Home From The Sea (34 page)

“I do,” Toby whispered. “Stay well out of it, Jim. Don’t give them an excuse to drag you into their fracas.”

“And you?” Jim would have held him back, but Toby accorded him a blue-eyed wink.

“You forget,” he said in a bare undertone, “I sailed with these
gentlemen
.”

So he knew exactly who they were, and what – and what they needed to hear, Jim thought as he watched Toby step just inside the tavern’s door, making himself visible.

“
Them
. The parson and ’is gammy-legged wee mate,” Hobbs was saying. He gestured at Toby. “They come to The
Cattlemarket
this
mornin
’.”

“Oh, they did?” Burke’s face clenched. He cocked his head at Toby. “That was uncommon decent of you, lad. Now, why would you do that?”

Now Jim held his breath, for he had no idea what Toby would say. He kept still, half a step outside the door, and wondered how long it would be before Burke and Pledge realized they were unarmed. Their pistols were in Toby’s pockets and Jim’s own.

Toby laughed with the balladsinger’s skill. The laugh sounded
easy,
though Jim know it was sham, forced. “Nathaniel! You don’t remember, do you? Ha!
You don’t recall a damn’ thing!”

“I recall this much,” Burke growled warningly, “if you don’t speak straight in the next five seconds, I’ll turn you over that bench and give you a taste of my belt that’ll flay the hide right off your arse.”

With the ease of old, old practice Toby ducked his head and dropped his voice. “I’m sorry, Nathaniel. I just have a lot to celebrate. I thought you’d be glad –”

“If ’e bloody knew what ye was talkin’ about,” Hobbs barked, “
mebbe
’e would be!”

“The – the prize,” Toby stammered, talking a calculated step back, away from them. “You don’t remember, Nathaniel? Fair enough. We searched this house, top to
bottom,
while the rain fell … you don’t recall how we tore the place to shreds?”

Burke’s eyes narrowed. “Upstairs. Aye, I do. I also remember there was nothing to be found.”

“Yes.” Toby gestured at the smashed rum bottles. “You and Joe were in a fine fury. You sat down to eat … the local ale is a lot stronger than you were expecting. With two tankards inside you, you were shouting for the rum. Master Fairley broke out the best in the house, and – well, you drank a good deal.”

“Drank
yourselves
legless, bastards that ye be,” Hobbs muttered.

“And passed out,” Toby finished with an expressive shrug. “That was when Master Fairley insisted on knowing what was going on in his house, and I … I told him. What else was I supposed to do? The time for secrets was long past, so I told him everything and he lent me his own hands, worked alongside me to find the prize.”

“Is that right, Master Fairley?” Burke angled a hot, dark glance toward Jim. “Now, why would you do such a good deed, lad, for men you despise?”

“
Fae
a share!”
Hobbs roared. “I told ye, Willie, the gammy lad’s rowed hisself aboard
fae
a share – an’ it’ll nae be
comin
’ outta
my
purse!”

“All he wants,” Toby said quietly, “is for the four of you to get out of his house and never show your faces here again.”

“So, let the man speak for hisself.” Burke cocked his head at Jim. “Well, Master Jim Fairley?”

Jim pushed away from the door jamb. “See this pantomime from my position, Captain. There’ll be no peace in my house till you’ve got what you came for and taken it away with you … and even now I own the foolish notion to keep my skin whole and my head on my shoulders. Of course I helped Toby find this damned prize of yours!”

“They found it,” Pledge whispered thickly. “Nathaniel –”

“I heard.” Burke hooked both thumbs in his belt. “And, having found it, you took yourselves on an errand to the bawdy house and dragged this pair of bastards out of there.”

“Of course we did.” Toby kept his voice low and his head half bowed. “You’ll forgive me, Nathaniel, if I don’t
quite
trust you. I’d a sneaking idea you’d do as Eli and Willie assumed. You’d get hold of the prize and vanish, as soon as the floodwaters went down. Then Eli and Willie would be here in a day or three. They’d never believe a word I said about the divvy-up. We’re supposed to play by rules, the old rules
you
made, Nathaniel, but it takes an iron hand at the tiller … your own … to force the likes of Eli and Willie to play fair.”

He cast a bleak glance at Hobbs and Tuttle. “Those two would’ve stolen from me any share you’d given me, before they headed after you –
hunting,
and doing it on largesse that should have been mine.” He dared to lift his chin now, and his voice. “The last half-share is
mine
, Nathaniel. You put your mark on me, and I was loyal. I gave you good service for a long time. You
whistled
, and I went to you, gave you what you wanted, anything you asked for – I gave it freely, without protest or complaint, because I wore your mark and you kept the other bastards off me.” He pinned Burke with a glare. “I still wear your mark. You haven’t given me any ticket of manumission – not yet. According to the old rules we all lived by, I still belong to you. The best chance I have for a future is for you to do right by me. Keep the scum off me a while longer, give me my small share and my freedom, because I did right by you.”

Silence fell on the taproom for several seconds before Pledge said in his thick London voice, “Well, I’ll be buggered. The lad’s done
yer
proud, Nathaniel.
Yer
musta
trained ’im good, or been a damn’ sight more
coddlin
’ with ’im than
I’da
been.”

“Well, now.” Burke seemed not to hear a word Pledge had said. He looked Toby up and down appraisingly. “So this is what you want of me. You want me to take care of Eli and Willie for you, so you don’t have to sully your fair hands.”

“He … what?”
Hobbs demanded.

“He could’ve killed the pair of us, Eli,” Burke said in a mock-pleasant tone. He gestured at the floor, where he and Pledge had slept for so long. “He could have gutted us like pigs and dumped us in the bay in the dead of night, and no one the wiser. But
don’t you never
forget he was a priest. In some corner of his heart, young Toby still believes the Bible bilge water
just
enough for him to turn up his dainty nose at the red work. He won’t kill a man. Never would, never did.
You forgotten?”

“Aye,
thass
right.”
Hobbs peered rudely at Toby. “Ye
coulda
been done
wi
’ the pair of ’em, Trelane, if only
ye’d
’ad the balls
fae
it.”

Toby’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Call it weak, craven, if you want. Nathaniel’s right. I won’t kill a man. I won’t have the stain of murder on my soul, not even for a fortune – not when all I have to do is call
myself
Nathaniel Burke’s marked property, still, and hold him to the rules he made himself.”

“An’ you reckon he’s
gunna
stand by ’em?” Tuttle chuckled acidly.

“I do.” Toby frowned levelly at Burke. “They were your rules,
Captain
. We all lived by them. I survived by them. Those rules are the only reason any one of is here today. Play out the last hand, and it’s over. We walk away, alive and free. All of us.”

For some time The Raven was so silent, Jim could hear the sound of pigeons in the thatch above the door. Burke’s eyes flayed Toby to the bone and then passed on to fillet Hobbs and Tuttle like trout. At last he said slowly, ruminatingly,

“
You’s
a queer un, Master Trelane. You always were. And
you’s
right. I’ll play out the hand. I’ll let it be known, you’re a free man. If you cross me path in a year or five, I might even buy you a jar of ale.” His brow lowered. “Now, I’ll thank you to give me what’s mine.”

The words were like a spark to gunpowder.
“
Yours
?”
Hobbs roared. “
Ye’ll
nae take ownership o’ the treasure we
all
bought
wi
’ our blood!” He was scrambling for a pistol as he spoke, and in the same moment Burke discovered himself unarmed.

Almost faster than Jim could follow what he was doing, Toby whipped the pistol out of his left pocket and tossed it onto the table at Burke’s right hand. Burke dove for it, twisting to present a hard target, and while Jim was still blinking, Burke and Hobbs were suddenly eye to eye, two weapons drawn, two hammers cocked,
a
split second away from blood.

“Jim.” Toby’s voice was quiet, taut. With a nod, he beckoned Jim away from the scene. They were halfway to the stairs when he said to Burke, “The prize is hidden, Nathaniel, for safety. We’ll fetch it.”

Burke never took his eyes from Hobbs. “Joe, go with them. Make sure they bring it all.”

“Aye.”
Pledge was patting his pockets, discovering his pistols gone. “I ain’t got
no
cannons.”

Careful, surprisingly dextrous, Burke drew a long knife from a sheath at the small of his back, where Toby had missed it when he trussed them. This, he tossed into Pledge’s waiting hands. “Tell Master Fairley, Toby,” Burke insisted. “Describe Joe’s skill with a thing like that. Tell him, at close quarters our Joe’s more dangerous with a knife than he is with a pistol in each hand. And then tell your dear Master Fairley to give Joe back his weapons. You bastards disarmed us both, after we passed out – well and good.
I’d’ve
done the same. But you think Willie Tuttle’s unarmed? Now it’d be your turn to hold by them same rules you’re so bloody fond of quoting at me!”

“True,” Toby said softly. “Jim?” His eyes flickered to Jim. “You’ve a pistol in your left pocket, yes?”

“You know I have.” Jim licked his lips. In fact, he had a pistol in either pocket, but he clearly heard the note in Toby’s voice.
One
pistol, he was saying. One for Burke, one for Pledge, matching the weapons carried by Hobbs and Tuttle and leaving both Toby and Jim himself with one apiece.

“Give Joe back his pistol,” Toby said calmly.

Before Jim could respond, Willie Tuttle was a blur. He spun toward Jim, a weapon appearing in his right hand, hammer cocked, so fast, Jim was breathless. “Don’t you be
tryin
’
nuthin
’
, Fairley,” he growled.

“Just a pistol for Joe,” Toby crooned. “Come on, now, Willie … play the hand out honest and square, like Nathaniel said.”

“Like Nathaniel said,” Tuttle echoed, mimicking brutally. He spat onto the flags, and held a tight aim on Jim. “Try
anythin
’, Fairley, and I’ll put you flat on your bloody back.”

Very, very carefully, with only his fingertips Jim lifted the pistol out of his left pocket. Instead of trying to hand it to Pledge, he set it on the corner of the table where the rum bottles had stood till Tuttle slammed them away. With the weapon set down, he lifted both his hands to shoulder height and stepped slowly away, toward Toby.

“Take your cannon, Joe,” Burke said, though his eyes did not move from Hobbs by so much as an inch.

And as Pledge set a hand on his pistol, Tuttle turned his back on Jim and covered his old shipmate instead.

Jim forced a chuckle devoid of
humor
. “You’ve no love for one another, Captain,” he said in Burke’s direction. “You’d as soon kill each other as say good morning.”

“That we would,” Burke agreed, “like any men, anywhere, when there’s a king’s ransom in the offing. You
ain’t never
seen a crew turn on itself like starved wolves, when they see the glitter of gold and jewels.”

“No,” Jim said, hushed, “I haven’t.”

“Get it.” Burke’s tone was like granite. “Drag it out here, Toby – right
here
, right
now
. And like Willie was sayin’ one minute ago, don’t you be
tryin
’
anythin
’. Not if you’ve a
hankerin
’ to walk away.”

 
“We’re not here to cheat anybody,” Toby told him wearily. “My share’s coming to me, fair and square – and my freedom. That’s good enough for me.” He gestured at the stairs. “Joe?
After you.”

At the bottom of the stairs Willie Tuttle fidgeted, torn between Pledge and the confrontation between Burke and Hobbs till Eli Hobbs snarled, “Well
gae
up
wi
’ ’em, ye
bampot
!
Ye
dinnae
trust Pledge nae more an’ me!”

“Don’t you bloody dare gimme orders,” Tuttle barked, but he saw the sense of Hobbs’s words and was right behind Jim as Toby led Pledge up.

At the top, Toby turned right and Jim heard the scrape of a chair on the floor, the squeal of the timbers overhead as he cracked open the trapdoor into the loft. He was up on the chair, blinking into the darkness, when Pledge protested,

“
Oi
, we searched up there afore we went down to eat.”

“And Jim and I put the prize here for safekeeping after we dug it out of a wall in the cellar, while you two were snoring in your rum,” Toby scoffed. “Here. Catch.” Heedless of the pistol, he dropped the solid weight of the bin into Pledge’s waiting hands.