Chapter 51: Accidentally Courting Trouble
Catalina set the hen and basin aside, then stood. She looked at James like he was a stray dog that had decided her porch belonged to it now.
"Ya te has ganado tu cuento, marinero. Ahora vete, antes de que te encuentre sonriéndole otra vez a alguna de mis hijas y tenga que ir a buscar el hacha."
Tomás swallowed.
"She says... thank you for your visit, Captain. She hopes you enjoy the rest of your afternoon."
James raised an eyebrow.
"That’s not remotely what she said, is it, lad?"
"No, Captain."
James laughed without the slightest concern and swept into a bow grand enough for a royal court instead of a chicken yard.
"Señora. It’s been a pleasure. You’ve a tongue sharper than my crew’s cutlasses, and I mean that as the finest compliment a sailor can give."
Catalina didn’t need Tomás to understand that much. She snorted, flicked her hand in dismissal, then disappeared through the low doorway with the hen tucked beneath one arm.
James led Tomás to a broad gumbo-limbo tree a short distance from the yard. He dropped into its shade and leaned back against the trunk with ease. Whatever happened next, he clearly expected it.
Tomás lingered beside him, glancing from the house to James and back again.
"Captain? The harbor is that way."
"Aye, it is."
"We are not returning?"
"Not yet." James folded his arms. "Ye’ve a great deal to learn, lad."
Tomás waited.
James didn’t continue.
He didn’t have to wait long.
A few minutes later, two figures came around the side of the house. Inés walked first with quiet confidence, as though she’d made up her mind before leaving the yard. Lucía followed half a step behind, both hands twisting in her skirts.
Inés stopped a few paces away and folded her hands before her.
"Mi madre puede ser... directa. No quisiera que se llevara una mala impresión de nosotras por su culpa."
Now that knives were no longer involved, Tomás translated without trouble.
"She says her mother can be very direct, Captain. She hopes you will not think badly of them because of it."
James smiled at both sisters. "Tell her I’ve been threatened by fiercer women than her mother, and I still remember them fondly. There’s no need for an apology. I liked her."
Lucía spoke before Inés had finished nodding. The words tumbled out so quickly that even Tomás needed a moment to untangle them.
"Y-yo tampoco pienso que sea... que sea un mal hombre. Aunque sea marinero."
The instant she finished, her face flushed bright red.
Tomás cleared his throat.
"She says... she also does not think you are a bad man. Even though you are a sailor."
James pressed a hand to his chest.
"A harsh judgment of me profession, lass, but I’ll gladly accept it."
He turned to Lucía, his smile easy and patient.
"I was wonderin’ whether I’d frightened you off for good. Seems I worried for nothin’."
Lucía opened her mouth before Tomás began translating, then remembered she needed him and forced herself to wait.
As Tomás worked through the sentence, her cheeks grew steadily redder. When he finally finished, she smacked his arm and muttered something under her breath that he wisely left untranslated.
Inés stepped a little closer.
"My hermana es joven. No sabe todavía cuándo debe guardarse las palabras."
She folded her arms as she spoke.
Tomás nodded.
"She says her sister is young. She does not yet know when to..."
He froze, stuttered, then hurried on.
"When to keep her words. Guarded. Keep them to herself."
James chuckled.
"A fine recovery, lad."
"Thank you, Captain."
James looked from one sister to the other.
"And what about ye, lass? Do you know when to keep your own words to yerself?"
Inés took her time before answering.
"A veces."
James caught that without help.
"Sometimes."
He grinned. "That sounds about right. Most interestin’ folk only manage it sometimes."
Lucía nudged her sister with an elbow and whispered something too quietly for Tomás to catch. Inés didn’t even blink, though the corner of her mouth twitched.
James looked toward the fort beyond the rooftops. The question from earlier still lingered.
He asked the sisters, "Yer mother mentioned a woman who cries near the fort. Have either of you heard exactly where? Somewhere a man could stand and hear her for himself?"
Tomás translated.
The sisters exchanged a look. Neither answered at once.
Finally Lucía spoke.
"Cerca del muro viejo, el que da al oeste. Ahí es donde dicen que se le oye."
"No," Inés cut in. "No es el muro viejo, es más cerca del pozo, junto a la puerta pequeña."
They slipped into rapid Spanish, each certain she was right. Tomás’s head turned back and forth between them like a spectator trying to follow an argument he only sort of understood.
"Captain... they disagree. One says the old western wall. The other says the well near the small gate."
James laughed.
"Helpful. Between the pair of you, I’ve nearly covered the whole fort."
Lucía muttered something at her sister that needed no translation.
"And when does she cry? Is there a certain hour, or does she appear whenever she pleases?"
Another quick exchange followed before Lucía answered. This time her voice had lost much of its teasing.
"Dicen que después de que suenan las campanas de la guardia de medianoche. Cuando ya nadie vela, salvo quien no debería estar despierto tampoco."
Tomás translated more slowly.
"After the bells for the midnight watch. When no one is awake anymore... except those who should not be awake either."
The words lingered longer than the conversation before. Even Lucía looked as though she believed at least part of the story herself.
Inés glanced toward the sun, measuring the afternoon with ease.
"Deberíamos volver."
James nodded.
"Aye. Best do that before yer mother decides I truly deserve that axe."
Inés didn’t answer.
She kept his gaze for a heartbeat longer than she needed to. She caught her lower lip between her teeth, then let her eyes drift slowly from his face to his boots before turning away. Her hips led the motion as she started back toward the house without once looking behind her.
James noticed.
"Lucía," she called. "Vamos."
Lucía managed three steps before stopping. She looked toward her sister, then back at James.
She hurried back, cheeks already burning.
"Si... si de verdad piensa ir a buscarla," she rushed out in little more than a whisper, "junto al pozo, después de la campana de medianoche. Yo también quiero verlo. Si me deja."
Tomás’s voice cracked as he translated. "She says... if you truly intend to look for her. At the well. After the midnight bell. She wishes to come as well, if you will allow it."
A slow grin spread across James’s face.
The boldness of it delighted him.
He laughed, "Tell the lass I’ve never turned down an invitation like that in me life. I’m certainly not startin’ tonight."
Tomás relayed the answer.
Lucía’s face lit with excitement before panic caught up to her. She spun around and hurried after her sister without waiting another second.
Inés met her halfway. She was already speaking before Lucía reached her, her voice low and quick, one hand gripping Lucía’s arm while the other gestured sharply back toward James. Whatever she was saying, Tomás stood too far away and felt far too relieved to have finished translating to pay attention.
James watched the sisters disappear around the house.
"That went well."
Once they were gone, Tomás let out a long breath like a man who had survived a boarding action.
James clapped him on the shoulder, told him he’d earned his pay twice over, and sent him back toward the mission with the promise of more work if he wanted it.
Then, just when it seemed the day had finally run out of surprises, something else demanded his attention.
⚔ [QUEST ISSUED]
A Ghost, Allegedly
Somewhere near a well, after the bells for the midnight watch, a woman may or may not weep for reasons no living soul can explain. A girl has also found what she believes is a convincing excuse to spend time alone with you. The experiment remains skeptical of the haunting, mildly disappointed in your priorities, and, somewhat annoyingly, still unable to identify a compelling reason not to continue.
Reward : 0.1 Fate
Yes, I checked the decimal point twice. It is still correct. Do try not to spend it all at once.
