Forever Young The Beginning by Gerald Simpkins Page B

was a goodly round of applause.
    About that time, Ian again
got that prickly feeling on the back of his neck. Somewhat
red-faced, he stood up and waved his hand while looking around at
everyone. He noticed a beautiful woman in a dark red cloak looking
at him from near the entrance. She had honey colored hair with
golden highlights, a creamy complexion, sensual lips, and lovely
wide-set gray eyes. He stared at her a brief moment, then for not
wanting to appear to be rude, he turned around and sat down,
thinking what a beautiful woman, and what
beautiful eyes! Their table was then
surrounded by curious patrons wanting to know details of the whole
affair.
    Ian and his friends never
had to buy one round of drinks that night, but he stopped after the
third one. Lorn did the talking for them and a comely wench had
soon seemed to attach herself to him. It wasn’t an hour before she
was sitting in his lap now and then, and he was surely enjoying it.
Ian leaned over to Rob Woolsley, oldest one there at age forty, and
told him to take Li and one other to go with Lorn if he left the
place with that woman. Ian and two others got up and said their
thanks and goodbyes to the friendly patrons. He looked about for
the girl with the gray eyes again while leaving the place, but she
was nowhere to be seen. They made their way back to the Tico without incident and
Ian took first watch with Tom. The night passed
uneventfully.
    ***
    “ Weigh anchor and unfurl all
sails!” Angus commanded. Elsie’s
Cloud was under way. He and the crew of
Elsie had said their goodbyes that morning. Alandra’s mother had
made good on her gifts to every crewman and had presented Angus
with a fine personally engraved pistol. They had included one for
Ian too. Included in the delivery were the same gifts of shirt,
pants, and a golden doubloon for each of the rest of Elsie’s crew
in Marseille. Angus was glad that Alandra’s mother included his men
at Marseille. That would reinforce to Alandra that they were indeed
alive and help to relieve her depression. She had made a brave show
of it, coming down to see them off and hugging Angus, the officers
and Mustafa goodbye.
    Alandra’s father was believed to be
still in France at the king’s court, however shortly after Elsie
sailed, another ship arrived from Marseille with a note for Captain
McCloud. Since Elsie had departed, the note was taken by courier to
the Vasquez home. It was carried quickly to Alandra who cried tears
of joy to learn that Ian was alive and well in Marseille. She was
now sure that he’d find a way to come to Barcelona when he could to
see her. She was seen by her mother to be laughing while talking to
Celita. Her mother took note of this development with more than a
little concern.
    ***
    Four days later the sail
maker’s son arrived with new sails for both masts for Tico . His crew came along
in short order and they got to work.
    Ian’s crew came back for supper, and
he had already started baking another fish he’d caught scarcely an
hour before. Li fussed and took over that job, and soon had several
other things cooking for them. After supper one of the crewmen said
he’d found a stone cutter, and that piqued Ian’s interest. He had
won some rough diamonds in a wrestling match while in Cape Town.
Dubious about their worth, he wanted an expert opinion so he
resolved to go there tomorrow.
    That night he dreamt that he was in
mortal danger and was fighting for his life against a demon from
hell. A woman with beautiful gray eyes came to help him and he
awoke with a start but the cabin and ship was quiet. He lay there
until dawn and then went out to the end of the pier for a swim.
After breakfast he set watches for the day, then taking his rough
diamonds he walked into the city. In one of the better districts he
eventually found the stone cutter’s place where Lorn had said it
was.
    He went in and in his bad French,
introduced himself to the owner, a small Jewish man of some sixty
years. The