The Blue Diamond (The Razor's Edge Book 1) (22 page)

A few minutes passed in
silence.
 
Then, Ivory finally spoke as
she continued to stare out the window at the growing distance. “Never in my
wildest dreams did I imagine any of this, Ke.”

“How’s about you share some
of that imagination with me, then?” Keara rose and walked to the window and
stood next to Ivory. She joined her in staring out at the ocean, trying to see
whatever it was Ivory was seeing.

“What is there to explain? I
let my guard down and…”

“It’s alright to say the
word.”

“Not for me, it isn’t
alright.”

“And why is that?
 
Because you’re the all-mighty Ivory Shepard?”

“Well, when you say it like
that it sounds…”

“It sounds exactly as it is.
You have a great deal of weight on your shoulders, and you’ve carried it alone
for a long time. So what? It had to happen eventually...even to you.” Keara
leaned back against the window sill, folded her arms, and pressed them into her
midriff. “I have to hand it to you, though—you picked one that you can’t have.
I’m sorry, Ivory.
 
That’s gotta sting a
bit.”

“There was no picking
involved, trust me on that. I know you’re right, though. Maybe I just think
it’s more than what it was...whatever it was. Or, maybe I was trying to seduce
him into loving me so he’d change his mind. As I stand here now, trying to
recall the entire thing, it’s veiled and covered in mist.”

“You’d sooner cut off your
own arm then stoop to that. You of all people—well, after what happened back in
Charles…”

“Don’t…” Ivory blurted out.
Her chin raised and her jaw clamped tight.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I
know you better than anyone, and I know you’d never sell yourself that way.”
Keara unfolded her arms and leaned back, but turned her head and spoke away
from Ivory. “By the way, he got your letter. He was holding it when we found
him in your cabin. Did I tell you he busted in the damn door?” Keara laughed.
“I’d say that, if he told us the truth as to what he was doing there, he feels
much the same as you, the poor old swab.”

“What a pair we are; he with
his change of heart too late to matter, and me with my own heart shrouded in
pride and fear. I’m not a fool, you know? I realize this morning was the last
time I’ll ever lay eyes on him again.”

“Wait, you saw him? Cass
said he escaped… but you saw him? Where?”

“Richard, the boy who came
with me, found a dinghy tied to the adjacent dock and “procured”
it for us from a man headed into town.
He appeared to be drunk and wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon. As it turned
out, that man was Tommy.”

“Tommy? Tommy Boston? But I
put his ass on the
Jade
because of
Miranda! What happened?”

“You must have pissed him
off pretty good, because he tried to take me himself for the bounty. Maddox
stopped him.”

“So he ended up letting you
go after all?”

Ivory nodded, as she at last
turned and looked Keara in the eye. She swallowed hard and a cold shadow
covered her face. “But, I can never see him again. Understand?” she whispered
as she embraced herself and ran her hands up and down the outside of her arms.
 

“Why don’t we get some grub
and some fresh air? Let’s put all of this aside for now and tend to business.”
Keara took Ivory’s hand and squeezed it hard, then pulled at her to get moving.
“Oh, damn,” she said, stopping at the cabin door.

“What is it?”

“I need to tell you that I…”
Keara paused, scrunching her face into an apprehensive grimace and continued,
“I brought the diamonds just in case we’d have to buy you back, but don’t
worry!
  
They’re safe and secure.” Keara
threw up her hands as if protecting herself from an impending blow.

“You what? Do Miranda and
Cass know about this?” Ivory cried as she reached past Keara and held the door
closed.

“Yes, and I’ve already had
my ass reamed for it, but it was the only thing I could think of at the time.”

Ivory sighed.
 
“I’ve held onto those things for far too long
anyway. Once we’re back in Port Royal, we’ll load up and take the
Jade
up to Charles Towne to get rid of
them.”

“Ivory, does this mean
you’re finally ready to give all this up and be a lubber? Oh, and about the
Jade
…”

“Are you out of your bloody
mind? No! What it means is we can finally go straight, Ke. We can stop running
and put this filthy business behind us.
 
But I will never give up this life.” Ivory looked around the room as if
she were being embraced by it. “I’d have to have a damn good reason to stay off
the sea, and I sure as hell don’t see one right now. Now, what about the
Jade
?” Ivory began to reach for the
doorknob, but Keara remained in her way, pressing her back against the door.
“Ivory, wait…everyone aboard knows about you and Maddox.” Keara looked at the
floor and then slowly raised her eyes at her cousin. Ivory grabbed the doorknob
and pulled, forcing Keara forward on her toes.

“Like you said…so what?”
Ivory growled.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

When Ivory ordered all hands
on deck and commanded that the
Jade
be brought aside and tied on, her crew obliged with vigor. They rushed about,
shouting out to each other with a renewed and joyful timbre. The crew behaved
as if a great burden had been lifted. The relief of having their captain back
at her post filled the air with laughter and levity as they pulled lines and
swung grappling hooks over the waves to the
Lady
Jade
.

Ivory stood on the top step
of the
Cutlass’s
quarterdeck, hat in
her hands, and tilted her head back to draw the morning sun upon her face. The
men fell silent at Keara’s order, as Ivory cleared her throat. Keara stood
looking up at her from the bottom step, and Richard scrambled to take a seat
just below her. The young boy gazed up at Ivory as if she was his queen and he
was her most loyal knight. Her white tresses, brushed back and tied into a soft
plait, blew softly over her left shoulder as the menacing short lock of hair
came loose and swept over her cheek.

“On behalf of myself and the
crew of the
Lady Jade
, please allow
me to give you my warmest and most sincere welcome back, Captain Shepard,”
Phineas Jackson stated, as he climbed aboard to join the rest and await her
address.

“Captain Jackson,” Ivory
replied with a nod. “So, how have you been enjoying my lovely
Lady Jade
?”

“She’s a fine lady indeed,
Captain. I’m ever so grateful to care for her, indefinitely. I can assure you I
will treat her with respect and admiration, as I would any fine lady of her
stature.” Phineas removed his tricorn and bowed, looking Ivory straight in the
eye throughout.

“Indefinitely?”

“Yes, of course your
quartermaster explained to you…”

“Ivory, I’ll explain later,”
Keara interrupted

“Oh, you’ll tell me now.”

“Captain Jackson agreed to
be our consort to Nassau under the condition he would take possession of the
Jade
upon the completion of our
mission.”

“You’re right. Explain it
later,” Ivory snarled. “Captain Jackson, we appreciate your help. You and I
shall speak later as well. Now, on with this,” she coldly declared as she
turned from them and faced her crew.

Her right hand rested easily
on the pistol in her belt, and her left hand waved her hat about whilst she
spoke. “Gentlemen!
 
First, please allow
me to thank you for everything you did to return me to my home. It’s a rare
crew that would want their captain back once stolen, so I am quite thankful for
that, indeed.” Ivory cocked her head and looked down at them as she shifted her
eyes back and forth with a devilish grin. The men broke into a hearty, yet
respectful, level of laughter and was silenced again with a wave of her hand.
“You’re a good lot of the right sort of sailors and…other things we won’t
mention.
 
But none-the-less, you’ve stood
with me, fought with me, and sworn your lives to me, so I’ll not stand before you
and lie or deceive you. I’m before you now, to tell you the honest truth!”

The sun beat down hot and
her head was pounding.
 
She hoisted up
her worn black leather cavalier and popped it on for relief. Perspiration rose
from her skin until she glistened like the sea itself. “Listen to me.
 
You fought bravely against Blacksnake’s men
to protect the
Diamond
, and yet, he
had no intention of ever taking her…only me.”

A hush, more solemn than the
quiet of a dead man’s sendoff into the sea, fell over the crew as they gathered
beneath her in a variety of stances, awaiting her next breath as much as her
next word. Their faces crinkled and crunched, and their eyes pinched
practically shut from the blinding sun, but when they watched her eyes close
and then blink open again, the fire in them blazing, the men turned to stone.
With a deep, chest-heaving inhale and a deflating blow of escaping emotion,
Ivory locked eyes with them all as she ended her pause.
 

“There was, as you all now
know, a ridiculous bounty of fifty thousand pounds on my head waiting for him
in Nassau, at the request of the merchant company from whom we took the
Diamond
. I was captured several days
after the
Diamond
went down. Nearly
dead, I was then taken to Blacksnake’s home in Kingston where I was fed,
clothed, and well cared for.”

“Let me slit him ear ta’ ear
fer ye, Cap’n! I’d get it done fer ye handsomely, too!” shouted one of the
animated, grimy sea dogs as he poked his sword into the air above him, and the
rest cheered him on.

“There’ll be no cutting of
throats—handsomely or otherwise. This man, Captain Carbonale…Blacksnake, or
whatever you want to call him…finally remembered the oath of our brethren and
set me free. He found his rightful way, and we shall give him and his crew full
quarter.”

Keara’s face turned up at
Ivory with an expression of complete shock. Ivory gazed back without so much as
a flinch, knowing full well she’d escaped and was giving the crew an inaccurate
account of the early morning’s events. However, knowing that Maddox had
intended to free her, and ultimately had when saving her from Tommy, was truth
enough in her mind to excuse her choice of words. She showed Keara the flat of
her palm and continued, fully expecting to owe her cousin an explanation at the
conclusion of her speech.

“Throughout my ordeal, I
found Captain Carbonale to hold some measure of dignity and honor, although for
a brief time, he did intend to trade me for his own selfish greed. As you can
all plainly see, I am myself and nothing has changed. I’m as whole as I was
prior to this incident and shall continue my duties as your captain until such
time as you no longer feel I am suitable for the job. Full canvas to Port
Royal, if you please, Mister McCormack. Alright… all of you, back to work.”

Ivory stood at her post
until the last hand slapped its mate and the final shout of not only the
acceptance of her words, but of the woman herself, was replaced by the usual
chatter and banter amongst the crew. Keara stood waiting with her arms folded
at her chest. “Follow me,” Ivory said over her shoulder, as she carried herself
with a rigid countenance to her quarters.
 
She held the door open for Keara and then slammed it, hard.

“What was that all about?”
Keara demanded.

“That was what they needed
to hear, and that is all.”

“They needed to hear that,
or
you
needed them to hear it?”

“They are one in the same.”

“The hell they are!”

“What would you have me do,
Ke? It’s better for all this way. Look, I want this behind me, and in order to
do that I must have the crew put it behind them as well. None of us are without
some fault. You handed my fucking ship over to Phineas Jackson, for Christ’s
sake! Perhaps we should discuss that well-thought-out decision.”

“We did what needed to be
done to get you back!” Keara protested

“I understand that, and I
appreciate everything you’ve done, but we must keep what’s between us…”

“And me, right?” Cassandra
said, as she opened the door and stepped inside.

“Yes, you, too.
 
Cass, tell her it’s for the best.”

“It is for the best, Ke. I’m
not choosing sides, either.
 
I’m only
stating what I believe is true, and the truth is,
I
offered him the
Jade
,
not Ke. I also told him should we take the
Cat,
he could have her instead,” Cassandra said, taking a seat and folding her hands
in her lap.

“Quite the barterer you are,
Cass,” Ivory barked. “Look, Ke, you have to see it this way. There is no other
explanation necessary for those men. We are all equals here. I don’t ask them
what, or who, they do when they aren’t under my command, and I do not owe them
the explanation of my personal affairs.”

Keara turned and looked at
Cassandra as she sat nodding her head. “Well, of course you’d agree since your
ex-lover is his right hand.”

“That isn’t fair. Tell me
again how long you and James have been sharing sheets and no one knows?”

Cassandra’s sarcasm was on
point, and Keara had no rebuttal worthy as a reply. She walked to the door and
squeezed the doorknob in her hand. “James is not, nor has he ever been, our
enemy.
 
But, based on our earlier conversation,
Ivory, I suppose my shock at your version of how you came to be back in this
cabin is understandable, and I’ll not be a bitch about it anymore. If it’s your
decision to cut Blacksnake free of any retaliation, so be it.”

“Thank you, Ke. I know it
takes a lot for you to say that to me, and sometimes I need your loyalty first
and your judgment last. Enemy or no, you know my heart, and although I have no
desire to pursue Maddox to either thank him or cut off his fucking head for
what he tried to do, I still prefer him in one lovely piece.”

“And why is that?”

“Despite what most, perhaps
even you, believe, beneath it all I am human.
 
Even if all I’ll ever have is the memory of his affections, I’d still
prefer him whole. Although, looking back, I did chop up most of those memories
myself in order to rid my heart of him,”
      

Keara looked back and gave
Ivory a small, albeit genuine, smile and left the room. Ivory walked to her
desk and sat. She dropped her face into her folded forearms and sat silently
for several minutes before Cassandra finally drummed up the nerve to speak. “It
isn’t as if you’re the first person to ever fall in love with your captor.”

Ivory began to laugh. It
started as a low and breathy chuckle, but she evolved quickly into a wheezing,
snorting full-on hysteric, until she fell back in her chair holding her
stomach.

“I didn’t realize I was
being funny.”

“Oh, Cass, it’s not
you—well, yes, it was what you said, but the truth is, it is all quite funny
now that I see it in that light. Not to mention the irony of my entire life.”

“I’m completely confused
now, thank you very much.”

“No, no, I’m sorry.” Ivory
leaned forward across the desk and stretched her hands out to Cass, who easily
took them.

“I know. I’m your comfort,”
Cass mumbled.

“Yes, you are. Do you mind?”

“Have I ever?”

“I knew the morning of the
Spanish raid,” Ivory continued.
  
“Oh,
hell, maybe I knew before that.
 
But,
when you…”

“Ivory, you don’t have to…”

“No, I do. Did I ever thank
you, Cass?”

“It seems like another life,
now. I’m certain you did, though.”

“Well, thank you. Thank you
for keeping my secret, and for taking care of me.”

“There are no thanks
required for such things. That is what we do for one another, and what has held
us all together for so many years.”

“I never wanted to set eyes
on any man for the rest of my life. For a time, I wanted them all cut into
pieces and fed to the fish. I certainly never wanted to belong to one. I wanted
justice that never came. I wanted blood. I wanted them all to die at my own
hand.”

“Well, you did your worst,
for a young girl… I’ll give you that.”

“That wasn’t my worst—not
even close. I’ve had such evil things in my head I could never explain, for
fear of you all running as far from me as you could. If I told you half of what
I’ve imagined, and a fourth of what I’ve actually done, you’d have fed
me
to the fish years ago.”

“If we wanted to feed you to
the fish, we’d have done it when you took the
Demon Sea
.” Cass laughed, still holding tightly to Ivory’s hands.
Ivory’s cheek had remained pressed to the desk since she took her cousin’s
hands. Her eyes focused ahead, away from Cassandra’s, although they were seeing
the same vision of what now lay far behind.

“Enough of this. The pains
of our past can only harm us in our thoughts, and giving voice to them only
gives them air to breathe,” Ivory spoke with finality.