Chance the Winds of Fortune

by Laurie McBain

  “Ye best wait here while I have a word with him,” he suggested, but Rhea caught his arm just as he was about to walk away.

  “I would like to have a word with this captain of yours myself,” Rhea told him firmly, not trusting the man out of her sight. Even though he wasn’t the man who had shot Wesley and drugged her, she knew he might very well be mixed up in this business far deeper than he was willing to admit.

  “As ye wish, m’lady,” he said sarcastically, bowing low before her. “This way, if ye please.”

  “Come along, Alys,” Rhea said, tugging the bemused girl with her.

  “Just ye, and no one else,” Lewis said, then added with a malicious look at the plain-faced girl, “unless she be the queen? Which is just as likely a story as ye bein’ the daughter of a duke. Reckon ye both just got scared about comin’ to the colonies. I’m willin’ to forget this conversation; all ye have to do is say the word and sign this paper of indenture. There’ll be no hard feelings about it a’tall,” he tried one last time in a conciliatory tone. But he could tell by the set of the young girl’s shoulders that she was having nothing to do with it.

  “Alys comes with me,” Rhea told him, unimpressed by his attempt at peacemaking. “Take me to the captain, or I’ll scream the rigging down around your head.”

  “Aye, thought ye might be of that mind. So be it.” Lewis finally capitulated. “Come along, then.”

  “Where are we going?” Rhea demanded, surprised when the supercargo began heading toward the companionway.

  “The captain’s not on deck. Reckon he’s in his cabin. So, d’ye want to speak with him or not?” he asked impatiently, shrugging his shoulders as if what she did mattered little to him.

  Rhea gritted her teeth as she descended once again into the darkness of the ship, her mind rebelling against ever having to return to that hellhole called steerage. With an effort she quickened her steps and followed Daniel Lewis to a closed door, waiting patiently while he knocked. As a voice bid them enter, she steeled herself to face this man who might or might not be an enemy.

  Captain Benjamin Haskell eyed the intruders with an unfriendly eye, and when he recognized his supercargo standing before him, his expression became even less friendly.

  “Well?” he demanded harshly. “What do you want, Mr. Lewis? I do not like to be disturbed while I am resting in my cabin. You know that, Mr. Lewis. So why have you brought these people in here to disturb my peace and quiet?” he asked, his acrimonious manner unchanged when his supercargo began his whining explanation.

  “You wanted to see me, girl? Why? Answer me quickly before I lose my patience with you, girl,” he ordered Rhea, his dark eyes burning into her soul. But as she stared back unflinchingly, she sensed a deep anguish in his hollow-eyed face.

  As if he were now sensing her perceptive scrutiny, he stood up, towering over the three intruders. He was a giant of a man, black-browed and barrel-chested, and even though his long arms dangled loosely at his sides, Rhea could well imagine them squeezing the life out of someone.

  “Well? Are you deaf and dumb?” he asked, his voice raised in something just less than a roar.

  Rhea had to keep a close rein on her temper, for she had never before been spoken to so rudely. “No, sir, I am not deaf nor dumb, and I can hear you perfectly well without your yelling at me. I am not accustomed to being treated in so discourteous a manner. But then,” she continued, her glance resting significantly on Daniel Lewis’s short figure, “I have never been kidnapped before, nor witnessed a murder, nor been sent across the sea in little better than a prison ship. No, sir, captain, you will forgive me if at times I find myself slightly speechless about what I have been subjected to.”

  Captain Haskell’s bellowing rage was silenced by her quiet rebuttal and her refusal to be cowed. “My pardon,” he said simply. “You have me at a disadvantage. May I inquire what your name is?”

  Rhea swallowed her fear, for she hadn’t known how this mighty man, who growled as fiercely as a bear, would react to her denouncement. “I am Lady Rhea Claire Dominick, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Camareigh. And if, sir, you are an honorable man, you will provide me with protection from this thing that calls itself a man,” Rhea told him, her words so full of contempt for Daniel Lewis that they hung in the air like a bad odor.

  Captain Haskell raised his heavy brow, a gleam of malicious humor brightening his dark eyes as he stared at an uncomfortable-looking Lewis. “Aye, aptly put, m’lady, for I believe you can even smell the stench of his rot. Well, Mr. Lewis, what do you have to say to her ladyship’s charges? For unless I’m mighty thick-skulled, she’s just accused you of kidnapping her.”

  “Ain’t so, Captain. Had nothin’ to do with no kidnappin’. Don’t even know where she be from, that I don’t. Man come up to me on the docks with her and wants ten pounds fer me to take her off his hands. Well, now I’m a man who doesn’t look for trouble, but then I’m not a man to turn down a few extra pounds, either. I reckoned she would be a lot safer on board the London Lady than floatin’ in the Thames. Ye should be thankin’ me, ye should,” he protested. “Besides, I’m thinkin’ she’s lyin’ about who she be. Lord love us, but who in his right senses would snatch a duke’s daughter? Coooeee! I ain’t that stupid,” he said with a weak laugh. “Reckon ye might be some man’s discarded mistress, eh?”

  “Enough, Mr. Lewis!” the captain bellowed. “It is true, then, that Lady Rhea Claire Dominick has signed no indenture papers? She is on board my ship against her free will? You certainly don’t value that yellow-streaked skin of yours very much, do you, Mr. Lewis?” Captain Haskell inquired with a grin that sent a shiver up Rhea’s spine. Apparently, the captain wasn’t having any of Daniel Lewis’s facile excuses, although, Rhea had to admit, they sounded almost believable to her.

  “I have been watching you very carefully, Mr. Lewis,” the captain informed him with an undue amount of pleasure derived from the other man’s obvious discomfiture. “I have documented several very interesting transactions of yours, and I have quite a complete and extensive dossier on you, Mr. Lewis. But now,” he added, looking triumphantly at Rhea, “now I have a witness. And if she is truly the daughter of the Duke of Camareigh, a man I have heard stories about, then, Mr. Lewis, you are as good as hanged.”

  Lewis stared at his captain with an almost comical look of disbelief. He had certainly underestimated the old sea dog, he thought, glancing worriedly around the cabin, wondering where the documents about him were stashed. “I dunno what ye’re talkin’ about,” he bluffed.

  “Ah, but I think you do,” the captain replied, his dark eyes burning with an inner fire. “You’re so scared you can hardly stand up straight. Well, let me tell you, Mr. Lewis, just to set your mind at rest. I know about that young girl you brought on board against her will, whom you then raped and tried to force into signing indenture papers. But you didn’t count on her strength of spirit, just like this young woman’s. But she was not so lucky, for she did not reach me, like Lady Rhea Claire did. She took another way out, didn’t she? She jumped overboard in mid-Atlantic. You killed her, Mr. Lewis, and I’ll see you swinging from the gallows before I rest,” Captain Benjamin Haskell promised his supercargo.

  Rhea glanced apprehensively between the two dueling men, realizing that she was not the focal point of their deep-seated enmity, that it stretched back further in time, and that she was merely the catalyst for the present airing of grievances.

  Alys could feel the unnatural tension in the air as well, and she moved closer to Rhea while she stared at the two glaring men. Her fingers closed around Rhea’s elbow for reassurance.

  “I’ll see ye in hell first, Cap’n Benjamin Haskell,” Lewis spat. “And I reckon ye’ll be there first, so mark a place next to ye fer me, eh? Reckon all I’m guilty of is bein’ a mite greedy. Brought her on board, I did, but then she was unconscious, so ’twasn’t exactly against her will, was it
? All I been doin’ is tryin’ to make a decent livin’. Nothing wrong in that, is there? Could’ve gotten over a hundred pounds fer her, I could’ve. Not too many pretty faces in the colonies. Know a lot of gents who would’ve liked to have her warming their beds. Yes, sir, wouldn’t have minded that meself,” he said with a lascivious grin at Rhea’s flushed face.

  “Get out of here, Lewis!” Captain Haskell ordered, his face black with anger. “I’m still captain of this ship, and you’d better remember that, for I’m still man enough to take that cobbing-board to your arse. And believe me, that would give me no end of pleasure,” Captain Haskell promised his supercargo.

  “Aye, Cap’n,” Lewis sneered as he sauntered with amazing casualness to the door. “We’ll see who gets beaten this time,” he added. Then, glancing at Rhea and Alys, he gave a mocking bow and said, “Ladies.”

  “My apologies for that swine,” Captain Haskell said, a deep-seated anger and hatred for the man still burning in his eyes. “I think it would be wisest if you stayed here in my cabin, Lady Rhea Claire. Once we are docked, then I will personally see you ashore, and to the proper authorities. I suppose you have no fear of repeating your story to them, and that this is not just a ploy to escape from your past indiscretions? Granted, you may well have been kidnapped,” Captain Haskell told her, “and forgive me my bluntness, but if you are a whore off the streets of London, then you will find little sympathy with the court magistrates. They will be inclined to think that you got your just deserts, and in the process you will have me looking quite the fool. I warn you now, girl, if you are lying about who you really are, then I will be a deadly enemy to you.”

  “You may rest assured, Captain, that I am indeed whom I claim to be, and I shall have no hesitancy in speaking so to the magistrates,” Rhea told him, her direct gaze convincing him of her sincerity.

  Captain Haskell nodded, his unforgiving gaze moving to Alys, who was standing meekly beside Rhea. “Who’s that? Not another unwilling passenger on board the London Lady?”

  “No,” Rhea responded quickly, feeling the trembling in Alys’s fingers as they closed even more tightly about her arm. “She signed an indenture paper, but I would like to buy her freedom from you, for I know that she is in debt to you for her fare to the colonies. She befriended me, and I will not abandon her to the mercy of some unknown master.”

  Benjamin Haskell rubbed his big hand across his bloodshot eyes; he looked almost resentful as he eyed Rhea. “I had forgotten there could be such gentleness of spirit. You bring back painful memories to me, Lady Rhea Claire, and that I will not forgive you for doing. I only want to forget that fine, gentle woman, much like you. But, no, you stand here on my ship and bring me face-to-face with my soul,” he said angrily. Then, in a sudden movement, he kicked the chair aside in a show of violence that startled Rhea and Alys, who both moved quickly out of his way.

  A sad expression filled Haskell’s dark eyes when he noticed them shying away from him. “I would never hurt you, little ones. Don’t you know that? So long since I’ve shown tenderness. So long…” he muttered, gazing at his big, powerful hands. “Stay in my cabin,” he said harshly, a black scowl replacing the expression of softness, which had flickered only briefly across his heavy face. Then he moved to the door of the cabin.

  “Captain!” Rhea called out, suddenly nervous about him leaving them in the quiet emptiness of the cabin. “You will see that we get safely ashore? You’ll not let him come after us?”

  Captain Haskell smiled strangely. “I promise, little one. I’ll be here to protect you. You’ve my word.” Then he was gone.

  “Lord, but they be strange ’uns,” said Alys, succinctly summing up the captain and his supercargo. “They nearly scared me out of me stockings.”

  Rhea bit her lip nervously, looking much the way her mother did when the duchess was pondering a serious question or decision. Then she said, “I feel something is dreadfully wrong here, but I’m not sure what.”

  “Wish we had yer Aunt Mary here,” Alys said wistfully, thinking she’d sure like to meet that lady one day. And with that thought, another one suddenly hit her, and she said very humbly, “Ye didn’t have to say what ye did about buyin’ me freedom from the captain, m’lady. I wasn’t expectin’ that, fer sure, I wasn’t.”

  “I know you weren’t, Alys, but I would have it no other way,” Rhea told her with genuine affection.

  “Th-then ye really will take me back to Camareigh with ye?” she asked hesitantly, lest it be a cruel joke.

  “Yes, I meant every word I said,” Rhea said reassuringly, and the girl let out a deep sigh of relief. “I’ll have to borrow the money from someone, but I won’t sail for England without you,” Rhea promised as she pulled up a chair and sat down weakly, her shaking legs no longer able to support her.

  How many hours they spent quietly waiting, Rhea didn’t know, but soon her eyes grew heavy and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. She awoke startled, and glancing around, saw the door opening with an unnatural slowness. She staggered to her feet, her eyes still bleary with sleep, and it was then that she saw the captain, whose head was buried in his folded arms as he sat at the table, an empty bottle of whiskey tipped over at his elbow. But there was no stain spilled across the table and onto the floor, for the bottle had been empty when it had been knocked over, and Rhea could smell the whiskey fumes rising from the heavily breathing captain of the London Lady.

  Rhea spun around, catching sight simultaneously of Alys curled up on the captain’s bunk and Daniel Lewis’s rusty-colored head sticking inside the door.

  “Captain! Captain, please! Wake up!” Rhea cried out as Lewis and another man entered the cabin.

  “He won’t hear ye, m’lady,” the supercargo commented with obvious pleasure. “He’s dead to the world with all of that whiskey in him.”

  Rhea turned to face him, her heart fluttering as she stared into his amused face. But it was the pistol he held in his hand that caused her the most concern.

  “Aye, I’d be lookin’ a mite concerned meself if I was ye,” Lewis agreed as he stepped closer. “The poor captain,” he said unsympathetically. “He can’t seem to leave the bottle alone, that he can’t. He’s fine enough while at sea, but once we’ve docked, he’s got a powerful hunger fer it. Never been the same, he hasn’t, since his wife and daughter died of the pox while he was away at sea. Real fine gentleman till then, he was. Been eatin’ away at him fer years now. Promised them he’d be there with them, what with his wife carryin’ their second child, but he didn’t make it back in time,” Lewis told her as he poked the captain’s shoulder with the barrel of the pistol. “Nope, he won’t be any trouble. Probably won’t even remember yer pretty little face, m’lady,” he said with an ugly grin. “But me and me friend, here, will.”

  “What are you going to do?” Rhea demanded, knowing it would be useless to plead with the man, for there was a look of deadly intent in his eyes as they lingered on her flushed face.

  “First things first,” he said, gesturing toward the sleeping Alys.

  “What are you going to do with her? She’s harmed no one,” Rhea protested, hurrying to Alys’s side just as the other man reached the girl and dragged her to her feet.

  “M’lady!” Alys screamed, her face full of fear and confusion.

  “Let her go!”

  “Ow!” the man groaned as Rhea’s booted foot connected sharply with his shin.

  Alys struggled free from his loosened grasp and flung herself against Rhea, clinging to her as if Rhea would, in some miraculous manner, be able to save her.

  “Lady Rhea Claire! What are they doin’ here? Where’s the captain?” she cried as ungentle hands grabbed her from behind, seeking to pry her loose from the other girl. “Don’t let him take me, please!” she screamed, her hands holding desperately on to Rhea’s neck as she struggled.

  Then suddenly she was flung away from Rhea an
d raised screaming and kicking into the air. Rhea tried to run after her, but Lewis was holding her tightly against him, and her struggles were to no avail.

  “Alys! Alys!” she called out. Her expression of terror was a reflection of Alys’s as the other girl was bundled out the door.

  “Lady Rhea Claire! Lady Rhea Claire, please don’t let them take me!”

  Rhea slumped against the arms that held her as she heard Alys’s last frantic cry for help. With a little sob she stared over at the captain, her eyes accusatory. “You promised,” she whispered brokenly. “You promised.”

  Lewis pulled her across the room, his hand like a vise around her wrist. Hurriedly, he searched through cabinets and drawers and beneath the captain’s mattress and bedding, dumping ledgers and charts onto the floor in his haste.

  “What are you going to do with Alys? Is she back in the hold?” Rhea demanded of her captor when he paused for a moment to look around the room for some place he hadn’t rifled.

  “She’s gettin’ ready to be sold, m’lady.” Lewis chuckled. “She’s in Charles Town.”

  Rhea suddenly realized that something was different about the ship: the wind was no longer howling through the masts and flapping the sails with loud claps of thunder, nor was there the sound of the ocean slapping against the hull in a fury. There was only a gentle lapping of water against its sides as the ship nudged the dock with the tide.

  The London Lady had docked while she’d slept. They had reached Charles Town, and if the captain hadn’t gotten drunk, she would now be free. Rhea looked into Daniel Lewis’s eyes and shuddered at the callous indifference she read in them while he was contemplating her demise.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked again, preferring to know what her fate was to be.