Chapter 196: Fortune Had Been Kind

Warmth spread through James before any thought.

Anne had one leg thrown over his, her breathing slow and steady against his shoulder, while Milagros was curled against his other side, one hand spread across his chest as if she wanted to keep him pinned there by force, even while asleep.

The sheets had been washed enough times to lose their stiffness and smelled of salt and the night just passed.

Outside the shutters, even the gulls hadn’t yet got around to wailling.

The house sat in that rare, serene piece of dawn reserved for people fortunate enough to still be in bed when it arrived.

James stayed where he was for a good while, doing nothing more than appreciating how well his life had turned out. In some other life, he had drowned alone in a cold, uncaring stretch of ocean, with nobody but his boat and a bottle of whisky as companions.

From where he lay now, he found that version of his life considerably funnier than he ever had while living it.

His thoughts drifted past the shutters and toward the rest of the township.

One week of hammers, discussions, and workers dragging timber around had surely changed the landscape. And for once in his life, there was nobody standing over him to say he had no business to find out what.

"Right, then."

James murmured, careful not to wake either woman.

"Let’s see what a week’s bought us."

I have taken the liberty to update the display, because a single list can no longer contain what you have built without reducing the letters to a size suitable only for ants and men with exceptionally good eyesight.

Twelve people and a stretch of coastline, if memory serves, and memory does.

I regret to report that this description has become out of date, despite having been perfectly respectable when first written.

The settlement now has four districts, apparently because one town has discovered four different ideas about where its workforce ought to go.

It is quite capable of holding all four ideas at once, the solutions sometimes even involve fists.

The first box appeared above the bed.

🏴 [CITY OVERVIEW — HARBOR DISTRICT]

Goods & Resources : Ship Timber, Pitch and Tar, Cordage, Salt Fish, Ballast Stone

Major Facilities : Wooden Pier, Raised Timber Storehouse, Careening Cradle, Beacon-Marked Channel, Fisherman’s Dock, Sailors’ Quarter, Shipwright’s Yard (Under Construction), Cookhouse

Development : Harbor-centered growth. The Shipwright’s Yard has moved well past its initial construction, work now underway beneath the scaffolding. Talk of a customs house has already started, though no timber has gone up for it yet.

The shipwright’s yard had come farther than James remembered, with more of the yard visible through the scaffolding. He made a note to inspect it properly when possible, if the day could somehow be persuaded to spare him the time.

A second box pushed the first aside.

🏴 [CITY OVERVIEW — TOWNSHIP CENTER]

Goods & Resources : Fresh Water, Rum and Ale, Coin and Trade Goods, Foodstuffs

Major Facilities : The Code, Assembly Hall, Chapel, Large Tavern, Brothel, Residential Quarter, Cookhouse (x2)

Development : Civic and residential core. Fenced plots keep spreading outward from the crossroads as new arrivals are assigned their households.

At some point during the past few weeks, the workers had built another kitchen, and the voice, being the sort of creature that notices such things, had counted it.

A third box followed, plainer than the first two, and most of it still existed more in hope than in timber.

🏴 [CITY OVERVIEW — WORKSHOP DISTRICT]

Goods & Resources : Raw Timber, Quarried Stone, Pig Iron, Charcoal

Major Facilities : Sawpit, Stoneworks, Forge (Under Construction)

Development : Newly authorized and still in expansion. The Forge stands at three posts and a promise, and more than a dozen trained hands already sit idle waiting on it, a problem timber and pig iron will solve faster than most.

The fourth and last box took its place with the others.

🏴 [CITY OVERVIEW — OUTSKIRTS]

Goods & Resources : Corn, Cane, and Cassava, Game Meat, Rum

Major Facilities : Farmland, Hunting Camp, Distillery

Development : Cleared acreage keeps pushing outward at the forest, while the marsh itself sits untouched and undrained, waiting its own turn.

There was no construction list after the four display. James didn’t reach for one, and, more to the point, he did not miss it.

The town had grown into its own creature. It built, fought, and voted itself forward without waiting for him to read a list and pick the next thing.

He could still ask for some specific construction if the day ever came when he wanted it badly enough. James turned that thought over now and discovered that he didn’t, least for now.

Anne shifted at his voice and murmured what never made it beyond a breath before she snuggled again. Milagros pressed closer, her hand tightening once against his chest before going slack.

James lay between them, entirely content with things as they were, and let his thoughts wander somewhere considerably less comfortable.

Esperanza was some hundred miles away in Havana, and she had given her sister’s freedom over in good faith without once asking what James intended to do with it afterward. Milagros, meanwhile, had built herself an entirely new life, complete with a house, a captain, and, judging by the general state of affairs, another woman sharing both of them.

James tried a few lines in his head. He considered each one before risking it aloud.

"Your sister sends her love, and also this house, and also me."

That one lasted about as long as it deserved to. The second attempt was worse.

James abandoned both and decided the whole conversation could wait a little longer.

He had only just made that decision when Cudjoe’s voice came roaring through the shutters, loud enough to wake every gull through the coast that had been foolish enough to remain asleep.

"CAPTAIN! Get yer bluidy, barnacle-fouled carcass out of that bed! The tide’ll nae wait for a man too comfortable tae notice it’s already turned, and neither will I!"

He didn’t stop to give James a chance to answer. "The Grand Dame’s ready the second ye can be bothered tae come find her, and I cannae keep tellin’ this crew their captain’s sleepin’ every damned time! Dinnae make me go there and toss ye straight intae the sea tae wake ye, because I will, and I’ll nae be gentle about it either!"

James laughed outright. Whatever the bed had for it, and it had plenty, he could not stay in it after that.

He rose from between them, gently easing himself out from under their weight, and gave each woman a warm pat as he went, one landing on a pert, tight ass, the other sinking appreciatively into a thick, voluptuous curve.

Both women stirred, blinked at him, then came up sputtering and swearing in two entirely different languages, scrambling after him so they could get ready too.