Pirates

Chapter 11

I sat in the tavern shaking with two men beside me at all times. I had long since scratched the blood off my fingers, whether it was mine or his, I didn't care. It was late before anyone returned, later still before the Captain did. He merely walked in and past me, to the door he came from before. He didn't even spare me a glance. He stayed beyond that door for over an hour, so when, at last, he emerged, I rushed him. "Please," I implored "What's happening?" 
"He lives." He said, but it were as though he were a shell. Then that shell cracked and he sighed "Just." He led me back to my seat. "You need to tell me everything."
"Why?" I demanded indignantly. He raised an eyebrow.
"Because soon he'll wake up, and he might. Surely it's better to have your side across before he spins his tale."
"Well if you already know he's going to lie, why listen to him at all?"
He paused, before signalling for his men to leave us. As one of them left, I noticed an old piano, mostly covered by a dusty sheet. "I have to listen to him," he started, drawing my attention back to him. "Because he's a member of the crew and if the others found out I kicked him out just because I listened to you, how do you think they would react? It would be anarchy."
"So why listen to me at all?" I asked. 
He leaned in close. "Because I don't know why, but I trust you. I trust you more than that man lain up in a sick bed. It scares me that I don't know why I trust you, so I can't even trust that trust. So I will hear both sides to the argument and will decide fairly." He lingered in that close proximity long enough for me to detect the smell of whiskey on his breath. "Though it seems," He said withdrawing "You're not in a co-operative mood. So, go on. Go and play the piano." I looked at him questioningly. "I saw you notice it, go on."
"I'm not a monkey you can break to do your will."
"Oh, I see. " he taunted. "You want to play, but you're bad. 
I started. "I will have you know that I was renowned in all of England for my talent."
Sarcastically he replied "Sure. Of course, I believe you."
"I was." I gritted my teeth.
He leaned in again and softly said "So, play." and winked.
"Fine." I ground out and stormed over to the stool and dusty piano. I pulled off the sheet and by this time, the entire room was silent and watching in anticipation. I sat and ran my hands along the keys. Here, I was home. 
I played the intro smoothly and showing my ability well, before flashing a cocky smile at the Captain and opened my lips to sing. 
"I knew a man,
So long ago
And it doth break my heart
To say that since,
So long ago
We both of us grew apart.

He found a girl
Not long ago
Who fills him with such joy,
But not as much,
Had not long ago,
He had remained my boy.

And now they live,
Forever more
Until their dying breath.
Hear, I'll love you 
Forever more
Until the sweet kiss of death."
It felt so good to be myself again, to have that part of me back and when I looked back at the Captain, he was smiling. Not maliciously or mockingly: he knew I had needed this too. So, I dipped my head in gratitude and he winked back. Now he was being arrogant and cocky again and I regretted my gratitude. In fact, to get one over him, I played a chord and sang the shanty I had sung the first time I laid eyes on him, about Captain Hayes stealing and murdering children.  "You daren't defy the man they call Hayes,
He'll sail on his ship and take you away.

He'll stretch your ears and pull out your tongue,
And from your arms you will be hung,

Until your arms are as long as your legs.
Through your tongue he will put pegs.

He'll make you eat without your hands,
And take you away to foreign lands.

And there he'll leave you all alone
Without your family or your home.

So do what mothers and fathers say,
Or Captain Hayes is on his way. "
When I had finished, all eyes were on Hayes and he looked at me with an expression I had never yet seen displayed on his normally cool face: pained discomfort. He stood up, turned and left. I stood up to follow him, but the two appointed pirates were again at my side and escorted me to a room upstairs with blankets on the floor as a pale imitation of a bed and 'suggested' I sleep. I lay down, but sleep I did not. How could I when I had acted so heedlessly? He could rip me apart with the drop of a hat and I had just humiliated him in front of his crew, his friends, his family. It was not just that, he had provoked a part of me I never wanted to see again, a desire to injure another just to feel better about myself. I disgusted myself and worse, I would have disgusted my mother. 
I wanted so desperately to know what that letter the Captain had burned had said. That's when I remembered. The man who had been poisoned, he was still aboard that ship and if the Captain wasn't downstairs, then I could only assume he was headed on board. With that pirate in hospital because of me, there was no shadow of a doubt that I would be the prime suspect of that ruthless poisoning earlier. I had to get there first, I had to tell the Captain my side. However, with these two guards sat watching me sleep even, how could I escape. I couldn't, I would have to out-smart them. "Take me to the Captain." I demanded.
"I don't think so." Said a bulky one.
"We 'ave our orders." Said the other, with a French accent. 
"I don't care about your orders. Take me to the Captain."
"You aren't listening." Replied the other big bulky one. "We can't. If we let you go, we get punished."
I contemplated this answer, before an idea rushed into my head. I don't know what came over me, or how I pulled it off, but I grabbed both the men and whacked their heads against one another. They both slid to the floor, unconscious.