All are well

Castillo must have decided that Brenan had said as much as he was going to and kept his mouth shut the rest of the way across the harbor to when Davy's shipyard sat. Brennan was secretly relieved not to see a posse of Freeport's Burghers waiting for him by the wharf where his new ship was docked.

He knew that his actions were justified under the circumstances, but townsfolk can get touchy about the use of gunpowder to blow holes in city warehouses. But the wharf was mostly empty and he could see one of the Jones brothers sitting up on the mainmast looking over the harbor. So far so good.

"Ahoy the ship!" Brenan called out as he drew nearer. "Get some deck hands down here to unload this wagon." Soon enough he saw both the Caruthers boys join Kyle on deck. "This here is Castillo. Harry Castillo, he sailed with Mr. Michaels on the Siren, and before that on a schooner." Brenan turned to the new man. You'd best change out of that get-up before you start getting this on board."

He left the wagon to the men and headed below eager to see if Sasha had recovered from the blast. He found her wrapped in two thick quilts sipping from a steaming mug, and talking quietly to Mr. Michaels and Tyler.

"Is she alright?" Brenan asked, perhaps a little louder than he had intended. All three of them jumped to their feet in surprise, and Sasha's quilt slipped from her bare shoulder revealing all of one perfect breast and most of the other. It took less than a second for the startled woman to pull the thick blanket around her again but the image of her round breasts peaked with dark nipples was burned into Brenan's retina.

Brenan knew he shouldn't, but he could not help but stare, Sasha might have been a model for the greatest sculptures in all Veertor. It was not just Sasha's orbs that reminded Brenan of the museum pieces in Telnon, the curve of her neck and shoulders made even Giovati's Aphrodite now seem 'nice' instead of the ideal perfection of female form. No wonder she was being pursued by the might of Veertor. Sasha was a living work of art, some rich noble must have seen her and decided that she was worth using all of the empire's resources to secure.

"Are you alright?" Brenan asked the redhead directly this time, hoping to avoid both Mr. Michaels long-winded rambling and Tyler’s stuttered response.

"Yes Captain, thanks to you and your men." Sasha's voice sounded fine. Brenan had expected to find her suffering from hypothermia, or concussion or even both, but other than her initial surprise when he first interrupted the three, he could see no signs at all of ill effects from her rough treatment.

"Well good." He grunted, and then added before he left the group "Get that woman some clothes, and let her change before we have the rest of the crew down here staring at her like she's auditioning for a job as our ship's whore."

Brenan felt a twinge of guilt as he saw Sasha blush in response to his words; it wasn't her fault that he had startled her. Brenan had seen working girls 'accidently' pop out of their clothing to attract customers many times, but that was not what Sasha had done. Angry with himself for staring at her like a love stricken poet, and then for lashing out at the woman like it was her fault Brenan walked deliberately back to on deck for a moment of piece.

Why'd Sasha have to be so damn pretty? - And with red hair to boot!

After a minutes waching the new crew member stow his last minute supplies Brenan gathered all of them by the open cargo hatch so Mr. Michaels and Sasha could hear his news.

"OK lads, I just wached the Peregrine make sail. If we are lucky the Veer will be chasing them for a few months." He saw the men exchange a few half smiles but decided to keep them on the right track. "Just in case were going to have a watch tonight, and I've arranged for a cargo early tomorrow morning: if we can load it up quick enough we'll slip out before ebb tide, even if we have to pull her out with the dory." More nods followed this last comment, leaving Freeport as soon as possible seemed like the best of plans now.

Brenan summoned the Caruthers brothers to his cabin and confirmed that Julien was the better horseman of the two. He spent several more minutes writing two notes. The first for Davy begging the use of his horse, and the other for Red explaining the situation and arranging a rendezvous in a sheltered bay on a small island off the north coast.

"Better take this over to Davy now." Brenan told Julien as he explained what he needed him to do and gave him directions to Red's secluded beach. After watching Julien head out to Davy's house he turned back to see what still had to be done before he could hit his bunk.

Brenan assigned Mr Michaels and James for the first watch, Tyler and Castillo for the midwatch and told Kyle that the two of them would take the dawn watch. With that settled he headed down to his cabin, it had been a long day and he was ready for some sleep.