Chapter 5

Carmen kept to herself most of the day. She stuck close to Shane but far enough away to not have to talk to her. Shane would blatantly stare at her as she leaned back against the railing on the poop deck. After Carmen had patched her up she made no secret of the fact she wasn’t fond of Shane, giving her a good long glare before turning to simply watch the sea.

Every now and again Shane could swear she caught Carmen staring at her but the moment she would look in the Latina’s direction the shorter girl would avert her look somewhere else. To be honest, it frustrated Shane. While she understood why the girl was upset, she couldn’t quite understand why she was upset with her. After all, she had only been trying to help.

“Shane!” Mark called out as he came up onto the poop deck catching both Shane and Carmen’s attention and breaking their quite staring game. He held in his hand a large piece of parchment rolled up in a piece of brown leather. Shane recognized it immediately. It was the Pirate Codes of Conduct and no doubt Mark wanted her to sign them now.

Shane smiled and pushed off of the bulwark and came to meet him as he set it down onto the top of a barrel like a makeshift table. He untied the small straps of leather that held the parchment and unrolled it onto the barrel top and turned it to Shane.

“Will you sign? Or no?” He smiled wide showing off his remarkably clean teeth for a pirate. Shane did have to admire him for his personal hygiene. She’d seen more than her fair share of men who’s teeth were literally falling from their gums.

Shane smiled before she read each of the codes to herself just to make sure she knew the rules aboard this particular pirate ship.

“You can read then?” Mark looked somewhat impressed. It was few and far between to come across a Brethren of the Coast who was well educated enough to actually read.

Shane simply nodded and kept reading without even so much as a glance up as Carmen looked on interested. However still kept her distance enough so that she didn’t let on that she was intrigued by their pirate formalities.