Ill Wind and Dead Reckoning: Caribbean Pirate Adventure (Valkyrie) (50 page)

Despite the previous night’s festivities, the crews were up at dawn to secure warps from
Freyja
– bow, amidships and stern – to the sturdiest trees. The bitter ends of the kedges had all been made fast to
Valkyrie,
and the iron anchors were in the boats waiting for the high tide.

‘You may as well put the boats off, querida. High tide’s only a couple of hours away.’

‘You heard him! Launch the boats!’ I called, too nervous to mind Leo giving me advice. I had thought about trundling them down the beach on gun carriages at low tide, but the anchors were too heavy for wet sand, the boats would manage them better. The two that had been towed were pushed down the beach and the others joined them, until I had six boat crews braving the shark-infested waters to drop the kedges a musket-shot offshore. I stood at
Valkyrie’s
stern to watch and could see it was damned hard work to row out against the surf, but eventually the first anchor was dropped and soon there was a fan of half a dozen kedges spread off the stern, their positions marked by empty barrels.

‘Take up the slack and bed them in!’ I shouted forward, and the Freyjamen at each of
Valkyrie’s
capstan and windlasses started to heave. The real work would begin when there was enough water around
Valkyrie’s
hull to float her. I grasped
Valkyrie’s
rail so tightly my knuckles showed white.

One by one, the anchor warps tautened and held. ‘Very well, leave it there, make it fast!’ I shouted and walked slowly forward past the teams of sweating men all downing the clear fresh water from the spring we’d found ashore. When I eventually reached the bow, I leaned over the rail as best I could. Leo had joined Gaunt once the boats had been put off and I ahoyed below.

‘How does she look?’ I asked.

Gaunt had cleared away the lines we’d used to secure the two ships to avoid them working loose when under tow, cut away some of
Freyja’s
timber and was rubbing tallow on
Valkyrie’s
bow to ease her passage as much as possible.

‘We’re making good progress, querida. We’ll be ready in two bells – half an hour.’

‘Very well. The rudder’s awash already, we don’t have much longer than that.’

‘Don’t fret, querida, we have to wait until there’s enough depth under her bows.’

I knew that, but was still nervous. I’d soon know if I had killed my boat as well as my best friend and three others of a crew that had trusted me. I gripped the rail again.

*

‘Haul away!’

High tide had come at last and teams of Freyjamen, Valkyries and Freedom Fighters hauled on capstan and windlass bars, as well as bare hawser. Even the bowers had been deployed, although they hadn’t been taken very far out. By working directly on
Valkyrie’s
bows, they gave that bit more leverage.

A heaving chant rang out from the main capstan and was taken up by the whole crew. I smiled at Leo – everyone was working together.

‘Heave away, my hearties, Haul away!’

I grabbed Leo’s arm in excitement. I’d felt a shudder beneath my feet.

‘She’s coming, querida, she’s coming.’

Another verse of the shanty and another shudder, then another. All at once
Valkyrie
shot backwards and men tumbled to the deck, cheering. I kept my feet thanks to my grip on Leo, and his on the bowrail, but I was holding on too tightly.

‘What’s wrong?’ Leo asked.

‘Nothing. Look!’ I could clearly see the hole stove into
Freyja’s
board.
Valkyrie
was free, but we had no time to rest and I shouted for the anchor cables to be loosed.
Valkyrie
would be taking on water, and I didn’t have time to haul them all aboard.

‘Set the jibs and mainsail!’ I shouted. The sails were unfurled and sheets hauled in.
Valkyrie
sailed again, but not for long. I’d headed aft as soon as I’d seen
Freyja
clear, and now grabbed the tiller.

‘Back the jibs!’ I screamed, and pushed the tiller to windward.
Valkyrie’s
nose swung downwind and we started to move. I hauled the tiller back amidships and she responded. We had steerage. ‘Let go the jibs!

‘Haul leeward jib sheets!’

The two triangular sails filled to leeward – larboard in this case – and we sailed back ashore, just downwind of
Freyja
.

‘Let go all sheets!’

The surf took us, lifted us, and deposited
Valkyrie
on to the beach.

‘Well done everyone! Rum all round! But keep a clear enough head to recover the anchors!’

Everyone cheered again and swarmed down the lines thrown over the hull to the sand. I followed a little more slowly in a bo’sun’s chair, cursing with impatience at my careful descent at Baba and Greenwoode’s hands. It was time to find out
Valkyrie’s
fate, and I was stuck on a plank of wood being lowered to the sand as if I were made of fine porcelain.

‘Querida
.
’ Leo grabbed me as soon as my feet looked like touching the beach, and Bess hovered nearby. I stumbled slightly, cursing at my lack of balance.

‘Well, Mr Gaunt?’ I huffed. He had dashed down the beach and was busy making his inspection as I reached him.

Valkyrie’s
prow loomed above us like a towering wooden wave, freshly scarred from her recent battle. The pale wooden splits and cuts in her dark tarred wood seemed shocking, and I felt guilty knowing that I was the cause of them. I’d almost come to think of her as a living, breathing being, and I had to remind myself she was wood, she didn’t feel pain or injury. Just as well, Gaunt was repeatedly sticking an awl into her beams, tutting or umming and ahhing at the results of his prodding, more for the benefit of the crew ringed around us than anything else, I was sure.

I looked around, everyone was tense and silent. It was unnerving. These men and women were never quiet, they constantly argued or laughed or sang, and I turned my attention back to Gaunt, who took a step back.

‘Well?’ I demanded, ready to hit him if he did not stop stroking his chin and start speaking.

He sighed and looked around him at the crew, then focused his gaze on me.

‘Her stem’s sound, lassie, she’s sound. Most of her forward strakes’ll need replacing, but I’ll have her shipshape again, lass, with time.’

‘Thank God for that,’ I gasped, but my relief was short-lived.

‘
Sail oh!
’

I spun seaward as best I could, then looked at Leo – I didn’t recognize the ship bearing down on the island.

‘It’s Blake,’ he said, then shouted, ‘All hands to
Freedom
!

‘Sorry, querida
,
’ he added. ‘We’ll have to leave
Valkyrie
where she is for now. We’ll come back for her soon.’

‘We’d better,’ I muttered, and followed him to the ship’s boats. I knew
Valkyrie
wasn’t fit for another fight, but I hated abandoning her and
Freyja
on this beach. However much I didn’t want to admit it, our best chance was
Sound of Freedom
.

I looked seaward again. Blake’s sails were growing, we didn’t have much time.

The first cannonball hit just offshore long before we reached
Freedom’s
boats, and panic spread along the beach faster than plague. We had two guns on the beach a cable away, but no one was there to man them: we’d all been involved in separating
Valkyrie
and
Freyja
. Our only other working guns were aboard
Freedom
, anchored offshore, but the closest men were still too far away from the boats.

Leo pulled ahead of me and grabbed my arm. ‘Come on, Gabriella, come on!’

‘I can’t,’ I gasped,
how the hell does he think I can run like this?

Jean-Claude and Feliciano reached the defensive guns on the beach. They were tackled by three Freyjamen. The Carib creed of offering quarter and a place to a bested crew was backfiring on us badly. With Blake’s arrival, their old loyalties shone through, stronger than their new oaths. We were doomed. The enemy was amongst us, and we were poorly armed and outmanned.

*

Blake’s cannon were
almost within range of
Freedom
. Of course she’d be his target, I could almost feel Leo’s anguish at his helplessness. He loved that ship as he would a lover. He mastered her, fed her, clothed and maintained her. But today he couldn’t protect her.

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 towards 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 towards 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.

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 on to 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.’