Birthright

by David Hingley

  Captivated by the scene on deck, nobody noticed the lone individual climbing down the rigging from the foretop. But feeling sick at the sight of Jamieson’s bloody back, and sicker still at her self-interested silence, Mercia looked up towards the foredeck and was startled to see Nathan descending the last few lines of the rigging. He dropped down the ladder to the main deck to join her, his hair tangled and unkempt.

  ‘What were you doing up there?’ she asked.

  ‘Nothing, I—what is happening?’

  ‘Nicholas has been attacked. This man is being punished for it.’ The third lash fell, Jamieson’s cry blunter this time. She lowered her voice. ‘But I am not sure he is culpable.’

  ‘Nicholas?’ Nathan looked at Jamieson tied to the mast, then back at Mercia. ‘Was he – found in the hold?’

  Mercia nodded, her eyes fixated on Jamieson’s back, now become a bloody mass of welts. And then she jumped as right beside her Nathan cried out: ‘Stop!’

  She wrenched her head to look at him. He chewed his lip, his eyes sorrowful. Composing himself, he strode forward into the midst of all. ‘Captain Morley,’ he said. ‘You must release this man at once. He did not attack Nicholas. I did.’

  Uproar broke out. The sailors shouted and screamed, punching their fists into their palms. The noblemen looked at each other, mouths half-open, craning their necks forward in surprise. Lady Calde stood impassive, her arms folded. But Mercia barely took in the scene as she registered what Nathan had said.

  ‘You attacked Nicholas?’ the captain asked, incredulous. Nathan simply nodded. Staring at him, the captain clicked his fingers and ordered Jamieson’s release. The lashed sailor collapsed against the mast, sliding to the deck, before he picked himself up and stumbled to the hatch that led below.

  The crew began to beat out a violent rhythm with their feet. Fired up, they clamoured for Nathan to receive the punishment instead. ‘Lash,’ they repeated, ‘lash, lash,’ over and over. Mercia looked at Nathan, mouthing a simple ‘why?’, but he turned his face away. She entreated the captain, but he was adamant. Such a grievous incident as the beating of a fellow on ship could not pass unpunished, not with the crew in such a fury as they were.

  ‘I am happy to accept the penalty,’ said Nathan. Although he spoke with dignity, there was fear in his eyes as he looked at the lash. ‘I lost control of my actions. I understand the laws of the sea.’

  ‘Yet you are no common sailor,’ said the captain. He sucked in his gaunt lips, thinking. ‘I will see you punished, but not by the lash.’

  The crew, at first impressed by Nathan’s determination to suffer as they would, now screamed out in disgust. Mercia stepped back, for something in their manner told her they were in the mood for blood.

  ‘Quiet, you men!’ shouted Morley. ‘There are women on deck!’ They fell silent, suppressed mutiny in their eyes, and he continued. ‘Nathan Keyte, for the crime of beating insensible a fellow on my ship, by the authority given me by the Articles of War, I command you be keelhauled in sight of the crew, the punishment to be delivered immediately.’

  The crew let out a massive roar, this time in firm approval. Nathan looked at the deck, clenching and unclenching his fists in anxiety, but he took a deep breath and readied himself for his ordeal, pulling off his doublet and shirt. Mercia looked at his strong back, then up at his long hair, and felt an unnatural anger.

  ‘What have you done?’ she hissed, storming towards him. She could not look him in the eye, so she looked at the scar running over his chest. ‘Why cannot men get along? Why?’ He reached out to touch her, but she flung his hand away. ‘Look what you have done to yourself – half-naked, about to suffer the Lord knows what! By God’s truth, Nathan! What has Nicholas done to you?’ She curled up her hands. ‘Are you jealous? Is that it?’

  The anchor had now been dropped in readiness, and the crew was beginning to grow restless, banging their feet faster and faster on the deck. Nathan opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Instead he allowed himself to be led to the ship’s side. Exasperated, Mercia stood silent herself, her hands arched over her lips.

  The captain walked up. ‘I am sorry, Lady Mercia. I hope you understand. I have to keep discipline.’

  ‘What is going to happen?’ she asked. ‘I do not even know.’

  ‘Do you see that rope?’ He pointed out a sturdy cable tied to the mainmast that led out over the ship’s starboard side. ‘Now do you see that fellow climbing back into the port side with the other end? He has just swum the rope under the ship, so that now it encircles it. We will undo the rope from the mast, then tie the two ends together and loop the middle tightly around Nathan’s waist. He will jump into the sea, and we will pull on the rope to haul him under the keel, the bottom of the ship. He will come out the other side and we will bring him back up.’

  Mercia nodded her understanding.

  ‘What often happens is the man scrapes against the ship’s underbelly, which is covered with sharp barnacles and the like. It can tear a man to pieces.’ Her eyes widened. ‘But,’ the captain lowered his voice, ‘I have made sure the rope is long, and he will pass under the keel unharmed. He just needs to hold his breath.’

  ‘I understand,’ said Mercia. ‘’Tis an acceptable punishment, then.’

  The captain nodded. He walked back to Nathan, checking on the fastness of the rope now tied around his bare waist. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘Begin.’

  One of the crew pushed Nathan forward. With a glance back at Mercia, he leapt into the sea. She ran to the side, watching as his head bobbed in the choppy waves, before he vanished underwater. Behind her, three sailors tugged hard on the other side of the rope. They heaved away, dragging Nathan’s heavy body under the keel, the strong wind whipping into their eyes.

  She rushed to the other side of the ship, waiting for a sign that Nathan was about to emerge. The sailors continued to haul, grunting at each pull. Around her the crew were singing some sort of chant, but she was too agitated to make out the words.

  Nearly a minute passed. She realised she was holding her own breath as though she herself were beneath the rolling waves. She grasped the rail, unheeding its roughness, waiting, until a dark shape approached the surface and Nathan’s head broke through. He took in huge gulps of air, but he had survived, and angry as she was she felt a surge of relief.

  The three sailors kept up their task, dragging Nathan roughly up the ship’s side. After more agonising seconds he was back on deck, breathing deeply and clutching his wet belly as he lay in a growing puddle of seawater. His bedraggled hair was sticking to his face, and his breeches were soaked through, but he managed to look up at Mercia and smile.

  ‘Of course I am jealous,’ he said. ‘How could I not be?’

  She refused to smile back. As the sailors stepped forward to untie him, she paced up and down, trying to decide how she should react. Then a growing murmur from the crew turned her attention to where the barber-surgeon had emerged from below. Nicholas was behind him, his cheek still stained with blood, but he seemed to be mostly unharmed. Taking in the unquiet around him he blinked in surprise. Instinctively she raised her hand and he stumbled across to where she stood. He stopped when he saw Nathan laid out on the deck, wet through.

  ‘What’s happened here?’ Nicholas looked at the rope leading over the side, the cheering crew, Nathan’s dripping torso. He stared at her. ‘Don’t tell me he’s been—?’

  ‘Keelhauled,’ she confirmed. ‘For beating you senseless.’ She examined his cut lip. ‘Are you much hurt? I found you myself.’

  His face was ashen. ‘He struck me, ’tis true, but he had reason. Mercia, I—’ He could not finish.

  She looked at him, then at Nathan on the deck. ‘Nicholas, I am not a fool. This is no common dispute. What is going on?’

  He nodded weakly before addressing the captain. ‘You should not have done this,’ he said. ‘I deserved to be hit.’ He glanced at Mercia and then quickly away. ‘He was right to strike me. I have b
etrayed my lady’s trust.’

  He walked to the side of the ship. Nathan was urgently shaking his head, signalling him to keep silent, but Mercia went after him, puzzlement across her windswept face. Spray from the wild sea leapt into her eyes, but she scarcely noticed.

  ‘What are you saying?’ she said.

  He took a deep breath, raising his head to look her in the eye. A lone tear was rolling down his red cheek, his bravado dazed by Nathan’s assault. At that moment, the roar of the wind, the crash of the sea, the cacophony of the sailors’ voices, everything faded, even Nathan, until all that was left was Mercia and Nicholas, isolated from all else.

  ‘I have betrayed you,’ he simply said. ‘All this time, I have been in false trust.’

  A coldness entered her body. ‘I do not understand.’

  He sniffed, and his lower lip twitched, but when he next spoke he was determined. ‘You suspected someone of passing information to your enemy, someone who helped trace where you were.’ He paused. ‘Well it was me. I told them you would be at the Moor Fields. I helped them arrange yesterday so your cabin could be searched. I have repaid your kindnesses with betrayal. Nathan is not the one to be punished. It should be me.’

  Mercia stared, a bitter heartbreak building in her soul. She looked at this man she had grown to like, to trust, a great sadness rising over her until she could no longer hold back. The pain burst out, and she struck at him without aim, he merely accepting the blows wherever they fell, until Nathan came over and pulled her shaking body away.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  ‘I did not want you to know,’ said Nathan, as they were sitting in the shade of the mainsail that afternoon. ‘To be hurt. He asked to see me in private, took me to the hold where nobody else would be. He confessed it all.’ He risked putting his hand on hers. ‘I lost my temper. I am sorry for it, but I was so angry. I went to hide in the foretop for a while, to try to calm myself.’

  She stared at the rough planks of the quarterdeck, all other concerns vanished from her mind. ‘But why did he do it? I met him by chance. It cannot have been arranged beforehand.’

  ‘I did not let him say much, in truth. He says he was approached after he met you, that he was offered a reward. He says he was told your life would not be endangered. I think when he saw Daniel in trouble in the rigging yesterday, his conscience finally objected. That was a diversion, as you thought.’

  ‘So he did it for money, while I have been paying him as well.’ Mercia scratched at the deck with her nails. ‘Did trust die in the war too, Nat?’

  ‘Not everywhere.’ He squeezed her hand.

  A skittish boy approached. ‘Nicholas is asking for you,’ he said. ‘He’s at the bow.’

  She clenched her fist. ‘Nicholas can—No. I do want to speak with him.’ She silenced Nathan with a jerk of her hand. ‘I want to understand how I could have been so deceived.’

  He was sitting on the rail at the front of the forecastle, the wind blowing gently through the unfurled sail above. The crew must have given him privacy, for nobody else was near.

  ‘Mercia,’ he said. ‘I’m glad you have come.’

  She did not greet him. ‘My son was in danger yesterday.’

  He lowered his head. ‘I know. I am truly sorry for it. I did not think he would try to fetch the toy himself.’

  She folded her arms. ‘He is a boy.’

  Nicholas looked up. His right eye was bruised, but his cheek was now free of blood. ‘I want you to know, I hardly told them anything at all.’

  ‘And I believe that?’

  ‘It is the truth.’ He leapt from the rail, his boots thudding on the deck. ‘When you dismissed me that time back in London, I felt aggrieved. I’d helped you with Michael, with Fell, and you just turned me adrift. Someone was watching your lodgings and saw me go in. He hired a linkboy to wait for me to leave and take me to him.’

  Mercia’s heart raced. ‘To the nobleman?’

  ‘No. I don’t know who he is. This was his servant.’

  ‘Of course.’ She let out a bitter laugh.

  ‘He’s the one who got into your house that same night. He said he was called Jerrard, but I’m not sure that’s his real name. He claimed to be an admirer of your father at first, that he wanted to ask whether you would receive him. I could tell it was a pretence, that he just wanted to find out what I knew about you. When he realised my true situation, he jumped on the chance. He offered me money to pass him information.’ He looked at her with pained eyes. ‘Please understand, I had no steady job. I’d lost my work as farrier to the Markstones. When someone offers me money, I have to take it. I was angry with you. I said yes.’

  She closed her eyes. ‘You went to see your friend Pikey to find something you could use to get back into my confidence.’

  ‘I didn’t know you then. I certainly didn’t expect you to come looking for me, to open your heart about your brother. I began to feel guilty. When we found North’s body I said I didn’t want to help them any more, but Jerrard claimed you wouldn’t be put in danger, that they only wanted to frighten you. I thought I could take his money and watch out for you at the same time, maybe find out who was behind this. But they were too careful.’

  ‘I see.’ Her voice dripped with scepticism. ‘The bowman on Moor Fields was arranged this way?’

  ‘Yes. But he deliberately missed.’

  ‘And you deliberately let him escape. What of yesterday?’

  ‘You were right to think whoever is behind this would follow you here. Jerrard has been on the Martin the whole time.’

  She went still. ‘With his master?’

  The reply disappointed her. ‘I don’t know. He is with the fleet, but he could have come on any of the ships. I was just told to find some way of getting to the Martin when we reached America to meet Jerrard.’

  She shook her head. ‘That’s why you offered to ferry the provisions.’

  ‘Yes, but by then I’d decided I was finished with it. I wanted to trick him into telling me who his master was, but I couldn’t get him to say.’ He sighed. ‘And then—’

  ‘Then he opened his coin box, I suppose.’

  His lips twitched. ‘All he wanted was a diversion, something small to keep you busy. I knew nothing could put you off, so I thought why not? I dared one of the lads to take Daniel’s toy to the foretop, knowing you would have to waste time getting it back.’ He hung his head. ‘The boy wasn’t meant to get involved.’

  ‘Fortunately for you he is unharmed.’ She unfolded her arms, an idea striking her. ‘This Jerrard. Can he write?’

  ‘Hell, no. At least, I doubt it. Why?’

  ‘Oh, no reason.’ She put her hands on her hips. ‘Is there anything else?’

  ‘No. I swear it.’ He looked up at her, the sun casting his shadow on the deck as the ship made a slight turn. ‘You must think me a demon. I would do anything to win back your trust.’

  ‘My trust?’ The word made her angry. ‘All this Jerrard need do is dangle coin in your face. You cannot tell me you need the money, not while you are earning from me. This is just about greed.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I do need the money.’

  She scoffed, turning to leave. ‘Did I not pay you enough to come with us?’

  ‘For myself, yes. But ’tis not that simple.’

  ‘Well?’

  He hesitated. ‘I don’t want the money for me. I want it for my daughter.’

  Mercia stared at him. ‘Your daughter?’

  ‘Yes. Her name is Eliza.’

  ‘Daughter?’ she repeated. ‘Why have you never mentioned this before?’

  ‘I don’t tell anyone.’ He rested his hands on the rail, looking out to sea. ‘I’m not married, am I?’

  ‘No, you are not.’ She came closer. ‘What happened?’

  He shrugged. ‘I fell in love. Foolish, I know. Then she left, no warning, no goodbye. Eight months later she came back, clutching a babe in her arms. She held the child out to me, telling me take back w
hat is yours, I don’t want it. So I did. I’ve never seen her again.’

  Compassion trickled into Mercia’s heart. ‘But that is terrible. A woman who could do that.’

  ‘I tried to find her afterwards. But she’d left London and no one would tell me where she’d gone.’ He turned to face her, his green eyes betraying his sadness. ‘That was three years ago. I’ve raised Eliza ever since, or rather my sister has. Eve tells everyone Eliza was a cousin’s who died. I do all I can to pass her money, for my girl and for her own brood. The money you paid me before we set out – it all went straight to her.’

  The trickle became a flood. Mercia looked directly into his eyes, and she found she wanted to believe him. She thought of how she would do anything for Daniel in his place. But she couldn’t forgive him. Not yet.

  ‘What happens to us now?’ he said.

  She tugged at a ringlet fallen loose in the breeze. ‘I will not ask the captain to bring out his lash. I am … not indifferent to what you say. But you have been crossing me, whatever your motives. I would stay away from Nathan for a while.’

  ‘Nathan wants to protect you.’

  ‘He is a good man.’ She sighed, a heavy wave of bitterness sweeping through her. ‘But men all seem to abandon me in the end. My husband to war. My father to his beliefs. Now you. Perhaps it is in men’s nature. Perhaps it is me.’

  He shook his head. ‘I have not abandoned you. If you’ll let me help, I will do anything to make this up. And Nathan will never leave you, that is certain. Do not scare yourself from him.’

  She began to walk away. ‘His wife was my friend, my husband was his. Now we are friends for each other. There can be nothing more.’

  ‘You believe him?’ Nathan asked, staring out to sea. Mercia could tell he was thinking about his own daughter, lost to that terrible nursing accident two years before.

  ‘He seemed sincere. And he confessed to you of his own free choice.’

  ‘It does not excuse what he did.’