Lust in the Caribbean by Noah Harris

Author:Noah Harris [Harris, Noah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-08-05T18:30:00+00:00

The shore party left shortly thereafter. All were loaded down with weapons. Captain Seawolf and Frenchie knew how to fight and were two of the best fighters on the crew, and Jeff and Matthew had given a good account of themselves the previous night. Thomas hoped things would remain civil, as the Weasel’s officer had promised. But that wasn’t what worried Thomas. He was more worried about Paddy’s thinly-veiled threat.

“I’ve never heard of this happening at Cutlass Cove. No wonder the Weasel wants to have a meeting of all the ship’s captains,” Frenchie said, pulling on his oar.

“But isn’t the issue resolved? The Conqueror is at the bottom of the bay, after all,” Thomas said.

“Yes, that’s been taken care of,” Captain Seawolf said, his eye fixed on the approaching shore and his hands gripping a musket. “There’s more to it than that, I’m afraid. The Weasel likes to think of himself as a sort of leader of our kind. Wants to get us more organized and create a sort of pirate kingdom.”

“With him as king, of course,” Thomas ventured.

Captain Seawolf grinned without taking his eyes of the shore. “Of course.”

“Where would people like us be in this new kingdom?” Thomas asked.

Frenchie chuckled. “I suppose he’d let us live the way we want to as long as we paid taxes.”

“Taxes! In a pirate kingdom?”

“Wouldn’t be a kingdom without taxes,” Captain Seawolf said. “Which is why none of the captains support him in this idea. He’s put it forth before, and they didn’t bite.”

“No, I suppose not,” Thomas murmured.

The idea was an interesting one, though. What were kingdoms, after all, except a group of people with something in common surrounded by potential enemies? The pirates could do worse than make a kingdom for themselves. As it stood now, each pirate ship was on its own, hunted by the navies of the world or even, in the case of the Guerrero, by rival pirates. If the pirate ships banded together, with their expertise, they could defy everyone. At least for a time.

Thomas considered for another moment. No, the naysayers were right. As appealing as the idea sounded, even if you could get all the crews to agree and obey some sort of law, the colonial powers would see the threat and band together to crush them.

At the dock, two other launches from other ships had come in at the same time, and everyone got jumpy, even Weasel’s harbor guards. All the pirates edged off their boats, guns in their hands and only making a show of not pointing them at each other while ready at a moment’s notice. The sea battle had gotten their suspicions up, and Thomas realized they must have been wondering what had happened and who else was involved.

From the whisperings of the other crews, Thomas heard that the Conqueror had gone down with all hands. While the surviving Spaniards on the Guerrero presumably knew what the conflict was all about, Thomas suspected that he and Osier were the only

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