“Mister, I don’t know who you are….”
“I’m Charlie’s fiancé. This is our engagement party.”
Morty paled. He looked more than crestfallen. He looked like someone had delivered a physical blow.
“Damn it, Jax! You didn’t have to be so blunt about it,” Charlie said stepping around him to place herself between the men. She had seen where Jaxon’s temper and jealousy could lead and she wasn’t about to let him hurt Morty. “And you,” she said to Daniel. “Why didn’t you warn Morty?"
“And miss this?” Daniel’s look of smug satisfaction made her want to put the recently healed black eye back on his face.
Charlie ignored him. At the moment, Morty was her concern. She reached out to lay her hand on his arm, but he took a step back.
“I-I’m sorry I interrupted your party.”
She could tell he wanted to say more, but he turned on his heel and headed toward the hotel’s street exit.
“Wait, Morty.”
He paused only a second before continuing on.
When she turned back to Jaxon, there were tears in her eyes. “You didn’t have to tell him like that. You know how he feels about me.”
“It’s because I know how he feels; I had to do be firm. He needs to understand that there is no hope for him.”
“Morty is the closest thing to family I’ve got. He didn’t deserve that.”
The tears were coming nonstop now and he watched as she fought them back and wiped them away. He had made her cry in a way he had never wanted.
“Excuse me,” she said and turned to go after Morty.
Jaxon grabbed her arm. “Charlie if you go….”
“What? You’re not going to marry me? What makes you think I want to marry someone who has no regard for other people’s feelings—if not for his sake, then for mine? You have to get your temper and your jealousy under control or we are done.”
She pulled her arm away to chase after him, but when she spotted Daniel, she hesitated. “There is a real streak of cruelty in the men of this family. I don’t know if I would want to raise my children around that.”
Charlie ran out into the street, but couldn’t see which way he had gone. Automatically she turned towards the docks. He would either head towards a tavern or the ship. It suddenly occurred to her she didn’t know how he had gotten to Chimerical Cove. Had he transferred to the corsair then boarded The Dragon’s Lair or was the Arcadia in port? Charlie picked up the pace and was nearly running when the wharf came into view. She couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t caught up with Morty. She scanned the harbor looking for the familiar outline of the Arcadia. She spotted Jaxon’s Baltimore clipper first, but sitting three slips beyond it was her ship.
“Thank God,” she said aloud as she hurried towards it.
It was a typical pier with sailors of all sorts moving around. A small group of noisy men were disembarking from one of the ships on their way to a night of merrymaking.
“Hey, gorgeous, looking for me?” one of them yelled. Charlie thought about hurling an insult at him, but she wasn’t dressed for a fight.
“No, honey, but my father, the sheriff, is.”
Some of the men laughed. And she heard one of them say something about a better class of whore, but she kept moving. She maneuvered past a group of men loading cargo onto their ship. Those men eyed her as they worked, but didn’t speak. Rarely were sailors at work allowed to talk. The mate supervising them, yelled at them to get back to work even though none of them had actually stopped.
As Charlie approached her ship, she saw two of her men lingering not far from the ship. One was sitting on a crate smoking a pipe and the other was telling him a story of some sort. Both men had been on the larboard watch so she didn’t know either well. The one on the crate spotted her, but didn’t seem to recognize her.
“It’s a nice night for a smoke, eh Fanzel?”
“Aye,” he answered. “Hey, how do you know my name?”
“Mr. Sinclair?” the other man said recognizing Charlie’s voice and turning. “Uh, Miss Sinclair?”
“Aye. Has Morty come past here?”
“No, miss. Not that I’ve seen,” Fanzel answered stiltedly.
Charlie turned up the gangplank and boarded her ship. She could see the ship was in complete disarray, but didn’t have time to deal with it at the moment. She had to find Morty.
There weren’t many men aboard, she noticed, but she greeted each one by name taking a small amount of pleasure in their reaction.
When she saw Benjy, she asked him to bring a ewer of fresh water to her cabin. Running her fingers through her hair, Charlie began pulling pins out of her coif as she entered her cabin.
Charlie pulled a uniform out of the built-in locker and tossed it on her bunk. She brushed her hair and tied it back, the way she had worn it for years. After struggling with the pearls’ clasp, she ended up needing the mirror to get the necklace off.
Benjy brought the water and Charlie scrubbed her face and changed into her uniform, binding her breast as she had always done. She cursed when she realized her boots were at Jaxon’s townhouse. Luckily, she remembered a pair she had out grown and squeezed her feet in.
Charlie was only mildly surprised to find her money where she had left it. She pocketed it and left the ship to find Morty.
Charlie made the rounds of the taverns and inns near the wharf and worked her way toward the hotel where the party had been. Finally, in the fifth taproom she visited, she found him.
“Two ales,” Charlie said to a passing barmaid as she took a seat at Morty’s table.
“What are you doing here?” Morty asked still sounding sober. “Why aren’t you at your big engagement party with your captain?”
Charlie started to reach for his hand, but realized, dressed as she was, she couldn’t hold his hand without drawing the wrong kind of attention.
“I couldn’t enjoy my party knowing my best friend in the whole world is miserable because of me.”
He stared into his ale. “Best friend,” he echoed hollowly.
She would have like to have told him that she had been absolutely smitten with him when he had first come aboard. But she was afraid if she told him, it would give hope that she could feel that way again.
“I know that’s not what you wanted to hear and I’m sorry.” Charlie paused as the barmaid set the drinks if front of them. She handed the woman a pair of coins.
“My friend here is hungry. Do you have any grub?”
“Sure thing. We have chowder or stew.”
“Bring him both.”
“None for you?” the woman asked.
Charlie shook her head.
“How did you know I was hungry?”
“Morty, you’re always hungry,” Charlie said chuckling.
“My muscles need food,” he said flexing his arm and smiling for the first time. The smile died on his lips. “Why, Charlie? Why him and not me?”
“I wish I had some great answer for you, Morty, but honestly I think a lot of it is just because I’ve spent so many years thinking of you as my friend, I just don’t see you any other way. You’re the big brother I never had,” she explained. “Remember when you came aboard. You were so green. We spent hours practicing your knots.”
“You taught me everything.”
“Then later when I became blower, you were always the first to jump at my orders.”
“Aye, I remember all that.”
“My father always wanted me to be mentally tough and strong so I could lead the men. I need my husband to be as strong as or stronger than me. I don’t want to be the one wearing the trousers in the relationship.”
Morty quaffed the remainder of the ale he had been drinking when she arrived and took a long draw of the one she had ordered for him. Charlie followed suit.
“And you don’t mind his face?”
Charlie would have like to have told him how handsome he was to her and how she barely noticed the scars, but she kne
w her friend didn’t want to hear it.
“No.”
The barmaid brought Morty’s food and Charlie ordered another ale for Morty and a double measure of brandy for herself.
“Morty, when you walked out tonight, I went to the waterfront trying to find you. What the hell happened to my ship? Everything was dirty and out of place.”
Charlie finished her ale in time to hand the tankard to the barmaid when she brought her brandy and Morty’s next ale.
Morty shoveled in a couple of bites of stew and washed them down with ale before answering.
“When they let me out of the brig, Byron told me we had been attacked by the British and your father was killed. But he told me you had been taken by the British with the others. It was after he went below deck that the others filled me in on the truth. Everyone knew what Byron had done was wrong. We mutinied against him and hung him from yard for his piracy. Unfortunately, none of us thought to get his keys before we tossed his body overboard so we couldn’t get into the boatswain’s locker.”
It saddened her to think her men would have to live with the guilt of killing a man on her behalf. It made her sick to think about so she changed the subject.
“You weren’t fooled by the body they gave you?”
“Not for a second,” Morty said with a proud smile. “I picked up the body and knew it wasn’t you. He was a good twenty pounds heavier. I cut open the shroud and everyone was debating whether it was you or not. But the corpse was obviously male and that’s when I spilled the beans. No one believed me either, so I had to cut open the sleeves to show them that there was no scar on his arm.”
“I didn’t think you’d figure it out. I thought the Arcadia would be lost to me forever.”
Morty smiled proudly at her. “We just stayed with the corsair ‘cause we knew the privateer would have to come back to get his crew at some point.”
“Thank you, Morty. You don’t know how much it means that you came for me and brought my ship back.”
Charlie took a couple of sips from her brandy and made a face at the taste of the cheap stuff. She tipped up the glass and swallowed the rest in a couple of burning gulps.
“What do you say we go find some seedy tavern on the docks and go start a fight?”
“Charlie, you’re a girl.”
“I’ve always been a girl,” she said with a roguish grin.
Morty took a drink of his ale. “You only want to fight when something is upsetting you.”
He knew her well. “Jaxon and I had a fight.”
“Over me?”
“Aye,” she admitted. “It’s my fault. We had a disagreement after we met and I may have led him to believe there was more between us than there really was.”
“You used me to make him jealous?”
“Aye,” she admitted sheepishly. “I didn’t exactly lie. He asked me if I love you—I just didn’t tell him I love you like a brother.” Charlie was beginning to feel her alcohol. “Come on, let’s go find a fight.” She stood up, placed enough coins on the table to cover everything she hadn’t already paid for and headed out the door not waiting for him to object again.
Morty gulped down his ale and followed, catching up to her quickly.
She walked backwards in front of him and began feigning karate moves in his direction. When she slowly kicked at his chest, he grabbed her foot and wouldn’t let go.
“Whatcha going to do now?”
Charlie laughed as she hopped backwards. “Let go. You know I can get free, but I’d have to hurt you to do it.”
Morty released her foot.
“I’ve missed our nights on the town,” Charlie confessed.
“Me, too,” Morty said, solemnly knowing this was the last time.
“Are you sure about this man of yours?” he asked.
“Oh, Morty, I didn’t know I could love someone so much.” She looked up through her lashes at him. “He makes my knees weak,” she said shyly knowing he would remember their conversation.
He saw the blush on her cheeks and although it hurt, he wanted her to know love even if it wasn’t with him.
“I’m happy for you, Charlie, I really am. But if that’s the way you feel, why aren’t you with him?”
“Things were said tonight. I think we may have broken off our engagement.”
Charlie cast her eyes around at their surroundings. They were at the docks with its warehouses and disreputable taverns.
“Let’s go in here. This place could use the excitement of a little brawl.”
“No, Charlie,” he said grabbing her arm. “I’m not going to let you get in a fight.”
Charlie pulled free of his hand and darted towards the tavern. “You can’t stop me, Morty. You never could.”
Morty swore as he watched her enter and followed her. She was at the bar ordering more drinks for them, two ales and a brandy which she threw back immediately. She left one tankard at the bar for Morty, the other ale she would intentionally spill on some mean-looking tar. That was how she usually started fight.
Charlie grabbed the tankard and scoped the place for her victims. Two men by the wall seemed to be in a heated discussion.
“No, Charlie!”
But it was too late. Charlie pretended to trip as she slung the contents of the tankard at them.
Chairs scraped noisily as the men jumped to their feet.
“What the hell?”
“Don’t hit her,” Morty cried thrusting himself in front of Charlie. “She’s a girl. It was an accident.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” Charlie said shoving Morty aside. “And you are more of a girl than I am.”
Morty suddenly recognized the men. “She’s your captain’s fiancée.”
“Bullshit! Women tremble in fear at the sight of our captain.”
Charlie wasn’t going to let Morty stop her. She kicked one of the men in the chest sending him into the wall. The other lunged at her and she flipped him onto his back.
“Charlie, stop. They were on the corsair. They are—“
“My men!” Jaxon said pushing Morty aside. “You’re twice her size. Can’t you stop her?” he ground out to Morty.
27
Morty speared Jaxon with a hard stare folding his arms over his chest. This man didn’t know Charlie like he did. She fought fearlessly and had no qualms about inflicting pain when she was riled. “Why don’t you show me how it’s done,” he drawled, a smirk lifting one corner of his mouth.
Jaxon was behind her in an instant. He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her away from his crewmen as they found their footing again. “Don’t even think about hitting her,” he ordered to his men. Then he turned to Morty, “That’s how you do it.”
Unfortunately for Jaxon, he had only used one arm to grab her leaving his injured side open.
“You’re only stopping me because I’m letting you,” Charlie said sending her elbow into Jaxon’s wound.
Jaxon doubled over with the force of the blow, relaxing his grip on her enough for Charlie to break free.
“You were saying…?” Morty sneered.
Jaxon cast a caustic glare at Morty as he righted himself. Charlie had taken up an offensive position across from him, bouncing on the balls of her feet with her arms raised. Jaxon could feel the wake of air as she began throwing kicks and punches inches from his face. Had he moved any closer, he would have gotten walloped with the full force of her blows.
Jax tried several times to grab her wrists, but she easily batted his hands away.
“Bloodthirsty wench,” Jaxon muttered taking a step back and turning away. He reached in his pocket and threw a couple of coins on the table where his men had been sitting. “Have a couple more on me.”
He turned back to Charlie who had settled down on her heels. “I’m leaving. Are you coming with me?”
“Are you going to make me tremble?” she asked with a saucy glint, knowing he had heard what his sailors had said.
He held out his hand to her silent
ly. Stoically.
Charlie’s eyes darted between Jaxon and Morty. She loved Jaxon with all of her being, but Morty was hurting and frankly, she missed him more than she imagined possible.
“Charlie, your hesitation speaks volumes,” Jaxon gritted then turned on his heels and departed without looking back.
Charlie watched as Jaxon left the tavern in stunned silence. She swore and ran after him, catching up with him quickly in the middle of the road.
“Jaxon—”
Jaxon turned and grabbed her by the arms. “I don’t share what’s mine. When you didn’t walk out that door with me, it told that you are having second thoughts.”
“I’m here now,” she cut in.
“You were happy to marry me when you had no other options, but now that you’ve got your ship and your old life back…” he trailed off with a shrug. “I-I think Grayson may have been right. Maybe I was just a way to improve your lot.”
“No, Jaxon—”
He gave her a little shake. “You need to decide what you want. I’m not going to play this game with you.”
“I’m not playing games!” she shouted. “I needed to make sure Morty was all right. Daniel should have warned him, but he was taken unawares.”
“You’re so worried about his feelings; what about mine? Did you think for one second what it felt like to have you leave our engagement party on the heels of another man? Did it occur to you how that would look? You’ve embarrassed me in front of my whole family. I can’t even try to save face by taking you back to the party because you’re half-drunk and dressed like that.”
Jaxon seemed to suddenly realize he held her with much more force than he intended and released her as if he picked up a hot pan with bare hands. With a grunt of frustration, he turned and strode away from her as fast as his uneven stride allowed, leaving Charlie standing alone in the middle of the street.
Charlie stood unmoving, watching Jaxon’s retreat. The lump in her throat choking her, but the tears that burned her eyes refused to fall as though the uniform transformed her back into the emotionless person she was raised to be. The longer she stood there, the more she felt herself shutting down until she felt like the hollow shell her father brought aboard the Arcadia at the age of six.
An Officer but No Gentleman Page 21