DOGS. Legacy Saga II

52

Morris had the situation under control on the weather deck, and when they saw their captain and colleagues come unarmed and among a tight circle of pirates, the few Spaniards still fighting surrendered too. The pirates gathered them in a tight group between the mainmast and the foremast, surrounded by a wall of pistols and muskets, and kept them there while the Jamaicans and the wounded were taken to the Phantom.

Marina kept her back to Castillano. Even if she knew she might find Castillano onboard the brigantine, meeting him face to face again had shaken her much more than she could afford to show before the men.

Morris gifted him with a mocking sneer and called Maxó to watch him.

"Captain Blockhead," the pirate greeted Castillano, the scar across his face trembling as he fought his laughter back. Until he spotted the thin chain hanging from Castillano's neck, with the ring he himself had given Marina in Campeche. His face darkened and he cursed, grabbing the necklace until it squeezed Castillano's throat.

Castillano raised his hands to stop his men from trying to defend him, and held the pirate's glaring eyes.

"This is not yours, you damned coward," Maxó snarled, yanking the chain off him.

Castillano would've liked to stop him, but the menacing looks from the other pirates stopped him. He just held his hands a little up and remained with his crew, a thin red line around his neck, clenched teeth and his eyes past Maxó, on Marina's back.

Only two steps away, Morris rolled his eyes. As soon as they were ready to retreat, Marina sent Oliver to get the New Lion's banner and went back to the Phantom. While the pirates followed her, Morris approached Castillano.

"Don't dare your luck," he warned. "Be grateful you're still alive and afloat and get the hell away from here."

Castillano breathed deep and nodded, his eyes turned to the Phantom.

The short-sighted drunk Ken had as his surgeon was alive and in one piece, so Briand settled him on the main deck to take care of his fellows. Bones and his two assistants worked tirelessly in the sickbay. The Spaniards had killed at least fifteen filibusters, and injured almost forty. Ken's crew had been cut by half, a dozen men, most of them wounded. And they still had to find out if there were any survivors from Marshall's patache.

The Phantom was cut loose from the New Lion and took a wide turn to put about and sail east. The Spaniards got rid of the patache hanging from their transom. When they saw it still floated, the filibusters threw grappling hooks at it. The few unharmed Jamaicans left slid down the lines back to their ship and secured the towing hawsers tying them to the Phantom.

From the bridge, while trying to put some order in the inevitable mess after a battle, Morris saw Castillano on his own bridge, giving orders like him. But he couldn't help to turn once and again toward the pirate ship. Maxó brought the necklace with the ring to Morris, still cursing the Spaniard's nerve to carry it. Morris kept it in his pocket. He'd find a right time to give it back to Marina. If there was anything like a right time to talk to her about Castillano.

As usual, Marina remained below deck, doing her part to put some order and bring some relief among the wounded pirates. As soon as she could, she climbed the ladder to her cabin's trapdoor. Robin waited in the cabin, pressing a cloth to the bleeding slash across his left arm above his elbow.

She left a pot with warm water on the table and opened the cupboard, turning her back on Robin. She was mad at him, because he'd ignored her orders and had been at the brink of death. But she knew that wasn't the reason why cursed chocked her, and her hands tingled to clench in fists and punch everything and everybody around her.

Robin saw her glare and chose to stay put and swallow the spoonful of laudanum. He let Marina help him take his ripped, blood-stained shirt off, and stood the pain while she washed his wound.

By the time Marina was about to stitch it up, laudanum had already worked on Robin. So he was able to keep from jolting every time the needle pierced his flesh, pain and opium numbing his arm from hand to shoulder. But not his eyes. He tried to keep his eyes out the window. The New Lion stumped slowly away to join the two merchantmen. But his eyes looked down out of their own will. Sitting by his side, leaning toward his naked chest, Marina was focused on stitching his wound. And he was free to appreciate the sensual line of her neck, and the collar hinting her firm, round breasts.

The laudanum mixed with the excitement of his first battle, with pain, with desire. And when Marina was done and looked up at him, Robin didn't hesitate to hold her face with his good hand and kiss her.

Marina didn't reject him. Surprise froze her at first. But she realized that for some reason, that kiss seemed to ease her anger and her shock after stumbling on Castillano.

Robin kissed her with a clumsy eagerness she found sweet, and she only stopped him when he tried to use his wounded arm to hold her.

"If you reopen it, I won't fix it," she said by his lips.

Robin shivered from head to toes when she rested her warm hand on his chest. Marina stroke his lips in a peck as she stood up.

"And the next time you disobey me, I'm flogging you myself," she warned, smiling. "Stay here and rest. I must go back to the bridge."

Back to the weather deck, Marina saw they'd already reached what was left of Marshall's boat. And Ken told her his partner had died in the brigantine's broadside. Marina and Morris decided they'd tow both boats to Jamaica, to use the remains of Marshall's to repair Ken's.

There was no rum for the Jamaicans that night. All those in shape to work were sent to Ken's patache, along with the Phantom's carpenters and a bunch of filibusters led by Jean. The worked past midnight, and Jean sent them to sleep with the warning that he'd wake them up at sunrise to resume the repairs.

Marina woke Robin up for dinner. He'd fallen asleep on the long bench under the windows, exhausted by the battle and the pain. She helped him sit up and wear a clean shirt, then she hang a sling from his neck to hold his wounded arm. They sat at the table together.

"Where's Van Dort? And Briand? They're not eating with us?" asked Robin, rubbing his eyes.

"They're busy. Me too, actually. But I didn't want you to sleep the whole night with an empty stomach."

The girl brought two dishes full of food and they had dinner in silence. Robin realized he was starving and thirsty, and he wolfed down everything Marina gave him, only pausing to empty his glass of watered wine.

She hardly tried the food, too many mixed emotions still stirring inside of her to feel like eating.

"I must go back out," she said softly when Robin cleaned up both dishes and gulped his glass up once last time. She stood up and picked up the service. "Do you want to sleep here?"

She didn't say, "with me," but it was just obvious Robin would assume it. And she hadn't meant that. She had only meant to offer him a better place to sleep than his hammock by Maxó's snoring. His look when he met her eyes made her realize her poor choice of words.

Robin stood up too and circled the table before she could step back. He took Marina's hand with his good one, and took it to the hand hanging from the sling. Then he took the dishes and left them back on the table.

She knew what would follow, but did nothing to prevent it. Once more, she let him grab her face and kiss her, with that same clumsy eagerness. She closed her eyes and forbade herself to think at all. And she quivered when he rested against the table and circled her waist, bringing her to stand between his legs. The hand hanging from the sling brushed her breast with the excuse of pressing her fingers.

Marina let out a sigh. But she couldn't keep her eyes from opening to look past Robin. At the windows opening to the west, where she could no longer see the distant glow of lamps on route to Trujillo.