A Pirate's Life For Us

Chapter 8 - If You Don't Love Me Now

"I don't know how, but your friends got the message."

"How can you tell?"

Bonny handed over the spyglass she was using to examine a shape in the water.

Stede took it and held it up to his eye and pointed it in the direction Bonny was pointing.

There was Izzy Hands in a dinghy cursing and flailing, oarless and at the mercy of the currents. As he spotted the William on an intercept course with the Revenge, he turned his attention to them.

Their course brought them closer to Izzy - close enough to recognize Stede.

The look on his face was pure, white-hot unadulterated rage, to the point where Stede was momentarily concerned the man's heart might give out.

"STEDE BONNET!" Izzy's voice reached them in barely a whisper over the waves and wind. "YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!"

Stede exhaled a sigh of relief. "Well, it seems they figured it out. They're a resourceful bunch."

"DO YOU HEAR ME?! DEAD! I'LL GUT YOU MYSELF!"

"Can't believe you forgot your crew can't read," drawled Bonny as she snapped the spyglass closed. "You really are a lucky bastard, aren't you?"

Stede grinned sheepishly. "I suppose so."

"It's on, then. You better get ready."

—

It took about twenty minutes for the William to come up alongside the Revenge. Both ships' equal size was more obvious - as was the excess of ornamentation on the ship that Stede had commissioned.

The biggest difference was the William actually had guns, while the Revenge had none. Which made Izzy's plan to raid the merchant ships all the more bold, though from what Bonny had said of the men she heard he recruited, it would be all over if those men got on board.

The deck had been carefully arranged to obscure the fact that there were women on the crew, and Bonny's male crewmembers had gone to pains to make themselves look as fearsome as possible. The remnants of the Revenge crew stood alongside them, making their numbers look even more impressive given there were nearly twenty of them to the crew of six brigands, plus Frenchie, Fang and Ivan.

One of the fearsome men shoved poor Frenchie to the front of the pack. A big bear of a man with a wicked scar over his eye poked him until he spoke. "Who..." the man poked Frenchie again, "...WHO COMES BEFORE BLACKBEARD?"

Buttons stepped forward and met Frenchie's eyes, but Stede had to give it to him - the man had showmanship. He didn't give anything away. "We, the crew of the William, seek an accord with Blackbeard for the taking of the merchant ships."

"But who's your captain?" Reaper called with a snarl.

"I present to ye, the terror of the seas, Captain..." Buttons looked over his shoulder at Stede, "...Jeff Goldheart."

That was Stede's cue. The crowd of crewmembers parted before him. He had cobbled together an outfit from Bonny's crew. He wore a pair of calf-height boots that barely stayed on his feet because they were too big, a long sweeping coat that swept the deck as he walked, little bits of metal and half-affixed buttons clanging, a sword at his hip and a blunderbuss strapped to his ribs. He wore a tricorn hat that obscured his effete white-blonde waves.

He felt far more ridiculous in that getup than any amount of silk and powdered wigs he'd worn in his life. But it was necessary to both conceal his identity and to convince the murderous pirates that he was legit.