“Don’t think she likes you, Grady,” Philip said.
The crowd was calm for a moment. Grady’s head had that effect on people.
“How’s her titties?” said a large man with a serious facial tick and a hole where his left eye should have been.
“Well if it ain’t One-Eyed Charlie Fine!” Philip said. “What’re you doin’ in town when all them privateers be in port up yonder?”
“You’ll know soon enough why I’m here and not there,” Charlie Fine said. “But if this iron-headed bitch has titties to make up for that god awful face, she might be worth a piece of eight.”
The crowd murmured with amazement. Pieces of eight were Spanish silver coins of near perfect purity. A piece of eight represented a month of work for a common man of the time.
Philip Winter was stunned by the price. “You figure to put her to work at the whore house?”
“I do, if an eight’ll buy her and her tits be fair.”
Philip Winter licked his lips and looked at his wife. Hester shook her head no. Philip, proving he knew how to work a crowd, said, “Who else here wants to see her tits?”
The crowd went wild and Philip approached his wife.
Before he got there, a shot rang out. Everyone froze for a split-second, then ducked for cover. The man who’d shot his pistol into the dirt looked like a crazed drunk. His fiery red hair was matted with manure and he had enormous red muttonchops that were caked with dried vomit. When he spoke, his voice was gravely but firm.
Charlie Fine’s face went white. He approached Pim and whispered, “What the hell’re you doin’ here?”
“Back off, Charlie,” Pim said. “I ain’t in the business no more, so I’m free to be here.” To the auctioneer, Pim said, “I’ll give you a solid gold Spanish doubloon.”
The crowd jumped to their feet as one, oohing and aahing. Hester searched Pim’s face for guile and his eyes for sanity.
Philip Winter said, “That’s very funny, Mister…what’s your name?”
“My surname’s Pim, and that’s how I’m called. I’ll buy this beautiful woman and treat her like the lady I know she be.”
“Well now, no offense intended, Pim, but you appear to be a common drunk, with no resources, other than a pocket pistol you had no legal right to discharge. Someone haul him out of here.”
Pim held a doubloon high over his head and walked to the edge of the auction block. He held it where Philip could get a good look at the coin. The doubloon was a staggering sum of money, worth sixteen pieces of eight, or sixteen months’ wages for a working man.
“Sold!” Philip said, grabbing the doubloon. “I’d stay and have a drink to celebrate your purchase, but I’ve pressing business back at my house.” He walked behind Hester and pushed her fanny so hard she fairly flew off the platform and into Pim’s arms.
Somewhere above the crowd a girl screamed “No!”
Chapter 13
Jack and Abby Winter had ridden into town on his horse so she could watch her mother be sold. While Jack spoke to Pim, Abby made her way to the lodging house. Now they watched the humiliating spectacle while standing at an open window on the second floor there. When Pim bought Hester, Abby screamed again. Jack tried to calm her down before someone decided to summon the authorities.
“She’s been bought by a homeless drunk!” Abby wailed. “Now what will become of my Mum?”
“She’ll be fine,” Jack said.
“What? Fine? Can you possibly be this stupid? Just look at him down there, trying to talk to her. She must be terrified. See how she turns her face away from his rancid breath.”
Jack was far more concerned about why Charlie Fine was in town. As Abby watched her mother, Jack’s eyes tracked Charlie walking through the crowd, saw him grab the arm of Mayor Shrewsbury’s aide, Barton Pike. When Jack saw Charlie pointing at Pim, he started running.
“Where are you going? Come back!” Abby yelled.
“Don’t move! I’ll be right back,” Jack called over his shoulder.
He hit the stairs running, and made it to the courtyard in seconds. As he passed Pim, he pretended to wave at someone in the square, but said, “Pim, Hester, go to the lodging house. Second Floor. Run!”
Pim grabbed Hester by the arm and said, “Sorry, darlin’, but trouble’s afoot. Run!” They ran across the courtyard with Hester still in the halter with her hands tied. As the gawkers in the crowd watched them run, Jack doubled around the town square and came up behind Charlie and Barton Pike. He followed them as they went around the corner and approached the alley Jack knew would take them to the back entrance of Commander Dowling’s quarters.
Jack followed the men into the alley and called their names. By the time they turned, he was upon them. He plunged a knife into Pike’s rib and raked it sideways. Pike went down quietly, and when he hit the street, he was there to stay. One-Eyed Charlie Fine, by nature a nervous man, began shaking with fear. He fell to his knees and begged for mercy. Jack pulled him behind an empty water barrel.
“I’ll have some information from you,” Jack said, “and quickly.”
“Anything!”
“What are you doing in town? Wait—don’t lie to me.”
Charlie had been about to do just that. Now it didn’t seem sensible.
“The garrison up at Amelia has snuck down and surrounded the pirates.”
