Max focused on Bennett for a moment. His stare was both challenging and beseeching, an order from an elder and a plea from a friend held in eyes now reddened from memories, and Bennett didn’t balk at his silent request. As she brought the woman’s wrist to her mouth, Max did the same with the man’s, and in unison, they sunk teeth through skin, ivory and soft, and took what they needed.

Since she’d fed earlier that day, Bennett finished quickly, and pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket, she wrapped it lightly around the woman’s wrist and sent her on her way. A few minutes later, the man, slightly unsteady on his feet, grabbed his jacket and wobbled from the room.

Max stood long enough to splash a bit more scotch into his glass, and sliding back into his chair, he said, “Now, where was I?”

“You and the others were going to seek your fortune,” Bennett said before having a sip of her drink to clear her palate.

“Oh, that’s right,” Max said, taking a sip of his drink. “A few weeks after leaving our homes, with drawstring bags slung over our shoulders and looking quite resplendent in our striped woolen hose, vests, and velvet shoes, we arrived in Spain and met up in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. After some finagling, we booked passage on one of the three ships sailing the very next day, captained by a man named Juan Díaz de Solís.

“We were thrust into the real world when we boarded that ship. We were used to opulence, not dank little cabins with hammocks slung about, and none of us had ever emptied our own chamber pots. In lieu of platters overflowing with delicacies, we were given salted meats, cheese, bacon, and hardtack, all of which were rationed, but our saving grace was the beer.”

Bennett’s eyebrows squished together. “Beer?”

“Yes,” Max said, nodding. “Water contaminated easily, so barrels of beer were plentiful, and trust me, we drank our fair share. If it weren’t for that, I sometimes think we would have perished before we ever stepped foot on solid ground again. We’d all been on boats before, short journeys over scant waterways to get from here to there, but sailing the ocean with all its churning waves had caused us all to fall ill. We’d no sooner eat than we’d be running to the rail to lose our food into the water below, and oh how the sailors would make light of us. Thankfully, after a few weeks, the nausea passed, and we no longer fed the fish with regurgitated food or beer.”

“How long were you on the ship?”