Page 80 of Blow Me Down
“Dearest Amy, I hope this note finds ye well,” Jez read, frowning over the parchment. “A matter of some importance has claimed me attention, and I’ve beenforced to leave Turtle’s Back for a short time while I attend to it.”
“That’s rather odd, isn’t it?” I asked Charlie. “A captain leaving during a blockade?”
He said nothing.
“Ye can believe me when I tell ye that I’ve thought long and hard about who toname as me replacement while I’m away. Panny is me first mate, as ye know, butwhile he’s a good mate and the men all like him, he’s not got the brains on him tohead up the crew. Ye be by way of knowin‘ that firsthand, what with him shootin’
ye by mistake. Ye, however, have the spirit and cunning that a good captain needs.”
“What?” I yelled, starting to sit upright in the tub, but remembering in time who was watching. I clutched my legs tighter and stared with an open mouth at Jez. She gave me an unreadable look and continued.
“I’m fully confident that ye’ll do well by me crew until I can return. I’m leavin‘ asmany men as I can spare for yer defenses, and trust that ye won’t let that blackguardCorbin step foot on me precious island.”
“He’s insane,” I gasped, turning my stunned look on the three men standing there. Beyond them, the women stood equally stunned.
“I’ve never told ye just why it is that I blackspotted Corbin. Most folks hereaboutsthink it’s because of the murder of me crew—but that ain’t it. The sad truth is thatBlack Corbin ruined me life when he took me one true love from me. I swore mevengeance the day he took her, and I’ll have it yet, just ye wait and see.”
“Corbinwhat!” I asked, but no one answered me. As unbelievable as it was that Bart should leave us helpless (with me in charge), it was utterly inconceivable that Corbin should steal the love of his life, whoever she was. Corbin wasn’t the woman-stealing sort.
“I’ve heard a foul rumor that ye’re a bit sweet on that devil’s spawn Corbin, but Iknow it couldn’t be any thin‘ more than the most heinous lie. Even so, I’m beggin’
ye, as yer captain and yer friend, not to turn Turtle’s Back over to Black Corbin. Ilove this island with all me heart, and it’s breakin‘ just thinkin’ of how he‘d destroyit.”
I shook my head, unable to say anything.
“There’s more,” Jez said, squinting to decipher what I could see was cramped, dense writing. “I’ve instructed the crew to honor ye as their captain, and to respectyer commands as if they were me own. I’ve also issued a proclamation naming ye asGovernor of Turtle’s Back until I return. Fair winds to ye, lass. Yours, etcetera,Bartholomew Portuguese, Captain.”
Silence filled the room—stunned, disbelieving silence. A silence so thick that not even the noises from the square outside the window could penetrate its denseness.
Charlie cleared his throat, pulling off his dirty bandana before saying, “What be yer orders, Cap’n Amy?”
Chapter 20
We’ll be queens, and make decrees—
They may honour them who please.
—Ibid, Act I
My first command as captain and governor was given stark naked from the bathtub.
“My orders are for you guys to get the hell out of the room so I can finish my bath and get dressed,” I said, glaring over my knees.
The three men looked surprised for a moment, but duly shuffled out of the room. I waited until Suky and Jez propped the screen up in front of me again, then had the quickest bath in the history of the world, getting dressed in record time.
“Right. Something is clearly going on,” I told the men as I entered the front room. “Either Bart is insane, or that note is a forgery, or someone is playing a cruel trick, because I’m the last person on this island who should be given command of both the crew and the inhabitants.”
“ ‘Tis no joke,” Charlie replied, giving me a long look. “The captain spoke to all of us, tellin’ us what he was plannin‘ to do. I’m not sayin’ that all the men are pleased about havin‘ a female captain, but most of them have seen how ye handled yerself on the first day of the blockade, and they’ll be willin’ to follow ye. The townsfolk won’t be givin‘ ye any grief, either. They be too worried about their shops and such.”
I looked each man in the eye, searching for any signs that they were having me on in the biggest practical joke to hit the Seventh Sea, but they all appeared to be telling the truth.
I sank down into the nearest chair, still too flabbergasted to take it all in. The ladies filed into the room, for once not ogling the men, but watching me with round eyes.
“What be yer next command, then, Cap’n?” Charlie asked.
I started to protest that I wasn’t in the least bit interested or experienced enough to be either a captain or a governor, but a sudden mental image rose of me sitting behind Bart’s big desk in the governor’s house. What was a governor, or a captain for that matter, but someone who knew how to organize and delegate? I knew how to do those things! And I had the financial knowledge to help the people of Turtle’s Back. Why should Renata’s girls be the only ones who had secure financial futures… oh, man, what was I thinking? These people were not real! Then again, who was to say that helping other characters to succeed wasn’t part of the scenario?
“Better safe than sorry,” I muttered to my knees.
