Free Reads!! Wednesday Briefs – Innocence & Carnality Part 30
Welcome to the next part in my Wednesday Briefs flash fiction serial, Innocence & Carnality! Each chapter has to be between 500 and 1,000 words and this week I skipped using a prompt. This week’s prompt was: Use honor, burr, pride.
Blythe gives Nathan some history.
Click here to start from the beginning
Part 30
“Now you have nothing to say?” I asked.
The uncharacteristic discomfort Blythe met me with intrigued me. It was not like him at all.
“You won’t think much of me if I tell you.”
“I don’t think much of you now. How will that make any difference?”
Blythe snorted as he tried to suppress his grin. I wasn’t sure goading him would work, but he looked around the shop, making sure no one was close by, and lowered his voice.
“Only Rother and Samantha know. You can’t breathe a word to anyone. Even Harston.”
“You have my word.”
“I was waiting to hang when Rother found me.”
Now I was the uncomfortable one. “I don’t understand. For what?”
Blythe threw a glance at the shopkeeper across the store. “Piracy…”
“You were a pirate?” I wanted to laugh—the whole idea sounded ludicrous—but Blythe was so earnest I kept quiet. My bodyguard was repulsive in many ways, but a liar? No. “How is that even possible?”
“Some men find themselves with few options. No money, no home. You take what you can get. We’re not all so fortunate.”
Intended or not, I felt a sting at his words. One hears stories of brigands on the seas, but men of my upbringing were hardly expected to meet one. “You’re right. I guess I can’t picture that kind of existence.”
“It gave me purpose, such as it was. I loved being at sea. We prowled the North Straits. No rules. Taking what we wanted.”
“And a man hangs for that?”
“No. A man hangs for murder.”
Dread pinched at my chest, but I refused to overreact. “What happened?”
“On the way to Demanthia, a crew member wound up dead. Turned out he was an officer spying on us. We weren’t exactly law abiding citizens. Heard he got drunk and spilled his guts. When he missed a meeting in port, the Naval fleet boarded us and the captain gave me up.”
I hesitated, not knowing whether I truly wanted the answer. “You didn’t…”
Blythe shook his head. “I barely laid eyes on him and I never even spoke to the man.”
“Why in the world would the captain blame you? Did he have no honor?”
“Pretty sure he was responsible… and his boy liked my cock better.”
Unprepared, I cringed and my cheeks heated, embarrassed by the crude statement. A quick check to be sure the owner hadn’t heard, I drifted further down the aisle, pretending interest in a series of clockwork springs.
“How does Rother enter into this?”
“He was traveling, looking for hired muscle. Delaga House was brand new. I was scheduled to hang in forty-eight hours. I’ve done a lot of shitty things in my day, but I didn’t kill that man. Rother was the only one who believed me.”
“How did you avoid your sentence?”
“Rother had Samantha distract the guards. They stole the key and all the criminal records at the guard house. They broke me out.”
“How did Samantha distract… never mind. Stupid question.”
“We changed my name, cleaned me up and I became a new man of Francine. I’ve never looked back.”
“What happened to the legal documents?”
“Rother keeps them in his safe as insurance, but he doesn’t need them. My pride is all I need to be loyal. I’m a good man with means now. I owe Rother my life.”
Blythe’s current definition of what constituted being a good man made me wonder how corrupt he’d been before his arrest. Perception was relative, no doubt. Even so, his conviction couldn’t be mistaken and I had to reserve any judgements on that basis alone. Not counting his willingness to confide such sensitive information, of course. Something else bothered me. Blythe’s past, while alarming, was not the burr in my heel.
Rother went shopping in a prison and used the situation to conscript the man into service.
It was a subversive thought. One which could create any number of difficulties if I explored it. My husband’s business practices were not becoming easier to accept. The immoral aspects were troubling enough, but was there a common theme? Samantha indebted herself to Rother after being rescued. Coincidence? Rother understood people and their needs and desires; his industry required it. Would more of his employees have similar tales? Was I searching for conspiracies where none truly existed?
“Thank you for telling me. I’m sorry I pressured you. It wasn’t exactly fair of me.”
Blythe shook his head. “You should know what kind of man works for you.”
“Well, for Rother, at least.”
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s the same thing.”
Harston’s recruitment still needled me. While only serving drinks, could an argument be made for a future agenda? The longer he stayed, what else would be expected of him? And when I extrapolated that direction of thinking, one other scenario reared its paranoid face.
“Could you answer me something?”
“Sure.”
“You’ve known Rother far longer than I have. He’s very good at bringing people into the fold. Do you ever think Rother would expect me to perform services for Delaga House?”
I felt ridiculous for asking as soon as I uttered the question.
“You mean shagging clients?” Blythe stared at me, the scar on his face keeping me from seeing whether he was smirking or sneering at my idiocy. I averted my eyes, unable to let him see my shame.
Blythe grunted. “Never. Rother’s always been way too possessive to share his boys.”
“Boys, plural?”
“Figure of speech.” This time I could see his grin. “I imagine he’ll be worse with a husband.”
I shook my head, ridding myself of the notion. “Thank you. I don’t know what got into me.”
“I’d tell you, but you’d slap me after. Come on. Gather your purchases and we’ll collect Harston and get to the clothier. Your day is wasting.”
Blythe was right. It was time to improve my wardrobe to better find my place among Delaga House.
Check back next Wednesday for the next installation… Be sure to take a read at the other briefers free reads this week here: Wednesday Briefs
