Lost at Sea Bk. 01 Ch. 04

Will turned to look at the Captain. "I appreciate your willingness to take the chance on my route without having sailed with me before."

"Reputations are worth everythin' to us seafolk. After hearing yours I admit I was skeptical, but I'm willing t' chance it," Belita grinned. "If ye're wrong, it'll still make for a good story."

"Assuming we make it out alive," Will cautiously agreed.

"Even if we don't," Belita shrugged, then she headed for the door. Will watched her for a moment. He liked her quite a bit, but things she said made him worried. He'd been accused of being reckless more than once, and in fairness, sometimes he was. Hopefully he and Belita Vex were just kindred spirits in that regard. He followed her out. She locked the door behind them while his eyes adjusted to the early afternoon glare.

The very first thing he saw when his eyes focused again was Jack standing in the middle of the deck talking to Mr. North. He also spied Quinn a bit further away helping other sailors lower crates down into the hold. He sighed. "Captain, if you're done with me I'm going to go meet with Miss Hunter. Thank you."

Belita nodded, following Will's gaze to Jack. "One thing ye should know about my ship. I don't care about th' crew fraternizing with each other. We're all cooped up with each other fer a long time, and blowing off steam is important. No one on this ship will care who's doing what wit' who. I have a few rules about it though. The important one here is No Lover's Quarrels. It's bad fer morale. I don't know what happened between ye and Miss Hunter, and frankly I don't really care to. It's obviously already affecting ye both though. The two of ye have to be able t' work comfortably and easily with each other, and so does everyone around ye. So sort it out. Ye have a week. If we get underway an' the two of ye are still sucking all the air out of the room every time ye get near each other, I'll have Mister North be yer relationship counselor. I'm told his methods are rather unpleasant, but he has an impressive success rate."

"Well... now I'm scared but also curious," Will said, bemused. "I'll try not to let Jack and I's personal issues spill over into our work. We are both professionals. No matter how we feel about each other personally, we should still be able to work together just fine."

Captain Vex gave Will a serious look. "See that you do, Mister Sterling."

Will crossed the deck with growing apprehension in his chest. Jack looked... good. Great, even. Her hair was slightly damp and she didn't have the ruddy, hard-working sheen of sweat that the rest of the sailor's on deck had. She looked like she'd just gotten back from a bath house.

She saw him coming and lifted up a piece of paper. "What's all this nonsense?" she asked, sounding annoyed.

"They're words. On paper. They make sense once you know what the symbols mean," WIll snarked.

Jack gave him a flat look. Apparently she didn't think he was funny. "Why in blazes do we need thirty six barrels of wine? This isn't some kind of drunken pleasure cruise."

"Not barrels of wine. Wine barrels," Will answered. "Just make sure they're water tight."

"That's going to take up an awful lot of space," Mister North said.

"Put stuff in them. Use them instead of crates," Will suggested.

North nodded slowly. "You'll need them at some point though, right? So everything in them will have to come out."

"Yes," WIll confirmed, "We'll need them once we get near the Drifts."

"Alright. We can put the water and foodstuffs for the first leg of the trip in them. By the time we get to the Drifts they'll be empty," North said.

"Why do we need all these things, Will?" Jack was still looking over the list, clearly not happy with her lack of understanding of the plan.

Will shook his head. "Navigators don't explain the route. You know that."

Jack sighed. She did know that. Back when she and Will had been partners it was a rule they broke frequently. She was used to Will's weird requisition lists because once upon a time she'd been the one to help him write them. Now, she found that she didn't like not knowing what he had planned. She knew better than to argue though. "Fine. Your list and mine have some duplicates. Let's go over things and see what can be used on the ship, and then taken on the expedition also."

Will smiled. Maybe he and Jack could work together.

_____________

Will needed a drink.

The day had been grueling. Janie had scheduled meetings for him until after eight of the clock, but as things often do, they ran over. By the time he was finished it was nearly ten at night. He was glad to finally be finished. He looked over the stack of contracts he'd finished today. His business was essentially a buy-in to other people's ventures. They paid him a small fee, he planned them a route, and then he got a percentage of their profit when they returned. The risk was that sometimes they didn't return. Some were lost at sea or taken by pirates. Some simply didn't pay their debts. He tried to only do business with reputable people, but some slipped through. Part of the draw for investors and captains was that when Will Stirling planned a course, you knew that you'd get where you wanted to go without much delay. Navigation wasn't a sure science. Luck and guesswork were always part of the process. Sailors were superstitious, and Will's maps had developed a reputation for being good luck even if Will himself wasn't. Good navigators were pretty rare. Captains who didn't have good navigators had learned that Will's route plans were the next best thing. Will had built his business on being almost as good as an actual Navigator without needing to be onboard the ship, but costing substantially less.

He'd done more routes and more contracts today than he usually did in a week. He felt like he'd been wrung out. The process of route planning wasn't easy. It took research. He had to know the area. All the landmasses and reefs. He had to have an an understanding of ocean currents and past weather patterns to predict what things would be like at this particular time of year. He had to have an understanding of current events and gossip so he could guess at the locations of known pirates and privateers. He had to know politics to predict which ports were currently safe stops for which factions and which weren't. He had to visualize the trip every step of the way, in every possible option. He liked being thorough. It was important that he take his time to be sure he wasn't making mistakes. Now, he was rushed with every job and it was exhausting.

He hadn't seen Janie for over an hour. He'd just shut the door behind his last client. His library was even more of a mess than usual. He decided he'd deal with it in the morning. He wandered into his office and found Janie sleeping face down on his desk. He smiled and went to a cabinet fishing out two glasses and a half-full bottle of brandy.

He sat down opposite his sleeping assistant and gently shook her shoulder. Her eyes fluttered then opened wide as she inhaled sharply and realized where she was. She sat up and primly straightened her clothing. "My apologies, Mister Stirling. I only meant to rest my eyes a bit during your last meeting."

"No need to apologize, Janie. It has been a very long day," Will smiled. He poured himself two fingers of brandy and put the other glass and the bottle in front of Janie.

"I am afraid I must decline," She said, standing. "It is already much later than I expected and I have a walk ahead of me."

"Why don't you stay here?" Will asked. "You can take my bed upstairs. I have a hammock in my ship kit that I can string up in here."

"That would be improper, Mister Stirling. I appreciate the offer, but I need to get back to Fort Deliverance," Janie said firmly.

"Once I'm gone you'll need to stay here anyway. I don't see the difference," Will shrugged.

Janie paused. She hadn't stopped to think about that. "True," she admitted, "But you are here now, and that is a significant difference. I would not want to give Miss Fortuna the wrong impression."

Will laughed, "You're concerned that Bella might get the wrong idea about us because you stayed the night here? Sounds like you need to have a talk with her."

Janie looked confused. "The two of you are... involved. I like her and I do not want her to become suspicious or jealous of something that does not exist between you and I. I have seen women become upset about far less."

Will took a drink. "What do you know about Bella?"

"Little," Janie admitted. "When I was a clerk for the Magistrate, I was the one who processed her registry and conducted her initial interview and truthtelling. So, we have met a few times before, but we are scarcely more than acquaintances."

"She specializes in sex magic. Making hex bags to ward against pregnancy, performing fertility spells, curing social diseases, and performing sex-focused divinations," Will said.

Janie seemed slightly disapproving of the candor Will was using to discuss Bella's profession. "Well, that is... her business. I can see how her services are useful to the community."

"The point is that sometimes the spells she works involve sex," Will continued, waiting for Janie to connect the dots.

Janie didn't. "Yes, so you said. I don't know why we are dwelling on this."

"With her clients," Will added.

Janie's brows narrowed.

Will waited.

Janie's eyes went wide. "Oh. Oh! She's a..."

"Kind of," Will nodded. "It's not the same in her culture, and it's something she only does as part of a larger ritual, but yes. Sometimes she has sex with people who come to her for her magical arts, and they pay her."

Janie was obviously struggling to process the information. She took a sip of her drink. "That's so sad."

It was Will's turn to be surprised. "How so?"

"She's so nice, and I know she is a good person," Janie said, looking into her glass. "I had to br sure of that as part of her registry interview. I know that she is a genuinely good person. One of the better ones I've ever interviewed. It's why I like her. I was happy when she showed up to see you. You need the influence of good people in your life."

"Alright. How is that sad?" Will said. There was a lot in what Janie had just said, but he wanted to keep focused. He had a feeling he knew where this was headed and he wanted to hear it.

"She deserves so much better. I know she is poor, and I know her people aren't trusted, but she shouldn't have to treat herself like that," Janie shook her head.

"It's her choice," Will said.

"Well yes, but I doubt she would have made that choice if she had other options." Janie looked up, a bit of righteousness creeping into her voice.

"For some people, you might be right, and it's nice that you are considering the kinds of things that might make a person choose to trade sex for money. In a lot of cases it's the last option in a bad situation. That's not Bella. It truly is her choice. She only ever does what she wants to do." Will shrugged, "She loves her job."

Janie looked like she didn't know if that information made things better or worse. "Why are you telling me these things?"

"Because if Bella ever thought there was something going on between you and I, she wouldn't be jealous. She'd be happy for us," Will smiled.

"Why?" Janie was lost. The conversation was so far outside her experience that she didn't even know where to start.

"You'd have to ask her. It's just who she is." Will finished his drink.

"Well, regardless of Miss Fortuna's approval or not, I don't think I should make a habit of staying the night here. There are other people who would definitely not approve," Janie said, standing up.

Will looked at the tall clock standing against the wall. It was one of his favorite possessions, a masterfully crafted series of cogs and gears in a shell of beautifully carved wood. "Alright. You're the one who set the schedule so when you wake up after only 5 hours of sleep you'll have no one to blame but yourself."

Janie gave him a flat look and pushed her glass into his hand. "The same goes for you and your hangover."

He walked her to the door and held her coat. "Thanks for everything. I'll see you in the morning."

She opened the door and two large men barged through it, one grabbing Janie and the other holding a pistol toward Will.

"Sit down."