by Dana Roquet
“Na but we’ll need to see about that next time out.” Red decided, as he yanked the door open, “Rena!” he hollered down the hallway.
Desiree looked to Mac for reassurance and he smiled gently, “Ye will be fine. Ye’ll see Lass, yer goin’ to enjoy yerself here.”
***
A grumbling Rena showed Desiree to her room, leaving the Captain and Mac in Red’s quarters to discuss business. Desiree followed the slight woman to a room halfway down the long wing. Entering behind the housekeeper, she could not suppress a squeal of delight at the beauty of the rooms she would be residing in. Entering a sitting room, a soft teal rug covered the floor beneath a grouping of teal and silver gray furniture. Silver gray sheers billowed at the doors, leading to a balcony. Curio tables, displaying oriental porcelain graced the corners of the room and plants were in abundance throughout.
Rena continued through to the bedchambers and Desiree followed slowly, taking in every detail. An almond tester bed, with a spread and canopy of teal and silver gray flowers took up the majority of one wall. A mirrored vanity and a velvet chaise of teal blue, resided upon the opposite side of the room. In one corner, behind an oriental screen, a sparkling brass bathtub surrounded by green plants caused Desiree to sigh longingly.
“Oh Rena do you think I might have a bath?” she squealed.
“Yes Miss. I can see to that.” Rena said, smiling, amused by the young girl’s exuberance.
“Oh thank you so much.” Desiree said happily, opening a huge armoire and untying her bundle of clothing, she set about hanging her meager possessions.
“Let me do that.” Rena offered, “You rest.” She gestured to the inviting chaise.
“Thank you.” Desiree breathed, relinquishing the task without argument.
“Poor thing, you don’t have a decent thing but one.” Rena observed sadly.
“I don’t mind—truly.” Desiree sighed, lying back upon the heavenly chaise, “I shall get along with the things I have.”
Rena completed her task, turning to Desiree, “I will see about your bath now Miss—and Miss?” Desiree looked up at the housekeeper, surprised by the soft tone in her voice, “The Captain—he is a good man. You will come to love him. I never known one better than he.” She said with admiration for the man evident in her eyes. She left the room then, closing the bedroom door gently.
Desiree rose, moving to the balcony doors and opened them wide, walking out onto the balcony and leaning at the rail, gazing out over the cove. Below, on the beach, children were playing in the surf and splashing wildly about. She smiled at their light-hearted abandon and walked along the balcony to a grouping of furniture near the doors that led to the sitting room. There she took a seat in a cane chair to watch their play. Her eyes scanned briefly down the side of the manor and came to rest upon Captain Red Legs as he also watched the children from his balcony. He smiled down at them, as he sipped at a drink.
Desiree stayed for a bit, enjoying the tropical scene before her until a light knock sounded within and she opened the door to admit Rena and two other Spanish girls, bearing water for her bath.
Chapter Twenty-One
Desiree had dressed and was pacing about her quarters, unsure of her freedom to move about the house. Deciding she had best stay put, she paused near the balcony doors, looking out to sea, when a knock sounded and she turned, calling admittance.
“Lass yer beauty blinds this old sailor.” Red beamed at her.
Desiree looked down at the plain beige gown she had donned, “Merci Red. You are most kind.” She said shyly.
“Not kind—honest! Would ye allow me to escort ye to dinner?” he held out an arm gallantly.
“Of course. That would be lovely. And I might add you look quite impressive yourself sir” Desiree stated truthfully.
She thought he looked very ferocious in a dark brown velvet suit with a white shirt and stock but the warm green eyes dispelled his fearsome image. He was a gentle giant and Desiree, tiny beside his hulking frame, took his arm and he ushered her down the stairs.
***
Dinner was spent pleasantly in conversation about this isle and the chain of islands off the Venezuelan coast and Desiree listened intently, with great interest to Red’s tale.
“Twas oh—a score of years or so now, we divvied up our loot and settled on this little isle, and took up farming. Always had been me dream to own a plantation and I have roughly three hundred acres here, bought and paid for.” he nodded proudly, “I been out of the pirating business for the most part these past years. We have the English to our northeast and the French to our southwest and those two do squabble over Saint Kitts every now and again but we are tucked in here warm and cozy without anyone challenging us.” He chuckled, “So life is good and we’ll still sack the occasional Spanish vessel just for the sport of it when we gets the chance and can beat the English and French to it. Truth be known, I owe all this,” his eyes darted about, indicating the mansion, “To the Spaniards.”
“I didn’t realize pirating was so lucrative.” Desiree confessed.
“For me it has been Lass. For many a pirate they die with nothing to show for efforts but I had the good fortune to just happen upon the Spanish fleet off the coast of Margarita and after we overtook the fleet it were just a matter of commandeering their own gunboats and turnin’ them on their own forts. Our booty—we came away loaded to the beams—three ships, nearly three tons of some of the finest pearls, gold and silver you could ever hope to come across. Not even much of a battle for them really and I lost nary a man.” he smiled dreamily, remembering, “Anyway—we retired and have even become respected citizens of our little paradise. Of course we still have plenty of riff-raff to contend with and the slavers and cutthroats that come and go through the Main but for the most part we keep to ourselves, the British keep to their own and the French do the same. Me men and I have most of our land in sugar cane. Regular country squires we be.” He ended with a guffaw before he continued more seriously.
“But I do want to be telling ye now Lass, from the onset that I don’t want ye out without one of me men or meself in yer company. We be secure here and ye be safe enough but we are not completely impenetrable and some of the blokes here and about that go through the narrows and make land at Antigua and Barbuda and the rest,” he paused, “Well let’s just say I hate chancing to meet them and ye—I would be feeling more secure if ye be with someone at all times. Understood?”
“Understood.” She decided to chance a small request, “Red?” she questioned, “I am terribly worried about my relatives. I am sure they are beside themselves, fearing me in grave danger. Is there some way I might get word to them that I am safe here?” She laid her napkin aside; her dinner finished and looked hopefully into his eyes.
He looked almost pained but shook his head, denying her request, “Lass I’d like to say ye could but I cannot. ‘Tis best left as is for now. Ye have a very determined enemy out in this world somewhere Lass. Someone who thinks ye are feeding the fishes by now and I believe it in yer best interest to let them go on thinkin’ just that. We might well draw the Brit’s wrath or more likely the French here on Nevis, if they catch wind we have a captive with us taken from the colonies. And I sure don’t want to upset the arrangement we have with those two sleeping giants. No Lassie I be sorry but I won’t allow it.” He apologized and was obviously upset for denying her.
“I understand Red. Please don’t worry about it.” She said gently. She could well understand his point. She would have to simply wait it out and hope her relatives and Bridgett would be able to cope with the situation. She was, after all, a hostage and could not insist upon such things.
“I will let ye in on me plans though me dear. As soon as I feel we would not be putting ye back in harm’s way, I will be reuniting ye with yer family. I have told me men to keep their eyes peeled and ears to the ground, and we will be searching out the culprit that means ye harm, as we go along. We are in port at the colonies often enough
and we have a good string of informants that might help us to solve this for ye.”
“I am speechless Red, Thank you.”
“Think nothin of it Lass. Shall we retire to the other room for a libation?”
“Oui.” Desiree agreed, accepting his assistance out of her chair.
They entered the comfort of the front room and Desiree took a seat upon a sofa while Red went to the sideboard, pouring each of them a glass of wine and then joined her.
Desiree could not suppress her questions about him and his life here. He was the most colorful character she had ever encountered.
“Captain,” she began but he pointed a finger at her as she unintentionally slipped into a formal address, “Red—how did you come to be a pirate? You really do not quite fit my imaginings.”
“Lass I had no burning desire to become a pirate. It were but a twist of fate.” He chuckled, with a shrug.
“I would be most interested if you would care to tell me.” Desiree pressed.
“I would much rather hear of how ye came to yer current status Lass. What happened to bring ye to this circumstance? Ye must admit it odd to have a price on yer head without a crime.” He redirected the conversation, avoiding the subject of himself.
Desiree glanced about the room and noticed a table, graced with a chess set. Her eyes twinkled, “Red you must tell me of you and your life, then I shall tell you of mine but at the same time, might we have a match of chess? I learned on my journey from France and have not played for quite awhile.”
“A woman instructed in chess, now there be a rarity. Aye—let’s have us a match.” He slapped his thighs, rising and following Desiree to the table, he held a chair for her.
“Now as to our histories—I believe you owe first oration Captain Red Legs.” She said formally with teasing in her voice, as she made her first move of the match.
Red studied the board briefly as he began, “When I were—twenty or so, I had fallen on hard times. Even before that actually, before I were even born, me parents had been sold into slavery and banished from Scotland to Barbados for crimes against the English Crown and in fact me brother and meself were both born into slavery. But in spite of our state we had a passable life, our family all together and with a just master and living among other Scots in a tight knit community, Red Legs we be called, hence me nickname,” he paused with a wink, “But alas our kind master died and me parents followed him shortly after. Me brother and meself were sold off to an evil bloke and I’ll not go into all the gruesome details Lass but let’s just say I bear many a stripe on me back—scars from punishment dealt out unfairly. I fared better than many owned by the scum, who didn’t live to see manhood—me own brother being one of such. After his death, I began looking for an escape.”
“We worked the docks mostly, loading ships but at times I were pressed into service as a swab and out to sea for months. After returning from sea and again at the landing in Barbados it just came upon me all at once one day and I made a break for it. I managed to sneak away, hiding first along the docks, in the midst of stacks of cargo. Then I waited, full expecting to be caught at any moment but I sneaked and scooted around until nightfall and eventually found meself in the water and after dark, swam for it. I came out after crossing the bay and found a hiding place aboard a vessel leaving on the morning tide. But when I finally came from the cargo hold, days later and well out to sea, I found I had unknowingly boarded a pirate ship. Captain Hawkins gave me one of two choices—to spend the remainder of me time on earth at the end of a length of coil riding the keel or to serve him. O’ course I chose the latter but it weren’t long after though that Hawkins and me ended up at odds and in a duel of blades. He expected to kill me I be sure, as I were very thin and sickly from his abuse; but in the duel I were the victor and awarded the ship by his crew. So, I became a pirate captain. Most of the same crew be with me to this day. Macintosh—O’Malley, Boots and others. Your move me sweet.” he finished with a chuckle.
Desiree had forgotten the board completely, enthralled with his story and now came from her trance. She observed the board briefly, before moving to capture his bishop.
“How awful. Red tell me of O’Malley. How did he come by his stripes?”
Red frowned, “Lass it not something ye be wantin’ to hear.” He shook his head, taking a sip of his drink and then looking to the board, making his move.
“He is so very tender-hearted and kind. I just cannot imagine what he might have done to earn them.” She felt as if she had overstepped her bounds and wanted to explain her reasons.
“He earned them as I did, without a crime. In truth it were O’Malley, the captain’s cabin boy, what were the last straw ye might say. We all tried to protect him and when he disappeared, locked below in the aft hold as punishment—for what crime—none could name and Hawkins refused us access to him to assure he be well—it was all I could stand, the last of a long line of poor souls I had seen mistreated, tortured and murdered on the bloody ship of Captain Hawkins. See Lass, after the duel and I were given the ship, the men had a heyday disposing of their captain, his first mate and cronies. Hated the man and his close circle of cretins with a passion and were treated with unmerciful cruelty by the scum. Anyway then it was Mac what went below and brought O’Malley up on deck and the wee lad were just barely alive he were; his back a bloody pulp from a flogging dealt him. We nursed him back to health and Mac took him under his wing—a brother to him ye might say, as O’Malley were not quite ten years at the time. O’Malley is kind and has a tenderness about him, though he had little enough to bring that out in him, ‘til he came to be with us.”
“I should have guessed. I knew he was too kind a soul to have done any crime.” Desiree said with a sad smile, “But Red—after all you went through at the hands of evil men and the pirate captain himself, how could you turn to a similar career?”
“Na me pet. I treat all me men with courtesy and respect and I get the same in return. I have never committed an act of piracy against any person weaker than meself, only the thievin’ Spaniards and the occasional merchant vessel and have never mistreated a man nor a woman who has fallen to me care. I have very high ideals and hope ye have found me to be kind where ye are concerned.” He said solemnly, “I abhor indecency and will not abide it in anyone associated with me.”
“Forgive me Red. I did not mean to sound as though I find any fault with you. I feel very much at ease and safe in your company.” Desiree made a comical face, “You may find me a bit too at ease before you know it and then be on your guard, for I have been accused of being a chatter box.” She giggled, “Check!”
The pirate, lost in his reminiscing had made a fatal error in strategy and found himself without another move, “And mate Lass, I surrender.” He said with a deep laugh, “Well done! And I’ll welcome yer chatter as ye call it. Rena chatters constantly but I can’t understand a bloody word—mostly I think ‘tis a blessing though. Now Lass, I shall pour us another of this very fine port I came across and what say ye tell me of yer life.” He requested as he rose to refill their glasses.
The two moved to the veranda, where the sun was beginning to set, turning the white sand beach to pink tinged and the water, to sparkling diamonds, with its waning rays.
***
Much later in the evening, Desiree retired to her suite and moved to the balcony to enjoy a bit more of the cool night air. A giggle escaped her as she thought of the captain’s expression when he had learned she was heir to a small merchant fleet plying the waters.
“I suppose we must make an effort to avoid pilfering’ yer ships in the future. I could hardly steal from a friend.” he had joked.
“As of yet I have never heard of our vessels being attacked by pirates of any sort but if ever we are, I will know at least one band of pirates, innocent of the crime.” She had assured.
Desiree leaned back in the chair, resting her head, looking to the night sky and the thousands of twinkling stars. Her mind strayed to thoughts
of Bridgett and the terror she must be feeling. If she could somehow get a simple message to her, she thought desperately but she knew now that this would not be possible. She could understand Red’s reasons well enough though and she did appreciate all he was trying to do on her behalf by keeping her hidden away here. Clearing away the disturbing problem from her mind, she stretched her hands above her head, arching her back and with a yawn, retired for the evening.
She entered the luxurious bedroom and slipped off her dress, hanging it in the armoire. Wearing a short shift she sank into the comfort of the bed, pulling the mosquito netting closed around and relished the feel of the thick feather ticking and the satin sheets, which were cool against her skin. Within minutes, her breathing slowed and sleep enveloped her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Davison perched upon the taffrail, looking off the stern. The shavings from his whittling fell to the ocean below, to be carried away in the slight current. Stephen sat against the wall behind the helm, in the heat of the day, with the sun beating down upon his shoulders. Below on the main deck, crew members milled about, a few hauling up buckets of sea water and scrubbing the deck with coarse brushes, for lack of a better pastime.
It had been nearly two weeks, Stephen thought dejectedly; two entire weeks that they had sat stranded in the midst of the ocean. Never had he seen a calm extend to this length but he had heard talk of such. And now, with the extended time at sea, they would be delayed even further with a stop at the Dominican or San Juan to take on provisions, if they ever got the wind. By the charts, they were parallel to the southern most coast of upper America, mere days from the Main.
Stephen pulled his legs up, resting his arms across his knees and sighed wearily. They were all coming to the brink of their endurance with the calm. They could take on any storm with determination, had weathered many and this was getting the best of them. At least in a storm a man was at odds with the sea, a show of strengths and skill but this was not fightable, completely hopeless, with no options.
