Confessions of a Pirate's Heart

Chapter Nine

"Alexander!"

"You put up a hard fight, love," he said, rubbing his shoulder before taking a knife and cutting the rope around her wrists.

"I can't believe it's you."

She placed her hands on his chest, as if feeling him would convince her that he was real. So many times had she imagined embracing him again that it was almost hard to believe now that she was experiencing it. She melted into his arms, cupping his face with her hands and brushing back his tousled hair.

"What are you doing here?" she added.

"I'd like to ask you the same thing," the Captain said. "Come on, we don't have time to talk. We need to get out of here."

Before she could protest, he grabbed her wrist and began to pull her down the alley away from the public house.

"No, wait!" she said, yanking away from his grasp to break free. "We can't."

"What are you talking about?"

"My brother is back there."

"Your brother? You never said your brother was with you."

"You didn't give me a chance," she said. "Oh Alex, I'm so stupid. I should have never brought him with me. I should have never left home."

"Now calm down, what is going on?"

"It's a long story. We just need to save him."

The Captain sighed heavily as he brought a hand to his forehead. "Okay but we need to be careful."

He led the way back to the pub, stomping over the cobblestones until they approached closer. Scarlett ran after him and waited by his side as he scanned the door they had just escaped from.

"Now stay here."

"No, I'm going with you."

"No, you are not," he said forcefully. "I'm not letting you get into this mess again. I'm going back in that way. I'll get your brother the same way I got you."

Scarlett nodded and the Captain took off, slipping back through the door. Feeling helpless and vulnerable in the open air, Scarlett ducked under the eaves of another doorway. All she could do was wait. She wrung her hands as a distraction and watched her breath create a fog in the faint lantern lights. It was eerily quiet, leaving her to imagine her brother being shipped off as a soldier, scared and alone. What if he was already gone?

Then suddenly, she heard voices and they sounded close by. She jumped for the door the Captain had disappeared behind and ducked in. Getting a sense of the dark room again, she felt along the wall with her hands until she reached the other door, now left ajar. She gasped as she peered through at the bartering room. Blackbeard sat with Bastian at a table, their men mingling as well as they drank to their hearts' delights. Her brother, however, was nowhere to be seen and neither was the Captain. Then suddenly, a quick shush came from across the room.

"I told you to stay outside," came a whisper.

She snuck over to the Captain's side. "I heard voices outside. Besides, I can't just leave my brother without helping him."

"Well, what do you think I'm doing here?"

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. I'm waiting to hear something."

"Do you think he was taken a different way?"

"No, Bastian always has his slaves escorted through this hallway. It avoids a scandal in the pub with the locals." The Captain rustled for something on his side and then grasped Scarlett's hand, placing what felt like a knife in her palm. "Take this in case you need to protect yourself and if you do, make sure you do it quietly."