“It be Christmas Eve, Cap’n. The lads are just having a bit a fun. Ye know that as well as I.” Slipping inside the room, he closed the door and leaned back against it with his arms folded. “And tomorrow’s Christmas Day. Maddie and the girls done promised them all a fine pudding and as many songs as they like. Free of charge.”
That announcement irked him even more. Maddie and her girls at the brothel could celebrate the holiday any way they wished, but they best be leaving his men out of it. “I forbid it.” He gave up attempting to reload the pistol and threw it back to the table. “Tell them I forbid it. Hie yerself down there at once.” He washed down the order with another swig, then glared at the man who still hadn’t moved. “Why the hell ye still standin’ there, man?”
Hobbs scrubbed a hand down his face. “Ye know ye dinna mean such an order, Cap’n.”
“The devil I don’t.” He attempted another hard pull off his bottle only to discover it empty. “Dammit!” A raw growl improved his aim as he lobbed the spent vessel at the hearth. Empty satisfaction filled him as it shattered. He turned back to the quartermaster. “What the hell happened to my order to keep the captain’s quarters stocked and at the ready? Do all in this keep need a reminder of who I am and what I expect?”
“Ye’ve already gone through all of it?” Hobbs stared at him in wonder, then maneuvered his way deeper into the cluttered room filled with nothing but the best of stolen goods. He kicked aside several empties with the toe of his boot. “Ye’ve been holed up here near on three days now. My guess is they’re afeared to enter. Young Kip said ye tossed him out on his arse the last time he brought wood for yer fire. Ye know not a one of’m dares cross ye.”
“Ye’re always making excuses for them!” Tait dropped himself into a chair in front of the hearth. The unshakeable bleakness, dark with ominous whispers, threatened to choke him. Head propped in one hand, he stared into the flames. “Always making excuses for’m,” he mumbled. Fool Hobbs. Too damned soft to be a proper quartermaster. Times like this, he wondered why he even kept the man around. “Always making excuses!” he repeated louder for Hobbs’s benefit.
“As I often do for yerself,” the quartermaster said quietly. He pulled up a chair and sat beside him. “Yer mood is blacker than I’ve ever seen it. Ye’ve spent Christmas here at the Cove before when the weather’s been foul. What ails ye, Cap’n?” A kindly smile softened the man’s scowl. “I know ye miss yer cousin’s wee scalawags, but ye’ll see’m come spring. What is it, man? Tell old Hobbs yer troubles.”
“I’m going to die alone, and when I am gone, there’ll be nary a thing on this earth to show I was once here.” His greatest fear escaped him before he could stop it. He stared into the hearth, losing himself in the shimmer of the glowing coals. Slowly, he shifted and locked eyes with his friend. “I’m getting older, Hobbs, and I fear it. Fear the loneliness of no one giving a damn nor weeping o’er my bones once I’m dead.”
“Alone? Why, the Cove’s full o’ yer men. And ye’ll be remembered as Captain Tait Mackenzie, pirate lord of the seven seas!” The quartermaster tilted his head toward the window. “A fleet of ships awaits yer command, and all fear the Demon Mackenzie’s wrath.” He snorted and gave Tait a pointed look. “Especially in yer current mood. And how many nights—other than the past few where the devil himself couldna get along with ye—how many nights have ye ever spent alone in that bed? In any bed, for that matter? Maddie and every one of her girls would laugh to hear ye say such. I could call any one of them right now, and they’d come a runnin’.”
But Hobbs’s heart wasn’t in the reassurance. Even as drunk as he was, Tait could see it in his friend’s eyes. He slowly shook his head and slumped deeper into the chair. “Aye, and in the blink of an eye, every last one of them would leave me. Ye know that. Always other pirates and better fortunes to follow. None of them have any real ties to me. Gold and prosperity are the only bonds that hold them.”
Hobbs pushed up