The Red Rose

Chapter 10

It wasn't surprising when Hunter didn't sleep in his quarters and left me to it, again. I understood why he was avoiding me and wouldn't speak to me, be around me, or even be seen by me. He was almost like a ghost in his own ship, but to be fair I kept myself closed in the bedroom, as I didn't want to see him either. I had to take my last few days to come up with some sort of plan, a plan that would allow for my brother to be free. I couldn't count on Hunter for that, naturally, all my hopes rested when I arrived back at Port Royal; there, I would have to come up with a plan to free Simon.

"Whatever that plan is..." I sighed, rubbing my tired eyes.

Hunter had sent word back to my father the day before we left Emilio's island, to meet in a few days. We would meet Captain Cael at Hunchback to reunited the small fleet and apparently would all sail together to meet my father and fiancé.

"Can't wait..." I snorted, taking a sip of my whisky, as I sat on the floor in front of the fireplace.

I heard a knock on the door, probably Sylas with dinner.

"Fuck off!" I grunted, retaking the bottle of whisky and pouring another glass "I'm not hungry!"

Whoever it was left immediately after. Days passed, but I had no idea how many. I spent my time in the room, drinking, passing out, vomiting the next morning; drinking again, vomiting, passing out. To be quite honest, I had never been a heavy drinker, so my tolerance was embarrassingly low. On a stormy evening, I realised my life was so complicated it was funny, so I laughed for an hour straight, while I drank. Helplessness is a dangerous thing, same as revenge it will consume and destroy you. I remember Hunter telling me everyone had a limit, and mine had been giving my own body in exchange for my brother's safety – or anyone's safety, including myself, for that matter. Haven't I done just that, though? Fine, I had wanted to lay with him, it had nothing to do with an exchange of favours, but still... I felt dirty, and stupid and... so lost...

"Fuckin' hell..." I heard his voice coming from the door and laughed again, showing him my whisky glass.

"Slainte, Captain!" I took the drink in one gulp and shivered.

"Have you been drinking my whisky?" He grunted, blue eyes squinting "Dear God, woman, what have you done to this place?!"

Everything was upside down in there, with empty bottles, dirty sheets and my dirty self. His desk was a mess of documents and books and... Let's just say I had taken my time to make as much of a mess as humanly possible.

"Have you hurt yourself?" He gasped as he saw a piece of fabric around my hand "Where did you cut yourself?"

He kneeled beside me in front of the fire, grabbing my hurt hand and taking the bandage to see the deep cut.

"On the bottle." I gestured to the broken bottle on the desk "Dropped it, cut myself. S'alright, don't worry. Your bounty is still here!"

"Bloody hell, woman..." He sighed, taking the whisky off my hands and making me get up from the floor "Sit here." He grunted, forcing me to sit on a chair "Stay there."

He grunted and complained as he picked the empty bottles, dirty sheets, and tossed everything out the room. Someone muttered something at the door, and the two men exchanged words. From the accent, I would say it was Sylas, but who cared? I eyed the flames as Hunter walked around the room, and I wondered how everything would be like when I would be back home, and my brother was dead?

"You don't know what's going to happen." Hunter tossed, appearing in front of me with clean dressings for the wound, and the whisky again; had I said that out loud? "Let's clean this properly, shall we?"