only the nagging feeling in her gut would go away. Perhaps she was being a little paranoid, but this capture was not going at all as she had imagined.
The next few days were busy, and for a while Clementine was able to shove her fears to the back of her mind. Bonnie took command of the Deadly Miss ; so they officially had a fleet—even if it were just two ships. Heavenly Soul would be their command vessel, and after they examined and tested the cannons they were more confident that she would do the job. It still did not answer the question just why the previous crew had not fired them though…
On the second morning Clementine assembled her small crew on its deck and examined them closely. She was sure the ship was theirs, and now she had to make some decisions. Twenty-three men and women stood before her, some of whom had been with her from the very beginning, others were very new. However there was no getting away from it; all together they were barely enough to maintain two ships.
“No way we can avoid it,” her first mate whispered in Clementine’s ear. “We are going to have to take on more crew in Land’s Break and soon!”
“You’ll have to make do with four in the meantime, Bonnie,” Clementine replied, before turning to them all. “Now which four want to stay on the Deadly Miss ?”
She was more than a little surprised when twenty hands shot up instantly. Clementine took a step back in uttermost shock. They’d pursued a larger ship for months, dreaming of the chance to be bigger, badder pirates of the sky, and yet now most wanted to stay with the Miss ?
“I guess you have your pick,” she said to Bonnie, stumbling over her words slightly, and completely at a loss of what to say. Her first mate gave a short nod picked the two Jacks, Misty and Dawn. It was hardly of any concern to the captain, she just couldn’t understand.
Those not chosen shuffled their feet and wouldn’t meet her eye. Clementine’s confusion slowly began to develop into a hard nugget of anger in her stomach. What were they thinking of?
She had not expected their triumph to go this badly wrong. With a curt nod to Bonnie, she spun on her heel and strode away. She shut herself away in the captain’s cabin that night, and poured herself a healthy shot of rum in defiance of her own mood. The small coal fire in the corner of the room had a large chair before it, and she threw herself into it, the glass clutched in her hand.
Once they’d taken on new crew things would be better. They were just shaken by what had happened when they took the Soul . Yes, that was it. Clementine took another long sip of her drink and sighed, then loosened her shirt, and unbuckled the thick leather belt she wore.
Clementine let her head fell back on the chair. A headache was just starting up behind her eyes. The end to a day she had hoped to be so much better than it actually was.
The whisper in the corner of the room must have come just as she was dozing off. Clementine jerked upright and rubbed her eyes. Then it came again; a shifting of the curtains at the window, a creak of the floorboards, all combined to make a sound that seemed very like her name.
Ridiculous. She slid back into the comfortable curve of the chair once more. The chill breeze slid over her skin like an icy lover’s hand. Her nipples grew stiff even as she shuddered from the cold.
Clementine…
Now it was not just the ship’s sounds playing tricks with her. It had to be her ears. She finished off the rum and sleep enveloped her. Thankfully.
It was a restless slumber, but it was better than nothing. The next morning she rolled out of the chair, splashed her face with water, and began again. A new day, a new chance, she thought to herself.
By the time Strom burst in on her, she was leaning over the large captain’s table, examining the maps. He stood there in the doorway, clutching his hat.
“Yes, Strom.” She said with a slight yawn.
“Captain…” His voice trailed