Captain Bloodstone grabs my face and tilts my head left and right. With his other hand he grabs a lock of my hair and feels it with his thumb.
"We would not get 200 gold pieces for this. Her hair is so brittle and her skin looks like it has been buried in sand for the last one hundred years."
"She could work as a maid." The man who was carrying me says. It seems the other one did not enter the room.
He moves his hand away from my hair and grabs my hand, yanking against my wrist. He pries my hand open and examines my palm.
"She obviously has not done one day of work in her life with these hands. No one wants a lazy untrained servant. What were you thinking Ronan!" He exclaims and then pushes me back down to the ground.
The back of my head hits the wall. My head starts to pulse and my vision gets blurry. I focus my vision towards the ground to prevent myself from getting sick.
"At least having her is better than nothing. We have been working with the Livingston family for years. I am sure we will get our money soon... all he needed was a push." Ronan said with a nonchalance in his voice.
"It would have been easier just to kill him to set an example. No one can just pull a fast one on me." The captain yells and then punches the wall.
He give out a huff and then goes back in his chair and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Aye, Probably would have been best. You know how new recruits get. Too lenient. Remember how we were back in the day." The captain smirks a little at that. " Gotta let Sammie know for next time."
"What does he intend to do to her anyway? I mean I guess he always had an interesting taste in women." The captain puts an extra emphasis on the word interesting which makes me roll my eyes. What he intends to do to me? I shiver at the thought. I don't want to do anything with these pirates. I rather just jump into the water and see where I wash up.
"He told him that he has one week to pay up or else we will return and kill him. I guess we would also keep her as payment." Ronan darts his eyes between me and Captain Bloodstone.
"We should probably discuss this more once we have more privacy. What do you want me to do with her for now?" Ronan says quickly. I feel both Captain Bloodstone and Ronan staring daggers right into my soul.
"Very well. Just send her to the brig then return here and we can finish our conversation." Captain Bloodstone says dismissing me with his hand. "We will deal with her next week once we see if we get the payment."
Ronan walks over to the other side of the room where I am at. He grabs my wrist and yanks me up. The sudden pulling and the throbbing in my head causes me to lose balance for a second and I use the wall to keep myself steady.
"Well, come on." Ronan starts to pull me towards the exit. I start to walk but it is very difficult to keep my balance. I lean in to Ronan and use his weight to prop myself up.
"Wait," The Captain speaks up right before we leave the room, "She looks like shit. Better send her sick bay. Don't want to return the goods too beaten up."
"Aye Captain, I'll get that done right away."
After walking a few more steps with me leaning on him, Ronan gives a sigh and just picks me up. A little more gently this time. He is cradling me in his arms instead of just throwing me over his shoulder.
"This will be easier for both of us." I move my head in different positions before I settle down to lean my head against his chest and close my eyes. This position helps to prevent the pounding that is going on in my head. Ronan takes me around the ship making several sharp turns, which worsens my splitting headache before finally placing me on some sort of bed.
"I am going to fetch Arianna. You better stay put." Ronan says with a low growl in his voice.
I squint my eyes open to look at the surroundings. I am in one of two white beds in the middle of the room. On one side of me are cabinets full of typical medical supplies, bandages, gauze, etc. On the other side of the room, there are cabinets filled with unusual objects. There are bottles with mysterious liquid, various herbs, flowers, gems, a bird skull, a doll, and other strange objects.
A lady peeps her head inside. She has ribbons and trinkets braided into her long black hair. Her face looks young but there is wisdom behind her chestnut eyes. She is wearing an expensive looking green gown, where the ends are covered in lace. It is a weird contrast to the others on the ship. That is definitely not a gown meant for heavy manual labor.
"Hello my dear." She says while entering the room. She comes to stand right beside my bed.
"I heard you are a little worse for wear. Do you mind if I take a look. My name is Arianna and I am in charge of medicine on the ship."
I give her a little shrug to signal for her to go on ahead. She puts her hand across my forehead and I feel a warmth from underneath her fingertips. It spreads from my forehead all throughout my body.
"Hmm. How unusual let me see something really quick." Arianna goes over to the unusual cabinet. She grabs stuff from several different containers and smashes it with a mortar and pestle. She ignites the mixtures so it admits a heavy smoke. She hands the mixture over to me.
"Breath this in". I hold the mortar and I allow the smoke to fill my lungs. It smells a bit of salty fish. Ariana puts her fingers on my temples again and the warm feeling returns. This time it moves up and down my body as I breath in and out the smoke. After a minute, she removes her hands. She breaths a sigh of relief then smiles at me.
"There is nothing to worry about. It just seems to be a concussion. I have something that might help with that." Arianna returns to the cabinet of unusual supplies and pulls out a small glass bottle filled with a clear sparkling liquid. She pours some of it in her hand and draws a line across my forehead with it.
"Put this on once a day and it will help to speed up your recovery. Right now you just need plenty of rest for the next couple of days." She grabs a blanket from below the bed and lays it on top of me.
"My room is right next door to the right and the bathroom is at the very end of the hall. I'll make sure to come in every once in a while to bring you meals and check on you. Just knock and let me know if you need anything in the meantime." I nod and give her a smile. She turns and leaves the room.
I am left finally alone. No creepy pirate staring at me. Now all I have to do is rest, recover, and hope someone sends in the money to get me out of here.
YOU ARE READING
A Pirate Melody
RomanceGrowing up Lucia had two rules: 1. Never speak a word to another individual 2. Never set forth in the ocean She was told that she was cursed as a baby and if she did either one of those things, terrible misfortune would befall both her and those...
