The port town, the ships, and the market stalls had a surprisingly large amount of what we needed. We had some gold to spare, so it only took a lot of legwork and carrying everything back to the ship to fill part of the ship's hold for the crew's use.

We were all down in the hold, except for the guard we left up on the deck, as each of the six original crewmen exchanged a gold coin with me for 100 silver coins for spending money. I wasn't going to charge them the five silver for the exchange, because it was bad enough that I had to pay for it first. The slaves gave us sad faces when the crew gained so much coin and they had none.

“Crewmen!” I nearly shouted and everyone came to attention, even the women. “What kind of ship is this?”

“A working man's ship!” They all responded.

I nodded. “How much does a working man earn?”

“Two gold coins a week!” They responded.

“These six men were wronged by the last captain and they got a share of his loot.” I said.

“So did you!” The six men said.

“I took it for the ship.” I said and waved at the stores behind us. “It's going to take me a few days to prepare some of this for long term, so I'll need that smoking room set up as soon as possible.”

“Yessir!”

“Now, I've not had the extra funds to pay any of you for the time I've been in charge. That's going to change soon.” I said with a feral smile. “Jensen and I found several nice ships with viable cargo and many abused and overworked slaves...”

“YES!” Everyone shouted.

“One of them isn't leaving for about two weeks and our time here was set for a week. It should give us enough time to set up an ambush far enough away from here to not get caught or let this port know we were responsible.”

“YES!”

“We can take their slaves and cargo and make a ton of gold finishing their deliveries at the next three ports.” I said and the crew cheered. “For now, I have enough silver left for each former slave to take ten coins each. Go into town in pairs or more with at least one man to accompany you. The guard we hired is available as well.”

The women exchanged nervous looks.

“Yes, when others see clean women slaves, they may get ideas. I want to discourage them as much as possible and avoid any confrontation. If anyone tries anything, the men have permission to run them though, then you yell your heads off to get as much attention as possible.”

The men gave each other feral looks.

“That is not permission to set anyone up or to murder indiscriminately. We can't run quickly with the wind low, so no antagonizing the locals or the members of the other ships. At least, until we get on the open seas. Then it's okay.”

That made a lot of them laugh.

“Be smart. Be cunning. Get what you want and come right back.” I cautioned them and then pat the sword on my hip. “We will deal with any incidents as they happen.”

“Yessir.” They responded in a normal tone of voice.

“Good.” I said and smiled. “Go have some fun and don't get caught.”

The crewmen barked laughs and five of them left while Jensen kissed Molly. He waited there as she got her ten silver and then he nodded at Hanna and Ann. They both blushed slightly and accepted the ten silver from me and the four of them left the hold to go do some personal shopping.

I was tempted to go with them. Instead, I grabbed the closest skinned boar and dragged it to the galley. I had a lot of butchering to get through if the meat was going to last us for a while.

_______________

Montage mode engaged. Skipping miscellaneous details. Speeding up time. Done.

_______________

A week later, I had everything butchered, smoked what needed to be smoked, and had sent a few men out to hunt. They brought back several near-deer and had even found a wildwood tree for me. I didn't tell them what I needed it for, though. My description of what it looked like and where it might be found, was enough for them to get it.

“Set sail!” I ordered and the ship unhooked from the dock. Poles pushed the dock away and we barely caught some wind. It was enough to get us moving, so I wasn't going to complain. We eased out of the bay that the port was in and the wind picked up. The crew pulled down the sails and we started moving faster.

“I can't believe you spent two entire gold coins for those weird tools.” Hanna whispered to me as we watched the port town shrink behind the ship.

I smiled at her coming so far in so short a time. She could almost speak to me without squealing in fright each time or covering her mouth, as long as she whispered. It reminded me of Vanessa and it made me like Hanna a little bit more each day. I knew I was making a social association, as Gillis would call it, and I didn't care.

“You'll see why once we're well away from prying eyes or anyone that might detect it.” I said, a little cryptically. It was the same reason why I hadn't tried to brew any potions. If anyone in the port town knew I could do it, I would be attacked and kidnapped. A slave that could brew potions was so rare that they were highly valuable, even more than a mage was.

At least, that's what the man at the ingredient shop told me when I bought a bunch of seemingly random ingredients for my 'master'. Because he freely gave me that information, I told him how to prep some of his ingredients to make them last twice as long.

The man had stared at me in disbelief and I had to say that I watched my 'master' do it for years and they did it a certain way. When I showed him how to do it properly, he shouted about my master being a genius and handed me a huge sack of his cheapest ingredients for free. When I asked about buying proper containers for the ingredients, the man hugged me and gave me a great deal on them.

Needless to say, I now had a single potions setup in the captain's cabin, ready for assembly. It would be dangerous to brew more than one on the open waters, so I needed to wait for a calm time or a good headwind to let the ship cut through the waves. Number ten potion would be made first, since it was needed to secure the potions setup to the stone slab I had bought and that also needed to be secured to the floor.

I really missed my bandoleer of ready-made potions.

Ann stood on my other side and she had a huge smile on her face. She had somehow found, had made, or stole a common maid outfit. She hadn't stopped smiling since she came onto the ship two days ago and hadn't left my side since then.

“Let's get below deck to start making the best meal the crew has ever tasted.” I said and all three of us click-clacked across the deck. We were all wearing women's shoes now and that seemed to please Ann even more.

Thanks to the wildwood tree that the crewmen hadn't cleaned off, I had lots of scrap wildwood pieces for the ovens, the open fires for pots, and for my potion setup. I would have to quickly use my copy trick as soon as I could get some revised number ten potion made. Wildwood was just too handy as a heat source to not make as much of it as I could.

With the food stocks on the ship topped up, and in some cases overflowing with the freshly caught meat, making enough food for everyone was as easy as it was in the army. Extra hands that knew what they were doing was a blessing as well. Ann copied me and we discussed seasonings as we made two large boar roasts, using the hind quarters, and she was amazed that my odd spice combination actually worked.

“It's best for lamb, because the meat is so tender.” I told her.

“There weren't any sheep on the island at all.” Ann said. “You told us to ask what meats were available to buy or hunt and that wasn't one of them.”

“They are missing a good resource for wool and milk.” I said and waved a hand over the wildwood to light it on fire. They didn't squeak in surprise at the sight of me not chanting anymore. “We can let that cook for a few hours, thanks to the pan covers you bought.”

Ann blushed and nodded. “It was an impulse when I saw them in the marketplace.”

“I'll pay you from the ship's cut when we get more money.” I said.

Ann shook her head. “I bought them because I wanted to use them, not just for the ship.”

I gave her a pointed look and she didn't back down or ducked her head. “Okay.”

Ann sighed in relief and smiled. “What are you thinking for dessert?”

“D-d-dessert?” Hanna asked in a shaky voice.

“Of course. Why else did you think our lord bought all those baking things?” Ann asked.

“I think we should keep it simple and make a sponge cake with crushed strawberry sauce.” I said.

“I wished they had cream at the port for us to whip up!” Ann said and then sighed. “Oh, well.”

I didn't tell her about the simple recipe using whipped egg whites and slowly adding sugar to it. I would surprise her with it after the cake was made. Plus, lighting the thing on fire to caramelize the sugar was always fun.

An hour later, the cake was done and left to cool. I was tempted to use the cooling spell I invented and decided not to. We had to wait for the meat to cook anyway.

We came back into the galley when it was time and checked the roasts. They were almost done and we cooked up a pot of potatoes, a smaller pot of vegetables, and threw in a few other greens to the water. By the time the potatoes were cooked, the meat was ready as well. We took them out of the large oven and put them on actual platters. I quickly cut them up into thick slices and then used the drippings from the pans to make gravy.

Both Ann and Hanna stared at me as I did so. Apparently, that was not how they normally made gravy. After I told them that it was tastier this way, they helped and we soon had a huge pot of nice and thick gravy for the potatoes and meat.

“Now we have to decide if we serve it like this and let them get what they want, or portion it out and make sure everyone gets the same amount.” Hanna said.

“We don't want any of it going to waste, so I think we should make it like a buffet and people can take what they want.” I suggested, because it worked at the academy. Most dishes were empty before being discarded for fresh ones. “We can worry about rationing when we're down to half stores and we're not near any ports.”

Both women nodded and we had one of the crewmen bring in an extra table to the dining room. He didn't ask us what we were doing and sat down to wait like the rest of them.

We brought out each platter of meat that was already sliced up and the smell made most of their mouths water. I had to stand there and hold my hands out to stop everyone from rushing the new table to get the meat. Hanna brought out the giant pot of potatoes and they all stared at it. Ann brought out the smaller pots of vegetables and greens and arrayed them around the table for easy access.

Hanna came back with the big pot of gravy and nearly everyone stood up at the strong smell it gave off. She looked amused as she put it down and Ann added appropriate sized spoons to each thing and then large forks to the sliced meat platters.

Hanna came back in carrying an armful of plates and added them to the table on the far end. Everyone immediately got the hint and quickly shuffled around the room to stand in a line. They had all eaten at a buffet before, apparently.

“I'll be right back with more plates.” Ann said and she left to get the rest of them.

The crew and slaves gave me pleading looks, so I smiled and nodded.

“Yeah!” The guy at the front of the line said and grabbed a plate, two slices of roast, three scoops of potatoes, a small bit of greens, and then covered his entire plate with gravy. It made the people behind him laugh as he carefully walked back to his table and tried to not spill anything.

“You don't have to take it all at once.” I commented and they all laughed. “As long as everyone gets some first, you can come back and get more if you want.”

“By the Son's Light!” The first crewman exclaimed and then his face was buried into his plate as he shoved as much as he could into his mouth.

“I think he might like it a little.” One of the crewmen joked and everyone laughed again.

They all took their plates and served themselves before going back to their tables to eat. Most of them had the same reaction as the first crewman and pretty much shovelled the food into their mouths. In fact, they were all done eating before I served myself and went to sit down.

“I was the last, so go ahead.” I said and waved at the buffet table.

Nearly everyone stood and went back for seconds.

“My lord, you should warn them to save room for dessert.” Ann reminded me.

They all froze at her words and turned to look at us.

“There goes the surprise.” I said with a smile to make her blush.

“It's true? You made dessert? A real dessert?” One of the women slaves asked, clearly surprised.

“We'll get it ready after I eat.” I said and that seemed to make then flounder about eating more food. “You don't have to eat the dessert right away. It can be saved for later.” I said and that made their decision for them. They served themselves again and sat down to continue eating.

When I and my slave and maid were done, we left the room to prepare the cake. It was a big slab cake and it was cut into the right number of pieces for everyone to have one, then Ann crushed the strawberries and added some sugar to make it into more of a sauce. She dribbled it over the many small plates of cake pieces and smiled when she was done.

“All right, I think we should get the servers in here and...” Ann started to say.

“Not yet. It's not done.” I said and grabbed a bunch of eggs. I quickly separated the yolks from the whites, like my cook used to do, and set the yolks aside for breakfast the next day. I poured some sugar into the mortar and pestle I would be using for making potions and hadn't thought of buying more than one. I crunched the sugar up and made it almost into a fine powder.

“What are you doing?” Ann asked, her curiosity piqued.

“Making a fluffy topping.” I said and grabbed the whisk. I didn't really need all my fingers for this part, thankfully. The handle was small enough that two was enough and I started to whip the whites as fast as I could. As they became a frothy mass, I slowly added some of the ground up sugar and kept whipping.

“I'll do that, my lord.” Ann said and took over slowly pouring the sugar into the large bowl. She stopped when I told her to and I whipped the mixture up until it nearly filled the bowl. “What is it?”

“Watch.” I said and used a big spoon to add large amounts to each piece of cake.

“My lord, you can't serve uncooked eggs like that. You could make people sick if... AHHH!”

I chuckled at her as I used my light flame spell on each of the pieces of cake to crisp up the topping. “The cook during basic training did this in the oven for the officers, because he had a lot of time to prepare it beforehand and did other tasks while waiting. I can't wait for the thing to cool off after baking it, so I'm cheating.”

Ann and Hanna stared as I did each and every piece of cake.

“Now you can get the servers.” I said and the both of them left at a jog.

Needless to say, the very first dessert ever served on a pirate ship, was a huge success.

No one saved it for later.