A Perilous Alliance

by FIONA BUCKLEY

  He stood for a moment, fingering a necklace of rubies, and then exploded, livid. ‘Gawdstrewth! Judging by this here, he’s been salting away riches what should of been ours! Doing himself well out of other men’s gold! I suppose he reckoned most of us wouldn’t know what he’d be likely to be paid but I learned a thing or two in Algiers. I’ve allus had my suspicions, as Mr Bones here well knows. Only, I never dreamed it’d be on this scale!’

  ‘If the men see this …’ said Bones.

  ‘They’ll see it, right enough. By heaven, they will!’ Magnus was seething. ‘My God, we’ll have the old bastard swinging among his own sails for this. If they see this? They’ll see it right enough. Now!’

  There was some argument about who should be present when the crew were confronted with the way they had been cheated.

  ‘Best you and Mr Brockley go back to your quarters. The ladies shouldn’t come face to face with the crew,’ Clay said. ‘There’s an inside door bolt for those passenger cabins; best use it. They’re a wild lot and they’ll be that angry.’

  ‘Kate certainly shouldn’t be exposed to them,’ I said. ‘She and Mistress Jester had best stay where they are, with Joseph to guard them. But I’m the one who opened the cabin and the box. Without me, no one would know about this. I want to be there.’

  ‘No, madam,’ said Brockley earnestly. ‘It wouldn’t be wise. Mr Clay is right.’

  ‘Listen,’ I said. ‘If the crew mutiny, well, we women will be exposed to danger from them in any case. They might do anything – sell us on Lundy for their own benefit, maybe assault us women as well. But something might be done about that if … if they see us differently.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Bones.

  I said: ‘Up to now, hardly any of the crew – at least the ones on board now – have seen us at all. We’re just … merchandise to them. I’m just merchandise. They’ve never seen me as myself, an individual, let alone as an individual who’s done them a service. Also, let me remind you, if you don’t already know it, I am the half-sister of her majesty Queen Elizabeth of England. I propose in fact, to appear as such, properly attended, by you, Brockley, as my manservant, and by Dale, since a queen’s sister should not be without a female companion, and I will myself tell the crew what we have found.’

  ‘Fran will be petrified!’ said Brockley.

  ‘She’ll still do as I ask her. I know she will, if you urge her to it as well. Don’t you see – on top of being the one who used the picklocks, I’ll also be a member of the royal house. It might make just that extra difference. I would ask you, Mr Bones and Mr Clay, to put my part in all this very plainly to the men. If they still betray me and my friends after all, well, I suppose that would have happened anyway. At least Garnett will have got his deserts and even if we do end up in Algiers, well, who knows? Magnus here escaped; so may we, and God help Garnett and his crew if ever we do get free and come back home. I know about the brands, after all.’ I saw the shock in the faces of both Bones and Clay, and hastily added: ‘Not yours or Jacky’s! I’d never mention yours. Don’t worry about that.’

  There was a little more argument, but an idea had begun to stir in my mind and I was fiercely persistent. Brockley’s protests were the most insistent, but when I said, ‘Very well, if you won’t attend me or let Dale do so, then I’ll have to rely on Sybil to give me countenance, and on these two gentlemen here to protect me, but I will be present at the confrontation,’ he gave in.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Conspiracy

  As we made our way back to our quarters to collect Dale, I said: ‘Just what happens when you take captives to Lundy? Who goes ashore to talk to the pirates, and do they meet you when you land and settle the business then and there? I suppose not, since Mr Bones here says he has been into their living quarters. Does Captain Garnett deal with them directly? If so, then I take it that he goes to their headquarters too?’

  Bones swung his lantern so as to see my face properly. ‘Why do you want to know?’

  ‘An idea I’ve had. Exactly what does happen?’

  ‘There’s some formality. They’re weird folk, those corsairs. They have their own rules of propriety – even of hospitality. They have lookouts – and cannon too, up on the cliffs – and yes, someone meets us when we land. We have to anchor some way out because it’s a dangerous coast, so the captain has to be rowed ashore – he has his own shoreboat, a lightweight affair for him and two oarsmen. Mostly they’re Myers and Leo but sometimes Garnett takes me and one of them stays aboard instead. There’s an old half-ruined castle on the island and our customers have fitted some of it out as a fort, and believe me, they’ve fitted it out for princes. We’re received by their chief in a room where he sits on a seat like a throne, all draped in luxury furs, and something called sherbet is served to us …’

  ‘That’s a cold drink with no alcohol in it,’ remarked Magnus Clay regretfully. ‘I tasted it in the galley, so I did. It’s not so easy to get clean drinking water in the hot countries.’

  ‘That’s right. Well, we’re shown hospitality. Refreshments, sociable conversation – the chief – Abdul Hussein, his name is – can’t speak English but he has a couple of followers who can, and they interpret. We take a meal with him and if it’s evening we stay overnight. I did that once and very comfortable they made us. We had a room with padded couches, coverlets in silk and some kind of fur that I didn’t recognize but nice and soft. Then, eventually, Captain Hussein comes out to the Lucille to see what we’ve got for him.’

  He broke off to laugh and then said: ‘He comes in his own boat with an escort, plastered all over with cutlasses and handguns. He keeps his boat in a boathouse by the little jetty and the boathouse is kept locked. Once I asked the interpreter why and the interpreter laughed at me and said that sometimes his master’s guests didn’t appreciate his hospitality the way they should and tried to escape. But if they do, they could only escape on to the island. Grinning all over his face, he was, when he said that. “They can’t get away from the place,” he said. “They can soon be rounded up again!” Obvious enough, I suppose. Well, Hussein and those with him see what we’ve got for them and assess their value and they take away the ones they want. It’s a steep climb up the cliff path from the little beach to the top of the island where the fort is and Garnett says that it’s a waste of time and effort marching all the slaves up there if some of them may have to be marched down again and they’d have guessed what’s ahead and be gibbering with fright or else resisting, trying to fight or get to our boats first and get away in them. These pirate folk are quite particular and sometimes they reject some of what’s offered though Garnett is pretty good by now about making sure he only snatches promising ones, that aren’t too old or too ugly. He won’t take ones that are lame or deaf or can’t see properly. Only, when it’s raiding by night … well, you can’t always tell. You’ll be all right. You’re kidnapped passengers and he had a good look at you before he decided to snatch you. He doesn’t snatch passengers often. The last batch we had, we just took from Edinburgh to Dover as virtuous sailors should because they were three overweight merchants in their fifties with a couple of flabby menservants. No sort of a consignment! We landed them all at Dover, good as gold, and left them free to recommend our services. They were lucky. The next bit is nasty.’

  Like the rejected slaves, I had guessed what was coming and there was a cold clenching in my stomach.

  ‘It’s only happened once since I joined the Lucille and I didn’t take part,’ Bones said. ‘Myers and Leo saw to it. Even this crew of miscreants mostly find it a bit too much.’

  ‘I was a coiner,’ remarked Magnus. ‘I’ve never killed anyone in my life and don’t want to.’

  ‘Quite. Witnessing it was bad enough. I did witness it – it was done at dusk when we were sailing away. I was on deck, ordering the sail to be shortened and it happened right in front of me. There were two rejects – one man with a withered arm and one woman the pirates said was too old.
That was horrible. She’d been an ordinary woman, a cottager – had a wedding ring, though the Lundy men took that off her – and she didn’t seem to believe what was happening to her. She cried and called on Garnett to remember he was an Englishman, just as she was an Englishwoman …’

  ‘Oh, my God!’ I whispered. ‘What was that like for her? To grow up in safety, have a family, have children, be a normal woman, and then, your hair goes grey and you lose your teeth and your joints start to ache, and you’re grabbed from your home in the night …’

  ‘Don’t!’ said Brockley. ‘Madam, don’t think about it.’

  ‘She can’t have believed it was real!’ I said. ‘She died in a nightmare! And you saw this, Mr Bones?’

  ‘Yes, I saw it. There was nothing I could do. I suppose it was necessary. In a way. We can’t just land rejects; by then they’d know too much and be able to recognize Captain Garnett and some of his men, and Garnett can’t very well keep them as pets. So as I saw, it was a quick knife thrust all round and then the bodies went over the side, weighted. Myers did it as just one more task; Leo enjoyed it. One can tell.’

  ‘Oh, my God,’ said Brockley.

  ‘We’re pirates, same as the gang on Lundy,’ said Bones. ‘We don’t have luxury furs and formal dinners, that’s all. But the killing’s a bit of the business that isn’t popular with most of us, though it’s rare. It keeps the gentry on Lundy just a wee bit wary of us, of course, which I suppose is a good thing. While Hussein is on the Lucille deciding about his purchases, one of Garnett’s escort has to stay in the fort as a hostage. I was the hostage once. I was well treated, kept in a small room but I had every comfort. If I needed to relieve myself, I had a silver basin to do it in! But there were two guards at the door, all cutlasses and lovely white teeth, just like Garnett has. And their chief. He’s got more teeth than any man I ever saw. You hardly notice his eyes. They’re just black pits. But those damned teeth …!’

  He stopped, and like a dog coming out of water, he shook himself, as if to cast off bad memories. ‘I was scared half out of my wits,’ he said. ‘And if anything had happened to Hussein, even by accident, I’d have had good reason. I remember praying, actually praying, on my knees like a good Christian, that he didn’t fall in the sea while getting from his boat into the Lucille or back again. Well, is that what you wanted to know?’

  ‘Who is present when Garnett settles terms with their captain?’ I asked.

  ‘Ah. That’s interesting. When I was there, it was always with either Myers or Leo as the other man in Garnett’s escort. Garnett and Hussein go to Garnett’s cabin, and take one of us along but it’s never been me. I reckon Myers and Leo are in on his little deceit and get their share, whereas I’m not. Hussein would have his interpreter and a fellow carrying a little chest. The terms were settled and the money – or jewellery – would change hands, away there in Garnett’s quarters. The times I was there, Garnett told me the total when he came back. Or what he wanted me to believe was the total. Now look, Mistress Stannard, what is in your mind?’

  We were nearly at the door of our cabin. I stopped short, and then, briefly, came to the point. Brockley at once protested. ‘You can’t rely on pirates to respond as you think they will. You and they don’t think alike.’

  Here, however, Magnus Clay spoke up for me. ‘Mistress Stannard’s idea might work, you know. I can tell you one thing about the way they think. When I were their prisoner I did see one or two renegade men from Christian lands among ’em but that were rare. A lot of they corsairs don’t make brethren of foreigners or what they call unbelievers. And I can say this: they set a lot of store by loyalty. To each other, I mean – reckon they don’t pay all the taxes they owe their rulers – but among theirselves, that’s different. They call each other brothers.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Brockley. ‘Let me think … look, the interpreters – can they read and write English as well as speaking it?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Bones. ‘I’ve seen one of them write a receipt for Captain Garnett. Why?’

  Brockley explained and Bones scratched a thoughtful nose. ‘You mean, provide a letter to tell them just what they’re getting. Yes, I see.’

  ‘There’s no guarantee it’ll work,’ I put in. ‘But that would give it as good a chance as I can well imagine. And it could avoid some ugly and very dangerous scenes, if the men turn on their captain – and then get at the drink. They’ll have time to quieten down.’

  ‘There’s no guarantee that the crew will like the notion at all,’ said Clay, ‘but I’d say it’s worth a try.’

  ‘It has a pleasing touch,’ Bones agreed. ‘Poetic justice. I rather fancy it myself.’

  When it came to the point, of course, I was badly frightened. From what Bones had told me, it was plain that the crew weren’t all complete ruffians but there was clearly a strong ruffian element among them. The scheme I had proposed was anything but foolproof. But I had gone too far to turn back now.

  Once back in our cabin, we explained the situation to the others. Dale was horrified and shook visibly at the thought of what lay before us but Brockley told her he would be there and that he wanted her to do as I asked, and she finally agreed though she was trembling and her protuberant blue eyes were bulging with alarm. Kate and Sybil were only too glad to stay behind and Joseph promised to protect them as best he could if anyone tried to trouble them.

  Clay went ahead to assemble the crew. After a few minutes, I followed with the Brockleys and Bones. Each of us carried one of Brockley’s lanterns. Magnus had duly fetched all the men on deck, a surprised audience, visible enough in our lantern-light.

  Bones stepped forward and held up his light to survey the enquiring faces before him. I had only seen a few of them until now and as I studied them my heart failed me. What had I done? Perhaps it was the bad light, but to me they all looked villainous. The thought of addressing them terrified me. But Bones was forging ahead.

  ‘I have with me,’ Bones said, ‘two ladies and a man who, for a very special reason, I have freed from imprisonment in the passenger quarters. One of the ladies is Mistress Stannard, who happens to be a half-sister to the queen herself, and has carried out some courageous tasks for her majesty. Tonight she has carried out another, for our benefit. With her, as befits a lady of such status, are her manservant Roger Brockley and his wife, who is her personal woman. I would not bring Mistress Stannard into your presence without being sure that she is correctly attended.’

  This was greeted by some muttering and shifting of feet. But no one shouted or attempted to create any disturbance. Bones’ dignified manner and measured speech were setting the right tone.

  ‘You will be surprised to hear,’ said Bones, ‘that one of the skills which Mistress Stannard has used in her tasks for the queen is that of picking locks.’

  There were more murmurs, and heads turned, peering round Bones to where I stood with the Brockleys. ‘This night,’ declared Bones, ‘she has in my presence unlocked the door of the captain’s cabin and opened his strongbox. I made use of her talents in this way because I think, as many of you think, that Captain Garnett has cheated some of us out of money to which we are entitled, and in my case, I am angry because he has branded my young nephew and is prepared, if the boy tries to leave the ship, to report him to the authorities as a wanted criminal, which he is not. And I can tell you now, that you have indeed been cheated.’

  He paused long enough to let that sink in and then added: ‘Will you, in a moment, choose two of your number to accompany us to Captain Garnett’s cabin, where Mistress Stannard will once more open the door and the box and show you what is within. You are likely to find it most interesting. But before we do that, let Mistress Stannard address you.’

  He beckoned us forward. We stepped up beside him. Brockley, tense and grim, was on one side of me, while Dale, shaking so much that I could feel it even though I wasn’t touching her, was on the other. I was trembling too but hoped no one could see it. I must not show my fear. I mu
st not show weakness.

  No, I must not. I must hold fear at bay. I must remember that I was the sister of Queen Elizabeth and the daughter of King Henry, Eighth of that name, Great Harry of England. Something of what they were, was bred into me as well. I must hold up my head and keep my back straight, and be a sister, a daughter, of whom my royal kin would not be ashamed.

  I must play the queen.

  ‘I would say good evening to you,’ I said, ‘except that evening has gone, the morning hasn’t come, and good night would sound ridiculous.’

  A few of them laughed, which was my intention. ‘Now,’ I continued. ‘To business. Since coming aboard, I have learned that as Mr Bones says, some and perhaps all of you suspect that you have not been paid money that you are owed. Some of you have other causes for complaint. I will say at once that your pasts are nothing to do with me. If you would like to be free of this ship and this captain, I am in complete sympathy with you. I would like the same thing! I will be happy to show you what, with Mr Bones’ assistance, I have discovered. If it does interest you, then I have a suggestion to offer you. A very pretty revenge, if we can make it work. We would need to act together. But first, pick your representatives and they shall see what I have found.’

  ‘What if cap’n comes back while we’re seein’ it?’ someone shouted, but I had no need to answer because several voices at once retorted with exclamations such as Don’t be daft; does he ever come back till morning, once he’s off for the night? and We don’t have to let him aboard; leave him fending off till we’re ready for him! and If he’s been a-stealin’ of our pay and we’ve got proof, haul him and them mates of his aboard and clap the gyves on them for a change!

  Bones took over again. There was some more muttering and some squabbling, and also a wary voice counselling caution and what if it was all a trick, to which Magnus Clay retorted indignantly that none of them had ever had aught against Bones and hadn’t most of them been there when Bones’ nevvy was branded and screamed like a soul in hell, and if he, Magnus Clay, felt angry about that, Lord knows what Alfred Bones was feeling like!