The Pirate's Gamble

by Eden Winters
18 pages / 8000 words
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc, epub, Sony-optimized pdf

Archaeologist Ian Lewis has an interesting hobby. He’s the captain of the pirate ship The Naughty Maid. With the help of a mysterious artifact, he travels back in time to save priceless treasures otherwise doomed to be lost forever.

His greatest treasure, however, wants to stay lost, or rather, deeply in the closet. Tired of the hiding the true nature of the relationship he shares with fellow archaeologist David Kane, Ian risks all on his partner’s love in a gamble that just may cost him his life.

Sample

“No one dies today,” the captain instructed his crew, as always, when they boarded the captured galleon.

One of the new hands grumbled to Willie, the Quartermaster, as he held his sword on the crew of the conquered vessel, “We shouldna be leaving ‘em alive to be waggin’ their tongues back in port.”

Willie, a seasoned veteran of those waters, squinted up at the ominously darkening sky while quickly jumping to his captain’s defense. “Mind your own tongue, laddie; the captain has yet to steer us wrong. ‘E has a sense about these things, ‘e does. Always be knowing where good bounty be. And if no blood be spilled...”

Another of the ragtag crew piped in, “I’d be keeping me voice down if I were ye. The captain knows things no man ‘as a right ta be knowing.” Voice dropping to a husky whisper, he confided, “’E appeared one night during a storm -- from where, no one be knowin’. But listen to old Willie here. Cap’n be leading us right for nigh on three years. An ‘e disappears for days, where no one knows, but when ‘e returns, there be more gold for tha takin’.” A nearly-toothless grin appeared on the man’s weather-beaten face.

“Aye, he be making us rich, that’s all what matters,” Willie assured him.

Watching from the ship’s bow, Captain Ian Lewis carefully selected the items that would be taken aboard the Naughty Maid, the single-masted sloop he’d sailed since his mysterious arrival in Kingston. The death of their previous captain had left the pirates in dire need of a capable leader and he’d stepped forward, promising riches beyond their imaginings -- and he’d delivered. They would gladly follow him anywhere; anywhere there was gold that is, something the galleon, having recently concluded business in the colonies, had plenty of.

Standing head and shoulders above his crew, Captain Lewis was a striking contrast to his men, for despite his profession he appeared well-bred, well-educated, and when compared to others who sailed beneath the Jolly Roger, relatively hygienic. And he knew exactly where ships full of treasure would be and how to take them without a single loss of life.

However, though Willie and the others were blissfully unaware, he also knew that the galleon’s burned-out husk would soon be found washed up on a sandy beach some six hundred miles away, presumably struck by lightening and sinking with all hands lost. That knowledge of the future ate at his conscience. He knew these poor souls were doomed, but was powerless to intervene, for the consequences of interfering were dire. The past could not be changed; it was a rule he dared not break. For that reason, he and his crew only raided vessels that would never see port again, rescuing priceless artifacts before they were lost and preserving them for posterity. Getting rich in the process was just an added bonus.

“Lads, there’s a storm brewing,” he yelled into the rising wind. “Time to take our leave.” With a jaunty tip of his hat to the galleon’s captain, he followed his men back to the Maid, where they readied the sails to tack into the wind.

“Take us to Kingston, Mr. Martin,” he instructed Willie. “I’m going below to inspect our cargo.”