Swashbuckling on the Edge

Chapter Fourteen

"You need to tart up a bit," he said.

"Excuse me?"

Keith laughed. "Just a bit. For the role, you know." He grinned wolfishly.

I shot him a censuring look. "You could have told me of the plan beforehand, you know." I unbuttoned and took off my vest. My shirt was loose around my body, cinched around my waist with a belt. I shook out my hair and spread out the collar of the shirt a bit. "Better?" I asked.

Keith approved with a nod. Johnny was before the judge now, arguing why Dark should pay the crew more of the bounty.

"I would pay you more, if you all deserved it," Dark joked, earning him a chorus of boos.

Johnny finished presenting his case and stepped back. Raoul banged his gavel—a rock and a plank of wood.

"You are hereby ordered to pay your crew twenty percent more of the bounty," he declared to Dark.

The crew protested, saying it should be more, but Raoul silenced them with a look. A few chuckles rippled through the audience.

Next, Kaspar stood up and told the courtroom how Dark had stolen away my affections, taking me from the arms of my honourable and respectable husband.

Dark jumped to his own defense. "He's more fit to shovel shite than be her husband."

The crew cheered their approval. Keith leapt up and stood before the judge.

"The lady in question in far better off with us," he declared, with an answering cheer from the crowd. "She is far happier with our captain. Her husband is a soulless blackguard, of which there is ample evidence." Keith turned to the crew for confirmation, and they nodded and grumbled in agreement. "He is a selfish prick and I think we can all agree a horrid lover."

I snorted as the crew chimed in with their own damnations of Duncan's character. Keith urged them on. Dark covered his face with a hand, shaking with laughter. Kaspar stepped forward, pretending indignation.

"Do you have proof of this?" he asked dryly. "Were you privy to their bedchamber?"

Keith chuckled. "No, but we have the lady in question here to answer you."

With a sigh, I made my way to the witness box; a crate next to Raoul. The men cheered me on. Seating myself, I put on a neutral expression and waited for their ridiculous questioning. I caught Dark's gaze from the corner of my eye. When I turned he smiled apologetically. I smiled back, but my eyes promised vengeance for this little stunt.

Keith sauntered up to me, asking me to confirm that the captain was a better lover to me than my husband.

"Oh, yes," I said without enthusiasm. "He's adequate."

Our audience hooted with laughter. Keith grinned. He turned to the others and continued to condemn Duncan's performance as a husband. All the while the jeers and hoots from the crowd grew. Kaspar tried half-heartedly to defend Duncan, but he too was laughing at Keith's description.

"Not only is he a dishonourable man and a righteous prick, he failed in his duty to his wife to please her and give her a child," Keith summarized with a sweep of his arm.

Stomping their boots on the deck, the crew applauded Keith's arguments. With a chuckle, Raoul raised his gavel stone and declared Dark was innocent of the charge.

I'd stopped listening. Their voices swam in my head, a muted jumble of words and sounds. Feeling suddenly sick to my stomach, I was relieved when Raoul tapped my shoulder and told me I could step down.