Red Seas Under Red Skies: The Gentleman Bastard Sequence, Book Two (Gentleman Bastards 2)

‘With difficulty,’ said Jean. ‘He won’t see us now until we do some serious work on his behalf... and if we do that, we might push things to the point where he no longer needs us. We’ll get a knife rather than an antidote. Or ... if it comes to that, he’ll get the knife—’

‘Jean, I don’t want to hear that,’ she said. ‘Don’t talk about it.’

‘It’s got to be faced, love—’

‘I don’t believe it,’ she said. ‘I don’t. There’s always a way to attack or a way to escape. That’s the way it is out here.’ She rolled over on top of him and kissed him. ‘I told you not to give up, Jean Tannen, and the thing about me is I get my way.’

‘Gods,’ whispered Jean, ‘how did I ever live before I met you?’

‘Sadly, poorly, miserably,’ she said. ‘I make everything so much better. It’s why the gods put me here. Now stop moping and tell me something pleasant!’

‘Something pleasant?’

‘Yeah, slackwit, I’ve heard that other lovers sometimes tell one another pleasant things when they’re alone—’

‘Yes, but with you it’s sort of on pain of death, isn’t it?’

‘It could be. Let me find a sabre—’

‘Ezri,’ he said with sudden seriousness. ‘Look - when this is over, Stragos and all, Leocanto and I might be ... very rich men. If our other business in Tal Verrar goes well.’

‘Not if,’ she said. ‘When.’

‘All right,’ he said. ‘When it does ... you really could come with us. Leo and I spoke about it a bit. You don’t have to choose one life or another, Ezri. You can just sort of ... go on leave for a bit. We all could.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘We could get a yacht,’ said Jean, ‘in Vel Virazzo, there’s this place – the private marina, where all the swells keep their boats and barges. They usually have a few for sale, if you’ve got a few hundred solari on hand, which we intend to. We have to go to Vel Virazzo anyway, to sort of ... finish our business. We could have a boat fitted out in a couple of days and then just . . . poke around a bit! Drift. Enjoy ourselves. Pretend to be useless gentlefolk for a while.’

‘And come back to all this later, you mean?’

‘Whenever you want,’ said Jean. ‘Have it as you like. You always get your way, don’t you?

‘Live on a yacht for a while with you and Leocanto,’ she said. ‘No offence, Jean, you’re passable for a landsman, but by his own admission he couldn’t con a shoe across a puddle of piss—’

‘What do you think we’d be bringing you along for, hmmm?’

‘Well, I would have imagined that this had something to do with it,’ she said, moving her hands strategically to a more interesting location.

‘Ah,’ he said, ‘and so it does, but you could sort of be honorary captain, too—’

‘Can I name the boat?’

‘As if you’d let anyone else do it!’

‘All right,’ she whispered. ‘If that’s the plan, that’s the plan. We’ll do it.’

‘You really mean—’

‘Hell,’ she said, ‘with just the swag we pulled from Salon Corbeau, everyone on this crew can stay drunk for months when we get back to the Ghostwinds. Zamira won’t miss me for a while.’ They kissed. ‘Half a year.’ They kissed again. ‘Year or two, maybe.’

‘Always a way to attack,’ Jean mused between kisses, ‘always a way to escape.’

‘Of course,’ she whispered. ‘Hold fast, and sooner or later you’ll always find what you’re after.’