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“…five… six… and seven.”
“Thanks mate.” Ed said with a smile. He was about to take the tea when Stede raised his hand to stop him.
“Oh, and the dollop of milk.”
Ed grinned and took a sip of the tea. “Ah, perfect!”
Stede held his gaze with a dreamy smile. “So, did you have any plans for today. or…?”
They’d pulled into the port of a pirate friendly island so the crew could spend their share of the treasure that they hadn’t thrown overboard. Stede had decided to give the crew some shore leave as well. He hoped he and Ed could perhaps go on an outing together, a date if he’d allow it.
“Actually yeah, there was something I was hoping to do while we’re here.”
Stede tried to hide his disappointment. “Oh…”
Ed dug something out of his pocket. It was a folded up piece of paper. “I found this on one of our raids, yknow while I was…” There was no need to finish the sentence. Ed unfolded the paper and showed it to Stede.
“A treasure map?”
Ed smiled.
“I thought treasure maps weren’t real.”
“Oh yeah, but I think this one might be.” Ed shrugged. “Worth a shot anyway. Wanna come with?”
Stede’s spirits suddenly lifted again. “I’d like that very much.”
“Good!” Ed said, a little too loudly. “I mean… good.”
———
Stede held up the treasure map. There was no indication which way was north, but there was a river which matched up with the only river on the island, so he tried to use that to orient himself. “Now… these peaks over here… are they trees, do you think?”
“No, I think they’re those hills over there.”
“I don’t think so…” Stede tilted his head. “They seem to be on the eastern side of the river, but those hills are on the west.”
“Mmm… yeah I think maybe whoever drew this map probably misremembered where those hills were…”
Stede glanced at Ed from the corner of his eye. “Hmmm.” He had suspected the map was probably a fake, but this confirmed it. He felt a smile tugging the corner of his mouth. Ed had planned this whole thing. “Well, the X appears to be downstream of this river, so shall we head over there?”
“Sounds like a plan.” As Ed walked past Stede, he gingerly brushed his fingertips across Stede’s palm, then laced their fingers together, all while keeping his gaze ahead.
Stede gave Ed’s hand a little squeeze, then Ed turned to look at him with a shy smile. “Let’s go have a look then.”
“Let’s go.”
———
“So I woke up, and you’ll never guess who was standing over me.”
“Who?”
“Hornigold!”
“Your old Captain?”
“Yeah, and he had a pig with him named Ruthie.”
“Ruthie? What’s that about?”
“No idea.”
“And what did Hornigold say?”
“Oh, he said lots of shit. He made me some shoes out of shells. And some soup. I thought it might be poisoned.”
“We had some delicious soup on Zheng Yi Sao’s ship, maybe you smelled that and your subconscious incorporated it into your gravy boat vision.”
“Maybe, it was really good soup.” Ed stopped walking as they approached the mouth of the river. “I think this is it.”
Stede looked down at the map. “Yep, this is where X is. Hm…” He looked around for something they could pretend was their treasure. When he saw a shiny looking shell, he let go of Ed’s hand to bend down and pick it up. “Ooh, look at this! This is pretty, isn’t it? Do you think this could be the treasure?”
“No… that’s a shell. A shell’s not treasure, Stede. We’re looking for something man made.”
“Hmm…” Stede was a little confused. How were they supposed to find treasure if the map was fake? “It might help if whoever made the map left some kind of clue as to what we’re looking for.”
“I reckon we’ll know it when we see it.”
“Right… and it’s definitely here?”
Ed looked around. “Yeah, it should be… give or take a few hundred feet.” He looked back at Stede. “Come on, let’s keep looking.”
“And this particular treasure’s definitely not buried, you said?”
“Nobody buries treasure, Stede, I told you that. It’ll just be on the sand.”
“Well, hopefully nobody else has gotten to it first.” Stede started walking along the beach away from the river, and Ed followed him. “Hmm… man made…” Stede muttered to himself, scanning carefully. “Something man made…”
Then, something caught his eye. He picked up the pace and when he got close enough to see what it was, he gasped. He looked at Ed in wonder, who nodded, then he jogged towards the treasure.
Stede bent down to pick it up. “Is this what I think it is?” It was a bottle with a letter inside. Could this really be the letter he’d sent to Ed? Had it really reached them here?
When Ed caught up, Stede handed him the bottle. “This is for you.”
Ed gave a wistful smile and opened the bottle, taking out the paper. He sat down and unfolded it. “I have a confession to make. I didn’t find that map, I drew it.”
“No!” Stede whispered in mock disbelief as he sat down beside Ed
“Some poor sod found the bottle on the side of the ship and gave it to me. When I saw that doodle of me I knew it was from you. You’re the only one who would draw me in such a flattering light. So I chucked it back overboard.”
“But how did you know it was here?”
Ed shrugged. “Time of year, wind speed, currents… I remembered to account for the leap year this time too.
“That’s brilliant!” Stede looked at Ed in awe.
Ed handed the paper to Stede. “What’s it say?”
“Oh, god!” Stede brought his hand to his head in embarrassment. “I’m so stupid!”
“Hey, don’t say that about my…” Ed fumbled for the best word to use. “…friend… good friend. Guy I like… I’m seeing…” He sighed. “Anyway…”
“I forgot you couldn’t read.” Stede said, moving the conversation along. “I can’t believe I did that!”
“It’s okay. Read it to me.”
Stede looked at the letter. “It’s silly. I don’t say anything of consequence in it, just letting you know how we all are…”
Ed leaned closer to Stede. “Read it anyway.” He whispered.
“Alright…” Stede cleared his throat. “Dear Ed, the crew and I are safe, and thriving! As I’ve renounced my wealth, we’ve been forced to take up temporary residence on the republic of pirates…”