Fletcher turned and bowed. "My lady." He removed his hat, and his long, dark hair fell over his shoulders. "I am Robert Fletcher. Your father is gravely concerned for your well-being. Every British factor in Asia has been alerted to your peril."
"Mister Fletcher, I am in no peril," Lucinda said, going to Jaki's side. "My maid and I are now members of the household of Jaki Gefjon."
Jaki gave a humorously curt bow from where he sat.
Fletcher stared at them, befuddled. "Mistress Quarles, do you know who this man is?"
"I've told you," she replied. "He is my husband."
"Your husband?" Fletcher said, aghast. "My God, woman, he is a pirate. This man is responsible for the destruction of The Fateful Sisters." His face hardened. "We know of him from the pirate ship's surgeon, who confessed before his execution. I do not know what he has told you to lure you away, but I assure you he is not worthy of you. He is not only a pirate but a Dutch merchant's bastard, birthed on a blackamoor heathen." He spat the last sentence with vehemence and paused several beats, expecting a fight. When the demeanor of those before him did not change, he stepped back. "Your father will be poisoned to learn of this."
"My father is well, then?" Lucinda asked in a chill voice.
"Well? Hardly so. He has lost his ship, the pride of our Asian fleet. He is disgraced in Singapore, and he and his crew are ejected by the Bantam. Years of diplomacy that have won us a toehold in Malaysia have been squandered. Now his whole obsession is to recover you. So long as his only daughter, his only kin, is in the sway of this fiend, he will not rest. He has defied the king's order to return to England."
Lucinda stepped to Fletcher, who mistook her concern as anxiety for her father. "Mister Fletcher, you must inform my father at once that I am not a prisoner. I have chosen to live my own life rather than be married off at his whim."
The factor flinched with surprise. "Lady, he is your father. You are bound by honor and love to obey him."
"Then call me dishonorable and unloving. I am not here unwillingly." She removed her hand. "Tell him I hold no malice against him. He is my father, and I have loved him as a daughter. His heart is too hard. My life beckons me elsewhere, and I have given myself to Jaki Gefjon with joy and my free will."
"I think it best, my lady, if you tell him yourself," Fletcher said, and drew his sword. He snatched Lucinda by the arm and yanked her to his side. He slashed the sword angrily to stop Maud from rushing forward.
Before Jaki could lunge for him, Fletcher went stiff and dropped his weapon.
Kota stepped from behind him, the tip of his parang poking the back of the Englishman's head. He prodded with the blade until Fletcher released Lucinda. Mang, a cocked flintlock in his hand, entered and picked up the fallen sword. "Chop?" Kota asked Jaki.
Jaki shook his head. "No. He has a message to deliver."
Lucinda faced Fletcher with glittering fury. "You have quickly lost my trust, Mister Fletcher. Yet I invite you to attend my formal wedding. A week from now. On the grounds behind this house. I trust you will be there so that I can be assured my father will receive a full account of my betrothal."
"Do not attend with weapons and soldiers," Jaki warned. "I do not want anyone killed at my wedding."
Fletcher snatched his sword from Mang, plucked up his fallen hat, and departed. The steward bowed apologetically, snapping admonitions to the servants clogged in the doorway to return to work.
Jaki drew a long breath to slow his pounding heart. "So our wedding is in a week?" he said, pulling a seat for Lucinda.
"Was I wrong not to consult you first?" Lucinda asked, recovering her composure and waving for the others to join them at the table.
Jaki shook his head with a grin. "I promised you a wedding. I had hoped to do it sooner." He spooned curry on a thin disc of bread. "Why wait a week? We should be out to sea. You heard Fletcher. Your father is looking for us."
"Yes, but a week is hardly time for him to receive Fletcher's news and respond," she replied. "And we will need that time to ready ourselves for the next leg of our journey to the New World. After we've dined, we shall pay a visit to an acquaintance of my father's, who I believe will be more amenable to our plans."
*
A rickshaw took Jaki and Lucinda along a terrace road beside the gold pagoda, and they viewed clusters of stockaded settlement houses grouped around mosques, shrines, and monasteries, all jammed against the elbow of the river. Not far away they came to a house where intricate moldings dressed the eaves and the Dutch tricolor hung limp in the still heat. Lucinda stopped the driver and asked him to wait.
She spoke in English to the elderly Burmese servant who opened the door. "Tell the factor's secretary that Lucinda Quarles, the daughter of the English captain William Quarles, is here on urgent business. Tell him, please, this is a matter of trade."
The door closed and opened again almost immediately on the factor himself, a portly, red-haired man with an arrowhead nose pinched by scissored spectacles. Lucinda had met him the year before at the English factory where the Dutch had ratified their truce in Burma with the British, and he remembered her well. He took her hand, kissed it, and said, "Your defiance of your father has usurped all other gossip in this sleepy town. I did not think you would appear here. How ever did you manage to elude the pirates along the coast?"
Lucinda looked to Jaki. "My husband provided me safe passage."
The factor bowed to Jaki and introduced himself. "Jakob Boeck, in the service of the Dutch East India Company." With a squint of curiosity, he said to Jaki, "Your name is Dutch."
"My father was a captain with your company — " he began.
Boeck cut him off with a cold laugh and said in Dutch, "A man with a love for the natives, I read from your face." When he saw Jaki's incomprehension and Lucinda's annoyance, he asked in English, "Is he still alive?"
"No. He was killed by pirates before I was born."
The factor shook his head and waved them into his office, a capacious chamber with a beamed ceiling and wall hangings of cut velvet and watered silk. They sat down in cushioned chairs, and he fixed his stare again on Jaki. "Now you are yourself a pirate."
Jaki met the factor's somber gaze evenly. "Any European ship with weapons in Asia is a pirate."
Boeck leaned forward to hear such outlandish cynicism. "Sir, you speak thoughtlessly. Though perhaps in your years as a pirate you never learned the distinction between ships of trade armed for protection and ships of predation."
"The European powers prey on each other," Jaki answered, ignoring the restraining hand Lucinda had placed on his thigh. "Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spanish — they not only murder and steal among themselves, their greed ravages the native peoples far worse than the coastal pirates who were here countless centuries before you arrived. It is your armed European vessels in Asia that are the true pirates.”
Boeck tugged at his chin whiskers and turned to the woman of delicate beauty, with attentiveness in her every gesture. She was also — he reminded himself—the daughter of a powerful English captain with whom he had signed a treaty of mutual compliance two years before. If he could return her to Quarles, the gratitude of the English would offer advantage in the next trade dispute. For that reason, he constrained his revulsion at the primitive she had chosen to squander her virtue upon. "Mister Gefjon, you are failing to consider the role of government. The sultans and lords that we found in place when we arrived here are the very sovereigns with whom we trade. They are not reluctant to receive our goods in exchange for theirs. As for the disputes among the nations of Europe, that is an ancient rivalry."
"The fang and claw of the forest," Jaki said calmly, seeing anger ticking at the Dutchman's temples. "Peoples have preyed upon each other from the beginning of time. The Bible shows us that truth. Only might distinguishes sovereigns from pirates."
"Such an archaic attitude," Boeck said with vexation. "Mistress Quarles, my servant tells me you wish to discuss a matter of trade."
&n
bsp; "Yes." She removed her hand from Jaki's leg, where her nails had bitten his flesh trying to inhibit him. Only now did she realize just how much her husband lacked in diplomatic finesse, and she wished she had come on this errand alone. "As you know," she began, nodding to Boeck with deference, "I am no longer a part of my father's household, having decided to wed the man I love."
"An untraditional and grievous choice, if the gossips are to be believed."
"Fortunately, I am here to counter the gossips," she replied with a charming smile. "My husband and I are indeed untraditional, and to avoid a grievous fate we are seeking a legitimate means to establish ourselves in the world."
"A worthy endeavor surely, Mistress Quarles," Boeck conceded. "But, forgive my directness, how can you possibly manage to establish yourself by defying your father and convention?"
"That is precisely why we are here, Mynheer Boeck. We come seeking your sanction."
"Mine?" His hand covered the ruff at his throat and his eyes widened. "You don't mean to appeal to me for sanctuary?"
"Oh, no," Lucinda said quickly. "Certainly my father would bring pressures to bear on you if we were to stay here. I understand that. Wherever we go in Asia or Europe, he will pursue. That is why we need your help. We look to the New World."
Boeck's brow crinkled with surprise. "That is a bold move, my lady."
"This is a bold age."
"How am I to help you?"
"You can issue us shares in one of the Dutch settlements in the New World," Lucinda said in one hopeful breath. "In trade, of course, for goods of value that we can offer you now. A typical transaction for a factor."
"Yes, but not typically initiated by a woman fleeing her father." He twisted the point of his beard and regarded her from the corner of his eye. "What goods of value have you?"
Jaki reached into his medicine bag and came out with a handful of large diamonds. He placed the smoke-colored rocks on the ebony tabletop.
Boeck picked up one of the gems and assessed it closely, as though skeptical. In fact, he had often seen diamonds in his family's jewelry guild back in Amstel, and he knew the one chunk he held could alone buy the entire guild from his mother's greedy brothers, who dominated the family business and had obliged him to accept foreign service. Even so. He put the stone down. "I cannot accept these in trade for shares," he said with genuine glumness.
"Why ever not?" Lucinda blurted. "These are extraordinary stones. The best you've seen, I daresay."
"Indeed, they are truly remarkable gems," Boeck conceded. "If I accept them, they will only be taken from me by your father. Or at least he will try. Our treaty forbids us to trade for pirated goods."
"These are not stolen," Jaki said. "They are the legacy of my tribal people. They are mine by birthright."
"Sir," Boeck said, allowing some of his anger to burr his words, "you are a pirate. Whatever you may wish to think of your heritage or of the European powers, you remain a pirate. Your actions in Serangoon demonstrate before all of Asia that you are a dangerous man. No government will trade with you — for that should ostracise them from all the other sovereignties you call pirates."
Lucinda put a firm hand on Jaki's arm, and he abandoned his reply with an exasperated huff. Then she turned to the factor. "Mynheer Boeck, who is to know these diamonds are from us? No one can possibly associate them with us once we are in the New World. Given your connections, these gems shall readily find their way to where they belong, in the Netherlands, among the finest jewel cutters in Europe."
"My lady, you are not a naïve woman. Why are you acting the part? Everyone knows you are here in Dagon with — your husband. Soon your father shall know. He, too, has his connections. How can I hide such a transaction from him? No, these gems will renew hostilities between the Dutch and the English, and that cost will far exceed their worth."
Lucinda sank back in her seat, face drawn. Jaki took her hand, and they rose to leave.
"Please," Boeck said, standing. "I cannot accept a pirate's booty. But I am willing to help you, if I can."
"How?" Jaki asked.
Boeck paid him no heed and spoke to Lucinda. "I will issue you shares in our colony in Brazil, enough shares to own your own homestead in the New World, from which you can make a handsome start — if you will offer me goods of value other than pirate's booty."
"If these diamonds are not good enough —" Jaki shot back, and Lucinda stayed him.
"What goods of value do you have in mind?" she asked.
"None that you own — yet," Boeck replied, signing for them to be seated. "I am responsible for a caravan soon departing Dagon, traveling north along the Irrawaddy. After conducting trade in Burma, the caravan will continue west into India, bound for the great Moghul capitals of Benares, Agra, and Lahore. The journey is long and arduous — but potentially lucrative as well. Usually, a company agent travels with the caravan, but this season I am shorthanded and none of my staff wish to make such a difficult trek to barter kettles and jerkins for indigo and ginger. I believe you, the daughter of a trading captain, are not unfamiliar with both European and Asian exchange rates for such goods — hm?"
"A short hundredweight of indigo plants commanded five pounds sterling when we left London three years ago," Lucinda said, proudly. "The current rate in Jakarta is less than one-tenth that, about eight shillings. Fresh ginger sealed in earthen pots is more valuable than gold in Europe and can be had in most Asian ports for about three pennies an ounce, four shillings a pound."
Boeck smiled and nodded, impressed. "Your presence would assure my venture of an intelligent and capable negotiator, which I am thus far sorely lacking. In return for your services, I am prepared to issue you company shares in our Brazil holdings as well as safe passage from Surat, on India's west coast, to the New World. In that way I will have helped you to achieve your goal without breaking the terms of agreement I have with your father. And your father will be no threat to you in the interior of Asia."
When Jaki saw that Lucinda contemplated the offer, he spoke irately. "We have suffered enough in the wilds getting here. I will not subject my wife to such dangers again."
"Sir, I think my proposal a fair one — given your prospects." He turned a favorable countenance on Lucinda. "With your diamonds, you can assure comfortable accommodations in the caravan shall. The foreman and the animal handlers are capable, and your only task will be to supervise the trading in the capital cities. When you finally arrive in Surat, you will have earned your own place in the world through this single enterprise — a rare accomplishment for a man, let alone a woman — yet not above the reach of William Quarles' daughter. Will you at least consider it?"
Lucinda ventured a smile. "I will — but only on the condition that we are regarded and treated as owners by the foreman, crew, and sojourners."
"Owner — yes, of course. I will have your name inscribed as chief representative of the company."
Lucinda rose and offered her hand. "Your proposal is dangerous, Mynheer Boeck. I knew there would be danger when I chose to flaunt convention for the adventure of love. And what is adventure, then, but the dignity of danger?"
"A poetic truth," Boeck said, kissing her hand and knocking on the table for his servant. "I hope you will finally accept my offer, despite its dangers, for I believe there will be less danger for you in the caravan than awaits you at sea, where your father's allies are everywhere."
After Lucinda and Jaki left, Jakob Boeck sat down at his desk and took out the manifest for the caravan he hoped would ensare Lucinda Quarles. With a pensive stare he reviewed the list of men available to convey the company's cargo of broadcloth and kettles to the interior of Burma. He sought a man with the attributes he needed to seize this heavensent opportunity. Who among the company’s hardened convoy bosses had already shown himself sufficiently skilled in treachery to dispatch the half-breed and take his diamonds and yet intelligent and loyal enough to return the diamonds and the silly Englishwoman to Dagon? Many men could kill but few c
ould see the wisdom in cooperating with a man of authority such as himself. They would rape the woman, murder her, and flee with the diamonds, only to be apprehended by one of the many sultans loyal to the company for the weapons the Dutch provided for the sultans’ incessant feudal wars. One name did stand out, a man who had worked for the company and the sultans and who knew how to obey as well as kill. Boeck called out to his servant. "Send me Ganger Sint."
*
Jaki worried: "Lucinda, our diamonds will count for nothing more than rock in the jungle."
Lucinda consoled him by taking his hand and stroking his fingers. They sat on a balcony in the great house overlooking Dagon, a kelpy breeze from the river lifting around them. The evening sky shimmered like a pond, and the gold pagoda glowed supernally above the terraced hills. "Just yesterday we rode the high seas," Lucinda said. "At any time my father's men could have swept over the horizon and assailed us. This caravan will be no more dangerous than that and somewhat less if we use our wealth wisely to make ourselves comfortable."
Jaki looked into her tranquil face, her eyes looking back at him with hopeful daring. "I had thought to protect you from further hardship," he said, dropping his gaze to her hands and almost shocked to see her delicate wrists mottled with sunburn and sloughed skin. "Life aboard ship is something you are familiar with. How much less strenuous it would be for us to go from here aboard a big ship."
"Where would we acquire such a ship? You saw the few big ships in the harbor. Dutch and English, all of them. We could never buy passage without walking right into my father's grasp."
"We don't need to buy passage," Jaki said, and looked beyond her, a plan beginning to form in his mind.
"What are you talking about?" she asked with a tinge of alarm.
"My men and I will seize a ship. We will sail it across the Bay of Bengal to the Maldives. Pym told me about their pirate coves. Under the banner of Wyvern, we can get the provisions and the crew we need to round Africa and cross the Atlantic to the New World."
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