Blood Diamond: A Pirate Devlin Novel Read Online Free

had not removed his hand and stroked Timms’s affectionately. ‘The captain is resolute, Mister Timms. If he did not attend, he has good reason.’ Dandon squeezed the hand and bit out his words. ‘Perhaps he caught some wind of a trap? What is that option, Mister Timms?’ Dandon’s eyes searched the face, Timms close enough to taste the coffee on his breath. He looked at the hand pinching into his. To the room two men were speaking as close friends in front of the window, and Dandon’s implied threat was invisible.
    ‘There is no need for your master to fear, Dandon. The prince, and his country I assure you, need his assistance immediately. If he wishes to test our intentions, however, it will not go well for any of you. I can perfectly assure you of that, sir .’
    Dandon released his grip, resumed the smoothing of his beard. ‘Assume we are not talking against each other, Mister Timms, and that you know nothing of my captain. That I know nothing of my captain. Why does a man disappear in London?’ Dandon’s friendlier face reappeared, the one that dropped petticoats and opened locked doors. Timms relaxed.
    ‘I suppose he may be drunk?’ Timms suggested. Dandon carefully shook his head. ‘Lost then?’ Dandon choked a little. Devlin had a compass in his head. ‘ Dead ?’ Dandon hooked Timms’s arm and began to leave, snapping for his hat and his winnings. He whispered into Timms’s attentive ear.
    ‘Mister Timms, would His Highness spend the time and a substantial sum of the South Sea Company’s money to find a man who might turn up drunk, lost or dead? Would you suppose that might be the prince’s best reasoning?’
    Timms rubbed his nose and thought on. ‘Perhaps not. But what am I to say on my return?’
    Dandon took his hat and weighed his change in his fist and handed over a shilling. Outside the August evening was drawing in, the lamplighters in stately progress along Chesterfield.
    ‘If my captain is absent it is not of his own designing I assure you, and it is certainly not with intention to displease the prince.’ He led Timms outside and pulled on a pair of yellow gloves. ‘Tell me Timms, do you have any power within this town?’
    Timms tapped an inner pocket as he spoke. ‘I have a royal seal and warrant to enter any place within the city. More than you I suspect, Mister Dandon.’
    Dandon concentrated on his gloves and cuffs, thinking about the hundred pirates and twenty-four guns at Deptford. ‘I doubt that but never mind. It would however be wise to find the captain – if London would wish to avoid another fire, that is.’
    He joined Timms on the street and plucked his sleeve. ‘Oh, and to your earlier allusion, Mister Timms, the pirate Devlin is not my “master”. He is my friend . And as such I will scour this city with a devotion beyond your loyalty to your prince.’ He sniffed and meandered into Mayfair Row, without intelligence of where he might be heading. ‘We should spy on the gaols of your town. That would be my first observance.’
    Timms hurriedly matched Dandon’s pace. ‘The gaols?’
    ‘Of course, Mister Timms. He is a pirate after all, and if he did not meet me, and he did not meet your prince, it is from no will of his own. Take me to them. Your gaols. Before he starts killing his way out of your city.’
    Timms’s voice wavered. ‘Is that a genuine concern?’ But Dandon did not hear, his attention snared by the white, white bosom and glowing youth of the orange-girl daintily blocking his path. He parted with two pennies and a golden smile for a paper pottle cone of cherries and received a coy backwards glance for his trade as she glided away, her basket swinging off her hip. Timms stepped into Dandon’s lingering gaze as the first of the cherries popped in his mouth.
    ‘We should try Marshalsea first. That is the seafarers’ gaol.’
    Dandon nodded as he chewed and resumed his walk. ‘I would think that should be the place to start indeed. Is it