Voyage (Book 1 of The Pirate, The Professor And The Princess)

The Pirate, The Chapter Five

"Something dark and creepy. Something that gives a killer vibe."

Rae's eyes wandered off away from the shop owner's face and scanned over the various dresses and clothes of all kinds hung on the wall hooks. She couldn't find enough brown and black there, and she immediately realized that walking into a woman's dress shop for clothes that would suit a pirate was a bad choice.

Since now was too late to take her leave, because the shop owner was keen on making conversation, she decided just as well to risk it.

"And why would a noble lady like you want to wear something like that?" He leaned on to the shelf and grinned crookedly. "Something so dark and creepy...and which gives a killer vibe."

Why he called her a noble lady was beyond her reasoning. She wore a dirty brown shirt and pants and a black waistcoat, and she had that little unconventional husky quality to her voice as if she always had a cold. Among the commoners, it might be considered very undignified for a "noble lady."

Rae stared him down. "It's just my style," she said after doing some thinking, which took time because it was something she rarely did. Even if he was just sweet-talking her into buying something from his shop, he should've kept some originality to it. "Got a problem?"

He straightened up immediately, all traces of a smile ever being there vanishing from his face. "No, Miss."

She gave him a dark look, then resumed looking around. After some time of sensing his eyes on her, unmoving and silent and judging, she turned to him in irritation.

"Well, do you?" She snapped.

He blinked. "What?"

"Do you have something I would like?" She gritted out, watching him nod quickly.

"Well, we surely would. Let me check."

He shuffled across the small space behind the counter shelves, and then disappeared down some kind of basement. Rae exhaled a breath after he was gone, then inspected the shop. It wasn't anything polished up that could give off the impression that wealthy people walked in here. In fact, most of the clothes on display looked a little oridanry and nothing much glittery.

Surely we couldn't make a fortune by looting this rundown. The owner has got a beard that doesn't look like it's been washed thoroughly since a few weeks and his clothes look hand-me-down too.

The thing was that Rae wasn't judging. Not at all. When in truth she was probably the same case, week old clothes and no time for personal hygiene. In a way she sympathized with him, for having to take care of business in a competitive world.

However, when she found a nice-looking quill and decorated ink bottle lying carelessly on the counter table, she pocketed them. She didn't what to write with them, but it didn't hurt to give the impression of being a learned person.

Aside from that, there wasn't anything useful in the shop.

When she looked out through the glass window behind herself, she saw Ermes, her right-hand man, standing patiently outside there, as a guard, keeping an eye on any police or enemy. Or both in one. He turned back and their eyes met, then he looked up at the sky.

We're getting late.

The sun was already starting to begin its descent into the horizon. And Rae and her crew had to leave the shore early the next morning to continue on their voyage without any conflict. But before that, they had to loot some tradesman or the other to get rations for the next month. Just as she decided to leave the shop for a better alternative, the wood of the door creaked a little and the bells jingled.

Rae found a girl standing at the doorway and looking around the shop. A grimace soon overtook her features.

Rae's eyes were already scanning her. Holy crap, this must be a royal.

Royals didn't need to wear crowns and get jewels embedded in their dresses to give their identity away. It was the eased expression, the cool confidence, the I don't give a heck whether you live or die attitude that separated them from the commoners. Rae mastered in the art of telling a royal from a group of ordinary citizens.

And this girl, right here, was like prey walking right into the predator's den. Rae's mind was already working miles ahead.

What to do with a royal in my territory?