He whirled, thrust out his hand as if to strike the footman a blow to the face. The man staggered backwards a pace and raised his arms as Jesamiah threw something at him. The flickering light from the many candles glittered on a shower of sparkling, twinkling diamonds that sprayed from his hand and fell like tinkling rain to the floor. Alicia cried out and fell to her knees, scrabbling to gather up as many of the beautiful gems as she could – the footman, too, was on his knees, shoving her hand aside as he groped for his share.
“They are worth a lot, Alicia!” Jesamiah shouted as he sprinted for the stairs. “Better than tobacco for barter, eh? Call your tavern The Acorn!”
The footman realised his mistake, hesitated, anxious to collect the diamonds for himself, as anxious not to let the scoundrel anywhere near the Governor, which would certainly mean his dismissal. Out of duty he had to stop him. He pocketed a good handful of the glittering beauties and shouted for help – but Jesamiah was already up the first flight of stairs, around the bend and halfway up the second; was almost at the top.
“Governor!” he yelled, desperate, for this was his only chance. “Governor, it’s me, Jesamiah Acorne! I must see you!”
Alicia ignored the both of them. She opened her poke bag and sweeping her hand backwards and forwards across the floor scooped up as many diamonds as she could.
Thirty Nine
Sunday 17th November
“Were I you, I would leave Virginia.”
Groggy, roused from sleep, Knight lifted his head from the pillow. He blinked, squinted into the room that should have been dark; light from the lamp in the corridor was streaming in through the door. It was ajar; he was sure he had shut it. Pushing the covers aside he half rose, froze immobile as he realised a pistol was pointing at his head.
“As I said; were I you, I would leave Virginia and stay left. You ain’t welcome ‘ere, Knight.”
Raising hands that were trembling, Knight uttered a few squeaks of alarm then stammered, “Who are you? What do you want? I have no money. I have nothing for you to steal.”
Jesamiah sat on the end of the bed, being careful to ensure that the light remained behind him so that his face could not be seen.
“Of course you have no money, Mrs Mereno has not paid you what you asked her, has she?”
Knight was wondering if he shouted for help, would anyone come? Jesamiah guessed his thoughts. The man had given them away by flicking a glance at the door and opening his mouth.
“No one will come. Everyone’s asleep and the porter downstairs will be expecting the other half of the payment I made him.” Jesamiah leant forward slightly. “I told him not to worry if you made a noise. He thinks I’m a sodomite come to pleasure you.”
Knight blanched.
Tempted to start unbuttoning his breeches to frighten the man thoroughly, Jesamiah thought better of it, he was limited for time. He’d had a job climbing out of the first floor window at the palace, and would find it damned more difficult to get in again. At least he’d had no bother getting to see the Governor. Their talk yesterday evening had been most interesting, the one planned for later this morning promised to be similarly so.
“Now,” Jesamiah said, “about you leaving Virginia. The Governor does not – yet – know you are a touch too friendly with Edward Teach.”
Knight began to bluster. Jesamiah clicked the hammer on his pistol to full cock. “No good you protesting, mate, I know what I know. I am prepared to keep m’knowledge to m’self though. On one condition.”
“I need no conditions. I have done nothing wrong.”
“No? Shall I tell Spotswood about the tunnel between the creek and the Governor’s cellar? That it extends to your cellar? I wonder what he would find if he were to look?”
Noticeably, Knight remained quiet.
Jesamiah stood, walked backwards to the door. “If you are still here come sunup, Knight, I will tell Spotswood everything. And if I ever – ever – hear of you threatening Mrs Mereno again, you’ll wish I had, ‘cause hanging for treason will be preferable to what I’ll do to you. Savvy?”
He opened the door wide, slipped out; closed it. By the time Knight had struggled from the bed, stubbed his toe, found the doorknob and opened it again, the corridor outside was empty.
Forty
North Carolina
Sunday morning; dawn was yet a way off. Elizabeth-Anne had been in labour for hours – more if you counted the niggling pains that had started early the previous morning. She was tired, the baby too. Both had almost had enough. Another massive contraction swept in like the surge wave of a bore tide and Elizabeth-Anne screamed.
“Help me! Oh help me! I cannot go on. I cannot do this anymore. Just stop it. Please, I beg you, just stop this pain!”
Tiola heard voices outside, Nicholas, anxiously calling his wife’s name. Had she been anywhere else Tiola would have let him in. It was nonsense not to allow men into the birthing chamber. They were there at the begetting, damn it, perhaps to witness this end of things would keep their cocks in their breeches a little more often.
Gripping Elizabeth-Anne’s hands, Tiola stroked her sweat-damp hair. “You can do it, dear-heart, you are doing it. Follow your body, stop trying to go against the pains, go with them. When each one comes push with it, push it down, push it out. You are delivering your baby. He is nearly here, believe me he is nearly here, it is nearly all over!”
Tiola looked into the woman’s exhausted eyes and breathed lightly on her face, murmured “hie…esshh,” and spoke a few soft, chanting words. She rarely used her Craft during a birth as she never knew who was near, who was watching, who – what – was listening. The quickest way to be discovered as a witch was to use her ability during a birthing, especially if the birth went wrong. But Elizabeth-Anne was near exhaustion and it would be a while yet before the child came. Tiola could at least give her some respite,a chance to rest,to rekindle some strength; and the best way do so was to rake away the pain. And trust that her interference went undetected.
Forty One
Virginia
Governor Alexander Spotswood was as furious as an enraged hornet. Tobias Knight of North Carolina being the object of his rage. The Governor had summoned everyone relevant in hunting down Blackbeard to be at the palace an hour after sunup on the Sunday morning. Messages went out to the Captains Gordon and Brand and Lieutenant Maynard of the Navy, Jesamiah Acorne and Tobias Knight. Except Tobias Knight was nowhere to be found. His room was empty, his clothes gone. On enquiry, it was discovered he had taken a horse before dawn and left Williamsburg. Why, no one seemed to know.
Apart from his secretive midnight sojourn, Jesamiah had spent the night sprawled warm and comfortable as a guest at the palace. He had quite liked the luxury. The mattress was filled with goose-down and the palace boasted a bathhouse – of which he had taken full advantage before breakfast. All he had needed was Tiola to share the bath and the bed. Next time, perhaps? If there was a next time.
“Just how much did you tell Knight?” he asked, unfolding his arms and getting to his feet. “How much of your plan does he know?”
Spotswood growled. The two captains blustered a bit, not committing themselves and not wanting to answer a man they saw as a knave. Maynard was the one to speak up.
“He knew all of it. He knows the Governor put out a public decree of reward as a ruse to detract from the fact we are to sail secretly after Teach and capture him.”
“I see. And in what inappropriate ships are you intending to sail?”
Captain Gordon was indignant. “How dare you insult us? You are a scurvy, ignorant vagabond; a degenerate pirate! What know you of ships, of tactics? Governor!” he faced Spotswood, hand outstretched, appealing, “I beg you to remove this dog. He cannot be trusted.”
Slamming the desk top with his hand Jesamiah roared his anger. “It is Knight who cannot be trusted, and you are the one with your head stuffed up your arse, Gordon, not me!” Incensed, he swept several books to the floor. “The Navy
has one hundred and twenty-four commissioned vessels. Just ten of those are stationed here in the Americas. Six are in the Caribbean under command of Commodore Vernon, one patrolling up near New York, one for New England and two here in Virginia. Have you any idea how many pirate ships there are? Do you really want me to tell you? Do you really want me to show your ignorance to the Governor?”
Gordon had never liked Jesamiah Acorne. He saw him as a threat to his authority. “You are remarkably well informed. How do you know this information?”
“Because it ain’t a fokken secret and I ain’t fokken stupid!”
Spotswood interceded before the two took the argument further and started calling each other out. “Captain Acorne, you tread on the Navy’s pride, though I see your point, and I personally think the Navy’s pride deteriorated some while ago.” He held his hand up to silence Gordon’s protest. “I accepted Captain Acorne into this venture because I also believe he knows what he is doing. I suggest we grant him the courtesy of at least hearing him out?” He gestured at Jesamiah to continue. “But, Acorne, please, temper your words. It is, after all, Sunday.”
Apologising, Jesamiah asked, quietly, “How do you intend to get close to Blackbeard Captain Gordon, Captain Brand? Where did Knight tell you he was anchored?”
“Pamlico Sound. Near Pilot Point,” Maynard responded. He shared Jesamiah’s opinion of Gordon, though he would not express it aloud. Ellis Brand was competent, but too cautious. He spent too long weighing the pros against the cons.
Jesamiah spread his arms, palms upwards. “Well, there you have it. Knight is playing you for fools.”
“How so?” Captain Brand had not liked Knight, had thought him untrustworthy, though given the seriousness of the situation, and the person who verified his suspicions, he was not elated to discover his assessment had been correct.
“Teach is settled on the Ocracoke, where you will never get those ships of yours anywhere near cannon range. He will wait for dark then slip out with the flood tide – and you would not be able to stop him. He can sail for miles over those shallows with a rising tide. You will have to stick to deep water.”
Lost in thought, steepling his fingers against his lips, Spotswood sat considering. He took some snuff, sneezed; blew his nose. “Knight said Teach was gathering other pirates. That he intended to make Pilot Point his base – build a fortress and hold the whole of Pamlico Sound to ransom. That would severely affect our trade as well as that of North Carolina. Knight said he had come as an emissary and that the Colony needed our help to rid them of Teach. I take it none of what he said is true?”
Jesamiah shrugged. “I do not know all of it, but aye, Teach has been talking to other pirates. Vane, Rackham. Bonnet was supposed to have joined him.”
“Bonnet wept like a babe when they took him to his hanging. He pleaded for mercy and screamed for a pardon. The crowd pelted him with filth for his cowardice. Or so they are saying.” Gordon’s sneer was contemptuous.
Ignoring him – he was not interested in Stede Bonnet, alive or dead – Jesamiah continued, “I have a suspicion that Teach intends to call in others. He thinks I am with him, he is waiting for me to return. He intends to create mischief one way or another.” He pulled up a chair, sat, “I would guess that Eden and Knight have had enough of him – I have already told you of the foul deeds that have happened. But the pair of them have been hauled so high with Teach they know not how to shorten sail. If they initiate a fight and Teach survives – well, they already know how vicious he can be.”
Spotswood took more snuff. After several sneezes said, “So they get me to do the deed? If it goes wrong they will plead innocence.”
“You said it Governor.”
Spotswood sat back in his chair. “So, Acorne, you have a better plan?”
Jesamiah nodded. He did.
Later, while Maynard was rousing John Brush to open the armoury and fill a wagon with muskets, pistols and grenados, Governor Spotswood privately asked Jesamiah two questions. He expected truthful answers to neither – if indeed he got an answer at all.
“Did you have anything to do with Knight’s inexplicable departure?”
Looking pained, Jesamiah laid his hand over his heart. “Me? Why would I be involved? How could I have done? I spent a peaceful night in your guest bedchamber. And very pleasant it was too, compared to the previous accommodation you offered me.”
Spotswood chewed his lip, nodded sagely, not believing a word of it. “Then you have no thoughts on how several of my carefully tended blooms got broken last night and footprints were all over my flower beds?”
“None at all.”
“And Acorne.”
“Sir?”
“From where did those diamonds come?”
“Diamonds? What diamonds would they be, Governor?”
Spotswood produced two from his waistcoat pocket. “These diamonds.”
Whistling at their obvious value Jesamiah shook his head. “I have no idea, but I suggest you put them away and keep them for something useful. New flowers perhaps?”
“I am not open to corruption, Acorne.”
Jesamiah touched his hat in salute and headed for the door; “Glad to ‘ear it, Guv’nor. Glad t’ ‘ear it.”
Forty Two
North Carolina
Tiola moved to sit beside Elizabeth-Anne who was naked and lying on the bed on her side, her knees drawn up. The pulsations of the last contraction rippled beneath the sweat glistening on her skin. Somehow, together through the long hours, the two women had worked to get this far, and there was not much further to go.
As Sunday morning had dawned, Tiola had coaxed and encouraged, massaged and caressed. She was not going to lose this child, nor his mother. She put one hand on the woman’s in-drawn knee. They were nearly there. It was nearly over.
“Good, now breathe my dear, pant, that’s it, short breaths. I can see the crown. We are almost there. Elizabeth-Anne, we are almost there!”
She waited for another contraction to ease. “Let’s get you up – that’s it, we need to give your bones a chance to spread for the head to pass through.”
Elizabeth-Anne grasped Tiola’s hand as she shifted position and sat back in the middle of the bed, her bottom resting on her heels. Tiola massaged the skin around the birth canal, rested her fingers lightly on the cap of the baby’s head to hold him back a little, to give the perineum time to stretch naturally without tearing.
“Pant,” she said. “He has kept us waiting all this time, now he insists on hurrying!” She panted with Elizabeth-Anne; “Hah; hah; hah.” The baby’s head rotated, showing its wet, slanting forehead, and the perineum slipped over his face as easy as anything. The head was out. Tiola felt like shouting with joy, but all was not safe yet.
“One more push!”
Not losing the momentum, her body trembling, Elizabeth-Anne pushed downward for one more surge – and the baby was out, sliding into Tiola’s outstretched hands as she deftly caught him. Another term for the midwife – baby catcher.
“A boy!” Tiola cried, elated, peering quickly over its tiny, wet, mucky body to see in an instant that all the parts he was supposed to have were there. She laid him down, tied off the cord near his abdomen, making sure she bound it tight. She fetched a bowl, cut the cord and let the mother’s end drip into the utensil. The dark blood was not Elizabeth-Anne’s, she would come to no harm. This was placental blood and allowing it to flow a while would help the afterbirth come away the easier. She laid the baby next to Elizabeth-Anne, covered him and his mother with blankets and efficiently cleaned away the mucus from his nose and mouth. The little fellow was already crying, indignant at this frightening world, but the room was warm and comfortable, as would he be soon.
Elizabeth-Anne remained on her knees a while, staring down at him, her unbound, tangled hair flopping over her face. She reached up, tucked a strand behind her ear. Giving its normal warning of a rush of fresh blood the placenta was delivered, straightforward and quickly.
Tiola was there with the bowl, she caught it, checked it had come away in one piece, that there were no tears left inside the uterus.
Overwhelmed with emotion Elizabeth-Anne barely noticed. She said nothing as she rolled over and gathered her baby to her breast, hushing him within her embrace, her kisses and her love. Tiola closed her eyes in prayer to the Great Mother who cared for all Her children.
She sent the servant running for clean bed linen – the girl had been useless except for fetching and carrying. She had spent most of the time squatting in the corner with her skirt over her head, refusing to look at what was happening. Tiola bustled outside onto the landing. Nicholas was waiting there, sitting on the top stair, his head in his hands; he leapt up as the door opened.
“My wife? My child?”
“Both are well. You have a son. Give me but a moment to tidy away the residue of women’s work and you may come in.”
Tiola hugged him, pleased, sharing his delight. “Be proud of your wife, Nicholas, she has laboured hard for you and your son this day.”
Forty Three
Virginia
Pleased that Rue had made sail in Sea Witch as he had ordered, Jesamiah set to at Hampton Roads with Robert Maynard to commandeer a second sloop. He already had the Jane, and her volunteered skeleton crew as his own vessel, the second one he had in mind he had seen at anchor close to where Sea Witch had been. The Ranger would be ideal for their purpose, and she had still been there, idling at anchor.
“Teach is expecting me to return with two sloops,” Jesamiah had said to the men in Spotswood’s office. “If Knight gets word to him of your plan, then he will also be expecting two Navy frigates. I propose I sail in with the sloops as near as I can get. If he spots us too soon I can play-act, confirm the Navy is wise to him. It might buy us a bit of time, at least get us nearer. With sloops,” he had added, “we can get in close. With frigates, we cannot.”
Bring It Close Page 39
