A Riddle in Ruby Read Online Free Page A

behind her and barely had enough time to place herself in glum style under a sunbeam on a pile of sailcloth before her father’s immaculate boots dropped into view through the hole leading to the deck.
    Captain Wayland Teach was a big man, and he levered himself to the floor of the hold like a careful pumpkin.Ruby looked up from the needlepoint she had rescued in the nick of time from the front pocket of her dress. Her father lifted up the eyepatch he wore over his left eye, which was just as good as his right.
    â€œArr. There ya be, me lassie,” he growled, fully Brownbeard style. She hated it.
    â€œArrrrrrrr,” he rolled at her, raising his bushy eyebrows. “I looked for ya in your cabin, and you wasn’t harbored there, so I set sail down here, and here ya arrrrre, as fresh a young lady as ever I set me eyes on.”
    â€œHow can I help you, Father?” she asked, picking at the needlepoint.
    â€œWe have passengers. I thought mayhap ye might wish to make pleasant conversation and to provide cultured diversion for our guests.”
    She was fair certain that real pirates didn’t say “mayhap.” “Are not the daring stories of Blackbeard’s brother food enough for any man?” she asked brightly.
    He plucked at the worn lace cuff peeking from the ragged leather overcoat he wore on even the hottest days of summer. He was angry. “Aye, but ye cannot seasonevery night’s beef with gunpowder and deadly storms,” he rumbled. “A young lady’s company can brighten the cabin of the meanest scalawag.”
    The Thrift was a small ship, and there was little privacy anywhere. They might be overheard by their two passengers, and Ruby took advantage of that fact not for the first time.
    â€œI fear I have a touch of seasickness, and I may not be fit company.”
    â€œArr, well, mayhap the night breeze will bring you some relief.” He leaned in, looming, and stared at her hard.
    â€œDo your job, Ruby,” he growled, no trace of pirate in his voice. “This young prig is bored out of his skull, and my yarns fell on tin ears last night. Dinner was a disaster, and after was worse. Skillet and Mawk did ‘I’ll Kill You for That Whiskey,’ but he loathed it, and Remy Flatfoot could not even get him to crack a smile.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œHe slipped on a bucket, some pudding, his own feet. They even brought out one of the goats. Nothing.”
    â€œWhat is that to me?” she whispered right back. “They’ll be in Philadelphi in three more days, and we’ll have our money. Why do you want me to—”
    â€œThis is important,” he pleaded. “There were no goods to be had in Boston and no goods in two ports before that. Our purse is light, and we need this lad to enjoy his stay with us so he will recommend us up the ladder. Please, girl.”
    â€œWhat ladder?”
    â€œHe is close with the Tinkers, and from England as well. If we can tap into those markets—”
    â€œThen we shall have more fire, ice, and noxious gas on the Thrift ? Or even better, stuffy lords and ladies full of their own noxious gases? No, thank you.”
    â€œIt puts bread in our bellies and keeps us afloat. They pay far more for a ferry with a jolly pirate crew than just a ferry. They want to take their passage with a hint of mystery and adventure and add on the best grub in the colonies.”
    â€œFather, they laugh at you. We are no pirates, and this is beneath you.”
    He looked at her sidewise. “It keeps us safe.”
    She gritted her teeth. “But what is the point of harmless thievery? Safe pirating?”
    His face was bleak under the thistle of his beard. “When you pass Gwath’s test, you can do as you like. But for now you are my daughter, Aruba Teach, and you will do as I say.”
    â€œI cannot.”
    â€œWhy?”
    She could not tell him of the failed carriage robbery. Not