The Deck of the Ursula Gothel, That Night
“Oh, this is just great.” Jeff stumbled up the narrow, wobbly gangplank to the brightly-painted pirate vessel. “Where are you, Pavla? Where's Scott? Where's Cribby? Where are the papers? I brought you what you wanted. We could get you into our plays, and there are several troupes in the village who would be interested in you."
He could just barely see her, stepping out of the captain's cabin. Her navy velvet cloak matched the dark night. “Hello, Lord Singer.” She put out her hand. “May I see those papers?”
He put out his hand. “Not until you give me the marriage contract and tell me where you're holding Scott Sherwood.”
“Why should I?” She dangled what looked like a long piece of paper from her fingers. “After all, this paper makes me the wife of a peer of the realm. I could use your name to get me any role I chose. Or,” she slowly made her way to him, “I could even keep you around. It wouldn't hurt to have two men with means of money.” She reached up to stroke his hair.
“NO!” He shoved her away. “What is with you? Victor told me you did this to him, too. Why can't you get it through your head that we aren't interested? I married you to save Victor's secret. Which, I may remind you, you told the British about anyway. I don't want to stay married to a traitor like you any longer than I have to. It's Hilary I love. You wouldn't understand.”
“Maybe I don't understand. I never had...love. Not like you and that spoiled brat of an aristocrat of yours.”
“Don't you dare call Hilary that! She's more of a woman than you'll ever be!” And I won't have her back unless I can find out where she has Scott. He tried to keep his fingers from wrapping around Pavla's throat. “Where's Scott Sherwood?”
“Locked in the hold.” She smirked. “I really don't want to let Sherwood go. There is a reward for his capture, after all. The Governor wants him badly.” She held out the contract. “You wouldn't know who the other Crimson Blade is, would you?”
“What other Crimson Blade? You have Scott.”
“There are two Crimson Blades.” She walked closer to him. “My first mate was attacked by the Crimson Blade at the waterfront shortly before Christmas. That Crimson Blade was unmistakably female. I believe the words he used were “va-va-vavoom.” She chuckled. “Sherwood is handsome, in a roguish way, but those are not the words I'd use to describe him.”
“I have no idea who she is. I wasn't even there then. I was in Boston.”
She started getting closer to him as he moved back towards the captain's quarters. “One more thing. A friend of the Governor's rather badly wants to buy the Monongahela Inn, but someone else got it before he could. You wouldn't know who owns it now?”
“I don't know that, either. Everyone at the Inn's been wondering the same thing.” He looked around. “Where's Cribby Menlow? Shouldn't be be with you? He was supposed to serve those papers.”
“Oh, he's making a little deal with the Governor for your friend Sherwood.” Jeff fingered his pistol, but she grabbed his hand. “Don't start thinking that way, husband.”
“I AM NOT YOUR HUSBAND!” He started to raise the pistol, but she smacked his hand. The gun flew to the deck.
“That was very stupid of you.” Pavla got to it first, pointing it straight at him. “You're such a naive boy. You really believed I'd let a prize like the Crimson Blade go free, just because some empty-headed lord asked for it?” She pushed him with the gun. “Besides, you're a fine prize yourself. There's quite a few British military officers who wouldn't mind asking you about your activities in Boston.”
“No!” Jeff lunged for her, but he was met by three of her men coming from beneath the ship. They grabbed his arms hard, dragging him back.
Pavla lifted his chin with the muzzle of the gun. “Throw my foolish husband into the hold with Sherwood. I'm sure the Governor will be very interested in everything he knows about Johnathan Arnold.” He struggled as hard as he could, but the men were all larger than him in three directions. They finally dragged him into the bowels of the ship.
She put the pistol in her pocket as her first mate hurried up to her. “So, what's your next order, Captain? Are we gonna do another raid? Some keelhauling? Buried treasure?”
“No.” She patted his shoulder. “How would you and your men like a little shore leave? I know you have to be bored. We've been tied up here for nearly a week.” She smirked. “And you could bring me the third man our employer wanted – the famous Jonathan Arnold himself.”
The Hold of the Ursula Gothel, A Few Minutes Later
Pavla's men dragged Jeff down into the bowels of the ship. How could I have been so stupid? He wondered. Why did I fall for that trap?
The men finally opened a heavy, barred door well below-decks, close to the water line. “Here ya go, mate. Your new home away from home while the boss lady decides when she's gonna have ya.”
Jeff's eyes blazed. “I wouldn't touch that contemptible hussy if she were the last woman on Earth!”
The man turned to his friends with a short bark that might have been a laugh. “Do ya hear that, boys? Skinny thinks he has a choice!”
“I'm not that thin!” Jeff protested as they shoved him through the door. Jeff heard them lock the door, their raucous laughter echoing through the ship.
“Jeff?” Scott Sherwood looked up from the crates he'd made into a rough bed. “What are you doing here?” His eyes were bleary, and there were noticeable bruises on his arms and shoulders under the remains of his tattered crimson shirt.
“I came to save you.” Jeff sighed and settled down next to him. “Now it looks like we both need saving.”
“Jeff, is everyone all right?” He frowned. “Pavla won't give me any details. What happened with Abernathy and Brumpton?”
“To my knowledge, Abernathy and Brumpton were arrested for criminal conspiracy and are being held at the Pittsburgh Village jail. Mackie's home. He got scared when he came in and saw us passed out after the show, but he seems all right now.”
“And Elizabeth?”
“She's fine. She was terribly upset about you disappearing into thin air. She's had the whole inn turning Pittsburgh inside-out searching for you ever since the last day of 'When In Rome.'”
“My poor lass! She must be worried sick.” Scott rubbed his shoulder. “Pavla, Cribby, and their apes attacked me while I was alone in the parlor room and too drugged to fight back. They trussed me up like a Christmastide goose and carted me to the ship. The apes thought the best way to wake me up and get me talkin' was with their fists. I'm lucky my arms and collarbone aren't broken. My face would be, if I hadn't turned from them in time.”
Jeff turned to look at him. “Scott, do you love Elizabeth?”
“With all my heart, lad. I've never loved any woman more.”
“Then why did you marry Hilary?”
“I did...and I didn't. It was a scheme. I wanted what was rightfully mine. She wanted something she could hold over you.” He gave him a half-hearted grin. “If it's any consolation, I was very, very drunk at the time. I had the devil of a headache the next day.”
“Scott, as soon as I can get to Cribby, I'll sign those papers, and I'll be free. I need you to release Hilary from her marriage contract. I love her. I love her more than I've ever loved any woman. I love her more than life itself, more than the air I breathe.”
“I believe you. You can save the poetry for our next Shakespearean performance.” He sighed. “You're the lucky one. You adore Hilary, and she loves you, too. Even if” he grinned “she has an odd way of showing it.” He looked up at Jeff. “The marriage papers are fakes. They're very good fakes, made by someone I know at the Pittsburgh Town Hall, but they're fakes. I was hoping they'd be enough to pull the wool over Pruitt's eyes.”
“Why is this inheritance so important to you that you'd fake a marriage and risk prison and even death?”
“Pruitt took everything from me. I wanted a way to humiliate him, make him feel the pain I once felt. He put conditions on my family's money that one had to be married to gain it. He probably thought I'd never take a wife after Elizabeth spurned me.” Scott chuckled. “He didn't count on the vengeance of one Lady Hilary Booth.”
Jeff grinned. “Few people do.”
The Basement of the Monongahela Inn, At That Same Moment
“This is getting worse and worse by the minute.” Mackie, Hilary, Maple, and Lester sat together around an old table in the center of the room. Mackie was shaking his head. “We've lost C.J and our boys, no one can find Scott anywhere, Pavla's on the prowl again, and Crowley wants the Inn!”
Hilary sighed. “Thank you for catching up all of our audience reading at home. That doesn't help us figure out what to do next.” She shook her head. “We need help. We're up against a notorious pirate, an Innkeeper with connections to the newspapers and the military, a well-known bounty hunter, and the governor of this colony.” She tapped her fingers on the table. “And my Jeff is missing, too. I haven't seen him since the final play of the evening.”
Mackie nodded. “Me either. Pavla was here. She was in the audience. I wouldn't put it past her to try something on him. He is still her husband by law, if not in spirit.”
“Ooooohhh!” Hilary yelped. “If that witchy little piece of German wiener schnitzel has spirited away with my Jeffrey, I'll turn her into a spirit...with my bare hands!”
“Shhh!” Maple hissed. “Someone may hear us!” She made a face. “Ok, so we know Pavla's back in town, and that she's up to no good. Cribby is still here, too. He hasn't brought those papers around yet. I wouldn't be surprised if he is involved with Scott's vanishing into canned air, too.”
“I'm certain the phrase is 'vanishing into thin air,' Miss Martienne.” The four at the table stood as Victor Comstock appeared at the doorway. “It does, however, very much describe how Mr. Sherwood has seemed to evaporate into the twilight.”
A whole parade trooped into the basement behind him. “This is amazing!” Eugenia Bremer gushed.
“You wanted more help.” Gertrude grinned. “Here it is!”
“Oh my!” Mr. Eldridge looked around him. “This has been here all the time! Imagine the mathematics that went into making this room!” Mr. Foley nodded in agreement.
Maple groaned. “We need to install lock on door to basement! Where did all of you come from?”
Victor stood next to her. “The upstairs rooms. It was obvious, Miss Martienne. The Crimson Blade's occupations all revolved around this inn. He and his people weren't meeting anywhere else in the main building, or we would have witnessed them. The carriage house is too drafty and can be seen easily from the street. This is the only room in the Inn that isn't frequently inhabited. It's quiet and well-hidden. The windows are only visible from the garden, and just barely from the servants' quarters.”
Hilary nodded. “Jeff, Mackie, and I all found this room in more-or-less the same way.”
Elizabeth frowned. “Do any of you have any idea of what happened to Scott?”
Mackie shook his head. “Not a clue, Liz. Jeff's missing, too.”
“Oh, His Lordship is fine!” Eugenia said brightly. “I saw him earlier tonight, after the play. He said he was on a secret mission, and I wasn't to tell my mother.”
“Yeah, he was on a secret mission, all right.” Cribby Menlow made his way down the rickety stairs. “A secret mission to get himself tossed in the hoosegow by my woman.”
Victor Comstock nodded. “Everyone, meet Mr. Cribby Menlow, a tracker and bounty hunter. Hilary, he's the one who was to serve the papers suing Jeffrey for abandonment.”
“He didn't abandon her! She abandoned him!”
Cribby put up a hand. “I know that, ma'am. I watched you people durin' that little show you put on the other day. You an' Lord Singer really have something cookin' there.” He smirked. “I think Captain DeVile is more my type. I can give her what even Lord Singer can't – a rich theater producer for a husband.”
Victor raised an eyebrow. “But there are no rich trackers...and most bounty hunters don't live long enough to make that kind of money.”
He pulled a large bag of coins out of his pocket. “This is the reason I was late. I got twenty thousand dollars from Governor Pruitt for finding one of the Crimson Blades.” He revealed a large pile of gold coins. “This should be enough for the two of us to live in comfort for a little while, maybe get her a role or two, then leave her high and dry after the money runs out.”
Hilary grinned. “I think that's more than Pablum deserves, don't you?”
Elizabeth's eyes were frightened. “What happened to Scott Sherwood? Where is he?”
Cribby's face fell. “I didn't know I was sellin' the guy into slavery...”
“You WHAT?!” Maple and Elizabeth both leaped at him at the same time.
Cribby ducked away. “Look girls, I got the money for trackin' him down. Sellin' people ain't in my job description.”
“I believe selling a human being is illegal in this colony,” Victor added, fire in his own light brown eyes. “No wonder Pruitt has been so assiduously pursuing Sherwood. He considers him to be little more than a piece of renegade property.”
“It is illegal, which is the other reason I don't do it. I find jail birds. I don't wanna join 'em.” He joined the others at the table. “Sherwood's being held at Pavla's ship, the Ursula Gothel, at the waterfront. Pruitt's gonna collect him tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if Singer was there by now, too.”
“That doesn't leave us much time.” Victor turned to the others. “We're working together now. It doesn't matter if you're a noble or a maid, an actor or an innkeeper. We all have a common goal and a common struggle. We all want these colonies to be free of people like Crawley and Pruitt, who will eliminate smaller businesses and abuse power and human lives for their own gain.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Why don't we take this upstairs? Now that we're all on the same page, it might be easier to figure out a plan of attack in a room that isn't as stuffy.”
“I agree.” Hilary pulled out a dainty handkerchief and sneezed into it. “When things are back to normal, you might want to consider sending someone down here with a broom. This room is filthy.”
Cribby nodded. “Yeah, I've gotta get outta here. Pavla's probably wonderin' where I am.” He frowned. “You've gotta be here by first light. We're shovin' off early tomorrow mornin', after Pruitt picks up Sherwood.”
Elizabeth set her jaw. “We will be. We won't let him take Scott, or anyone else!”
Cribby nodded. "I'll meet the rest of you at Dock 13 at the first light.” He hurried out the door that went into the garden.
Victor stopped Maple before she could join the others going upstairs. “Miss Martienne, you're very worried about Sherwood, aren't you?”
“Oui. He is mon ami, my dear friend. We have fought and worked together for many years.”
“Your loyalty to him is commendable. You truly respect and...love...him, don't you?”
She stopped for a few minutes, thinking...and then, she grinned slyly. “Victor Comstock, are you jealous?”
“Me? Not at all!” He frowned. “How did you first happen to encounter him?”
Maple leaned against the railing, remembering. “I'd just arrived in Boston. I knew no one in the colonies. I could barely speak English.” Her eyes closed. “I was still on the docks when two men came up to me. I thought they want to give me job. I didn't understand what they say. What they really wanted was to try to do harm to my womanhood. I fought them with hands, but they were very strong. They drag me to alley.” She sighed. “Scott heard noise and came to investigate. I had kicked one of men in rear front by then. He get other against wall with sword and throw them out of alley.”
She smiled, her eyes opening. “I didn't know what he said, but I got some idea that it had to do with food and not harming womanhood.” She grinned. “We did do...things...later, but we were never that serious. He was more like mentor and friend than lover. My brothers already taught me to fight with hands. He taught me to fight with swords, to work on a ship and a horse, and how to steal and not get caught.”
Victor smiled his little boy grin again. She grabbed the railing to keep her knees upright. “You're an incredibly courageous woman, Miss Martienne. I've never intersected with a person of the opposite sex who is anything like you.”
“Whatever you just said, I will take it as compliment.”
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