Just when John starts to feel like he's starting to gain some control of his life, that illusion is shattered. Unfortunately, this chapter isn't quite as spicy as the others have been, but worry not -- the heat level will rise again!
Little Red rowed the boat up right next to the
Red Witch
's hull. John was ready to reach out and help even though he wasn't sure what to do, but by the time the rowboat rubbed against the hull they were lined up next to a rope ladder and two iron cleats. The young woman tied the stern rope to one cleat and then shooed John out of the way so she could tie the bow rope.
"I can help, you know," John offered.
"Do you know knots?"
"I can make a knot!"
"But you don't know the knot Red wants, do you?"
John looked at the strange way she'd looped and tied the rope around the cleat. "Huh, I suppose not."
"Then just sit there and look pretty, John the Long."
He rolled his eyes.
She finished with the ropes and grabbed the rope ladder. "I'll go first so nobody puts a knife in your eye."
"I won't argue that," John said.
He watched her climb the rope ladder, noting how she made it look easy as she scampered up while it sways back and forth. Her cloak prevented him from enjoying the view, though not for lack of trying.
John went next and wondered how in the blazes of Phlegethos she made it look so easy. The ladder danced back and forth and he bumped into the hull constantly. His toes and feet were sore from the course rope rungs that scratched and burned his joints. He finally managed to pull himself over the gunwale of the
Red Witch
and only managed to stand on his cramping feet by leaning against the railing.
"Who's this then?" a sailor talking to Little Red asked. "You know Captain's not taking on no more hands."
"He's just visiting," Little Red said.
He snorted. "You'd best go see Captain, she's been looking for you for a while now."
"Doesn't that woman sleep?" Little Red muttered.
"She's your sister, you tell me."
Little Red sighed and turned. "Come on, then, let's get this over with."
John looked to the sailor. The man's shrewd look changed to a smirk. "Good luck with that."
John frowned and then hurried to catch up to Little Red. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," she mumbled.
John's eyes narrowed. It didn't sound like, "nothing."
Little Red rounded the quarterdeck and climbed up the stairs to the top of the quarterdeck. She walked across the deck, passing behind the lashed wheel, and opened the cabin door without knocking. John followed her in.
A candle set in an iron candleholder burned on a desk and lit up the woman in a chair holding a thick leather-bound book. She was looking up at Little Red and then noticed John. Her expression hardened.
"Who's this?" she asked as she sat up in her chair and tugged her sleep shirt so it covered her better.
"This is John," Little Red said.
John took in the rest of the dimly lit cabin and saw a table strewn with odds and ends as well as some maps. His eyes went to the bed next and he saw it was still occupied. A woman lay sleeping, the sheets pulled down to her belly and her breasts on display.
Red cursed and jumped to her feet. She hurried to the bed and pulled the sheets up to cover the sleeping woman. John wasn't sure, but he thought the sleeper was the other woman he'd seen with Red and her crew at the docks.
"Well, John, you'll live a lot longer if you keep your eyes and your tongue in your head," she warned. Before he could respond her eyes narrowed and she looked him up and down. "You were in the Sea Hall... Saints of the deep, you're the one Steff's been going on about!"
John bowed his head. "The Sea Hall? I didn't know it was called that. Yes, that was me. I can't speak for Steff, or rather what she's been saying about me. I came because—"
"I brought him," Little Red interrupted. "He's with me now. He's no fool noble or merchant neither, Red."
Red raised an eyebrow and then she glared at her sister. "You didn't... Saints, child, you did! You let him bed you? We'll need an apothecary. Does this town even have one?"
"I'm not with child!" Little Red protested. "We didn't... he didn't.... um, finish there."
Red stood still and glowered at her little sister. "Did he even get it in before he spilled all over your legs?"
John smirked.
"Oh, he did," Little Red said with a grin. "So far in..."
Red held up her hands. "You're sure you're not going to have a swollen belly in a few months?"
"My belly's full," she admitted with a wink at John, "but not because there's a babe growing in it."
"What am I missing?"
Little Red blushed again before saying, "I've never tasted anything like it! And the way he... well... I'm not sure I'll be walking right for days."
"John, I need you to step outside and wait a moment while I talk to my sister."
John shrugged. "Okay. Or... where's Steff? I'd like to see her before—"
Little Red spun on him. "Why do you want to see her?"
He leaned back a little from her fiery glare. "Just to say hi and see how she's doing," he stammered.
"She's doing fine," Little Red said. "Isn't she, Red?"
"Sleeping most like," Red agreed. "She wasn't worth a damn all day after she got back. Seems you wore her out."
"That's true enough," Little Red said. A smile slipped back onto her face before she said, "I feel like I could sleep for a week."
Red turned and glanced out a window above her bed. "Sun will be up soon, you missed your chance if you went out hunting him down last night."
Little Red nodded. "I said I could, didn't say I would."
"John?" Red asked again.
He winced. "Right, sorry, I'll be right outside."
"See that you don't wander," Red said, soothing the sudden tension in her sister's shoulders.
"Of course," John said. He slipped back out the door and pulled it shut behind him. He took a few steps away to not seem suspicious and then studied the small deck outside Red's cabin. There was little to it, just the helm next to the railing and stairs that led both up and down to the decks above and below.
John moved to the stairs going up and took the first two steps until he saw what lay on the aftcastle. A massive crossbow was bolted to the deck. The ballista had a barrel full of bolts nearby, though the bolts were nothing like John expected. Chains with spiked balls hung from the blades of each. They couldn't possibly shoot straight, but if they hit a man they'd surely tear him apart.
He turned and looked up at the three masts of the
Red Witch
. The sails were down but a sail made for a large target. Large enough that a bolt punching a whole through one wouldn't do much. A bolt with chains and spikes though, that might cause some serious tears.
John stepped back onto the quarter deck and moved to study the main desk of the ship below him. A few men were moving about on it. One was checking and stowing ropes and gear while another moved across the deck toward the forecastle and then disappeared through the door.
He could hear them talking. At times their voices rose high enough to make out words. John thought about trying to hear better but decided against it. He was a guest, after all. These weren't pirates either, just sailors trying to make a living. Decent people, he supposed, if a bit salty.
He grinned at his own joke and then jumped when the door opened. Red came out first. She was fully dressed in breeches, boots, corset, shirt, and her wrap. Oh, and the saber. Always the saber, he supposed.
Her sword... his spear! He'd left it on the long boat. John took a step and stopped, realizing he couldn't rush to get it. How could he possibly have forgotten it? He needed that spear. If something were to happen or...
"You look like you just realized you fucked the little sister of the captain of the ship you're standing on," Red accused him. "Which tells me you're about as smart as the next man... maybe a little smarter to realize he's at my mercy."
"No... I," John stopped and sighed. "I left my spear on the boat. It's... important to me."
"Can't be too important if you left it," she pointed out.
John grimaced. "I was... distracted. Your sister is quite the catch."
"There's no catching her," Red said while Little Red slipped through the door and moved to stand beside and behind her. "She's a free girl—"
"Woman," Little Red corrected her.
The lines at the corners of Red's eyes deepened. "Barely," she muttered. "You'd be—"
"I'd be nursing my third child by now if mum had her way!" Little Red argued. "If that's not enough than what John done to me is a dozen times over!"
"So this is the man," the woman that had been asleep in bed said as she slipped out and moved up on Red's other side. "The man, the myth, and the legend."
John blushed at her mocking words.
"Stop," Little Red mumbled. "You two don't know... you don't even know the touch of man. The way he makes me feel..."
John started to hold a hand up but they ignored him.
"Oh, I know all too well," the newcomer spat. "I know their wants and needs and how they take them without a thought for any but themselves!"
"Oh boy," John breathed. If they were— wait! Was that why Red had felt his magic and then pushed it away? She wasn't interested in men, only women.
"I tried them for a while too, Mare," Red said while giving her lover's hand a squeeze. "They're clumsy and awkward at best. Some like a puppy dog waiting for you to pet them nicely. Others...well, Sasha can tell you stories of the worst, but I'd rather she didn't relive that pain, even in words."
Sasha snarled and spat over the railing.
"Mare?" John mouthed the word to Little Red. She wasn't watching him.
"John's not like that," Little Red insisted. "He took care of me... twice, and that was nothing like no other man ever was. Better even than my fingers! He made sure I got mine before he gave thought to his own."
John's eyes widened and he glanced away, wishing he could go and get his spear just for an excuse to not be part of the conversation.
"He leave a dripping mess after, did he?" Sasha asked. "Give you a reminder of him in nine months you'll be burdened with the rest of your life?"
Little Red stiffened. "A child of John's would be no burden," she said. "But that doesn't matter. He didn't do that. He... he finished somewhere else."
