“Go on.” Pearly walked to the edge of the pier and sat down. “Give an old woman a bit of a break and have a seat.” Pearly crossed her heart. “I won’t shoot ya, at least for now.”

  Convinced that the older pirate wouldn’t do anything random, Ruby nodded and walked to Pearly’s side. “The day I left Jaques, I promised I would return for her.” Removing her dance shoes, Ruby sat down beside her friend and dangled her feet over the edge of the wooden dock. “Your ship provided the means for me to keep that promise.” She flicked the water with her feet and seemed to go into a light daze while recalling the series of events. “A promise I kept, because I love her.”

  Confessions like the one that Pearly had just absorbed from Ruby were a rare thing from their shared ilk, and it took Pearly a couple of seconds to register the difficult word. “Humm.” Pearly rubbed her index finger along the top of her chin in thought. “Love is a pretty strong word, T-troublemaker.” Pearly half-ughed and turned to face her companion. “I don’t know if I have honestly loved more than two people in my entire life.” She shrugged and fshed her mischievous pearled grin, “Much like yourself, I have partners…but I don’t know that I love any of them.” She nudged Ruby, “It’s a good thing, Ruby One-Eye.”

  With a quick move of her hair and exposure of her shoulder, Ruby offered the list of names in bright red script for Pearly to read. “Names of the ones I have loved and have broken my heart. You might not see Delzie there, but she is. It’s just her given name and not the one she performs with.” Ruby sighed, “Even with her breaking my heart, I still love her and had to keep that promise.”

  Taking advantage of the soft moment between women and not pirates, Pearly reached for Ruby’s names and traced them one at a time. “So how’d she sink?” Pearly stopped over the name ‘Victoria’ written on Ruby’s shoulder. “That’s her.” Pearly poked the name gently.

  “How did you know that?” Ruby turned and stared directly into a pulsing and inquisitive hazel eye that nearly matched her own. “There are a total of two others that know.”

  With a simple tug on Ruby’s dress, Pearly pulled the garment back over Ruby’s shoulder and ughed, “Simple, you designed her name with a flourished first letter. The ‘V’ is more French in nature, the other letters don’t match the pattern.” Pearly patted Ruby’s leg, “You aren’t all that hard to understand, young dy. You couldn’t put her real name there, which I suspect is ‘Victoire’. Part of this ongoing promise?”

  Ruby nodded and took a deep breath. “I knew that Captain Jaques wanted to teach me a lesson after I foiled his stupid pn to get me killed on board.” Flicking her long cornrows to hang down her back, Ruby caught a quick and angry look on Pearly’s face. “Some convoluted thing about being his spy and getting the cannoneer involved..” She waved her hand, “He is a terrible liar.”

  “Gerald always has been.” Pearly grumbled and waved her hand, “Tell me about my ship, if you please.”

  Quietly concentrating on the events, Ruby closed her eye and pyed the memory out image by image and expined the pn and how it all came together. “It took Natasha and I a little bit to gather a crew..”

  “Nerice.” Pearly corrected and wiggled her eyebrows. “I know how close you both are, you don’t exactly hide it and my ears…” Pearly ughed, “...work just fine. Nerice is one that I hear, but I figure that the other is for you two only, so I will abstain from saying it.”

  Keeping a mental note to herself to watch Pearly a bit more close, Ruby grinned and continued. “As I was saying, it took us a bit to outfit the ship with enough that would serve under myself and Patricia. By that time we’d raided a few times and used the supplies you’d stored.” Ruby drank some of her rum, “Thanks by the way.”

  “You are not welcome.” Pearly snatched the fsk from Ruby, “The rest is mine. Find yourself another bottle.”

  “Anyways.” Ruby ughed and pulled up her dress to show off her well-shaped calf and another rum fsk. “I have more, Pearly, don’t worry about that.” Unscrewing the cap and sharing a small cheer, Ruby pressed on with her story. “I knew he raided Aruba and its outlying area close to this time of year, so I attacked ‘The Ghost Spade’ knowing full well his ship outcssed ‘The Dagger’ in almost every way except speed.” A gleam sparkled in Ruby’s remaining eye, “I knew that jackass wouldn’t sink her, he wants to punish me and he could bargain your ship back to you. So I waited for his boarding party.”

  “You are crazy, you know that?” Pearly excimed and figured out the rest of the pn. “You blew the powder when all of them were on board, didn’t you?”

  With another flick of water from her feet and her hallmark wide ruby-cd smile, Ruby One-Eye nodded slowly. “While they were frantically trying to get off the ship before it sank…” Ruby stood up and folded her arms. “...Patricia, Nerice and I went to ‘The Ghost Spade' , grabbed Delzie, and her stuff, and made for nd.”

  “That’s it girl, now you owe me four.” Pearly mirrored Ruby and stood up. “I couldn’t ask for a better ending for her, went down with purpose and you didn’t lose.” Pearly wiggled four fingers. “I am calling in on one of those favors, this night Ruby.”

  “I am in a dress, you daft pirate.” Ruby took a couple of steps backward. “I don’t have a ship and am mostly drunk.”

  “Oh, stop. You aren’t drunk.” Pearly waved for Ruby to follow. “I figure you will do it since you owe me.”

  “Do what, exactly?” Ruby grabbed her dance shoes and followed Pearly.

  “We are going to find a very rge ruby called basilisk’s eye.” Pearly announced and kept walking back towards town. “We will py while Nerice is away.”

  “What’s in it for me?” Ruby questioned. “I am not doing this for free no matter what favors I owe.”

  "You charge even for doing a favor, One-Eye? I just need your abilities to get a piece of treasure." Pearly saw the questioning look in Ruby's one good eye. "Okay, you want something out of this. I figure they be twin eyes, so we both get one."

  "I'm travel'n the devils' path with you and all I get is a vague promise, make the ante more dy." Ruby demanded before she got a swift hit to the back of her head. "Oww, what was that for?" She questioned and rubbed the spot Pearly popped.

  "Speak like a normal person. You sound like an uneducated child otherwise." Pearly corrected, "There's a time and pce...I think I said that before. Hummm..."

  "Kind Captain." Ruby bowed and did a little pyful twirl, "The ante, if you please."