Stick with Brenan.

Shortly after nine Brenan heard the sound of teamsters approach his ship. The wagons two wagons that carried the contraband were heavily loaded under the tarps. The wagons strained under the weight but his ship would barley notice the 2 or 3 tons of cargo. It was just the loading and unloading that would be a pain in the ass.

One of the two men that had been by the bar during Brenan's meeting with Ambrose hopped down from the lead wagon. Brenan met him at the foot of the gangplank keeping him from climbing aboard and looked over the hundred or so unmarked boxes that filled the wagon.

The man handed Brenan a receipt of delivery and pointed out two crates that had red marks on them.

"Those two are yours." Brenan ws glad that the boxes were small enough to be easy to handle. He counted the boxes carfully on the wagon before he signed the reciept well aware that Ambrose or his men might easily try to keep a couple of these expensive goods for themselves. The burly men clearly did not intend to help unload the wagon, but that suited Brenan fine. He had no desire to let Ambrose's men onto his ship.

Soon enough Brenan had organized all hands to carrying the contraband up the gangway and onto his ship so they could be lowered through the midships hatch into the cargo hold.

"Keep them comming lads!" He called out. "You boys just keep sending them down, and I will see about getting these stowed."

Brenan dropped through the stern hatch and approached the cargo hold through the galley. Sasha was washing the morning dishes but obediantly followed him when he caught her eye.

"We'll stack them here, and here." Brenan instructed "I want to keep her sweetly balanced." Brenan told Sasha and the two worked in silence stacking the crates as the others brought them aboard. A gap was left near the galley for the crew to eat at and another between the forward bulkhead for the hamocks to hang, but in about an hours time the hold had two great stacks of crates on aft and one fore of the main mast. By the time the last of the crates had been carried onto the ship and secured below decks Brenan's crew were working well together. Pleased with how well the crew pulled together Brenan gave each man a silver crown from the rapidly dwindling supply and sent them out for a few hours of liberty.

"We sail on the evening tide. I want you back on board by 5 bells. Don't get so drunk that you can't work." Brenan saw Sasha standing off to the side and added as an afterthought "And don't talk about the ship. Not a word about our guns, anyone who's on it or where we are headed." He hoped this crew had enough sense to keep their mouths shut. "The last thing we need is for some pirate to think we might be a good target."

Brenan tossed a crown to Sasha. "You earned it, even though you can’t spend it here." She had earned it too, Brenan realized as he remembered how strong his cook was. Brenan had expected to do the bulk of the work carrying and stacking the crates as they came aboard but to his surprise his cook matched him box for box, not even breaking a sweat as she worked.

"Captain, do you have time to get a few more items?" Sasha asked as she slipped the coin into her belt pouch and took out a sheet of paper. "I made a list."

Brenan considered her request, he did have the time, but he didn't want to leave Sasha alone on the ship espescially not with this load of luxury goods. Davy's ship yard should be safe, but he hated to take chances with her this close to sailing.