Silver Spirits

Ben stared at the body of James Boroughs as it tumbled backwards with a gaping hole in the chest. Emily's hands flew up to cover her mouth and her eyes were wide as saucers. Ben met her horrified gaze and tried to convey to her that everything would be alright and he wouldn't let anything happen to her. Giving no sign of emotional distress, he faced Captain Rose.

"Captain," he said evenly, "I think it would behoove you greatly to not be so free and loose with that gun."

"And why is that?" Scarlett smirked. "It's never failed me in the past. And I must tell you, Commander, I don't care for anyone giving me orders on my ship." Her tone was light but there was a warning glint in her eyes.

"Quite so," Ben agreed. "However, we each have an end goal here and unfortunately, neither can reach it without the other's help. You want to find your mysterious treasure. I want to keep my crew alive. You will never reach your destination without my assistance, and I can assure you if you carry on at this rate and murder my entire crew I will have absolutely no inclination to continue giving you directions."

Scarlett stalked slowly forward, her eyes hard as gems. She jabbed him in the chest with her gun. "I do believe I already made it clear to you that you are in no position to be making threats," she said. Her voice was quiet but the deck was silent as a grave; which it currently was for poor James; and so her words carried anyway.

"I also said I didn't care for anyone trying to give me orders. I am the captain of this vessel, and I have no problem blowing your damn brains out and making the girl over there clean them up. Do you understand?"

"I'm afraid it would create a rather large problem," Ben said, keeping his gaze on hers and not flinching from the gun barrel jabbing uncomfortably into his sternum.

"You will not kill me, Captain Rose. Not yet anyway. You need me. And thus, you need my crew. They are the only leverage you possess, and the only thing you can possibly use against me to force my hand." He inclined his head ever so slightly to indicate her revealing clothing and put emphasis on the word "only."

Scarlett's eyes narrowed to slits and he smiled back at her. He knew she was itching to pull that trigger, but the promise of treasure stayed her hand.

"I will cooperate," he went on. "I will tell you what you need to know, as the time comes. I will not give you all the instructions up front, mind you. If I did, we both know you'd just kill us all. But I won't lie to you, and I won't be a bother. So long as my crew remains untouched, you will have your treasure."

Scarlett slowly lowered her gun, jaw clenched.

"I can't decide if you're brave, or stupid, Commander," she said.

"I get that a lot."

"Put them back in the brig and throw the body overboard," she ordered her crew. She gestured to Ben. "You, in my quarters. I'm not finished speaking with you."

"Oh are we going to continue our lovely banter from earlier?" he asked. Scarlett was marching ahead of him and kicked him in the shin with her boot. Ben winced but it did little to lessen his amusement. Of all the tricks in the book, he had never expected Scarlett Rose to try and flirt the map out of him. Granted, she was a remarkably beautiful woman and no doubt the ploy had worked on countless other men. His bafflement no doubt stemmed from the fact that Ben came from a rather unorthodox past, and had only recently garnered attention from pretty ladies. Despite his high rank in the Royal Navy, Ben came from humble beginnings. He was the son of a house maid and had been nothing but a stable hand himself until he turned ten.

His mother's employer was one Bartimus Weldon, a renowned professor and scientist. His children were taught at home in their early years, receiving education from Bartimus himself and a few of his trusted colleagues. Ben had had a thirst for knowledge, and did his best to lurk about and eavesdrop on their lessons. He often snuck books from Bartimus's personal library to teach himself to read and learn all he could. Naturally, Bartimus eventually caught him and had immediately marched him straight to his mother. Ben had been terrified that the two of them would be fired but what happened instead changed Ben's life forever.

The Weldons respected hard work and intelligence more than social rank, and Bartimus had asked Ben's mother, Mary, if he could take Ben on as a sort of foster son in order to get him the best education. And so young Ben had studied at the most prestigious of schools and excelled in all his classes. Unfortunately, most of the other students and their parents did only care about social status and had been horrified to have a stable hand in their midst. So Ben had, for the most part, been snubbed by his wealthy peers. With the exceptions of the two Weldon brothers and his friend Simon Tully.

It was not until he became an officer in the British Royal Navy that he had finally begun receiving attention from women, and by then he was usually too busy with his various missions; translating old books, overseeing archaeological excavations, tracking down pirates and jewel thieves, that kind of thing; to spend much time in port town bars or attending glitzy parties. Though when he did, he received enough flirtatious smiles and invitations to add his name to dance cards to make him feel mildly overwhelmed. But those girls were interested in the prestige of his rank.

Scarlett Rose just wanted to use him like a puppet. And Ben suspected many other men didn't mind having her yank their strings. But he needed to keep his wits about him if he was going to protect his crew and Emily. There was no sense in getting sidetracked by a pair of big blue eyes, which at that moment looked annoyed with him more than anything. He declined her offer for another glass of wine.

"You should consider yourself very lucky, Griffith," Scarlett said. "Not many people can mouth off to me in that manner and live."

"I was merely trying to be helpful and prevent you from being rash. There's no reason we can't be civil in our dealings, Captain Rose."

She didn't answer, swirling her wine around in the glass. "Who's the girl?" she asked. "She's clearly not a member of the Navy."

"She's my sister."

Scarlett arched an eyebrow. "You don't look related."

"She's technically more of a stepsister. We stopped in my home port a few days ago for supplies and Emily decided shed stowaway. Her timing could not have been worse."

"But you're close." Scarlett nodded. "So I assume you'd be willing to do an awful lot to keep her safe."

Ben didn't see much reason to lie about that. He was usually good at masking his emotions but when it came to his family his heart was on his sleeve.

"Yes," he said simply. "I'm sure you think it's an unnecessary weakness, caring about people. Sadly we all can't share your sociopathic tendencies."

"That's most unfortunate for you," Scarlett replied, not seeming insulted in the least. "But you're right about one thing, as loathe as I am to admit it. I do need that brain of yours to get what I want. So as long as you don't give me any trouble, I'll leave your crew alone. Tonight should have been a good demonstration of just what I'll do if you cross me. I take my quest very seriously."

"Trust me, Captain. I'm very aware that you have no qualms about killing anyone."

"As long as we understand each other then." She rose from her seat and he did the same. She stared at him for a moment as though sizing him up. Ben was used to feeling scrutinized so he waited patiently for her to finish her assessment.

"You're unusual," she said finally, and she didn't seem pleased by the idea.

"You flatter me."

Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Percy," she called. "Escort our guest back to the brig."

The giant of a man entered the Captain's quarters and took Ben's arm.

"There's bad weather on the horizon," he told Scarlett. She seemed unconcerned. Percy marched Ben below the deck, and Ben noticed with a pang that one of the other crew members was cleaning up James's blood. Ben hadn't known James long, but it didn't diminish the sting of losing a man. Especially so violently and senselessly. He expected Percy to shove him roughly into his cell, but he merely nudged Ben inside and locked the door. Emily was in the cell next to his, and she reached her hand through the bars to take his hand. Her chocolate brown eyes were red from crying and her strawberry blond hair was disheveled.

"Don't worry, Em," Ben said. "We'll figure a way out of this mess." He waited until Percy had left before continuing. "I saw the other parts of the map in Captain Rose's quarters. I was able to memorize a good portion of them. We'll bide our time. Be cooperative and compliant. As soon as the opportunity arises, we'll escape. It won't be easy, and we must be patient. We're going to be stuck on this bloody barge for a while."

"The captain is stark raving mad," Simon Tully said with a shake of his head. Ben nodded in agreement but his mind was whirling. He would find a way to get his crew to safety. Even if it required them leaving him behind, he needed to make sure they got home to their families in one piece. Especially Emily. He gripped her hand tighter and gave her a reassuring smile as they sailed onward into the storm.