Bart left the quarterdeck and took the rowboat provided for him. He could already hear Will’s growling threats and feel the tremor of madness in the air around the sandbar. Both man and beast would be on edge. It was a miracle that he wasn’t dead. With the bundle of salted beef to help him, perhaps Bart could bribe Will into coming quietly.
He pulled up onto the sandbar, the cold water seeping into his boots as he waded to shore the rest of the way.
Will crouched down, digging his hands deep into the sand as if to claim that ground as his own. By the way he snapped and snarled, Bart suspected it would take more than verbal persuasion to ease him into submission. What else was the loup-garou going to do? Just wait for a passing ship that was brave enough to take aboard a raving lunatic with wolfish eyes?
Bart approached cautiously as he locked stares with Will. “Easy, mate,” he said. “Did the hot sun clear your head?”
Occasionally, given enough time, a rogue loup-garou could be weaned off the bloodlust. Given enough time away from a fleshy fix, and they could make progress toward the right path – the safe path.
Will’s eyes darted to the pound of meat in Bart’s hand and a dribble of drool leaked out from the corner of his lips as he continued to give his warning growls. Bart tossed him the meat and faster than the eye could track, Will bounded forward several yards and snatched the food from midair.
He watched as the younger loup-garou devoured it, gobbling down large chunks without even swallowing. Within less than a half a minute, the food was gone and the tension began to ease around the sandbar.
“It’s time to go now,” Bart said as he pulled out the silver shackles from where he had tied them to his belt. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
Will licked at his fingers, savoring the flavor residue on his skin. Bart took a few steps until he finally drew the rogue’s attention. Under his glare, Bart didn’t so much as blink. He had done this enough times that it hardly fazed him to size up against a deranged opponent like this. He could smell the fear of the sailor’s coming from the ship that waited for them. They must have expected a bloodbath. Bart still had hopes that once he brought Will onto the ship, they could make it safely back to shore. He already made arrangements with a French trader to take them away from the Caribbean and to a relatively new settlement on the mainland along the Mississippi River.
The golden eyes of the loup-garou were still there, but a hint of his humanity had returned. “Ye ruined my life,” Will snarled, still bent down on all fours like the animal he was.
Bart squinted in the bright afternoon sun, waiting for a coherent explanation. That little snippet of speech was all he would get. With his inhuman speed, Will bolted toward who he perceived to be his enemy, fangs and claws bared for attack.
With the shackles prepared, Bart snapped to the side and wrestled the insane loup-garou to the ground. As soon as he had Will’s arms twisted behind him, the cuffs were fastened. The sunburned flesh on his wrists sizzled beneath the silver and Will let out a howling wail of agony.
“I told you not to make this difficult for me.”
Terms to Know
Ship Directions
Port – Left when facing front
Starboard – Right when facing front
Bow – Front
Forecastle
Bow sprite
Foremast
Stern – Back
Quarterdeck
Mainmast
Rudder and Wheel
Locations
Kingston, Jamaica - An English port city on the southern coast of Jamaica, just west of the former town of Port Royal. Originally founded as a place of refuge for those escaping the disasters that befell Port Royal in 1692. It grew and boomed in 1703 to becoming the largest town in Jamaica by 1716.
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas – Founded in 1657, conquered by the Danish in 1672. Known for natural harbor and rum houses, which gave rise to its previous name of “Taphus”, short for “Tap House”. Also known for its profitable slave trade auctions and plantations. Renamed in 1691 to Charlotte Amalie after King Christian V’s wife.
Isla de Mona – Small Caribbean island between San Juan and Hispaniola. Mostly inhabited by natives, but served as a stopping point or hideaway for pirates and criminals.
St. Kitts - Alternately owned by English and French over time. First founded as St. Christopher, but now commonly called St. Kitts. Fell to English hands in 1727 and known for tumultuous riots. Capital city of Basseterre was founded in 1627 by French and became one of the most successful ports of the East Caribbean as well as the capital of all French colonies in Caribbean in 1660. Basseterre boasts a 2-mile-long bay, hills and mountains to the north, and Conaree Morne Peaks to the east.
Port Royal – English port city in Jamaica, held by buccaneers. Commonly known as the most wicked city in the Caribbean. It was destroyed by earthquakes and fires in 1692 and Kingston was founded as a refuge city for its former residents. Gallows Point in Port Royal was a place where the corpses of dead pirates were hung in order to set an example for any sailor who considered turning pirate.
St. Johns, Antigua – Founded by the English in 1623 and the capital city of Antigua.
Slang
Cut of her jib – Discerning a ship’s origin and condition from a distance off.
Turn rudder to – Turn the ship away from something to flee.
Keelhaul – A punishment where the offender is dragged along the bottom of the ship that is covered in sharp barnacles.
Bombed – Slang for drunk
Catting – Chasing after harlots/prostitutes
Black Ivory – Slaves traded from Africa
Bawdyhouses – Places of work for prostitutes
At loose ends – To have little to do. When sailors were bored, they would go around and check to make sure the ends of the ropes hadn’t “fagged out”, or come loose.
Piss money against the walls – Waste all one’s money on drink.
Tangles your lines – Gets you riled/upset.
Douse canvas – To bring up the canvas, bringing the ship to a stop.
Wench/Trollop/Strumpet – A woman who makes her living by pleasing/seducing men
“Shut your gob” – Shut up/be quiet
Unfurl/cut sails – To let down the sails to receive wind.
Flying/Gone by the boards – Thrown or tossed overboard with no hope of retrieval.
Jacobs Ladder – A makeshift rope ladder let down over the side of the boat to help passengers and crewmen board
Aweigh anchor – To lift the anchor from the seabed in preparation for departure or movement.
Pulling a laugh – Joking around
Pillock – An idiot
Nailed to the mast – A seaman’s punishment may have included taking them by the tongue or earlobes and nailing them to the mast where they can be ridiculed or kicked by his fellow crewmen.
Black’s the white of me eye – An exclamation made by a sailor who has been accused of telling a falsehood.
Put/Clap in irons – To put in handcuffs.
Dead water – Calm, waveless water that trails behind a ship as it goes forward.
Burgoo - Oatmeal, boiled and seasoned with butter, sugar, and salt. Similar to porridge.
Fagged out rope – A rope whose ends have come unraveled due to neglect.
Three sheets to the wind – Drunk
Rough talk – Cursing and lude language
Fouled up – Equivalent of “wires crossed”
“No prey, no pay” – A saying amongst pirates that means when there is no ship to attack, there is no money to be had.
Living on the account – Pursuing a career in piracy.
By guess and by God - Navigation which relies on intuition, guesswork, experience, and the Lord Almighty.
“Sling your hook” – Referring to seamen hanging their hammocks below decks to sleep.
“In their boots” – Extremely drunk
Crack on sails
– Unfurled says that caught the wind just right, making a cracking sound. Also a command to let down more sail so the ship can go faster.
Bring your arse to anchor – Sit down
“Savvy” – “Got it?” or “Okay?”
Tawdry – Rowdy or unruly
Faoladh – (Fay-oh-lahd) Irish term for “werewolf”, often depicted as benign or helpful in their legends.
Hard up in a clinch with no knife to cut the seizing – In a situation with no obvious solution or remedy.
Wellied – Drunk
First-Rate Ship – A ship with three masts and a hundred guns or more. A very intimidating ship.
Hempen halter – Noose
Sundowner – Bullying officer
Rosewater Sailor – Incompetent sailor
Sailing on another board – Behaving differently
Mudhook – Anchor
To put at beam’s end – A condition of the ship where it is almost perpendicular to the waterline, nearly capsizing. “To be at one’s beam ends” refers to having no money, no job, and no hope.
“See you measured for chains” – A threat of death or turning into the authorities
Pitcher Bawds – Old prostitutes who were good for nothing else but serving pitchers to men in the taverns.
Enough to patch a Dutchman’s breeches – Just enough to do the job, but what seems little to begin with.
Swear through a double deal-board – Be extremely good at lying.
When the devil’s blind – “Blind” meaning drunk, so this term means “when the devil’s drunk”, meaning never.
Dance the hempen jig – Referring to the way one’s feet jiggle and convulse when they’re being hung at the gallows.
Cape Horn Fever - Term for a fake illness claimed by a sailor wanting to be excused of duty.
Flogging sails – When the sails are flapping/cracking efficiently
In the offing – Spotting a ship some distance away.
Look one way and row the other – To have a hidden agenda
Jack Tar – Another slang term for “pirate”
To have an oar in someone else’s boat – Being a nosy-body and having their hands in someone else’s business.
Tie the colors to the mast – “There’s no going back”
Swivel guns – Guns mounted on the ship’s railing that are basically mini-cannons.
Bent on a splice – “Splice” refers to tying the ends of two ropes together. To be bent on a splice, means to be married.
Barmy – Insane
Give a dog a bad name – Sometimes being accused of a pirate was enough to have him hanged as one.
Afterword
Dear readers,
I hope you’ve enjoyed embarking on this journey with me, Grace, James, and Bart. There were several times during the course of this novella that I wondered if my characters would mutiny against me, but it all came together in the end and I hope the ending was as satisfying for you as it was for me. If you enjoyed this story, please let me know by finding the Goodreads page for this novella and leave a review! I’d love to hear from you!
When the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out when I was in school, I became fascinated by these rough and rowdy seadogs. I remember dressing my toys up in pirate outfits and making ships out of cardboard boxes. Every time my dad would take me to the bookstore, he bought me a book about pirates. Needless to say, I collected a nice selection of reference books and novels, all of which came in handy when researching for this novella.
Yet, despite all of this previous knowledge, I did have to do quite a bit of fact checking and internet searching to make sure I was throwing my characters into a completely accurate environment. I’m not a sailor by any stretch of the imagination. I get sick just walking onto the docks, but I love the romantic notion of sea voyage. Though a pirate’s life is nothing as glamorous as the movies and television shows portray, I envy the level of freedom they enjoyed in the Golden Age in the early 18th century.
As the epilogue suggests, this isn’t the end of the story for this particular family tree. Bart, Will, and James will show up again in a later novella and it’s my hope that you’ll continue this Legacy journey with me.
In the meantime, I invite you to check out my social media sites for more updates and sneak peeks into my progress. You can find me at my blog, www.moonstruckwriting.wordpress.com.
Also, find me on Facebook! I have an author page and fan group page where you can stay tuned into the latest news, get the chance to earn free stuff, and talk all about your favorite books. To subscribe to my email listing, you can follow THIS LINK and sign up.
Until next time, happy reading!
- Sheritta Bitikofer
About the Author
A paranormal author of eclectic tastes, Sheritta Bitikofer has a passion for storytelling. Her goal with each book is to rebel against shallow intimacy and inspire courage through the power of love and soulful passion. Her biggest thrill comes when she presents love in a genuine light, where the protagonists not only feel a physical attraction to one another, but a deep emotional (and dare we say spiritual?) connection that fuels their relationship forward into something that will endure much longer than the last pages of their novel. A devoted wife and fur-mama to two shelter rescue dogs, Sheritta’s life is never dull. When she’s not writing her next novel, she can be found binge-watching her favorite shows on Netflix, eating chili cheese fries, singing and dancing to a wide genre of music, or painting at a medieval reenactment event.
Follow her for upcoming novel releases
www.moonstruckwriting.wordpress.com
Also by Sheritta Bitikofer
Escape
Clouds
Passions
Silver Screen
The Loup-Garou Series
The Enigma
Becoming the Enigma
Beast Within
Precedents
The Legacies Series (A Novella Series)
The Legend
The Guide
The Frenchman
The Prophecy
The Pirate
The Decimus Trilogy
The Beast of Verona
Amber Ashes
Saving the Beast
The Pirate (The Legacy Series Book 5) Page 16
