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Ed lay beneath Stede, the man’s eyes wide and wild and his skin pallid. They were both sweating, gasping for air and Stede held him down with a strength he wouldn’t have had as a younger man.
The ship medic didn’t bother counting down, he just inhaled and then wrested Ed’s broken arm back into place. Ed wouldn’t have blacked out normally. His pain tolerance was a refined beast, but the blow from the boom had gotten his ribs which Stede leaned on to keep him from jerking away. The combination was a mercy blow pulled him under.
When he came to, the storm they’d been sailing under for days had cleared away. He could see the stars through the small window. He tried to figure out how far they’d gone while he was out. Stede was laid out beside him, crammed against the wall. Usually he slept on the outside, boxing Ed in against the wall as if he could stop the world from invading them. Too bad it had been Ed’s right arm that had taken the brunt. He far preferred Stede lodged like a barnacle to Ed’s right side with one hand locked on to Ed’s left shoulder, keeping him where he belonged.
“You’re awake.” Stede’s eyes cracked open. “Why are you awake?”
“Can’t sleep forever,” he grumbled.
“It’s only been an hour or two. I was hoping you’d get a little more relief. The medic has some opium if you want it.”
“No.” He turned a little to face him and fire shot down his side. “Maybe later. Did it work?”
“Aside from your little mishap? Yes, the Dutch must believe we’re dead.”
“Good.” He couldn’t reach out and he could already feel frustration rising.
“If you were to retire, where would you go?” Stede asked, his eyes shining bright in the dark. They played these kinds of games often. They’d built entire towns together, and become a hundred professions. You had to find a way to pass the time on a ship. Half their job was waiting.
“I’d want a place where I could still sail,” he said immediately.
“Of course.” Stede reached out and gently lay a hand on Ed’s hip. The annoyance ebbed away as if it had never been. “A house by the sea.”
“Something small that we could manage on our own. No servants poking their noses in.”
“We’ll need someone. I’m terrible with an iron.”
“One person then. But they don’t live there.”
“No, we’d want our privacy,” Stede agreed readily. “Maybe far off enough from town that we’d see anyone coming, but close enough to walk.”
“Big windows,” Ed decided, glancing up at their porthole. “That open up all the way in the to let in the breeze.”
“So you’d want to stay somewhere warm?”
“I like the heat,” he insisted. He did like it, but he’d also noticed the way Stede fingers grew stiff on colder days. He’d rub them together over and over first thing in the morning, willing back their old flexibility. “I’d make us those fans that the fancy houses have. You can sort of wind them up and they blow air on you.”
“I’ve seen them.”
“Have a whole shop. Blackbeard’s Fan Emporium.”
“You’d have to call it something else.” Stede’s laugh was quiet, restrained. “We’d need new names.”
“It’s your turn to come up with names,” he reminded him. “No Shakespere this time though, I’m warning you.”
“I thought you made a dashing Horatio.”
“Horatio’s Fan Emporium sounds awful.”
“What about Edward’s Fan Emporium?”
“That’s not a made up name.”
“I know that, but we could make up the last name,” Stede reasoned. “Edwards aren’t a rare species, you know.”
“Stedes are.”
“So I’ll change mine. What do you think of James?”
“Hate it.”
“Toby?”
“Absolutely not.”
Ed fell back asleep mid-banter. This time when he woke, Stede was dressed and sitting at the table, writing something with intense concentration. His attire had by now settled into something between gentleman and pirate. He still wore his tight pants, but his fussy heeled shoes had given way to practical, if overshined and silver buckled, boots. His shirt was clean and starched, but the overcoat was no longer so pristine. This one was a light blue, patched with a color just a shade off on both elbows and marred by a hasty set of black stitching along the left lapel where it had met the business end of a sword.
His hair’s natural golden hue was slowly fading straight into white, skipping over gray entirely. Years in the sun had made his skin ruddy and speckled in freckles. Wrinkles had gathered along the sides of his mouth, adding a depth of expression to his smiles and frowns. Gold spectacles perched atop his nose, appearing only in private to read or write.
Sometimes he was so beautiful, Ed had to close his eyes and look away.
“What are you writing?” He sat up, ignoring the pulsing agony of his arm.
“Mm, a few things to sort out.” Stede glanced at him then back to his papers. “There’s breakfast under the cloche if you want it.”
“Thanks.”
It still boggled his mind that he had become the kind of person who knew what a cloche was and possessed more than one. He got up to sit at the table, lifting the metal dome to reveal food that smelled excellent. It was clumsy to eat with his left hand, so he took his time.
“I’m going to head out this afternoon,” Stede said calmly.
“What?” Ed stopped eating. “Where? Why?”
“To find you a house with big windows.” Setting down his pen, Stede looked at him steadily. He always met Ed’s gaze now. They had no reason to look away.
“That was just talk,” he protested.
“Not for me, Ed. I’m done with all this,” he swept his hand around the cabin. There was still evidence of the desperate medicine practiced the night before and the tang of panic sweat filled the air. “I’m done with one of us at death’s door once a month.”
“It’s not that often and I was hardly going to die of a broken arm,” he protested.
“You don’t know that.” His voice was unyielding. “I was holding you down, thinking about how if it’d been a foot or to hire it would’ve been your head instead of your arm. I realized that it was the last time for me. I don’t have enough...me left, I suppose. I can’t keep doing it. We’re only growing slower.”
“Speak for yourself.” His grip on his fork was tightening.
“I shan’t. Or did you get hit by the boom on purpose?”
The truth was that Ed wasn’t sure what had happened. He’d heard a shout behind him and he’d gotten distracted. It was only when the boom hit him that he realized it had been a warning. Everything after that was hazy.
“I’m better than I ever was. Look what we pulled off! Our greatest fuckery yet!”
“Then we can go out on a high. How many years do you think we have left, you and I? Because if we keep on like this, I think they’ll be vanishingly small. The luck will run out.”
“This is what we are, Stede. You want to turn our backs on it?”
“You were willing to once upon a time.”
The words sat like lead between them. Ed had been willing and Stede had poisoned the well. The years of misunderstandings and near misses still festered between them sometimes. It had been easier to forget that he’d ever wanted that. This was the life they were able to live together. Having adventures, risking their necks. This was how they worked together.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” Stede muttered.
“That was a long time ago. Things are different now.”
“I want to spend whatever life I have left with you,” Stede tried again. “ We’ve conquered oceans, seen amazing things. We’ve done enough for fifteen men. Now, I want a house by the sea. I want to go to sleep without thinking even once that it might be the last time we do so together. Don’t you want that?”
Ed knew he could keep going. His fate was death on the sea, bleeding into the deck of his ship, preserved forever as a legend. So what if that meant he went out sooner rather than later? He’d already lived far longer and with more joy than he’d ever counted on.
But Stede had never been built for this. The man had reconstructed himself against the grain of his wood. He had been created to live and die in a big house with hands so smooth, you knew they had never seen labor. He should’ve lived to be a great-grandfather, rocking on a porch swing and telling rambling stories.
“I don’t know.”
Stede finally looked away. His lips were pursed in that way he had which suggested tears without producing them.
“You’ll need somewhere to lie low while you heal. The medic said so. At least a month.”
“Probably,” he allowed.
“So let me find a place. We burned the last safe house.”
“You burned it,” Ed reminded him. “I told you not to put the lamp so close to that rag pile.”
“Another time I should’ve yielded to your vast wisdom. Even if you were the one to knock it over.”
“I was proving a point.”
“About how much rum you could safely consume?”
“All of it. The answer is all of it.”
“In any case, let me find a place to hole up for now. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” he said reluctantly. His ribs ached, his arm felt like it was trying to self-immolate and he wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t taken a blow to the head. A few weeks tucked away would be fine. More than enough time to convince Stede that the retirement thing was nonsense.
“Fine, I’ll set out tonight and I’ll send someone when I find a place.”
“Fine.” Ed sat back in his chair.
“Oh, don’t make that face.” Stede’s expression finally softened and he came around the table, sitting on the edge between Ed’s legs. “It’ll just be a few days and then I’ll be fussing over until you want to kill me again.”
“Will you make me breakfast in bed?” He asked, intending to be light, but it came out a little plaintive. That was unfortunate.
“If you promise to keep the crumbs on your side.”
Stede leaned in for a kiss which Ed was helpless to resist and then he was off, packing up a rucksack and giving brisk orders through the door. Within the hour, he was gone. Ed got back into bed, propped up on pillows. He should sleep, but the throbbing was really something now.
It turned out to be a hellish few days. He couldn’t leave the cabin, what with the supposedly-being-dead thing, and the man assigned to tend to him was clearly terrified. So there was food and offers of medicine, but mostly he was left to his own devices. He paced and read the few books that they had about the place.
By the time he spotted an unusual sloop coming abreast of them, he would have been equally happy to go aboard or kill everyone on it. Lucky for his bad arm, it was his ride. He’d been mostly packed since Stede left and it was quick enough to finish it off with a few of the personal effects and it was as if they'd never been there. It had never really felt like their ship, too many strangers on the crew and the cabin was the wrong shape. Better to leave it behind. They could afford a new ship when they were ready to sail again.
The sloop was attended by only two, both quiet and uninterested in his talk. They showed him into a hammock below decks. He didn’t sleep well there either, but at least he could go above and take in the air whenever he liked.
“How long until our destination?”
“Two nights,” drawled the crew member with the unfortunately large nose and a very bushy mustache.
He spotted the island before either of the crew made moves to steer towards it. It wasn’t tiny, but it wasn’t the kind of place that people would fight wars over either. A spit of green in the boundless glittering water with the crest of rooftops just visible at the center. The sloop docked alongside two dozen other vessels, mostly fishing boats. One or two slightly larger ships looked to belong to traders and another a pleasure barge hosting a party. Nothing military.
“Thanks for the ride,” he shouldered his bag carefully.
“You’ll head up that path.” The man with the unfortunate nose pointed the tip of his knife toward a dirt path headed up the hill. “It’s the only house up there.”
He nodded and stepped onto the pier. A knife point slid to the back of his neck, and he gripped the bag, prepared to fight.
“You should stay put, Captain.” The voice was familiar, calling him back through the years.
“Or what?” He snarled.
“Or nothing.” The knife fell away. “Less a threat and more an unfriendly piece of advice. It’s hard enough to find a place like this. Harder still to get it twice.”
“Where’d he dig you up from, Jim?”
“I got you here as a favor. We’re finally even, all of us now. Let’s keep it that way.”
With one smooth movement, the sloop disengaged from the pier. The wind picked up and it departed at speed with Jim still staring Ed down across the waves. Where had Stede even found them? Had they kept in touch?
That was enough mystery for him to chew over as he followed the dirt path up the hill. The ocean never went far, the shore only a few yards away. There were lush trees and bushes heavy with flowers guiding him upward. The air was sweet and even with the fading sun, it was warm.
The cottage was camouflaged nicely by the foliage. It was small, a tidy square of clapboard with wide windows. There was a small porch and a ratty patch of dirt that might be a garden beside it. There was a light in the window facing the path, a lantern flickering through the glass. Ed was starting to feel the walk in his ribs, he sped up a little.
“There you are.” Stede opened the front door. He must’ve been watching for him and the thought made it easy to walk the last few steps. “I thought Jim had decided to kill you after all.”
“Was that a risk?” Ed laughed.
“Well, it wasn’t not a risk.” Stede winked. He was awful at winking. His whole face scrunched up. Ed kissed him eagerly. Whatever he’d been up to, it had included locating good soap and he smelled deliciously of bergamot and cedar.
“Thanks for keeping me on my toes.” He rumbled in the way that usually got Stede right into bed.
“Well I- Good god, man, you look awful.” Stede had pulled back a fraction to look him in the eye. “Have you slept at all?”
“Course I have. Slept plenty.”
“You know you have a tell when you lie.”
“Do not.”
“Do too. Come inside. I bought dinner in town and saved you some.”
Inside, the cottage was nice. Charming, even. The kitchen was large enough for a cook to move around without knocking into the chairs at the rough hewn table. The windows had no curtains and there were no rugs on the floor. Minimal furniture, but places more could go without cluttering it up. There was a short hallway, a door open to reveal a bed already full dressed. That was Stede’s work, making a nest before worrying about chairs.
“Sit,” Stede ordered and Ed gratefully took the chair, accepting the bowl of stew that Stede set before him.
“Nice place,” he conceded as he chewed through a lump of what might be goat meat. “How’d you find it so fast?”
“I asked around,” Stede said in the vague way that meant he was lying. Ed decided to let it go for now. “It came partially furnished.”
“Including the bed?”
“Most of it.”
“How do you have most of a bed?”
“They had the furniture part, I just provided the mattress.”
“You got a mattress in two days?”
“I stole it, obviously,” Stede said amused.
“You stole a mattress.”
“I stole a mattress.”
“Are you going to tell me how?”
“If you finish eating and get into bed. You’re making me tired just looking at you.”
“Maybe you’re just tired.”
“Of course I’m tired. I’ve been worrying myself sick over you,” Stede huffed. “You’re an awful patient and I left you alone.”
“I’ve survived worse.”
“Who cares!” Sted threw his hands in the air. “So have I. So has everyone we’ve ever met! That doesn’t mean we have to endure everything like we’re going to the gallows. I’m tired because I missed you and getting this place ready was ridiculous. Do you know the last time I swept anything? Because I certainly don’t.”
“Maybe you should be the one to lay down.”
“I had hoped it would be a mutual activity.”
It was a comfortable bed and the sheets were freshly laundered. They both got under the covers naked which Ed found promising, even if his arm was unwieldy in its splint.
“I used the old Roman trick for the mattress,” Stede confessed after he blew out the candle.
“You did not. That never works!”
“It did this time.” The blankets fell around them, almost too warm for the room.
“You have my attention.”
Only it turned out that a week of next-to-no sleep meant that Stede mostly had a sleeping lump. He slept so long that when he woke up, it was to Stede taking his pulse.
“Odd way to grope a man,” he muttered, bemused.
“It’s been twenty-six hours, forgive me for looking for signs of life.”
“You could just get a mirror, hold it up to my mouth.”
“Or I could hold your hand.” Stede smiled. He was in Ed’s favorite dressing gown. It was a size too large and constantly slipped off Stede’s shoulders. Definitely a favorite.
They ate breakfast on the porch. Partially furnished meant they pulled the kitchen chairs outside, but then it was perfect. The view was spectacular, greenery dropping off to a pristine white beach and the familiar rise and fall of the waves. It smelled good this far up, too distant for the stink of fish, just the clean tang of salt in the air.
“I think I’m going to clear out the kitchen garden,” Stede declared.
“Why bother?”
“Oh, just something to do. Want to go for a walk about the place first? Get the lay of the land?”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
They kept fairly close to the cottage. Stede seemed to have a direction in mind, so Ed let him lead. It was funny how often it came to that these days. They could pass the baton of leadership between them without a word.
“Look at this!” Stede circled down around the hill. “Isn’t it something?”
Ed prepared his polite-interest face, carefully honed over years especially for Stede, but it dropped away quickly.
“Is this a smuggler’s cave?”
“Absolutely,” Stede said smugly, ducking only a little to get inside. It had the marks of long ago occupation: faded cuts in the stone, a fire pit filled up with sand. Deep as a seaside cave went and remarkably dry. The perfect place to stow elicit goodies. “I found it the first night. Checked for anything left behind, no such luck. Thought it might be just the place to tuck our own bits and bobs though.”
“It’s perfect,” he agreed. “No one else comes around here?”
“Apparently a previous owner had a bad habit of shooting trespassers with a blunderbuss full of nails, so anyone who might be interested learned to go the long way around.”
“Nails, huh? Did the house come with the blunderbuss?”
“Thankfully no. It sounds like a recipe for losing fingers.”
After the walk, they steered back to the house.
“Why don’t you have another lie down?” Stede suggested. “I’ll make lunch.”
“I just slept for more than a day, I don’t need a nap.”
“Still. Can’t hurt.”
Of course, he fell asleep almost immediately.
It set a pattern for the next few days. Ed slept and Stede somehow pulled meals together. When he was awake, Stede found simple ways to occupy them. There was a checkers board with a few missing pieces, so Ed rockhunted to replace them. They played a few games, neither of them coming out ahead. There were books, of course, summoned from whatever magical space Stede stored them. Usually Stede read aloud to him, tales of adventure or bits of the local paper.
Eventually, they made their way into town. It was a friendly enough place, most of the residents worked at the big coffee farm on the far side of the island, but there were other small businesses along with fishers and farmers that did good trade with bigger island not too far away. The single pub served decent beer and very good hot meals.
Best of all, no one was particularly curious. They asked questions, of course, but seemed content with simple answers.
“You must be Edward,” the bartender said when they sat at the bar. “Stephen said you’d be coming along. Do you like the cottage?”
“It’s solidly built.”
“Should be, it’s one of the oldest houses on the island. Made from the ship that first landed here.”
“Where’d they get the glass?”
“Beats me. Seen some unusual ships in my day. Might’ve been one that had a lot of portholes. Rich types do all sorts of strange things.”
“You hear that Stephen?” Ed glanced at Stede with a wry grin.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Stede said merrily.
They’d both kept it to a single beer. Getting drunk was more of a liability these days and it was best to do so in private, if at all. It was easy when sober to make out a distressed sound as they headed back.
Curiosity drew him to the alleyway, Stede on his heels. A young woman was backed against the wall, her hands curled into fists. A man was looming over her, reaching for her shirt. She must’ve already clocked him, judging by the split lip he was sporting. They should probably walk away. They were lying low after all.
“Excuse me.” Ed stepped into the alley. “This is our alleyway tonight.”
“Perhaps you’d consider moving along?” Stede asked hopefully.
“Who asked you?” The man was clearly drunk and his swing went wild. Ed caught his fist and Stede, acting easily as his right hand, aimed low. The blow shook the man and between the two of them they made short work of him.
“I’ll get him behind the building,” Stede decided. “You shouldn’t with your ribs.”
“I could do it.”
Stede was already hooking his arms under the man’s armpits and dragging him off none-too-gently.
“Thank you,” the young lady said, her voice shaky. “I can’t believe he’d do that. I’ve known him for years without a problem.”
“First time for everything. Might want to start carrying a knife.”
“I think I will.”
She stepped away from the wall, straightening her clothes with clear distress. Out in the moonlight now, she looked even younger. Probably not yet twenty.
“I’m Juniper,” she told him. “And if you want free eggs any time, they're yours.”
“Thanks, I like a good scramble.”
“You’re the ones that moved to the cottage, right?”
“That’s us.” Ed revised the size of the town down a notch in his mind.
“Do you need some help around the place?”
“We do.” Stede reappeared. “Rather desperately as it happens. We wouldn’t need someone full time. We can manage breakfast, but lunch and dinner and someone to tidy a little would be perfect.”
“Considering that was my boss...” Her eyes drifted to the back of the alley., “Is he dead?”
“No,” Stede wiped his hands on a handkerchief. “He’ll be fine. Eventually.”
They negotiated a fee as they stepped back onto the street and walked Juniper to her door. She lived in a tiny place with a giant chicken coop in front of it. A few goats regarded them sleepily from their pen.. She said a last thank you and then disappeared inside.
“That’s one problem solved.” Stede turned back down the road toward the cottage.
“I liked that kick,” Ed slung his good arm around Stede’s shoulder. “Very high, good form.”
“Wasted on him. We could’ve knocked him down by blowing on him too hard, considering his level of inebriation.”
Juniper showed up at noon the next day. Lunch was phenomenal and the kitchen was spotless.
“Fate smiled on us,” Stede announced over an empty plate.
“Have more,” Juniper set a second portion in front of Ed. “You look like you’ve put too much space between good meals.”
She baked too and left for the evening, having settled them with an excellent dinner and scones for breakfast the next day. They broke into them early and ate one a piece on the porch.
“Did the sun wake you this morning?” Stede asked, brushing crumbs off his shirt.
“Mmm, bound to with windows like that.”
“I’m going to see if Juniper can whip up some curtains. What do you think of white with red flowers? I saw a bolt in the shop for not too much.”
“Lot of fuss for just a few weeks.”
“It’d be nice to sleep in.”
“All I’m doing is sleeping, but fine. Do as you like.”
The curtains were a nice addition. They did brighten the place up. Ed didn’t tell Stede, but he had a feeling he knew anyway. A few days later they happened to be at the dock when a trade ship came in.
“Look at those chairs!” Stede all, but dragged him to a fine pair of armchairs, covered in a red velvet. “They’d go perfectly with the curtains.”
“I’d give you a discount,” the trader said wearily. “I’ve been toting them around for months after the buyer no-showed and no one else’s interested.”
“Whatever you want.” Ed shrugged.
They borrowed a cart to get the chairs up the hill. Ed made a passing effort at help and was rebuffed with a roll of the eyes in the general direction of his arm, so he spent the walk back making encouraging noises as Stede dissolved into a puddle of sweat.
“Why did I think this was a good idea?”
“Wearing five layers in the hottest part of the day or not paying someone to help haul them?” Ed held the cart stead so Stede could tug the chairs off the cart.
“Both,” he moaned.
They did look perfect in the corner near the largest window. Stede set them up facing each other, close enough that their legs would knock together when they sat in them. Comfortable too. Sometimes when Stede was messing about in the garden, Ed would perch on the arm of one to stare out at the sea and idly pet the velvet.
Around week four, Stede came in from outside, sitting on the small bench he’d acquired and set by the door as a place to remove their boots. He looked up and said with all the exasperation he could fit in his body,
“Ed!”
“What?” The splint lay in pieces on the floor. It’d been a task getting it off with just a knife and his left hand, but the relief was worth it. “It’s been four weeks.”
“I was going to have the doctor visit tomorrow and have a look. What if it’s not healed yet?”
“Then I’ll have a funny arm.”
“Let’s have a look then.” Stede heaved off his boots, and still managing through his annoyance to place them neatly under the bench.
He came to Ed’s side with an extra harumph so his disgruntlement was made clear. He gently picked up the arm. The skin was sensitive after its long hibernation and Ed was acutely aware of every callous. “How’s it feel?”
“Some sword practice every day should get it back into fighting shape.”
As predictable as the sun setting, Stede’s anger disappeared immediately.
“I’m game if you are!”
Even with his weakened arm, Stede couldn’t match him, but they had a good time doing it. The clang of their blades made music. His arm ached more than he cared to admit afterwards. Probably best to stay put another week or so at least until it faded.
Juniper’s meals filled them both out a little, flesh that Ed hadn’t noticed they were missing. Maybe it was the food, maybe it was the lack of stress, but the bags disappeared from under Stede’s eyes and his laugh came more frequently.
With the splint gone, they had far more sex too. Usually in their bed, but sometimes a tumble under the flowering vines was just the thing. The deep bathtub had its allure too. They’d never been timid with each other after the first few times, but there had never really been an opportunity to indulge whenever they liked and they both went a little mad with it. Once, Stede even went to his knees on the beach even though they’d both long since swore off nudity anywhere near sand.
Ed felt glutted on company, sex, food and comforts. It was dizzying to go from morning to night without a single want unfulfilled. Just when he’d start to feel itchy, something would come up.
“Can you split a few logs?” Stede would ask and the afternoon would be lost to sharpening the ax and doing the work. Or Juniper would need someone to string the laundry line up where she couldn’t reach to do the sheets.
And one day, when he’d walked down on the docks on his own, he made small talk with the harbourmaster about the tides.
“That sloop is sitting low,” he observed. “Is it leaking?”
“It’s only a little. We mostly use it as an emergency backup. Be unfortunate if it sank on the way to help out a sinking ship, hm? None of my people noticed it,” the harbourmaster smiled. “Mind giving me a hand for some coin?”
He came home with coins jingling and the promise of work when he wanted it. Which he wouldn’t obviously. If only his damn arm would stop aching at night.
“Do you think we should get end tables for the bedroom?” Stede asked when he showed him his earnings. “So we have a place for a glass of water or something?”
“You mean for your books and spectacles.”
“That too.”
“What’s the point, we’ll be gone soon enough.”
Yet, Ed put the coins in Stede’s hand, folded his fingers around them.
“What else are we spending it on?” Stede tucked the coins in his pocket without hesitation. “Anyway, we could take a little trip. Shouldn’t be too risky if we keep our heads down.”
A trip would be good. Go out into the wide world and remember what they were missing.
“When do you want to go?”
“Might as well make it tomorrow.”
They dressed as simply as they could and Ed let Stede do the clever braid thing he’d figured out to make Ed’s hair look far shorter. With broad hats that kept off the sun as well as disguising them, they called it good enough.
“What will we take?”
“Oh, I bought a dinghy to get here and kept it around. Nothing remarkable, but it should get us here to there.”
It was serviceable enough and the next largest island was only an hour or so of rowing away. The bigger crowd was startlingly loud after the peace of the last few weeks. The market was full of hawkers and there were so many horses that the stink of manure was unavoidable. It took far too much time for Stede to settle on his purchases and arrange for their delivery to the dinghy.
“And I’ll pay someone else to haul them up to the house this time before you say a word,” Stede clucked.
“I haven’t made a peep.”
“I can see it in your eyes. Dinner?”
There were more choices at the place they found themselves at, but their bread wasn’t as soft as Juniper’s.
“Do you want to stay the night?” Stede leaned in close enough that Ed could count his lashes. They were still golden and delicate as a whisper. Such a pretty thing his man could be sometimes.
“Let’s go back now,” he decided, already planning to halt their voyage midway for a rough and ready dalliance.
He forgot his plan to show Stede the pleasures of the wider world. Instead, he reminded him of the pleasures of their tiny world of two. They didn’t make it home that night. Instead, they slept under the stars. It felt right, just the two of them tumbled on top of a lone scratch blanket.
When they reached the island, a warmth in Ed’s chest unfolded that he couldn’t name. The harbourmaster greeted them and was happy enough to strike a deal to have someone bring the end tables up before the end of the day. As they walked back up the hill, Ed’s smile broadened when he spotted the cottage again at last.
“Race you to the bath,” he challenged.
“It won’t be filled!” Stede protested, but he was already taking off with a cackle. Ed outpaced him until Stede tackled him into the dirt and they wrestled in front of the patio.
“Welcome home,” Juniper said amused, looming over them from the steps. “Want me to fill the tub for you?”
“Please.” Stede said through gasps of laughter. Ed had reached the ticklish spot behind his knees. “If you wouldn’t mind.”
That night, something woke Ed. A distant sound perhaps or an animal rustling in the bushes. He stayed still for several breaths, just in case, but no threat presented itself. The other side of the bed was empty and cold, so he reluctantly left the bed behind. He found Stede in the ill-fitting dressing gown, leaning against the window, looking out over the water. There was a cup of tea in his hands.
The moonlight was striking in his hair. For a moment, he looked just as he had all those years. Then his shifted, drawing the gown back up his shoulder and the light hit his face. There was Ed’s Stede again, a little more worn perhaps, but all the more dear for it.
Ed slid in next to him, inveigling a hand under the robe and around his waist. There were puckers and ridges to trace, but also long patches of unmarred skin silky soft to the touch.
“Did I wake you?” Stede settled against him.
“Nah.”
“I had a nightmare,” Stede said easily. He would just confess these things as if it meant nothing, no matter how the world tried to make him regret it.
“The blood monster thing again?”
“No, it was less obvious than that. I was walking through a ship that I’d never been on before. It was empty. I kept opening doors and finding nothing.”
“Creepy. Ghost ship?”
“Maybe. Anyway, I wasn’t going back to sleep after that.”
“Any more of that tea? Might as well join you.”
“Of course, love.”
Ed’s heart always beat double time when Stede called him that. He had no idea if Stede knew. Wasn’t sure if he wanted him to know or not. Tea poured, Ed sat in his red velvet chair and tugged Stede into his lap. They didn’t speak, watching as the sun pulled itself up over the horizon.
If they’d been on a ship, someone would be banging into their room already with questions and demands. They’d be bickering before breakfast, trying to sort out who they were running away from and what they should be targeting. It would be exciting and he’d get to see Stede give a motivational speech or make a bold attempt at climbing the mast. Nightmare or not, they would have plunged headlong into their day. There wasn’t much time for sunrises.
This worked. The two of them in a chair at the edge of the known world, sipping tea and saying little. This was them working too. Maybe...just maybe, it was them working even better than they ever had before. Maybe this was the life that he’d conjured up on the beach all those years ago. They’d never had to go as far as China, it turned out.
“Got an idea,” he kissed Stede’s neck, took this teacup from him and set them both on the windowsill.
“What’s that?” Stede rested his head on Ed’s shoulder.
“Let’s retire.”
“Splendid idea,” With a grin, Stede took his hand, brought it to his lips and kissed each finger. “Wish I’d come up with it.”
“Think we all know who’s the clever one,” Ed pulled him a little closer. “Want a nap?”
“After lunch. Will you help me plant the cucumbers this morning?”
“What’re we going to do with cucumbers? Neither of us like cucumbers.”
“But we both like pickles and you need one for the other. I asked Juniper and it seems easy enough. We could do it ourselves.”
“Homemade pickles?” Ed ran a hand into Stede’s hair, twining one lock around his finger. “I suppose I could do a little digging for that.”
They ate their entire first jar in one sitting months later while sitting thigh to thigh on the steps of the cottage. There was a ship far out in the water. Ed smiled as it dipped out of sight. Best of luck to them, whoever they were. He bit into the pickle, vinegar running over his fingers. May they survive as long as they had and live to eat every fruit of their labor.