I turned at the sound of laughter. Cheval was free of his hempen bonds and, amongst all the panic on the beach, had made us his target.
“We’re not finished yet, Santiago—I have a score to settle with you, and I will not rest until you’re either crawling at my feet begging for mercy, or dead. I do not forget wrongs done against me, and you have wronged me, you Spanish dog, you have wronged me!”
He stepped toward us and Leo squared his shoulders ready for attack, but Cheval fell to the sand, tackled from behind by Carmen and Baba.
“Not today, viejo amigo.” Leo laughed. “Not today, old friend.” Then he whipped around, along with the rest of us to stare out to sea.
I followed his gaze, horror-struck. The Sound of Freedom was ablaze. Whether the ship had been hit by a lucky ball from Blake, striking metal with a spark close enough to set black powder on fire, or whether it had been a Freyjaman who’d sized up the situation quickly and destroyed our only means of fighting back, we’d never know. I put my bet on a Freyjaman. It made no difference.
More Freyjamen ringed us. Even though they weren’t armed, there were too many of them for my and Leo’s cutlasses. And Blake’s men were coming in boats. They had us. We were beaten with most of our crews now fleeing into the interior of the island to hide in the trees.
Only Carmen, Baba and Greenwoode were close and I allowed myself a moment’s gratification that it was my Valkyries who had stayed to fight. Carmen and Baba stepped away from Cheval, who got back to his feet, grinned and said, “Not only are you mine, you’re his.” He nodded toward the Dutch Pride and her boats. They bristled with sailors and muskets, and were well within range.
One by one, we dropped our blades. God alone knew what our fate would be.
Chapter 97
GABRIELLA
13th June 1687
Sayba
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Sayba. Eckerstad. Brisingamen was just over that cliff. Had I really been through all this just to be subjected once again to his mercy? It wasn’t fair. I’d been through so much. We’d been through so much. Me, Klara, Leo and everyone on my crew, and of course Wilbert and Jan who’d died to give Klara and me a chance. And now look, Klara was dead too, and I was back here a prisoner, a helpless slave. My new husband, however strong he’d seemed, was just as powerless. We were amongst the many lost in this New World.
The shore grew larger. Our future inevitable. Erik van Ecken would be waiting there for us both. Despite everything, Erik had won. I looked at Leo, shackled and beaten, as I was myself, and recognized the despair in his eyes. He’d promised me protection and freedom. I was big with his child and he’d failed to keep us safe. My past was about to claim us all.
*
Time stretched out, but not long enough. Soon the familiar shouts and sounds of a ship brought to anchor announced we’d run out of time. Sayba. Eckerstad. Erik. Like it or not, I was home.
Thrown into boats, shoved into the bilges, rowed ashore. Blake’s men laughing and gloating—speculating on their reward. What on earth awaits us? What kind of hell awaits me?
Drawing closer to the wharf, I recognized a familiar stance, a familiar green frockcoat—Erik was here to welcome us. I hugged my belly, more fearful for my child than for myself or for Leo. What would Erik do to my unborn child that was not his? I remembered all those taunts I’d suffered about being a “barren English whore”. My belly proved that a lie. I knew him well enough to know he would not take my pregnancy well.
Closer.
Close enough for me to see his features, and him to see mine.
I longed to grab Leo’s hand, his arm, his leg, anything, just to have that contact, but my arms were bound, my wrists and ankles tied. I couldn’t reach out to him. Our eyes met. I had to be content with that.
Erik grew closer. I didn’t look at him. I kept my eyes on Leo, my lion. My strength grew, knowing I had his love, knowing I loved him, that whatever happened now, the last year had been worth the pain to come. Leo smiled. I smiled back. He knew. He understood.
The boat drew up against the wharf and Cheval threw a line to Erik. I didn’t look up. I didn’t move my eyes from Leo’s. Sharpe grabbed me and hauled me to my feet. “So help me God, I’d not wish this on you or anyone—give me a chance to help you.”
I turned to look at him, but was thrown onto the cobbled wharf before I could complete the move. I lay on my side, hands roped behind my back, unable to see Leo, hoping my baby was unhurt.
“Hello, wife!” Erik crouched in front of my face and spat. I looked away, refusing to show him any emotion, any fear. I should have known better. He grasped my chin and dragged my face to his. I heard Leo protest, but at his treatment or mine I didn’t know.
“Look at me,” Erik said. “Look. At. Me.”
I closed my eyes.
“Whore!” He slapped me.
I smiled. I stayed on the cobbles, bruised, pregnant and bleeding, and smiled. Whatever he did to me, I had known freedom. I loved and was loved back. I’d fought battles and won. That in itself was worth it. And now I had Leo’s cub in my belly. I would give our baby a life, a free life, or die trying. Erik would not beat me now.
I looked at him.
He stepped back.
He knew.
“Strap her to the cart, I want her at Brisingamen, the rest of them can go to the dungeons in the fort.”
My smiled broadened.
“No, on second thoughts, I want her nowhere near me—she can go to the fort too.”
He leaned down. “I won’t send you to the gallows, not in your state, whore that you are.” He glanced at my belly, then grinned. “You can hang your pirate lover, and your friends. And if you don’t do as I say, I’ll cut that whoreson out of you and let you both drown in your blood.”
Chapter 98
GABRIELLA
15th July 1687
Sayba
The dungeon door opened at dawn. I could tell it was daybreak by the faint light coming through the iron grille on the wall above my head. I had counted every dawn since I’d been thrown in here with Carmen—there had been thirty two of them.
I had no idea where Leo and the others were. The walls were so thick, they could even have been in the next cell and we wouldn’t have been able to hear them.
I put my hands on my belly. I was getting near my time—I reckoned I had another month at most before I gave birth. The child inside moved, and I could only hope her father was still alive, that we would all be alive tomorrow.
Four men entered—all sailors—and dragged us outside. I blinked at the sudden bright light, almost blinded, and was told to climb. I looked up at the cart, and held my belly. A hand was held out to me and hauled me up, hands behind pushing my bulk upwards. I blinked at Sharpe, whose hand I still held, and he moved aside.
“Gabriella! Thank God!”
“Leo!” I sobbed, fear and emotion getting the better of me. He was dirty, ragged and too thin, but he was alive. I went to him and hugged him. He couldn’t hold me, his hands were bound behind him with rope. I moved to untie him but one of Blake’s men saw me and shouted. My arms were pulled behind me and tied together.
“Watch it!” I heard Carmen threaten as she received similar treatment.
“Are you well? The child?” Leo asked.
“Yes, yes, we’re well.” I sobbed. “You?”
“Sí, for what it’s worth,” he replied.
“Baba! Greenwoode! Jean-Claude! Feliciano!” I’d only just noticed them standing with Leo.
“Captain,” they replied. Carmen joined them.
“Shut up the lot of you! No talking!” Blake’s man shouted. The cart jerked into motion as the mule started its trudge toward Eckerstad’s square, and I wondered if Erik was sticking to his word and would really try to make me hang Leo.
*
Ten minutes later, I knew for sure that he intended a hanging at least. We arrived in the crowded square, the centerpiece of which was a simple wooden frame, wide enoug
h to straddle the cart, with a noose hanging from the center of the crossbar.
The mule was directed through the frame, leaving the noose hanging down over the bed of the cart. All seven of us shrank away from it, desperate not to touch it.
“Down!” Erik had arrived. Carmen and the others jumped down, leaving Leo and myself on the cart. I was relieved to see none of them stumbled when they hit the ground. I wondered how I’d get down with my bulk and my hands tied—I certainly wouldn’t be able to jump. I moved to the edge.
“Not you. Turn around.” Erik clambered onto the cart and cut my hands free. “Now, wife,” he spat. “I’ve given you long enough to think about it—you know what to do.”
I turned back and stared at him.
“Put the noose around his neck.”
I neither moved nor looked away.
“I said, put the noose around his neck!” Erik shouted. He barely had himself under control and I shuddered. I still didn’t move though. He drew his dagger and pressed it to my belly. Hard. I flinched, the blade was sharp and cut my skin. I gritted my teeth, determined not to give him the satisfaction of crying out or shying away, but couldn’t help my tears which had started to flow again.
The whole town had turned out, dressed in their finest, to watch the spectacle, but everyone was silent.
“Querida.”
I turned to look at Leo. Tears ran down his cheeks, although he sounded calm.
“Do it, don’t let him kill our child. Just do it.”
“Leo, no!” I sobbed.
“You have no choice,” he said.
“That’s right, whore,” Erik spat. “You have no choice. You’ll pay for embarrassing me and running away. Put the noose around his neck or I’ll cut this child out of you and he can watch you both bleed to death right here. Then I’ll hang your lover myself—and with great pleasure.” He laughed, although there was no mirth in the sound.
“Gabriella, please,” Leo said. “It’s the child that matters now. You and the child. If I have to die so the two of you can live, then so be it.”
Erik pulled the knife across my belly, and I screamed in pain, my resolve completely gone in the terror of what I had to do. I jerked back from the knife, closer to Leo and clutched my hands to my stomach. My shirt was red with blood, but it wasn’t a mortal wound, and my baby still moved inside me as she had before. Erik hadn’t hurt her. Yet.
I looked around at the crowd, desperate for help, but there was none. Carmen and the others looked horrified, but bound and under guard there was nothing they could do to help me. My eyes met Sharpe’s, but he looked away. Nobody would meet my eyes.
“Get on with it,” Erik said, under control again. “Do it.”
I turned and faced Leo, who now stood by the noose. I could barely meet his look, but when I did I couldn’t look away, despite the tears that flooded my eyes. I didn’t think I’d ever stop crying again.
I took a step toward him, put my hands to his face and held him. I kissed him. We both knew it would be for the last time.
“Stop that! Get on with it!” Erik shouted.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” I whispered over and over. “I love you.”
“I love you too, and this isn’t your doing. I forgive you. Promise me you’ll forgive yourself.”
I didn’t answer. What could I say? Sobbing, my heart breaking, I put the noose around his neck.
“Gabriella?”
I looked at him.
“Make it quick—pull on my legs. Please. Make it quick?”
I remembered previous hangings I’d witnessed—the condemned man swinging for what seemed an age, slowly strangling to death, his friends and family putting all their weight into pulling on his legs to quicken his death and lessen his suffering. I nodded, but didn’t know if I’d be able to do it.
Chapter 99
“Move away from him.”
I ignored Erik, and he grabbed my arm and dragged me away from Leo. I fell off the back of the cart, and landed on him, winding him. I struggled up and rushed to the mule tethered between the shafts. If I prevented the animal from moving, Leo would still be safe, despite the noose. He’d only die if the cart moved away from under his feet.
I wrapped my arms around the animal’s neck, begging it to stay still, while my eyes stayed fixed on Leo. He had turned so his last sight would be me. He hadn’t been offered a blindfold.
His eyes flicked up, over my head, and hope shone on his face. I turned.
“Yes!” It was Valkyrie and Freyja. After Blake had left the island, the crews had salvaged the ships. But my delight turned to dismay when they opened fire on the square. The mule, so far placid, jumped in its traces, and I couldn’t blame it. Cannon fire and screams did not help to keep an animal calm. I whispered soothing words into its ear, and hung onto its neck with all my strength, willing it to stay still and keep Leo alive.
I was barely aware of the destruction in the square, or of Blake’s men running to the fort and other gun positions to return fire on my ships. All I could think about was getting that bloody animal to stand still to keep the cart in place.
“Mistress Gabriella?”
I turned in surprise to see a dark face almost hidden by a hat and curled wig. He held a knife out to me by the blade. I grabbed it and peered at him.
“Hendrik!” He was one of Erik’s slaves who had escaped the night Klara and I left Brisingamen. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you,” he said, and melted back into the crowd. I was staggered at the risk he’d taken, not only to help me, but just by being here. As an escaped slave—a maroon—any townsman could shoot him on sight, and would be celebrated and well rewarded for it. His life was worth nothing in this town—especially with Erik only feet away.
I turned back to the mule. I didn’t have time to think about Hendrik, not at the moment.
I slashed the knife across the traces that harnessed the animal to Leo’s cart, and thanked God it was sharp. The leather parted and the mule bolted. I breathed a sigh of relief until the cart tipped onto its shafts. It only had two wheels and needed the bulk of the animal to keep it level.
“No!”
Leo couldn’t brace his feet on the sharp incline and I panicked as I heard his gurgle. His fall tightened the noose around his neck, strangling him. No! Oh no! Have I killed him after all? He kicked hard but found nowhere to take his weight.
I put the blade between my teeth as if I were boarding a prize ship, grabbed the rail and tried to haul myself up. If I could cut the rope, he could still live.
“Out of the way!”
I was pushed from behind and fell to the ground, stunned. I rolled over and looked at the gallows. Sharpe jumped past me and up onto the cart’s rail. I’d never have been able to do that with my belly, no matter how long I kept trying.
A moment later he was out of sight, and Leo . . . thank God . . . Leo slid down the wooden slope and landed in a heap next to me.
“Leo!”
He couldn’t talk. Although the rope had been cut, the noose was still tight around his neck. He was still being strangled—his face bright red. I forced the fingers of both my hands into the noose by the knot and pulled it through. A harmless length of rope with a complicated knot at one end, landed by our heads.
“Leo!”
“Urgh!” he said. I supposed that meant he was still breathing.
I realized I had dropped the knife when I fell, scrambled for it, and cut his hands free.
“Urgh!”
His hands flew to his throat, massaging the skin there.
“Leo! Leo, can you talk?”
“Sí.” At least I think that’s what he said. I hoped it was. I kissed him, crying again, he was alive!
“No time for that,” Sharpe said and hauled Leo to his feet. “Here—I hope you can fight!” He thrust a cutlass, hilt first, at Leo and turned to face the crowd, his own blade held at the ready, searching out the familiar faces of his former crewmates.
“I never did take to van Ecken,” he said. “And besides, I gave you my oath of loyalty—that means something to me, even if it doesn’t to those reprobates.” He nodded at the mix of Freyjamen and Blake’s crew heading toward us, as more cannonball hit the square from Valkyrie and Freyja. “Watch out!” he shouted.
I spun round to see Erik back on his feet and charging toward us, his face red with anger. I stepped forward to meet his attack, raising my knife. He dodged and I caught his shoulder. He stared at me in shock. Then he looked to either side of me and I realized Leo and Sharpe stood with me.
“Kill them,” Erik said to three slaves who stood nearby. They looked at us. They were unarmed; we were pirates with swords. They didn’t move, despite Erik’s curses. They backed away. Erik might kill them for it, but only if he survived the day. My first husband screamed curses at their backs, then looked back at me. I smiled when I saw him realize his predicament. He was one man standing against three experienced fighters. It was too much for him.
“Whore!” he spat, turned, and ran.
Chapter 100
LEO
I watched van Ecken run from us and would have laughed—if I hadn’t wanted him so badly. I looked at Gabriella, and we both moved to go after him, but Sharpe’s shout stopped us. I looked round. Blake’s men were advancing. There were too many of them. Van Ecken would have to wait. But I promised myself I would not leave this island until I’d found him. I readied myself.
More broadsides from Valkyrie and Freyja hit the square, and it was too much for the townspeople who remained. They’d come to witness a hanging, not become targets for cannon. The square emptied, leaving the eight of us to face Blake’s men. At least they were well dispersed and most of them were more concerned with our ships than with us. I wondered why the two vessels hadn’t come under attack from the cliff top gun in the way Freedom had when we’d last attacked, but didn’t have time to think about it.
The Valkyrie Series: The First Fleet - (Books 1-3) Look Sharpe!, Ill Wind & Dead Reckoning: Caribbean Pirate Adventure Page 56
