with people who were either working, sitting around, chatting or fishing. I could hardly hold it against them because I didn't envie those who were working in these tiring temperatures.
"Shall we?" Mr. Pollux, who had discussed some final matters with the Captain, stepped beside us and took my bag as I nodded and led us towards the town. Over the landing bridges, the solid dock, down some stairs to a dusty square. Only on second glance, I realized that it was the broad main road, with market stands near the sea and the first houses close to the town. I couldn't decide where to look first. Havana certainly wasn't an impressive town, but it was so different and fascinating. I had thought the tall palm trees near the docks were the only remarkable thing here. But there were the people, the Spanish language and the houses that were painted in many different colours. They were green, blue, white, yellow, turquoise…despite their quite weathered and meagre condition they were a burst of colour I could hardly turn my eyes away from. Where else could you find such colourful homes? And then there were the flowers. Many buildings were adorned with trellises' planted with colourful flowers whose scents tickled your nose when passing by. I was delighted to notice that there were even flower trellises over some narrow alleys and was almost disappointed when we stayed on the main road and only passed these alleys. Straight ahead, even when the road led to a rather curvy intersection. I noticed that we kept walking uphill. The road was regularly interrupted by steps, leading us farther up the hill Havanna had been built on. Which must have been rather random. Some houses stood far apart from each other while others were strung together like the links of a chain. Some were even built round to nestle perfectly against the bends of the road. I had never seen such an architecture before and it was fascinating. I felt like I could walk through Havanna for hours without getting bored, but far too soon we crossed a marketplace whose centre was adorned by a beautiful fountain and Mr. Pollux stopped in front of a shop, which only could belong to a tailor, according to the sign over the door.
"Here we are", he confirmed my guess and put our bag down beside me. "The bureau is some blocks away. But I'll come back here to pick you up as soon as everything is taken care of, alright?"
I nodded and after a short thanks, Pollux walked off and I entered the shop, with Emily's hand still in mine.
Being inside was hardly more bearable since the air felt stuffed and if I hadn't needed anything I would have left the shop again. Plus, a petite, middle-aged woman behind the counter had already noticed us. How I envied her for her airy, light-blue dress.
"Buenos Días. ¿Como puedo ayudarse?"
I could tell by her friendly tone what she was probably asking but unfortunately, I didn't understand a word so my smile was apologetic as I stepped to the counter.
"I am sorry, I don't speak Spanish."
"Oh." The woman seemed surprised and then as apologetic as I was. "No hablo inglés, Señora. Perdóname."
Even though I didn't understand, I was sure what she intended to tell me. It seemed like we had to communicate with our hands and feet, then. So I tugged at my blouse, pointed at me and Emily and said slowly: "I need clothes, for me and my daughter."
The woman watched my gestures attentively and a broad smile appeared on her lips as she seemed to understand. Though there was hardly a way to misunderstand why someone entered a tailor shop.
"Sí, uno momento", she said and the petite woman disappeared in the back of her shop.
I stayed behind, keeping an eye on Emily whose hand I had let go of and who was curiously waddling through the shop. Her doll pressed to her chest with one hand, she felt for a bolt of fabric that was on her height and had probably lured her with its grass-green colour. She just wanted to grab and pull at it as I called her back with an iron voice.
"Emily, no."
Glancing over her shoulder with her big eyes, she seemed to conclude that the fabric was still too interesting to listen to me. She turned back to it and just wanted to grab it, so I took one big step to get to her and take her hand.
"I said no. Let us look around here." I pointed at a shelf with hats in different sizes, forms and colours. I didn't intend to buy one but wanted to entertain Emily before she started some mischief. She protested but when I put one of the smaller hats on her head, she seemed to forget her anger in an instant and felt for the dark-blue thing with the red ribbons on her head, squealing in amusement as it slipped over her eyes and nose.
"Still too big", I said with a smirk and replaced the hat with a small, round, creme-coloured one with yellow ribbons. It fitted like a glove and a delighted sound escaped my mouth as Emily grinned at me. She looked so incredibly cute and I fell victim to my motherly emotions as I decided to buy the hat for her, no matter if she needed it or not. I only hoped she would wear it as willingly as the headscarf and I wouldn't have to keep picking it up from the ground.
"It suits her."
I winced as the voice sounded unexpectedly behind me and stared over my shoulder at the young, blonde woman standing at the door to the shop and giving me a crooked smile.
"What…are you doing here?"
"Visiting my hometown." Olivia shrugged and pulled away from the door whereupon I got up to turn to her. I hadn't seen her since she had helped Connor find the second half of the key. I had expected her to roam around and to be honest: I hadn't cared. We had never been friends, after all. To see her now here was unexpected although she had told us that she had grown up in Cuba, which made her explanation seem conclusive.
"I have seen you enter and wasn't sure if it was you", she explained and cocked her head. "What are you doing here? Is Connor here, too and you needed to take a break from him?"
I would have been irritated by her provocative smile and likewise, provocative undertone, but the mention of Connor made me gulp and lower my eyes for a moment. Despite all my fascination for the Caribbean, I had never forgotten the reason we were here. How was I supposed to answer her question without knowing where Connor was and if he was fine?
"He…came here with the keys. You know." I made a vague gesture which made Olivia nod with a frown. Of course, she knew what I was talking about. "We don't know where he is and I came here to make sure that he is fine. We will set sail later today. To an island, he found accommodation on."
"Great Inagua?"
I raised an eyebrow. "How…?"
"¡Vale! Espero que estas le gustan." The tailor came back and gave Olivia a short, polite smile before putting the clothes, she had hung over and under her arm, onto the counter. I was forced to hold my sceptical curiosity since I couldn't explain how Olivia knew about the Assassins' island. Certainly, it was mapped and not an unknown piece of land, but why did Olivia connect it to Connor?
It was difficult but I kept back these questions and looked at the clothes instead. The tailor seemed to have understood my request. She had brought full outfits in different colours and cuts. Shifts, bodices, skirts, dresses. For a woman of my figure and a toddler like Emily. But I didn't intend to get us entirely new outfits because I didn't have the money for them. So I put aside first what I didn't want to buy. Bodices, women's skirts, women's dresses. I concentrated on shifts, blouses and dresses for children. All of them felt lighter in my hands than our current clothes since the fabrics were much thinner and finer. I especially fell in love with a light yellow muslin dress with short sleeves and white lace on the collar and I looked at it in awe before putting it aside with a likewise small undershirt and underskirt. At first glance, I didn't find pieces for myself that I liked, but I simply took a white blouse and a shift I didn't really look at. As I wanted to ask the tailor where Emily and I could try on the clothes, she held an embroidered bodice under my nose, pointed at the blouse in my hands and talked at me so enthusiastically that I only blinked at her.
"Do you need help?", Olivia asked smirking, still standing beside me. I forgot her knowledge about Great Inagua for a moment as I realized with relief that I probably didn't need to communicate with my hands and feet after all.
"That would be great."
The tailor had stopped talking and looked back and forth between us, before now talking at Olivia, the bodice still in her hand. As if she had understood that the blonde was going to be our translator.
"She says you should try on the bodice with the blouse. She even has a matching skirt", Olivia repeated in my mother tongue and seemed to be holding back a grin. Of course. I should have known that the tailor would try to sell more than just a simple blouse.
"Tell her that I only need what I have chosen and that I would like to try them on."
Olivia translated promptly and I believed to see irritation in the tailor's face before she nodded and beckoned me to follow her. I did, holding Emily's hand, our chosen clothes over the other arm until we found ourselves in a small wooden cabinet whose door the tailor closed behind us. It took a little while to get the fidgety Emily out of her clothes since she didn't like to stand around and play mannequin. Only under protest, did she let me slip the undershirt over her head, my hands were slapped away when I wanted to put her bodice back on and fasten the underskirt on it and it was a matter of course that she howled loudly while I put the dress on her. Within minutes, Emily's mood had changed completely and I knew immediately that the weather and the journey were too much for her. I hoped that she would calm down as soon as we had left the small and stuffy shop and that we wouldn't be travelling much longer.
It was a relief to notice that the muslin dress fitted perfectly. It wasn't something I could let her play in but for now, in these weather conditions, it was better than the thick linen and wool that had protected her from the cold back home. Luckily Emily sat down on the ground and played with her doll while I switched my shift and blouse and noticed that they were very comfortable and didn't need any changing. The blouse was a bit too wide around my shoulders but I took it as another airy advantage in these temperatures. I was also delighted by the beautiful embroidery and lace around the thin shift's neckline. It was covered by my clothes but I appreciated such delicate work and I also realized that Connor would be able to see it, too. But I quickly pushed this thought aside since it only brought longing and concern with it.
Taking Emily's hand again, but this time our own clothes over my arm, I stepped out of the cabinet and nodded at the tailor who uttered a sound of delight as she saw Emily. She took the hat I had chosen before from the counter, kneeled before Emily and put it on her head.
"Eres una belleza pequena, ¿verdad?" She caressed Emily's cheek, who had given her a confused and then a grinning look. I couldn't help but smile about the way she looked. The hat's colour fitted perfectly to the dress and my little one looked absolutely cute. Probably I would have bought the dress even if she hadn't needed it.
"The clothes fit perfectly", I tried to explain to the tailor as she stood up and gave me a questioning look. "I'll take them."
A beaming smile appeared on the woman's face after Olivia's translation and she beckoned me back to the counter to finish business. She pointed at each piece of clothing I had chosen, including Emily's hat and named each prize I only recognised by the currency and not the numbers. When she mentioned the total, Olivia's face remained hard as I looked at her. She said another number that made the tailor shake her head vigorously and say another. I realized Olivia was negotiating for me and I probably would have paid any prize because of my lack of language skills. There was a short back and forth until both seemed more or less pleased and Olivia translated the final offer to me. I didn't know how much Spanish Real was worth in British Pounds but it sounded like a fair price that fitted the meagre budget I only had because Mr. Pollux had changed some Pounds for me. I put the money on the counter, and she counted it, I packed our old clothes into our bag, thanked her and bid farewell and shortly afterwards, Olivia, Emily and I stood outside the shop, breathing in the much fresher air. Of course, it was still warm, but I thought it was much more pleasant than before. I held Emily's hand again and let her pull me towards the fountain she was pointing at in excitement. I was surprised that Olivia accompanied us without saying a word.
"Thank you for your help", I broke the silence. "I guess if it wasn't for you, she would have got more money out of me than the clothes are worth."
"She certainly would have." Olivia smiled her typical ironic smile. In all the time I knew her, I had never found out if I liked her or was sceptic about her. She at least had ended my initial distrust when she had helped us with Ray and the key. Despite that, she kept disappearing without me ever knowing what she was doing. I hadn't cared anyway but now I couldn't deny that part of my distrust was slowly returning.
I had lifted Emily onto the stone railing of the fountain and held her while she gingerly splashed her hands into the water. Forgetting about any anger she had felt before. But even though my attention was with my daughter, my thoughts were with the young woman beside me, who sat on the railing, crossing her outstretched legs.
"How do you know about Great Inagua?", I asked without looking at her. Still, I saw her turning to me from the corner of my eye. I expected a direct, snappish answer but she stayed silent. For so long that I was almost willing to repeat my question with more insistence but I didn't have to since she answered nonchalantly: "Lucky guess."
Now I looked at her. Did she think I was stupid?
"It wasn't a guess, you sounded certain." I could hardly hide my irritation. "And even if it was, why this island of all places?"
She pinched her lips and her blue eyes kept staring at the water of the fountain that was constantly moved by Emily's tiny hands. Then she abruptly looked away, stood up, shook her head and frowned in anger, as if I was the one hiding something from her.
"What do you want from me, Lillian?", she asked heatedly and as she took a step back, she reminded me of a cornered animal. This behaviour was only fueling my distrust. "There are numerous islands he could be on. I chose the one relatively close to us."
She seemed to believe that this explanation was convincing me. It didn't, but before I could ask more questions, Olivia had taken another step back.
"I'm sorry, but I'm running out of time. Good luck to you." And with that, she turned around and hurried into the next alley. Confused I stared after her and I would have followed her, if it wasn't for Emily who I was still holding by her waist while she kept playing with the water. What was I supposed to make of this meeting? It was obvious that Olivia was hiding something. Until now, I had only seen her perky and confident. She would have shrugged off my questions but running away…yes, she had run away from me. From me and more uncomfortable questions. But I felt sick with the question "Why?". What if my old distrust had been justified? She had never learned that Connor was an assassin, so why did she connect him with an Assassin island? Would Olivia betray us? She had already taken advantage of others. What if she had switched sides and had sold us to our enemies? What if my questioning, that could only mean that Connor was on Great Inagua, had given her information she could hand over?
I felt hot and cold with the thought and my heart was in my throat. If I was right, I hadn't just endangered Connor and the Apple, but a whole group of people.
"Mama!" A small, wet hand ran over my face and the cold water scared me just like this terrible thought. I winced and blinked several times before lowering my eyes to Emily, who had turned in my grip and grinned at me. The hat sat crooked on her head, there were wet stains on her dress and it looked like she had repeatedly run her hands over her face. I lightly shook my head. Not to reprimand her but because I wanted to shake off this fear of what I might have done.
"What mischief are you getting into while I'm not watching, huh?" I had to force myself to smile and make my voice sound relaxed while rearranging her hat, sitting down on the railing and putting her onto my lap. Emily would sense when I remained uneasy and until now, this day had been exhausting enough, even though she didn't show for now. Now she was excited by the fountain, the glittering water and the way it splashed up when she hit it. She tried to repeat the latter but I only let her lean forward wide enough so that we could reach out our fingers together. I drew invisible images on the surface that Emily watched in delight and tried to replicate. This game helped me calm down and order my thoughts. Several minutes went by without me noticing. I didn't even notice Mr. Pollux until he suddenly stood beside us and cleared his throat.
"Everything alright?"
This question threw me right back into my fear. What should I answer? I may trust him somehow, but he was still a stranger and also an assassin. Could I tell him that I maybe had helped the enemy?
"Did you get everything you need?"
I blinked. Did he mean…?
"Oh…yes." I smiled faintly. "Quicker than expected. Did you learn something?"
"Well, I spoke to our contact," Pollux smirked and I inwardly gave a sigh of relief that he didn't mention my counterquestion and hopefully didn't notice that I hadn't told him everything. He didn't seem to be the right person to talk to.
"He told me that there is already a ship with goods for the island ready at the harbour. We can get on board as soon as we are ready. He also informed me that your journey was in vain."
Confused I cocked my head. "Why? I want to know where…"
"Connor is." Pollux shrugged. "But they already found him."
My eyes widened and I felt Emily wince in my arms as I stood up in a jerk. Again my heart was in my throat but this time it was disbelieving joy. Judging by Pollux's smirk, I didn't believe that he would be adding something negative to this news.
"What do you mean they found him? Where is he? Where was he? How is he?"
Pollux laughed and raised both hands as if to ward my questions off. "He's fine. They found him a week ago. His ship got into a storm and ran aground on a reef and he and his men had to hold out on a small island until they were found. Now he's back with the others and if the pigeon I just sent reaches him before we do, he will be waiting for you."