Red Skies, Black Waters chapter 3
“You’re not in here.” He smiled toothily and tapped on the leather cover of the captain’s log. “Care to tell me what your name is?”
Her gaze stopped on his pistol and on the metal basket-shaped guard of his cutlass, before moving onto Monroe and giving her the same quick assessment. She drew her legs away from him, and took another sip of water before letting her hands rest in her lap, grimacing as the shackles rubbed against the raw skin of her wrists.
“Pirates.” Her voice was low and hoarse, husky from dehydration. “Of course it would be pirates.”
His smile took on a sharp edge. “What were you expecting, princess? A rescue mission?”
word count: 5003/15703 total chapter: 4/? rating: NR (T for now, will go up to M/E in future chapters) tags: pirates, enemies to friends to lovers, angst, adventure
“You said–”
“I remember perfectly well what I’ve said, Miss Clarke. Now sit down, I’ve reached a rather interesting part of my book and I’d hate to have to put it away.”
“Is that a threat?”
He unfolded his legs from where they had been resting atop one of the tables inside Jasper’s tavern and put his book down with more force than needed, almost overturning his dish.
“If it was a threat you wouldn’t be asking me this. Now please, would you honor me with your presence this fine morning so that I can get back to my breakfast?”
Sensing a losing battle, Clarke pulled out a chair and sat down, throwing a cursory glance to the book cover to her right — The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Interesting choice of reading matter.
She watched him eat for few minutes, uncaring that her staring could be considered quite impolite. When she judged him to be nearly over with his breakfast, she tugged his book closer to her and opened it at a random page.
His hand holding his fork froze halfway to his mouth. My, he made a fetching picture gaping at her like that.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
She turned the next page, reading the words but not really immersing herself into the play’s plot.
“I’m not allowed to leave this tavern unless it’s with somebody of your little pirate circle. I’m not allowed to talk with anybody that is not you, your sister, your boatswain or Niylah. I’m not allowed to do anything that doesn’t include you asking me to answer the same questions again and again and again until we’re readying to tear at each other. I’m rather bored if you will, staring at walls can be so unbelievably dull.”
His eyebrows went up and he washed down the next bite of food with more wine.
“I fail to see how this is less preferable than the dungeon cell in the tower.”
Yes, Clarke remembered that discussion rather vividly. After they were done grilling her for information the first night, the matter of what they would do with her had come up. To say that his sister had argued strongly to put her in a cell would be an understatement. But Raven had taken Blake’s side, citing that if they threw her in the old tower, she would gather more attention as to why she was there in the first place than if she was staying in plain sight.
Clarke, of course, had no choice in the matter either way, but she did appreciate Raven’s solid logic. Blake’s pragmatism, however, wasn’t high on her list of things she was grateful for. If she overstepped a line there was no saying what he would do; what was best for him hadn’t always coincided with what was best for her.
“I can’t just sit in one place all day and do absolutely nothing!”
“I don’t see how that is any different from what you’ve done in the past, or is it the tea parties that you miss so much?”
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