I'm Safe With You

A Gentleman Pirate

Lucius was missing.

Nobody had seen him since the day we ran aground, and people were starting to get concerned for the scribe. It wasn't like him to miss out on the action.

It also did not go unnoticed that Black Pete seemed to miss him more than the rest of us. Almost every sentence that left his mouth was a question as to whether we'd seen him yet.

As a consequence of Lucius' absence, Stede was in need of a temporary scribe. Naturally, Stede immediately turned to me, given the fact that I was the only other person who could read and write. This was a job that I REALLY did not want to do.

It wasn't that I wanted to be rude to Stede, I just couldn't be arsed to note down every word he said for the foreseeable future until Lucius was located. Thankfully, Frenchie stepped in and saved me, making up excuses for why I was needed elsewhere on the ship (I really wasn't, but I didn't tell Stede this).

That was why Frenchie was now holed up in the captain's quarters with Stede, somehow noting down his words despite the fact that he can't really write. Meanwhile, I was sat outside with Officer Hornberry, who was still tied to his mast.

I found myself speaking to him often whenever I was bored, and it turns out he's a pretty nice guy. An English Navy bastard, sure, but a polite bastard nonetheless; especially when you compared him to Wellington, who absolutely no one missed, including me.

"Do you find it difficult, living on a ship where you're constantly surrounded by men?" he inquired. I liked that he never sounded condescending towards me, instead only ever curious.

I took a second to consider how to phrase my answer, sat on a barrel in front of Hornberry. "Well yes, usually," I rested my chin in my hands and my elbows on my knees. "Whenever I join a new crew there's immediately questions about whether it's safe to have me, and it takes a while for people to warm up to me, and I suppose they never fully do. But this crew... I don't know, it's different? They accepted me a lot quicker than any other crew I've been on, and now they don't really give a shit about the fact that I'm a woman." I shrugged. "Although, I have walked in on PLENTY of things that I wish I hadn't."

Hornberry chuckled at that, "Yes, they certainly seem one of the friendliest pirate crews I've seen. Well, to you they are: I'm still tied up." He gave an uncomfortably tight smile following his last sentence.

I tried to grimace as sympathetically as one can, "Yeahhhh, I am sorry about that. It's kind of the rule that you have to be tied up as a hostage, y'know? Is there anything I can get you?"

Hornberry promptly began to reply to me, until he was cut off by the arrival of Stede. He was dressed in a yellow silk robe over a white blouse, exclaiming, "Dear lord, it smells like he's been roasting!" He looked appalled.

"The sun did work its wonders." proudly stated Roach from where he stood on the main deck with Black Pete.

Buttons turned around from my right to address Stede, who was on my left. "Well good and savoury now, Cap'n; some nice crispy bits there." he commented, pointing his finger to indicate the 'crispy' bits on Hornberry's face where he'd been burnt particularly bad.

"Yes, well, let's get him some water...and maybe hold a jacket over his head or something," Stede grimaced, "generate some shade."

We did what our captain said. I removed my cotton jacket and stepped on the barrel so that I could hold it over the hostage's head, whilst Roach began to flick water at him.

"Ah, that's...lovely. Cheers." Hornberry smiled, though it looked very forced.

After this, Stede began to ask everybody what they thought we should do with our lovely hostage. Although I didn't wish to contribute, the rest of the crew certainly had some...colourful ideas, ranging from simply killing him to turning his back into a table. In the end, it was Roach's suggestion that intrigued Stede the most: ransoming Hornberry back to the English.