by Andrea Jones
The first thing Jill saw was the complacence on Cecco’s face. Second, the gratification on the surgeon’s. They, too, had been busy during her hour of agony.
Jill knew Cecco aimed to be captain. He had admitted as much that morning at the port of Gao. Backing up his friend, Yulunga had chipped away at Jill’s autonomy. And Hanover— Jill watched, sickening, as the face under the dueling scar sneered at Smee— Hanover wanted to destroy the trappings of Hook’s power. He had started with Jill, and progressed to Hook’s right-hand man. In front of the entire company, Hanover had destroyed Smee’s credibility as relentlessly as he destroyed Jill’s, to avenge himself on Hook, and to get Jill well away. In disgrace, if need be. As the crewmen raved for Captain Cecco, Jill didn’t have to count the votes. She heard the verdict. Three strong men had won what they wanted.
She thought the struggle was over then. But the complications were only beginning. Cecco hadn’t yet secured everything he desired. He came forward from the crowd and mounted the stairs, exuding a sense of entitlement that swelled with every step. Nearing the top, he halted, diplomatic as he waited for Smee to make way. Begrudging the position, the bo’sun shifted, and the two men passed each other as one rose to the summit, and the other descended in proud defeat. Nibs and Tom thumped Smee’s back and drew him to starboard. He wouldn’t look at the lady. For him, the fight was done.
Cecco addressed Jill first. “Madam. I am proud to share this place of honor with you.” In his pleasant accent, he spoke loudly enough for the entire company to hear. “Please be at ease. I assume this post at the insistence of our men. I do not consider it an affront to our former captain, but rather, a practical solution for our dilemma. And, a great show of confidence in myself.”
The clamor of exultation burst forth again. A feeling of relief was palpable, sweeping through the company. Balance was restored, without the in-fighting and bloodshed that might have torn the crew asunder. They didn’t object to bloodletting when necessary, but for the most part, these pirates had served years together. As Hook understood, a division of loyalty would destroy their fellowship, not to mention their productivity. No one could afford discord. Even those who still favored Smee welcomed Mr. Cecco’s ascendancy. The lady herself had chosen him first officer, and with good reason. He was fearless of a fight but good-tempered with his mates. He was physically impressive, his intelligence proven. He knew the ship, he knew the sea. He would be a strong captain. He was the strongest man aboard.
Only one matter remained to be settled, and now the men watched with increasing interest. The opportunity was over for them, but their new captain faced one last trial in order to gain their complete allegiance. Nibs and Tom looked about themselves, wary of the new, sudden tension. They exchanged glances, concern etching the two faces that months ago held only innocence. Smee jerked around to study the crew, and then he shot a horrified look at Jill. Only now did he realize the full result of refusing the captaincy. But it wasn’t he who would bear that burden.
Staring at Jill’s face, Smee watched as understanding dawned there, too. His gut reacted before he could think. “No! Lady, you don’t have to be doing this. You’ve said it yourself— the captain will be back!”
Unwilling to see the new accord broken, the men stirred uneasily. Jill noted their discontent. So too, she saw, did Cecco. But although his brown eyes glittered, the new captain demonstrated both his reserve and his self-assurance, granting the lady the courtesy of answering for herself.
Turning empty eyes upon Smee, she tried to smile. “It is because of all I have said, that I will do this.”
Smee read the look on Cecco’s face. He saw the notorious knife in the man’s belt, like his jewelry, reflecting the last hopes of the sun’s rays. But worse, Smee saw the light dying in the lady’s eyes, and he gaped, unbelieving, as the lovely features of James Hook’s mistress grew resigned. Gradually, as the crew of the Jolly Roger watched, she accepted the consequences of everyone else’s decision. Red-Handed Jill was no coward. Bitterly, Mr. Smee remembered. She never disappointed her captain.
With a griping of nausea in his belly, Smee turned away. Torn between him and Jill, Nibs and Tom watched his face fall. Then the bo’sun pushed his way through the crowd and stalked to the hatch.
Jill saw him go, and the strength bled from her spirit. She closed her eyes to stop the flow. Struggling for command of only herself now, she felt the ache in the hollow of her soul. Golden chiming struck the air, and when she finally opened her eyes, Captain Cecco was offering his hand. With one important exception, all of Jill’s men waited, eager to see what the captain and the pirate queen would do— together.
“Madam. I must now demand of you to declare in front of our company. Do I have your support?”
Feeling as if, like glass, she might shatter at any moment, she slowly inclined her head. “Of course…Captain Cecco.” She raised her chin. “But only on condition that the welfare of our ship stands to you as it stands for me. First, last, and always.”
“This time I don’t pretend to tell you lies.” He smiled as he pressed his open hand to his chest in a gesture reminiscent of his confession. “I pledge it. The Jolly Roger.…First, last, and always!”
The air filled with hats and kerchiefs as the men of the Roger hollered, whistled and stamped. Assured now of the ship’s good fortune, they celebrated their chosen chief. As if painted by a master, the scene unfolded and fixed itself in their minds, framed by the gilt of the companionway. In her scarlet scarf and with her weapons at her waist, their magnificent queen prepared to confirm her consort. In slow, graceful motions, she reached out and opened her blood-stained hand. Then, with ceremony, she bestowed it on their captain. His sun-browned grip accepted her, and as Jill disciplined her features, the old regime and the new joined together.
Cecco kept her ice-cold hand in his own. “Mr. Mullins!”
“Aye, aye!”
“Sheer us off to the south. We will catch a wind and lose L’Ormonde for a while.”
“Yes, Sir.” Thrusting himself through the rowdy press of shipmates, Mullins made his way to the binnacle by the wheel.
“Mr. Yulunga!”
“Sir!”
“Have some supper sent in to me, then broach that cask in the galley. As my first mate, you will oversee the celebration while the lady and I…” his voice mellowed, “come to terms.”
Yulunga’s response was drowned in the uproar. He clapped the surgeon on his gray velvet back, knocking the breath from the man. As the crowd surged away to the galley, Yulunga gloated, “Well, Doctor. We have done it. As planned, our friend Cecco is now our captain. A promotion for all of us!”
Hanover nodded, recovering and reaching for his watch. “Indeed, Mr. Yulunga. At last the era of that arrogant criminal is ended. It is a lucky day for this ship, and just the beginning of my own happiness.” Hanover watched Jill with pleasure. Sooner even than he contrived with LeCorbeau, he had executed the installation of a friendly captain on the Roger, and Jill would be speedily forced to give up her role as pirate queen and sail off with her fiancé aboard L’Ormonde. Hanover would leave all his troubles behind him, abandoned with the shackles in his bunk! He couldn’t contain his burst of a laugh.
As Jill and Cecco entered the master’s quarters, Yulunga chortled in his rich tone. “Those two are too much alike to guess. But we will know in the morning which of them comes out on top.”
Hanover pulled up short. The door with the brass plate clicked shut. “What do you mean, in the morning?”
The bolt shot home.
Yulunga’s broad, dark smile creased his face as he turned to the surgeon. “You mean you didn’t know? I thought you fancied yourself a pirate, Doctor.”
“Know? Know what?” Hanover clutched his watch. A sudden cold froze his confidence as he observed the African.
“What you just did to the lady.”
“I? We have all three worked together, to free her.”
“Just the opposite, Docto
r. She is bound more firmly than ever. Now she serves not one, but two masters. The old captain, and the new.” Yulunga leered. “Captain Cecco understands her. She will never leave. She is too loyal.”
“Yes…Yes, he understands, and he will relieve her of responsibility and grant her release. Isn’t that what he is doing right now?”
Enjoying the surgeon’s confusion, Yulunga shook his head. “Oh, no. He is assigning her new duties.”
“But he got what he wanted— to become the captain!”
“Mr. Cecco is a gypsy. He has not always desired the captaincy. His ambition is a recent acquisition, fired only after she came aboard.”
The last puff of smugness vanished. “But he never gave any indication that— He never— She is promised to me!”
“I have been Captain Cecco’s friend far longer than you, Doctor Hanover. You will just have to wait your turn.” Yulunga’s two remaining strings of beads bounced as he laughed. He slapped Hanover’s back again and strolled away to keep order in the galley.
The surgeon stared, wild-eyed, at the big man’s back, and then he gazed once more at the brass-plated door before he dropped his watch and rushed to the rail. His skin turned clammy. He shook with chills, and bracing one hand on the iron muzzle of a cannon, the proper doctor vomited his bile into the sea. When the seizure was over, he searched his pockets for a handkerchief and wiped his mouth. Standing straight again, the doctor noticed an exotic scent on the linen at his lips. He pulled it away and held it up to see. Stained with his sickness, it was the token he had stolen from Jill.
She had warned him. Hook was a master of manipulation. As she predicted in their first private encounter, by the time Hanover knew he was mastered, it was far too late. Through Jill, he had willingly given Hook all his secrets! And her elaborate play for power this afternoon. It hadn’t been a ploy to gain freedom for Doctor and Mrs. Heinrich, after all. She was doing her duty to her captain— her first captain, trying to retain his one-handed grasp on authority.
Hanover, a man of science with a bitter taste under his tongue, considered the evidence. She claimed truth was a weapon. She had plied it expertly, deceiving him over and over again, even as she told him no lies. She promised they’d spend the rest of their lives together. Now he knew what she meant. Just like her lover, the woman was a murderous, thieving pirate, and content to be so. Perverted as it was, her only genuine virtue was her loyalty. What vile act wouldn’t she perform for that man? Even amid the devastation wrought by the captain’s absence, she was following his orders, doing anything and everything to hold the Roger— for Hook!
First, last, and always, Hook was three steps ahead of him.
Hanover crushed her handkerchief and flung it into the sea, and then his stomach heaved again. Because just as he’d determined the moment she first appeared to him, bewitching him, luring him toward destruction, like a sea siren— she was exactly the woman he wanted.
Chapter 17
Coming to Terms
“Don’t blame yourself, Mr. Smee. Duty or no, there was nothing more you could do.”
“I could’ve kept my ruddy mouth shut.” Restlessly, Smee leaned forward to drop his elbows on his knees, a mug of rum in his hands. His bunk creaked beneath his bulk. “I was right refusing to take the captain’s place. But I didn’t have to say so in front of the company.”
“No,” Tom insisted. “It’s the doctor who should have kept his mouth shut. I fell right into his trap! He was only waiting for the chance I gave him. Then he made it look like Jill got Hook to grant me special favor.”
Perched on the table, dark and silent, Nibs nursed a cup of ale and watched his brother and the bo’sun. Seizing the bottle, Smee poured himself another splash of rum. “Ah, no one will believe it come morning, lad. That Hanover’s only shown himself to be the blackguard he is, insinuating such things of you and your mother. As if the cap’n would fall for any such trick! No, the men’ll know better by tomorrow.” He eased back against the wall, where he expelled an angry breath and muttered to himself, “But the damage is done.”
“Damage.” Tom shot a glance at Nibs. “To Jill?”
“Never mind, lad. What the lady does is no business of mine.”
“You don’t mean that, Mr. Smee. Jill relies on you.”
A silence grew between the three men. It swelled like a thunderhead, to become oppressive. From the galley at the opposite end of the gun deck, the sounds of celebration rolled toward them. Every so often, the hubbub increased as a group of revelers emerged and clambered up the steps. Tom caught Nibs’ eye at last, but Nibs looked away.
Tom cut the silence. “What’s the matter with you two?”
Smee sealed his mouth with his mug, and drank deeply. Nibs pulled out his knife and ran its tip under his nails. As the lantern under the beams swayed with the waves, its light fell upon three brooding faces, and the planks of the Roger bemoaned the discord.
Tom stood his ground. “All right. I’ll say it then. Jill’s with Cecco.”
Nibs spoke at last. “Captain Cecco.”
“Aye. And what of it?”
“Well, Tom. Captain Hook’s barely gone, and she’s chosen another man.”
“I’d hardly say she made the choice.”
Bitterly, Nibs replied, “I did what I could to keep her in charge. We all three did.”
Mr. Smee looked up then, and this time it was the young men whose eyes avoided a meeting.
“I know what you’re thinking. That it was me that let her down. But you’re not understanding. I couldn’t break my oath.”
“Jill did. After reminding us of ours so many times.”
“Now, Nibs,” Tom said, “What alternative did she have? We elected Cecco.”
“We elected him to be our captain. Not Jill’s mate.”
Smee’s red face flushed deeper. After a moment of hesitation, he blurted out, “She elected him mate. Right from the start, when she appointed officers.”
“Mr. Smee!” Tom gazed at the man in astonishment, then turned on his brother. “Nibs? Is that what you think, too?”
Nibs drained his drink and stared at the bobbing lantern.
The galley door banged closed again. Footsteps prowled the gunnery, soft leather shoes. Tom made his voice as fervent as privacy allowed while Hanover entered his starboard quarters. “Start to finish, Jill did what she had to. When she couldn’t take the helm, and Mr. Smee wouldn’t take it, either, what else could she do?”
“Well, she didn’t have to betray Hook, did she, Tom? I was all for her, until I realized how far she meant to take it.”
“Nibs, Hook left the ship in Jill’s care. She couldn’t let his company divide itself.”
“Any division was over when Cecco took command.”
“No, it wasn’t. Jill knows it wasn’t. Think about this, Nibs: if Jill hadn’t shown complete accord with Cecco, there’d be risk of a faction rising to bring him down, even now— in favor of Jill’s captaincy, or somebody else’s. No, it was crucial for the men to name a leader, with no possible challenger remaining. Jill figured that out quick. She’s seen to it that Cecco’s authority is seamless.”
Nibs retorted, “She could have let Cecco lead the company, and left him alone.”
But Tom was adamant. “How would it help Hook for Jill to give over the ship? Don’t you see? She has to hold on to leadership any way she can. Not from below decks, but in the captain’s quarters, as the captain’s queen.”
“As queen, she might have kept the quarters and sent him below!”
Tom said, “If she’d defied Cecco, he could have thrown her in the brig.”
Smee spat out, “She knows he’d never do that.” At the sting of his scorn, both brothers stared. Never before had they heard Smee disparage the lady. “She knows she’s too ripe a plum to put by in storage.”
Tom’s reply was heated. “All right then. But if she’d refused him, it’d be the worse for all of us. Everyone would be wanting her. Just look at the trouble
Yulunga stirred up! You left her high and dry, and Nibs and I are no match for the whole crew. Without Cecco’s protection, Jill might as well jump ship. But she’s loyal. She won’t do that. Not while Hook’s alive to come back to it.”
“Back to his treasure. I’m guessing she’s finally got her hands on all of it.”
Nibs’ jaw jutted. Tom gaped, incredulous, at the familiar face behind the spectacles. “Mr. Smee— you’re drunk! Otherwise you’d never say such a thing about the lady! We all know she’s devastated by Hook’s disappearance. It’s plain on her face.”
“You think that slippery gypsy sees it too, then? Or cares?” Smee heaved himself up to sit straighter. “Ah! I’m sorry, lads. I’m forgetting my place. It’s just I’m that afraid. What he’ll do to her— and where could the captain be? For all the lady claims he’s alive, I don’t see why he’d leave in the first place if it was possible for him to return.”
“But Jill is certain—”
The conversation broke off as the doctor’s door clicked shut. They waited for Hanover to move away, but a moment later a rap sounded on Smee’s door. Smee stared straight ahead and ignored it, finishing his drink. Nibs sprang from the table, his knife in his fist.
Realizing neither of his mates was fit to deal with the surgeon, Tom pushed himself up and tramped to the door. After assuring himself the others hadn’t moved, he opened it and stepped out, propelling the doctor backward to the gun deck with no lingering pretense of respect. He shut the door behind him.
“Should we kill the man now, Mr. Smee?” Nibs’ swarthy face was hard. A permanent crease marked the space between his eyebrows. Gripping his knife, he edged his lanky form toward the door.
Smee sat grim and motionless. “No, Mr. Nibs. Cap’n’s orders.”
“The old captain? Or Cecco?”
“The only captain.”
“You mean Hook, then.”
“Aye. When I call that gypsy ‘Captain,’ I’ll have stopped believing in loyalty!”
Nibs’ posture sagged. “Tom spoke reason, Mr. Smee. I know Jill’s trying to be true to Hook, in her own way. I just want to understand what she’s thinking.”
