Chapter Nineteen
WAS THERE A FIGHT?” Jeremy asked the first mate, who opened the door a while later.
“None of your business,” Mortimer replied with his usual curtness. He dropped a small stack of books on the little eating table, then tossed a rolled-up hammock on the floor in the corner.
“Come now, Mr. Bower,” Jeremy persisted. “A mutiny would most certainly be of concern.”
“Mutiny?” Mortimer rolled his eyes. “Where the devil did you get that idea?”
“We heard the shouts. Nothing so grand then? A pity.”
“You fish well, but when Damon wants you to know something, he’ll be the one to tell you.” Mortimer snorted and left.
Jeremy sighed.
Percival observed, “You are determined to goad him, aren’t you?”
“He does prickle nicely, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, but he also brings our food while it’s still nice and hot. Quite tasty, too, if you ain’t noticed, dear boy. Might I suggest we keep it that way?”
“He doesn’t strike me as a vindictive sort. Definitely disgruntled though. I wonder why.”
“Ask.”
“Asking gets nothing from him.”
Percival moved over to examine the books. Jeremy read a few of the titles and wondered aloud, “What’s a pirate doing with classical literature?”
“Pirated?” Percy suggested with a smile for such a brilliant thought.
Jeremy did chuckle over Percy’s word for “stolen.” “Possibly, yet he says he’s not a pirate.”
“We’re to believe him?”
“I haven’t decided yet. But something definitely doesn’t add up here. What sane pirate talks to his captain like that belligerent one did earlier? The nasty little chap should’ve got knocked on his arse at the very least, and it even sounded like Captain Reeves wanted to do just that. I wonder why he didn’t.”
“Some men fastidiously avoid violence.” Percival dusted off his sleeves.
Jeremy laughed, but groaned when it hurt and finally got out, “Yes, we know your druthers, old boy. But Reeves is capable of it. I saw it in his eyes briefly when I reached for him. He bloody well would have shot me if I didn’t back off. At least he gave me fair warning.”
“Oh, I say, I know that name, ’deed I do.”
Jeremy raised a brow. “Reeves?”
“Yes.”
“You waited this long to say so?”
“It only sounded familiar when he said it, but I’ve just recalled why. There was a scandal a while back, well, longer than a while, over twenty-five years ago, actually, when I was a young buck going around with Nick and Derek. Lady Reeves’s daughter, who was quite a beauty, went on holiday to the West Indies and briefly returned with a husband with whom she’d eloped. Her family didn’t approve of the chap because he was only a planter, so she returned to Jamaica and was never heard from again. Her family assumed she died, but it was whispered they disowned her and that’s the real reason she never came back again.”
“You sure it was Jamaica and you’re not remembering that name from me, because I lived there briefly with my father and his first mate, Connie?”
“I’m not confused, dear boy. You told Derek and me that story long ago.”
“I’m afraid our captain is a bit too young to have been the planter Lady Reeves’s daughter eloped with.”
“No, no, I wasn’t suggesting anything of the sort. I was just surprised to recognize the name. But you’re right, Captain Reeves wouldn’t be any relation a’tall to the East Sussex Reeveses, and besides, the planter wouldn’t take his wife’s name, now would he?”
Jeremy chuckled. “Highly doubtful, but then you can’t discount pirates coming from upper-crust English families, either.”
“Course not, point being your father—”
“Percy . . . ,” Jeremy cut in warningly.
Percival delivered a soft snort. “I don’t know why you still deny—well, I do know why, because you think I’ll blabber it all over London, but—”
“Was it ever confirmed for you?”
“No,” Percy grumbled.
“Then stop guessing over something that’s such an old rumor. Why don’t you help me figure out what’s wrong with this crew instead.”
“Wrong? Well, they’re pirates, that’s wrong enough, ain’t it?”
“But I don’t think they all are, and that’s what’s odd. That group who beat me down on Wapping Street were definitely the hardened sort, but listening at the door when the crew comes and goes from their quarters, it appears some of them aren’t pirates a’tall, just typical sailors. And the first mate and captain are clearly not ordinary sailors themselves, might even be gentlemen.”
“Oh! You mean from East Sussex?”
Jeremy rolled his eyes. “I concede that could be possible, since the Reeves family probably had other children, even grandchildren, cousins, nephews, et cetera, at least more’n one disowned or dead child.”
“Don’t know. Didn’t know them personally.”
“Percy, it’s irrelevant where the captain and his mate come from. They could be royal bastards for all I care. My point is that it’s clear the pirates don’t like or trust their captain, so we should figure out how to use this fissure in the crew to free ourselves and Jack.”