New sails

“What do you mean by that?” James’ question left Brenan envious of his innocence.

“What he means, James,” Davy cut in, “is that often enough, people like Walter Ambrose will hire a ship to haul a cargo for him and then conveniently forget to tell its captain about the fact that mixed in with the fruits or whatever it is that the cargo is supposed to consist of are crossbows or **** or some other illegal commodity.”

“But why lie like that?”

“Because you’ll have to pay them less if they don’t know that they’re smuggling,” Brenan explained, “and besides, it’s a lot easier to bluff your way past a customs official if you don’t know that you’re bluffing.”

“Seems like a pretty dishonest thing to do,” Julien observed with just the right amount of scorn in his voice.

“Walter Ambrose is a pretty dishonest man.” There didn’t seem to be too much love lost between Davy and his colleague, but then Ambrose seemed to be the sort of man who was despised even by his own mother.

“That he is,” Brenan agreed, knowing that he’d probably have to have the same conversation with the rest of his crew, except maybe for Red and Mr. Michaels, “look boys, Davy didn’t have jobs available for us at the moment, and it costs an awful lot of money to have a crew but no cargo. Every now and then, this line of work will lead you to having to accept job offers from people that disgust you.”

“You don’t view me with disgust, do you?” Davy asked Brenan, managing to muster a look of comically exaggerated worriment.

“Joanna wouldn’t let me,” Brenan managed to sound absolutely deadpan.

“Look, but why smuggle at all?” Julien seemed a bit disturbed by the supposed levity with which Brenan and Davy spoke of such illegal activities.

“Because it pays more, and if we get more crowns for each job, then we can go longer without associating with scum like Ambrose.”

“Incidentally Brenan,” Davy suddenly seemed determined to change the subject, as though he wasn’t entirely comfortable with discussing such matters so openly while in his own house, “I’ve got a set of sails for a square topped two masted schooner that you might be interested in.”

“Go on.”

“They’re fairly threadbare, to the point where the wind has a nasty tendency of going straight through them, but they’re pitch black.”

“I’ll take them.”

“Ambrose is sure to be impressed by them.”

“I said I’ll take them.”

“Good,” Davy glanced at the Caruthers to try and determine if they’d picked up on the tension that had existed throughout the latter half of his and Brenan’s exchange.

“Yeah, thanks.” Brenan knew that he had no reason to get angry with Davy for not being too keen on him getting involved in business with Ambrose. The scarred old fool was simply trying his best to watch his back, which was something that Ambrose would certainly never do.

“I owe you one,” Brenan added before turning towards Julien and asking him “By the way, how many people were there in the garden when you were working with the map.”

“Four,” Julien replied after some brief confusion and hesitation, “me and James and Davy’s two boys.”

“And where were they hiding?”

“In the same spot where you were standing earlier.”

“Did you run them off?”

“There didn’t seem to be much point in that.”

“Good,” Brenan showed his approval of Julien’s decision through the slow nodding of his head while his mouth formed into a smile, “you and James gather your possessions and head towards the ship. You know where Davy’s office is located, don’t you?”

“Yes,” the brothers spoke as one.

“Good,” Brenan said again, “introduce yourselves to Mr. Michaels and tell him I sent you, I’ll be along later on.”