Chapter 4

Author’s note: First of all I want to apologise for taken so long to update my story. I was very busy with my studies etc… but I hope that I find the time to finish this story. I also want to thank Fanta for beta reading for me. Thanks to all the reviewers for encouraging me to continue.

Although she was held prisoner by pirates, Victoria had slept wonderful. The reason of her peaceful night was lying underneath her. Her dear friend had held her all night, making her feel safe and protected. If she would have been alone, she wouldn’t dare to close her eyes, no she would have stayed up all night , listening carefully if one of the pirates was coming to her cabin.

‘Luckily Diego is here with me,’ she thought to herself. Being awake she should probably brake away from his embrace. Otherwise her proper friend might feel uncomfortable, waking up half naked with his childhood friend enveloped in his arms. However she couldn’t bring herself to move. Relishing the warmth of his bare torso, she laid her head back on Diego’s chest. By the even rise and fall, she concluded he was still fast asleep. Delighted she could enjoy this moment a little longer she sighed contently.

‘Being kidnapped by pirates certainly has it’s perks,’ she mused.

‘Normally at this hour I would have already prepared the dough for my bread. It’s nice to sleep in for a change. The accommodation could have been better, but who cares when the company is this good,’ she thought smilingly.

But she didn’t have a lot of time to sleep late..

A soft knocking on the door awoke Diego. Victoria immediately extracted herself from Diego’s embrace.

“Good morning,” a still sleepy Diego said to Victoria.

Smiling, Victoria wished him the same.

They heard the sound of a key turning around in the lock, the door opened with a loud squeak.

Instinctively Diego raised him in front of his preciosa, creating a barrier between her and the possible intruder. However when he saw the blond hairs of Tom poking around the door he instantly lay down is guard.

“The Captain is expecting you for breakfast at his cabin,” the young boy announced.

“We’ll be there in a second,” a surprised Victoria replied.

When the lad left them and didn’t even bother to lock the door, an even more amazed Victoria said to Diego: “It seems pirates treat their prisoners very kindly, we even get to eat with the captain.”

“Yes it appears they have warmed up to us,” Diego stated and followed Victoria upstairs.

“Ah welcome, I hope you had a nice night,” Mack greeted them warmly.

“Yes it was fine,” Diego replied although he hadn’t closed an eye that night. Sleeping while the love of your life is lying in your arms appeared to be rather difficult. Recollecting previous night made a blush creep up his cheeks.

Oblivious to the effect his innocent question had on the young don, Mack invited the couple at his table: “Please take a seat,” the bronzed pirate invited while he gallantly pulled a chair for Victoria.

Soon they were having breakfast. It wasn’t particularly good tasting but it was food, and seeing all the other hungry pirates staring at them through the circular windows, patiently waiting until it was their turn to eat, they knew they had to be very grateful for this meal.

“Thank you that was delicious,” Victoria lied, she didn’t want to offend the man’s hospitality.

“Well our cook does his best, but we could use a woman’s touch,” the Captain admitted.

“I could cook,” Victoria suggested.

“That would be great, if you really want to, I don’t want to force you anyway,” Mack said.

Diego saw Victoria’s shocked expression, she was probably wondering why all of a sudden they were no longer treated as prisoners but rather as guests. He couldn’t tell her about his little performance of yesterday. It was important she didn’t link the words ‘hero’ and ‘dull friend’ with each other. Hopefully she wouldn’t ask Mack, being the curious woman she had always been.

“We are your prisoners; you have forced us to do things against our will before; why would you stop now?” Victoria dared to asked.

“My dear, you aren’t our prisoners any longer. Without your husband my Elisabeth would be lying on the bottom of this ocean covered by plankton. There is no greater act than saving a ship! So we regard you as pirates. You’re lucky we’re modern pirates we don’t think of women are bad omen; you can consider yourself the first female pirate of the world,” Mack told her.

“Well… Victoria always strives for equality between men and women, she will be pleased with this title,” Diego quickly replied. With a bit of luck her being donned a pirate would make her forget about him saving the whole vessel.

“We better make room so the rest can eat, “Diego suggested and left the table. Victoria followed his example.

“Did you really save the ship?” Victoria asked him.

“It was nothing really, I was tall enough to climb over a few broken ladder bars,” Diego tried to minimise his actions.

“It must have been something, otherwise we wouldn’t be treated as heroes,” Victoria countered.

“You know how emotional a captain gets when he thinks his ship might sink, he exaggerated last night’s events, that’s all,” he tried to convince her.

When the crew was done eating, Mack Crow announced the would finally open the treasure chest!

“Come let’s open our treasure chest and share the loot,” the Captain said.

“Arrr it seems we have a tiny little problem captain,” Sven groaned.

“And what might that be?” Mack asked slightly irritated.

“The treasure has disappeared, it must have fallen of the ship during the storm,” Sven admitted.

“You stupid, I told you to store the trunk bellow. You know what this means don’t you?” Mack asked while he went in his cabin to fetch something.

Diego had witnessed the whole conversation and was looking worried at the doorway the angry captain had passed through a moment ago. What was Mack going to do? He was surely going to punish Sven. He hoped Mack didn’t fetch a whip or another torture item.

To Diego’s surprise Mack didn’t return with a knife or some other weapon, instead he held a periscope carefully in his hands, carrying as if it were a new born baby.

“What is he going to do with the periscope?” Diego asked one of the pirates.

The only answer Diego received was a “shhh” accompanied by a silencing finger.

While Mack was scanning the horizon using his periscope the whole crew watched in silence.

The silence was only broken by the captain who gave some directions to the steering man.

After sailing a short while Mack suddenly yelled: “This is the spot, set anchor!”

“I don’t see anything,” Victoria whispered to Diego.

“Me neither,” Diego replied.

“The captain uses his periscope to locate all our treasures, since the trunk fell off board, Mack has located another treasure. I hope it will be gold,” Tom whispered to the two newcomers. He was glad he knew something the intelligent caballero didn’t understand.

Obeying their captain’s order, two pirates immediately dove into the water with two ropes. For a few minutes, they disappeared underwater. Diego wondered how on earth they would find another treasure on such an incredible, farfetched call from their Captain. When the men finally tugged on the rope, Mack ordered them to be pulled up. The ropes squeaked under the weight that was attached to them. To Diego’s and Victoria’s surprise a big golden statue was pulled on board.

“How did you locate that treasure?” Diego enquired.

“I just look through the periscope, then I see where the treasure lies, but this time I was lucky that the treasure was nearby, sometimes we have to sail miles until we reach the location,” Mack explained.

“So the periscope is some sort of treasure locator?” Diego asked disbelievingly.

The handsome pirate didn’t answer but just handed the periscope to Diego.

Looking through the object the caballero said: “I only see a beautiful dolphin, but no treasure.”

“That’s because the periscope isn’t a treasure locator, it is a tool to help you find what’s most important to you. To me the treasure is the most important, you seem to find nature and its beautiful creatures more important than money and gold,” the captain clarified.

“Ah I understand, it shows you the essence and filters out the subordinate matters,” Diego concluded while he was carefully scrutinising the amazing object, trying to discover it’s secret.

“I knew you were a clever one!” Mack smiled while he proudly patted the young don on the back and retrieved the periscope from Diego.

__________

Meanwhile in Los Angeles

Jaime Mendoza hadn’t closed an eye last night. Yesterday’s horrible events ran rampage in the good Sergeant’s mind just like the fierce storm that stroke Los Angeles. Images of his two friends being taken hostage kept flashing through his head like the lighting outside.

At dawn the guilty Mendoza walked back to shore. Pieces of draft wood, seaweed, dead jelly fish and other debris covered the sand, evidence of the horrible storm.

‘I have failed, because of me Senorita Escalante and Don Diego might be dead,’ Mendoza thought to himself while he walked through the rubbish.

Frustrated, he kicked his foot in the water; “Aaw!” the sergeant yelled out in pain.

He was still rubbing his sore toe when he noticed the source of his agony; it was the treasure chest the pirates had taken from the pueblo.

Just that instant Ignacio who was patrolling the coastline after a very angry and influential don had threatened to send word to the King himself, if didn’t retrieved his son and a certain señorita..

“I’m sorry mi Alcalde, no sign of Don Diego and Señorita Escalante; I only managed to find the treasure,” the disappointed sergeant said.

“Excellent job sergeant!” the Alcalde exclaimed his eyes glinting with the thought of all the gold.

“Haven’t you heard what I said; we lost Don Diego and Señorita Escalante,” a confused Mendoza repeated.

“I heard you the first time, their loss is a minor sacrifice in the battle against piracy, we have their treasure and therefore we have weakened the pirates,” the Alcalde explained.

“Now carry the trunk to the carriage and bring it to my office,” he ordered.

Back in his office the Alcalde couldn’t wait to open the treasure chest.

‘Finally I will have a good story to tell in Madrid,’ he thought to himself.

When he couldn’t open the chest and behold its shiny contents he yelled in frustation: “Mendoza!”

“Si mi Alcalde,” Mendoza reported.

“You may have the honour of opening the treasure,” The Alcalde didn’t want to admit he couldn’t open a simple wooden trunk.

Mendoza tried to lift the lid, however it didn’t move an inch.

“It seems to be stuck, maybe we need some kind of key to open it,” the Sergeant suggested.

“A key! Do you see a lock?” the Alcalde said mockingly.

After inspecting the trunk closely Mendoza concluded: “No, the only thing I see are these engraved decorations…”

“I don’t care for decorations I want to see the gold. Let’s go to the blacksmith and have him break the trunk open,” Ignacio suggested.

So they headed for the blacksmith. However all the blacksmith’s tools didn’t suffice to open the treasury. There wasn’t even a tiny scratch on the wooden lid.

“I’m sorry Alcalde, I can’t open it,” the blacksmith concluded, while wiping the transpirations drops off his forehead. .

“Ahh, you’re all incompetent fools,” the Alcalde growled.

This couldn’t be happening, finally he had something to show in Madrid a real pirate’s treasure, but now he couldn’t open it. He suddenly felt like a little boy, glancing at the cookie jar, standing so close he could almost taste them. But young Ignacio didn’t have money like the other caballero’s sons to buy these sweets. Being poor had taught him that you have to take what you want, since no one is going to hand it to you on a plate. So whenever no one was looking, he would quickly open the jar and take a handful of cookies.

If only it were that easy with the treasure chest. He just had to open the lid, but how could he do that?