Page 59 of Blow Me Down
“No.”
I gave him a disgusted glare. “You’ve been talking to Corbin, haven’t you?”
The first mate, now clad in tight leather pants, a swishy white shirt, and a red sash tied around his waist, cocked an eyebrow at me briefly before returning his attention to the blond barmaid who stood behind a tall counter polishing a row of metal tankards. “Of course I have. And he told me to tell you no when you asked me to sail you to Turtle’s Back, and I, ever the dutiful friend, have just done as I was so ordered. Can you be ready to leave in an hour?”
“Huh?” He grinned at me. I smacked him on the arm and said, “You’re going to take me? What was all that no business?”
“Corbin told me to tell you no. I said I would. So I said no. He didn’t actually forbid me to take you home,” Holder answered, still grinning. I grinned back.
“I like how you think. Yes, we can be ready to leave in an hour. Er… that is, we’ll be ready if you tell me where Bas is.” I looked around the inn in which I’d finally tracked down Holder. It was located near the governor’s mansion, in a much more affluent area of town, and seemed to be patronized by upscale pirates, if there was such a thing. Even so, an inn with bawdy women and drunken men was no place for a child. “You didn’t bring him here, did you?”
“Naw, I left him at Wry Wenham’s.”
I accepted the small glass of ale the buxom barmaid brought and, distracted for a moment by a thought, asked Holder, “I swear I’ve seen that woman before.
Why do all the barmaids here have an overabundance of bosomage?”
He laughed. “Because this game is going to appeal primarily to men, and I like them that way.”
“I thought you were happily married,” I said, sipping my ale.
“I am. See Saucy Sally there?” He nodded toward the barmaid, who was serving someone at the other end of the counter. She was identical in every way but clothing and hairstyle to the barmaid who’d been ogling Corbin. “That’s my wife, Linda.”
My eyebrows shot up.
“Or rather, her face and body are my wife’s. Linda was one of the models we digitized for the game. She makes a fine barmaid, doesn’t she?” He paused to admire the woman as she jiggled her way to the next customer.
“Very fitting. Who or what is Wry Wenham’s, and where is it located?”
He smiled indulgently as Saucy Sally slapped the face of a pirate who was apparently getting a bit too fresh. “I had Corb program in that response whenever a man gets too blatant. I don’t mind them looking, but no one is going to have her but me.”
I opened my mouth to say something about that but changed my mind. “Wry Wenham’s?” I prompted, instead.
“Surgeon. His place is two streets down, on the corner. Big bougainvillea bushes outside it.”
“A surgeon?” I asked, a little surprised. I had assumed Bas would drift along with whatever morbid whim claimed him. “That doesn’t sound too bad. Does his house have a nice view?”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Not really. He’s also the undertaker. The second Bas heard Wenham had in the bodies from a recent shipwreck, he was off like a scalded seal.”
I smacked him on the arm. “That is not responsible child care. Now I’m going to have to put up with listening to him yammer on and on and on about drowning victims. I’ll get you for this; see if I don’t. Which ship will I meet you at?”
He gave me the ship name and directions to find her, and promised to be at the dock in an hour or less.
“One question,” I said before leaving him.
“Why am I going against Corbin’s wishes?” he asked, taking a long swig of rum.
I nodded.
“Well, I like you, you see. And I think you’re good for Corbin. He’s worth a small fortune, you know? So lots of gold diggers have him in their sights. They drop into his lap. It’s not good for him to just have everything handed to him—but you’re not like that. He has to work to win you, and if I can help make things just a teeny bit more difficult for him, then I will.”
I smiled, despite myself. “You really are something else. First you go out of your way to throw us together, marrying me to Corbin despite the fact that I didn’t want to be married to him, and now you’re trying to keep us apart.”
His eyebrows bobbled at me. “It’s for the best.”
“Best for finishing the scenario and finding Paul, or best for Corbin and me?”
“Anything to say it can’t be both?”
