Chapter 3

The man grabbed Robert, pulled him up, and dragged him up to the upper deck to his captain. “Looks like we have a stowaway. Found‘im below deck,” he said and dropped Robert at her feet. She looked down at him with an emotionless expression on her face. “Thank you, Thomas.” She took her hat off and rubbed her forehead. Robert took a good look at her. Her skin was well tanned by the sun, making him look like a ghost in contrast to her. Her hair was long and red, braided into an elegant braid hanging down her back. The color was dark red, almost the color of red wine, and he believed that she had dyed her hair. Her eyes seemed grey with a hint of green, like the green had been fading from too much sun exposure. Her nose and cheeks were covered in freckles. Robert cocked his head. Her facial features seemed familiar. “Do I know you?”, he asked. She barked out a laugh. “Trust me, if you had seen me before, you’d be on the bottom of the ocean by now.” She put her hat back on. “Jack!”, she shouted over the deck. A man with brown hair jogged over to the two of them. “Aye, Captain?” His dark hair was kept in a low bun, and he had a scar over his face that stretched from above his right eyebrow, over his nose, to below his left cheek bone. “Bind his hands and feet, and give him a bucket. As long as I decide he’s goin’ to stay, he might as well be of use.” 

“Aye, Captain.” Jack pulled him up and dragged him across the deck. He put a thick rope around Robert’s hands, tying them together and did the same to his ankles, leaving a bit of rope between them so that Robert could still move enough to scrub the deck. And that was where Jack left him. On deck, on his knees, scrubbing away, and watching the crew scurry around, everyone doing their jobs. What had looked to him like chaos, was actually organized and choreographed to the t. He was surprised to see so many different people. Where he was from, everyone was white, except maybe a few non-white people that did manual labour for the farmers or black maids that helped with child care. But here? Here, it was different. Everybody seemed to respect each other. Everybody helped each other and no one looked down on another. But still he could not shake the feeling that he had seen the pirate captain somewhere before. “What’re you lookin’ at me like that for?”, she snapped at him. Robert had not even realized that he was staring at her. “I do not-”

“Yes, you do, quit it.” He turned his gaze back to the deck and started scrubbing again. But there was something about her features that reminded him of someone. Maybe her nose, or her eyes-

“Stop starin’ at me! If you want someone to get you off, ask Thomas. He’s been dyin’ to get his hands on you since he laid eyes on ya. Who’s stupid enough to hide on a pirate ship, anyway.” She shook her head. “Whatcha even tryin’ to do down there? Guy like you, wouldn’t have pegged ya as a sailor.”

“I have a mission. I am trying to find the abducted princess.” She barked out a laugh. “This is not funny! I will find her!”

“Sure, ya do.” She laughed once more and then went back up and disappeared in her cabin. Robert went back to scrubbing the deck. She may have thought he could not do it. But he knew he would.