Planning

Uncle was in his office when I came back inside, and I doubted I`d manage a straight face so I found business elsewhere. As I was packing up a shipment to a collector in France; uncle came out of his office. “Jamie, the man that came in the other day, with the pirate-book.” My brain did that freezing-thing where everything seems to slow down before he continued. “I`m trying to get in touch with him, I didn’t get his account-number.” I kept my head down, and my eyes on the package. “Oh, the guy with the Marquis De Sade? I paid him in cash, remember.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw uncle frown. “Yes, that`s right.” He was fumbling. “Well, it`s just that I think I missed on one of the books, so I think I owe him money.” I nearly rolled my eyes; no way uncle would ever pay a seller more after he`d left the store. “Sorry, I haven’t seen him anymore. Didn’t he leave a phone-number?” Uncle looked out the window, although I don’t know why, they were stained glass, you couldn’t see anything. “Aye, but he doesn’t answer.” I shrugged my shoulders. “He did say he was just in town to clean out an apartment, maybe he`s left for home?”

I thought I knew everything about Uncle Callum, but now I wondered. He just gave a noise and left. The day seemed to drag, I seldom got bored at job, but now that a real adventure waited for me, it felt like the old church walls were closing in on me. In between I got to look up some more about the part of Ireland we were going to, and some more about Henry. I`d read pretty much everything about him, but no danger in freshen up on the knowledge. I felt like a bad spy, hiding the book I was in fact reading inside the cover of another, just in case uncle crept up on me. Since I didn’t want him to know I had seen the man from earlier, I couldn’t ask about him either. I wished daddy were here. He would have thrown everything overboard and gone on the treasure-hunt with me, I`m sure.

By the end of the day, I had the route planned out. Cian had his car in Mullingar, so we would take a plane to Dublin, the train to Mullingar and then use his car. The drive up to Dunfanaghy was around 3,5 hours, not that bad. I`d rented a room at a B&B there, because of some ceilidh there were only one room available, but it was separated beds. We`d have to manage. My mouth dried by the thought of seeing Cian without a shirt, but I pushed the image away. “Keep the eyes on the price, Fraser.” I said to myself.

“What price?”

I dropped the book I was cataloguing. Closing my eyes to send a short prayer to the book-goods, I picked it up and saw that it was ok. This gave me time to think out an answer. “Oh, my days off, uncle. I`m really looking forward to some holiday.”

“Just make sure you get all your tasks done before you leave. I have other things do to than clean up after you.” In my head I repeated what Hamish had told me, that Uncle Callum might be jealous. “No problem, I`m nearly done with this, and I`ll stop by tomorrow morning to make sure everything is in order before I leave.” Satisfied with my answer, his dark looks brightened some. “Going somewhere special?” “Oh, not really, a trip down to London to check out the new exhibition on the Picts and do a little shopping maybe.” He smiled with his thin lips, “Have a nice trip then.” He turned, took a couple of steps and stopped. “You`ve earned some days off.” His voice was low, and I didn’t have time to reply before he was off.

I was running late so Cian was already there when I rushed in the door. The Malt Shovel was in the middle of the hill up to The Royal Mile and I had to go first up the one side and then down the other, so I was a bit out of breath. Uncle rarely ventured over to this side, so I reckoned it was safe.

I watched Cian before he spotted me, and once again it struck me how good he looked. I blushed as he raised his head and saw me. His face cracked into a big smile, and he waved. I unwrapped myself from my cold-barrier and took the chair opposite him.

“Good evening!” I bit my lip, that was lame. I tried again, “Hi!” Shaking my head, I just told him to wait and went to the bar. I wanted something warm, but the Irish coffee they made here wasn’t good. I ended up with just a whisky and a beer on the side. I took a small sip of the whisky before I said anything more, and I almost moaned when the warmth of the 16-year-old Ardbeg spread to my stomach.

“Good?”

“Best I`ve had in ages.”

Cian grinned, “Oh yeah? Too bad for you.”

I played the words over in my head and realised it could have innuendos. I pointed my finger at him, “You, behave.” He held his hands in the air, “I`ll be on my best behaviour.”

“I heard uncle had tried to call you. He didn’t mention a word about the man.”

“You mean the bad guy?” I nodded, he`d turned to the villain in my head as well, even though I don’t know why. I took my notebook up from my backpack, and Cian raised his eyebrows when he saw all the markings. “I feel like I should do more.” There was a question mark in his tone. “No, no. You need to finish up the apartment, I had some spare time at work today.” I took another sip of the whisky and Cian followed my movements. I tipped the glass in his direction, silently asking if he wanted a sip. He took the glass and nipped at the liquid. He too moaned, “That was good.” “If you liked that, you should try the Talisker Skye, I have that one at home.”

“We`ll see how the evening goes.” He nodded at the notebook. Too late I realised it sounded like I had invited him home, but that didn’t matter, there we would have privacy. I don’t know why I hadn’t invited him home earlier, maybe I was uncertain of him on some level.

“I`ve booked us plane-tickets to Dublin, I guess there won`t be any trouble getting to Mullingar?” Cian shook his head. “And then there`s a 3–4-hour drive to Dunfanaghy. I got us a room at Rockhaven House.” I crunched my nose, “They only had one room available, there`s some sort of ceilidh in the town. But it was separate beds.” Cian didn’t seem to care, “As long as you don’t snore.” I laughed. “I don’t. Or at least I don’t think so, I`ve never had anyone to tell me.” Over-sharing there.

“So, we can use that as a base and travel around. Daddy said to always talk to the locals, even if they tell fairy tales, odds are that they are rooted in real life events.”

“We are anchored up outside Royal Island, near Eleuthera. In the letter I sent to the Governor I have most graciously kept out the taking of the Indian ships, and instead insinuated that we have come up from Africa and that I need shore leave for me and my men. If he would accept a payment of 800 £ and my ship, and let it slide that we were slavers, then we would just take our leave and disappear. It hurts my very soul to give up my ship, we have seen so many things together. My first ship. Maybe my last, as the whole World is after my head. But I see no other way, The Fancy is as famous as I am. It will be far too dangerous to keep her. So now we wait for his decision. “