Pirated Love

by K'Anne Meinel

  Later, when the second mate relieved her, she returned to her cabin to find Claire busy doing needlepoint. Sir Barkley walked in and lay down on ‘his’ rug on the floor with a flop. Tina was not sure what to say to her once she closed the door behind her and bolted it.

  “What do you want out of this marriage?” she ventured to ask.

  Claire looked up, surprised at the question. She had thought they would argue some more about her hair and her position on board. She had been exerting her independence more and more, and she knew Tina did not like it. She thought about the question though. “I want your love and respect,” she finally answered, carefully.

  “Do you not think I wanted the same?” Tina asked, as she watched her, her arms folded across her chest. Claire’s hand worried at a stray thread.

  “We’ve never really spoken about what you want. I mean, even this adventure to the Orient was a surprise to me,” she said, gesturing.

  Tina nodded. “I am not used to discussing my plans with anyone, and you know I share more with you than most, but it occurs to me that I never asked you what you wanted.” She waited for Claire to look up before adding, “I asked you to marry me so you would be with me always. I did not want to lose you, but I never asked you what you wanted out of the marriage?”

  Claire mulled over what Tina was asking her. “I…I do not know,” she stuttered at first. “When I thought I was to marry, I thought I was going to marry a man and have his children. He would have made all the decisions.” She swallowed, realizing it was not like that with Tina. “I cannot give you children, obviously, but it does not mean that I do not want them. I saw how the children in the village adore you.” She thought a little longer, realizing she was just talking, not really answering the question. “You do not expect me to do your bidding all the time as a man would, do you?” she turned the question on Tina.

  Tina pulled off her jacket and hung it on a bedpost. It gave her time to think about what Claire was saying. Her swords were hanging there and she briefly checked them out of habit, but her knife was on her belt, she would not need them unless they were attacked. She sat down on the edge of the bed across from Claire to talk to her. “Sometimes, as captain, I must give orders, and I expect them to be obeyed without question. Sometimes it is a matter of life or death. I think you and I need to communicate more about personal decisions, but the ones regarding this ship, I expect to be obeyed regardless of what you think.”

  Claire was taken aback by Tina’s tone. She understood the words, but Tina had not addressed the first part of what she had said, she had absolutely ignored it, she felt. This was not about children anyway, it was about her cutting her hair and disobeying her. “And if I do not agree?” she said stiffly.

  “Then you and I discuss it, later. I am the captain of my ship and I cannot have you openly disobey me or the men will lose respect for me. Things have been...tense here the last couple of days and they have, of course, noticed.”

  “You’ve been behaving like a petty child who did not get her own way...” Claire began, but Tina held up her hand.

  “I was angry, I will admit, but I realized I was wrong. It is your hair. You are not my servant to command, but I have to ask you to never openly flaunt that you are disobeying me again. If I allowed that, then I might as well give up my command,” she explained, hoping that Claire understood.

  “I am sorry,” Claire said, contritely. “I did not think it would be such an ordeal to cut my hair,” she put her hand up to touch the short tresses.

  “It is not just about you cutting your hair. No I did not like that you did it. You did have a point that I did not discuss it with you when I cut mine. It is the way you flaunted it, and it allowed the men to see that I do not have your respect.”

  “But I do respect you...” she insisted.

  “Not if you behave the way you did. That’s what angered me.” Tina looked at her sadly.

  “I am sorry. I did not realize the men would interpret it that way.”

  “I do not give orders just to hear myself speak. It is my ship, my responsibility. I asked you to marry me and I feel you are my responsibility too. I want to make you happy, but I am obviously not if you disrespect me.”

  “But I respect you, Tina...” she tried to insist again.

  “Not if you are enjoying a joke at my expense, which the men interpret differently than you intended,” she pointed out.

  Claire had not looked at it at all that way. She had thought Tina was just angry that she cut her hair, had disobeyed her. “I am sorry!” she said, contritely. “I will not do it again.”

  “Thank you,” Tina acceded and decided to drop it. She was weary of fighting with her. The anger had really made her tired as she had taken it out on everyone who she thought was laughing at her behind her back. She stood up and stretched and Sir Barkley looked up at her and yawned himself. “I am getting ready for bed now,” she stated, but did not ask Claire to join her.

  Claire watched, resuming her needlepoint as Tina used the boot jack to pull off her knee-length boots, one by one. Quickly, she stripped out of her clothes and, leaving her shirt on, she crawled to the far side of the bed so that Claire would not have to climb over her when she herself went to bed. Sir Barkley sat up hopefully and watched Tina for a moment, waiting in vain for an invitation to join her on the bed. Sighing gustily, his disappointment obvious when the invitation was not forthcoming and she ignored him too, he lay back down on his rug. Claire sat there thoughtfully a while, wondering at their conversation. When she heard Tina snore slightly, she began to put away her needlepoint and get ready for bed herself.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  It was two weeks later, they were getting into warmer and warmer waters as they neared the equator, the closest part of the Earth to the Sun, or so Tina had explained to Claire. The men were wearing loincloths and nothing else. For many it showed off heavily-muscled limbs and torsos that made Claire blush at the amount of skin it exposed. Others were skinny and limber, but still too much skin was exposed for her delicate sensibilities. Tina and Claire both had stripped down to lesser, but still modest clothing. In Tina’s case, this was a short-sleeved version of her flowing shirts, the sleeves ripped from the shirt, and short pants. Claire could not get herself to boldly wear such an outfit as Tina’s. Despite the wrappings around her ample breasts, she was still obviously female, the blonde’s own frame was in a dress with only one petticoat and this too was sleeveless. She had found in the weeks of travel that she tanned a golden brown and her blonde hair was almost white in appearance; its shortness now made her look like a very pretty boy.

  “Sail ho,” one of the men called from the upper spars of the masts.

  Tina looked where the man was pointing and pulled out a spy glass to get a better look. The man on the mast had a better view since he was high above the ship and did not have the waves to contend with in his view. She scanned the horizon and only saw one white sail on it, but could make out nothing else to tell her the nationality of the ship. She looked behind her slightly at the ships traveling with them on each side of her own ship and then back further at the ones trailing because they were not as fast as her own. She wanted to see if they saw the ship, only one of them showed activity that indicated they too had seen the ship ahead of them.

  It was at least an hour until they came close enough to make out that it was a merchantman out of Spain and as hard as it was for Tina, she resisted the urge to take it, as she knew her men wanted to. Leading their own merchant fleet, she knew the four ships with her would question her if she went pirating even though several of their own crew from her grandfather’s ships were former pirates. It was tempting though. The merchantman was slower than their own ship, their entire fleet was faster, and it was running deep which meant a full cargo. It was then that the prevailing winds shifted and they all got a good dose of the smell indicating what the ship was carrying.

  Tina immediately began steering wide of the slave ship in disgust. Sh
e knew why the ship was running low in the water now. It was carrying a cargo of humans, probably for the Americas where slaves fetched prime rates. In return they would carry cotton and other necessities to Europe or England and from there they would carry things that they could trade in Africa for more slaves. It was called the triangle trade and periodically it also included slaves taken to the Caribbean for rum. She shook her head in disgust as they made a wide berth around the slave ship. Her crew understood why, as they too had gotten a strong smell from the human suffering that went on in the ship. Many had been in prison themselves, with steel manacles that man put on them, and hated the slave trade as much as Tina did.

  Claire watched the ship. They had passed many ships on their slow, southerly route around the huge land mass that was Africa. She had smelled other ships that carried the same cargo and understood why Tina did not want anything like it. It smelled of disease, heartbreak, and human indignity. That they were treated as nothing but cargo tended to upset many of them and the crew was ominously quiet as they went by.

  They were well away from the ship when they heard the distinct booming sound of cannon fire behind them and looking back, could see that one of their other ships in the fleet had opened fire on the slave ship.

  “Turn about!” Tina ordered immediately and men quickly ran to the sails as James swung the wheel to bring their own ship about to help or stop the fight that would ensue.

  The slave ship was not equipped with the cannons that Tina and her fellow ships were, but still could hold its own against the traders it dealt with to obtain the slaves or to keep other ships from stealing their valuable cargo. It was putting up a valiant fight, but the ship that had fired had aimed directly below the bow, or front of the ship, at the water line and it was causing leakage that would soon sink the slave ship. The crew of the ship, after trying to fight off the offending ship and missing, soon were putting themselves to sea in long-boats that would allow them to make the coast, abandoning their cargo to the depths of the ocean.

  “Prepare to board!” Tina called, and she saw that two of her fellow ships had followed to engage in the fight that had not really been a fight at all. “Prepare to take on passengers,” she ordered, and several immediately understood her intent.

  The ship was sinking rapidly, the hole from the cannonball and the forward momentum of the ship causing it to take on water at an impressive rate. It was the reason the crew had abandoned it, but Tina and her crew used grappling hooks and were soon alongside. “Hurry!” she called to her men who understood what she was trying to do.

  “No, you’ll drown with them,” Claire called frantically, but she was not heard by the men yelling and heading for the ship to free what slaves they could from the shackles that would draw them down with their ship.

  Using hammers, swords, and whatever else they could, as the keys were long gone with the crew, they began to strike at the shackles and pushed the confused men, women, and even children from their bonds and up onto the upper deck. They were terrified and did not speak the languages that the crew tried on them. Another ship pulled alongside, and with grappling hooks, was soon secure against the quickly-sinking ship which they would shortly have to abandon. They too began to run below to help free the cargo that was panicking.

  Men began to shove the slaves onto the ships. Claire and others gestured as the slaves, finally realizing they were on a sinking ship, began to crawl across the ship they were on to the ones floating next to them. Women and children began to come from the bowels of the ship looking confused and scared. The Blackamoor from Tina’s ship began speaking to them, but being from a totally different part of Africa, they did not understand and he was quite frightening in his dark countenance, stripped to the waist and shouting. Many likened him to a god and quickly went to their knees and began saluting him. They were surprised when men, him included, roughly pulled them to their feet and pushed them towards the other ships.

  It was pandemonium and soon the shouts changed to, “Get off, she is going down!” and other such admonitions as sailors from both ships began to stream out of the holds with as many slaves as they could push with them. Grappling hooks were quickly dislodged and still people were coming out and running in panic as they did not understand the danger they were in from the sea.

  “Where is Tina?” Claire called, but was not heard above the melee; Sir Barkley was making a lot of noise barking at the people, scaring the blacks. “Where is the captain?” she tried again. She could not see the distinctive red hair among the mass of people streaming between the ships. Had she missed her?

  Screams could be heard below decks on the doomed ship and still occasional men, women, and even children could be seen popping up on deck and looking about, confused. Their fellow slaves called to them from both ships as the grappling hooks were finally released. Many dove for the safety of the two ships if they understood what was happening, but still some stood about looking frightened and stunned, from the deck of the ship going down. The waters began to swirl on the main deck about the ankles of those still standing there.

  “Where is the captain?” Claire screamed at her own crew, who looked about helplessly as they tried to locate their mates.

  Just then the ship tilted forward at an extreme angle and the screams slowly stopped from below. As the water swirled across the ship, several heads bobbed up and among them was a redhead who swam strongly for her own ship. Hands grabbed at her in desperation and she agilely fought with them, hand to hand, having to keep them from drowning her with them. She was grabbed at time and again and along with a couple of her own crew members, swam for their ship so that the resulting suction from the ship sinking would not take them down. The Jacob’s ladder was thrown over the side to help up those shipmates, including the captain, as well as the few blacks who could swim and had realized that the ships in the area were their only help. They were all quickly on board as the crew helped them up.

  Tina, along with the others, spit out a lot of seawater after they were on board. Once she made eye contact with Claire, and they both knew they were all right, she gave an order. “After the Salty Brine!” she called, naming the ship that had fired. Her crew knew she would want to speak with the captain of that ship. Looking about, they saw that one of their other ships was taking the crew of the slave ship aboard their own. She was glad. She did not want them to drown as had the poor souls they had been unable to save. There had been so much confusion aboard the slave ship. As she looked about her own ship and saw the many eyes looking about in fear, she knew at least these poor souls were saved.

  “Anyone speak their lingo?” she called out in English, French, and then in Spanish.

  The Blackamoor was attempting to speak to them in the various African dialects he knew, but when Tina looked at him, he shook his head. Either they were from the deep bowels of Africa and knew a language like no other they had heard, or they were too frightened to answer at the moment.

  “Frank!” she called as she saw him, and he quickly came from where he was trying to get the former slaves to sit on deck. He saluted her as he came up. “Check our crew. I want to know if we lost any,” she ordered. He immediately nodded and began to look around for those who had gone across and started asking questions.

  Tina headed to her cabin to change for the anticipated meeting between her and the captain of the Salty Brine. Her own clothes were plastered to her body and while she was frequently wet from the salt spray that rose up from sailing the mighty ship, she did not appreciate the rough salt water against her clothes and skin.

  “Thank God you are okay,” Claire said, coming into the cabin with Sir Barkley as Tina stripped. “I did not see you. Why did you not come up sooner?” she asked, feeling the fear anew.

  Tina rubbed the salt water from her body with a washcloth of fresh water. She did not have time for a bath, but needed the feel of the fresh, clean water against her. She looked up with concealed pleasure when Claire came into their cabin. Sir Barkley came o
ver to thoroughly sniff her while she washed. Thinking over the question, she answered as she changed. “There were so many we were trying to save, but they did not understand and it was chaos,” she said sadly, as she remembered. Striking their manacles or the chains that held them prisoner, they did not understand that the ship was sinking, that they were free. As the water rose, they panicked and grabbed at the whites trying to free them. Already, the screams from down below were being muffled by the waters. They were manacled head to foot and stacked; there were just so many in so small a space for them to free. It was a sight she never wanted to see again.

  “Ahoy the Salty Brine!” Tina heard the call from up above. She quickly changed out of the last of her wet clothes including the bindings that normally held her breasts in check. There was no time to bind them again and she slipped into a man’s flowing shirt, pulled on her pants, and grabbed for her belt. She belted on her knife and her sword and quickly tied back her red hair that needed a brush.

  Claire felt the familiar tightening in her gut at how attractive Tina looked, but she was so serious. This was not the time to make a comment. After Tina pulled her boots on, she followed her out. She had not been wearing boots when she was in her shortened clothes and that had turned out for the good.

  Claire was on deck as they came alongside the Salty Brine. Normally, they would not chance the ships colliding, but she could see the waters were relatively calm and James had brought them close enough that they could weigh anchor and not have to send a boat across for the captain. She fixed the crew that were above deck on the other ship with a decidedly angry look as she waited for the captain and his first mate to make an appearance. As the captain of the lead ship, as the leader of this expedition, Tina was in charge of the five ships. She had certain rules she felt must be followed by everyone and everyone alike.