Lisa
I sit for a moment and stare at the door behind which Cole disappeared. A ship is following us? Are we in danger?
I stand up and walk to the window, and even I can see the silhouette of a ship on the horizon—three rows of sails, black against the glowing orange and red of the dying sunset. What adventure had Adonis sent me on?
Speaking of which, the necklace is still here somewhere, and I’m alone. My hands shake a little. Will he be gone long?
I must look for it. But where do I start?
The massive desk is littered with books and maps. There’s a quill in a little ink jar and an abacus. One book is open, and there’s a sort of table where names are written next to a list of loot, along with who got what share. The table looks clean and precise, and it’s clear payments were made directly after the raids. Cole is a fair captain, it seems.
My heart warms at the thought. He’s a kind man, I knew it.
I go through the desk drawers and find boxes with gunpowder, guns, knives. In one there’s an old Bible and a small wooden cross on a simple string. I take it in my hands and turn it over. There’s an engraving that reads, “To Cole from Mother” and a small heap of folded envelopes with the same address on them: Blackwood Family, Water Lane, Bristol.
All sealed. None sent.
I brush my fingers against Cole’s sharp, precise handwriting. My heart squeezes at the thought that he must be missing his family if he wrote to them, if he still sends them support.
He has a soul, and a heart.
My chest fills with lightness, my stomach with the fluttering wings of hummingbirds. Oh no. I’m starting to feel more than I’m supposed to. I’m about to leave him. Now is not the time to fall for a pirate from another century!
I need to find the necklace. I shut the drawer, turn and bump something with my hand. A dark object flies through the air, falls on the floor and shatters, spilling black ink everywhere.
I freeze, and an angry bird’s squawks fill the room. I look in the far corner and see a tall iron cage partly covered with a white sheet. No, no, no, someone will hear it. I dash there and lift the sheet up.
It’s a large green parrot with bright-yellow feathers around its beak. One wing is clearly broken because it hangs at an awkward angle. Although the break healed, and the bird can lead a good life as a pet, it would never have survived in the wild this way.
“Shhh.” I put my finger to my lips. “Please, sweetie, go to sleep. I’m sorry I woke you up.”
But it continues to squawk, and I look around helplessly. “Chut, Chut, Chut,” the parrot squawks. “Chut up.”
I stare at it. “Did you just tell me to shut up?”
“Chut up.”
A smile spreads across my lips. A talking parrot. I’ve had a couple of cockatiels, the miniature cockatoos, stay in my hotel over the last few years, so I know how to deal with birds. I think this is an Amazon parrot, one of the most talkative.
“Okay, okay,” I say. “Shutting up.”
I continue watching the bird, and it calms down and studies me. It’s very pretty and cute. And I can’t believe Cole taught it to speak. Or did he buy it like this? Curiosity burns me. A pirate and a parrot. I wonder if the bird likes to sit on Cole’s shoulder.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Cap’n Bluebeard. Cap’n Bluebeard. Oh, blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down,” it sings, and I recognize the famous pirate chantey I heard in the museum. “Way aye blow the man down…”
I clasp my hands on my chest in awe.
“Oh, blow the man down, bullies, blow him away,” it goes on. “Give me some time to blow the man down!…”
“Oh my goodness, did Cole teach you that?”
“Cole da Black.” Captain Bluebeard scratches his beak with his foot.
“Aren’t you clever, Cap’n Bluebeard. Well done. Okay, go to sleep now. You didn’t see anything.” I take the sheet to cover the cage. “I need to keep searching for the treasure.”
“Treasure,” he says. “Chut up.”
I stop and look at the bird. “Do you know where it is?”
“Treasure. Chest. Oh, blow the man down, bullies…”
I look at the wall by the desk, and there are several chests of different sizes. I walk to the first, my hands shaking as I open it. Clothes, furs, textiles. The scent from the second one hits me in the face, an explosion of spices and exotic aromas. There are bottles of rum, little purses and jars with spices, tea, coffee, bottles with oil, and pieces of sandalwood along with other aromatic woods I don’t recognize.
“Treasure,” Captain Bluebeard says. “Chest.”
“Okay, this is treasure, but it’s not the one I’m after. I need a jade necklace.”
I go to the next chest, but that one is locked. The chest standing next to it is, too. I look around for the key but can’t see anything.
“Captain Bluebeard? Where are the keys?”
“Treasure. Chut up.”
“The keys. Do you know?”
“Chut. Up. Up. Up.”
I frown and look up. There’s nothing but the mirror attached to the ceiling.
“Up?” I say.
“Up,” he confirms and looks at the mirror as well.
“Oh!” I get on the bed, stand up, and look closer at the mirror. There’s a gap between it and the ceiling. I gasp. I’m not tall enough to see what’s in the gap, but I reach up and run my hand along the back of the mirror. It’s big and rectangular and uneven. I search one side—nothing. The other side—nothing. Then, on the third side, my hand encounters something metal—a bunch of keys. My pulse drumming in my ears, I pull, but they don’t move. They must be stuck on something. I move them around, rattle them, but they won’t come loose. I feel with the other hand and find a hook. It feels like a complete circle, except there’s a tiny gap. I push the key ring through the gap and pull the keys free.
Not believing my luck, I jump off the bed and do a happy dance.
“Okay, maybe it’s too early for that. I have no idea if the key is going to fit.”
“Treasure,” Captain Bluebeard says.
“Yes, treasure.” I sink to the chest and try the keys. Finally, after several nerve-racking attempts, it opens.
I gasp again.
What I see there isn’t treasure. There are flogs, birch switches, harnesses, wooden dildos, a string with quite large wooden balls… I shut the lid as though a disease is about to jump out at me. My cheeks burn, and my body heat spikes. My breath rushing in and out, I quickly turn the key and close the lid, but my mind fills with images of Cole using all those things. On me. My nipples harden, my breasts swell, my inner muscles clench in sweet anticipation.
Oh God. Do I like kink?
I turn to Captain Bluebeard. “I hope you didn’t mean that this was the treasure.”
“Treasure. Oh, blow the man down, bullies, blow him away…”
“You need to learn a new repertoire, my friend.”
I move to the next chest and pray I won’t find more of those things. A couple of minutes more of fiddling with the keys, and finally I unlock it. When I lift the lid, my breath catches. Treasure. The chest is only half full, but there are gold and silver coins, pearls, gemstones, earrings, necklaces… The jade necklace.
I can go home.
I am still as a statue, looking at it, not believing that I’m really seeing it. Then slowly, as though afraid to spook it, I take it in my hands. It buzzes slightly, just like the one I held back at the museum. And somehow I know it’ll work.
Am I ready? Just put it on, and I’ll never need to see Cole again. No mirrors, no kink, no riding crops, no talking parrots. No ships chasing us.
Us. My stomach drops.
I don’t want to leave Cole yet. I actually want to stay and spend time with him and experience this ride—the wildest ride of my life, I’m sure. And to show to myself that I’m not boring in bed.
Because I’ve had enough. Enough of following the rules and being a good girl. It’s time to be naughty. And there’s no better person to be bad with than Cole the Black.
I return the necklace, lock the chest, and spin around to put the keys back behind the mirror.
But a tall dark figure at the door makes me stop breathing.
“What did you do?” Cole’s eyes are a black storm, and its fury is focused on me.