
When we last left Th’ Cap’n…
Tig looked quite confused. “I do not understand why you have done this thing,” She said to Th’ Cap’n, “Why would you kiss me so?” Owain merely stood and watched.
The lesbian Pirate Queen blushed (aye, uncommon for Her t’be certain-sure…) turned and approached the stranger who had saved them. “I thought I recognized your stance,” She announced as She stepped up. She reached over and plucked the mask from the executioner. “Caroline,” She breathed as the SwordMistress’ face was revealed, “You always stepped back on the left ball of your foot before you struck…”
“Do you think I would not know you?” Caroline smiled. “The eye-patch. The voice. Your beauty. There is no one like you in the world, Alix.”
Chapter 9
“You are the Underground’s Executioner?” Th’ Cap’n queried in a bit of disbelief.
The attractive SwordMistress shrugged. “It was a living. I had the choice of being a prostitute or the chance to administer justice in the Underground. Needless to say, I chose the latter. At least I had a say where the fairness of it was concerned. Neb tends to be a bit short on the wise side.”
Tig looked at the lesbian Pirate Queen. “What means this…this kiss you gave me?”
Cap’n Dyke smiled, if somewhat slightly. “You stole the first kiss in Nihon, Biao Khan.”
Tig smiled inscrutably, “Then we play a game…”
“Of a sort,” Th’ Cap’n answered.
A tilt of her head and the Chinese Pirate asked, “And the loser?”
“There doesn’t have to be a loser in this game. That’s the beauty of it,” Alix stated softly.
Caroline shook her head at the pair. “I’m enjoying the hell out of trying to get what the two of you are trying to say to each other without actually coming out and speaking what you feel, but we probably should get out of the city as soon as we can. Neb literally has eyes everywhere.”
“Right then,” the Sapphic Seafarer remarked, clapping Her hands together, “We’ll get spiffied up a bit and get a bit of food…”
“NO,” the SwordMistress stated, after a glance out the room’s small window, “We have to leave now. Think ‘mob’ and French Revolution and you’ll have a bit of an idea of what Neb can send after us. Get the blood off you and we go.”
Tigger stiffened and she stepped towards the woman. “You will not speak thusly to the Captain.”
Alix tugged Tig back and steered her towards the wash basin and the pitcher beside it on a table nearby. “Easy then, My Tiglet,” She smiled as she poured the brackish water in the bowl, “I wouldn’t be alive right now twice, if it wasn’t for Caroline. We’ll put some slack in the rigging, eh?”
As Caroline watched the two women wash, she queried, “How did you come to be in Ned’s hands?”
Th’ Cap’n dried Her face and hands then tossed the cloth to Tig and answered, “We came looking for you and, lo, there you are ready to cut our heads off. Magnificent timing, I would say, what?”
“Your Aunt Jane…”
“Is dead. Yes. I came to fetch you back to Orford to watch over Lady Eliza. Barnabas told me that Richard ousted you as quickly as he did Eliza.”
“That blaggart!” Caroline exclaimed, “it took all that I had in me not to kill him!”
Cap’n Dyke finished tying a strip of cloth about one of the wounds on the Asian Pirate’s forearm and looked up at the SwordMistress. “He’s dead.”
“You killed him?”
“No, I didn’t, but he’s dead nonetheless. I set Barnabas to gathering information while I rode out to find you. We had to cut down some of Neb’s men who were robbing a group of traveler’s and then they nabbed us later in the night. The rest, as they say, is a kerfuffle gone horribly wrong.”
Caroline turned after peering out the window once more. “We can’t delay any longer. We must leave. You can tell me the rest on the road.”
The three women left the tavern and made their way down the dark cobblestone side streets, only halting when they came too close to any halfway large crowds of dreadfully dressed people – who were no doubt Neb’s ‘eyes’ or the beginning of the trouble that the SwordMistress was speaking of.
They were near one of the city gates when their path was blocked. In front were the King’s soldiers; behind them a gathering crowd. The Pirate Queen looked at Caroline, “I guess this would be the mob?”
“One thing I have to say for you, Alix,” the SwordMistress remarked, “You’ve always had the most wonderful sense of discernment.”
“As you’ve always possessed the supreme gift of Dry Sarcasm, Love,” Th’ Cap’n returned, “Your advice then on the situation?”
“We turn ourselves over to the King’s Men.”
“And the alternative?” the Sapphic Seafarer pushed.
“We turn ourselves over to the King’s Men,” Caroline smiled, “Much preferable than being torn limb from limb. Take my word for it.”
























Th'Pirate Code Gives Ye th'Right t'Speak Out...