The Blackbirder

by James Nelson

  ‘I was not aware that the matter was in question. Whatever do you mean?’

  ‘Nothing, sir, not a thing. But see here, I think the men are quite mollified by this great haul we have made. When we are done here, it will be away to the east and hunting that rogue King James down.’

  ‘You think the men will not object now?’

  ‘I think they will be entirely agreeable, even if we must chase them clear to the Guinea Coast.’

  Agreeable they would be, once Fleming spread his tale through the gunroom and it wound its way through the inferior officers’ quarters and at last to the lower deck. The Lord only knew how inflated the story would be by then, the great riches carried aboard the Black Pirate, the treasures of the Orient, the plunder from the Spanish Treasure fleet.

  Enticing enough to lure them clean across the ocean, to the shores of the Dark Continent. Sure, he could fool them into going; there was no more art in that than there was in driving sheep.

  It was fooling himself that was the problem.

  God, but he did not want to go there, did not want to do this thing.

  Beware, beware, the Bight of Benin …

  CHAPTER 17

  Billy Bird settled the cocked hat on her head, flipped the long curls of the wig over her shoulder in a jaunty way, stepped back, nodded his approval.

  ‘Not so bad, really,’ he said. ‘Bloody crude stitching, but what were we to do, on such a notice?’

  ‘Humph’ was all that Elizabeth said.

  Billy Bird had told her, in all fairness, that there were ‘considerations’ to her sailing with him, and here was one of them.

  ‘You see,’ he had expanded on that comment, ‘we’ve these sort of … rules … aboard the ship. Something we’ve all signed on to, and even me, as lord and master of the vessel, cannot quite get around them.’

  ‘Pirates’ articles?’

  ‘No, no, dear Lord … pirates’ articles! No, just some rules, you know, for fair governance of the vessel. In any event, one of those rules is that no women are allowed aboard, and the punishment is marooning, not a pleasant thing at all. But I should think we could get around that, with just a bit of the creative touch.’

  Billy had left at first light, collected her horse from where she had left it at the Wren Building, ridden back to Marlowe House. There he had gathered up a bagful of Marlowe’s clothes, shoes, wigs, and hats. The clothes he carried to a seamstress who took them in significantly, but with no great art, since they were very pressed for time.

  Now, back in his room at the King’s Arms, they made Elizabeth’s transformation.

  ‘You would never pass for a foremast hand, of course,’ Billy told her, ‘one of these great hairy fellows. But you look every inch the foppish youth. Even without playing the man, you are more manly than some of the silly dandies I have seen prancing about this town. It was not that way a few years back, as I recall. There was a time when Virginia was a place of men alone, with little opportunity for these mincing dance masters.’

  ‘Humph,’ Elizabeth said again. She stood and regarded herself in the full-length mirror in the corner, assumed as masculine a stance as she could, one hand on her hip, the other resting on the hilt of her sword.

  Billy Bird was right; she had to admit it. She would easily pass for a young man. The coat and waistcoat entirely obscured her breasts and her hourglass figure. She was not altogether pleased with that fact, that this disguise was so convincing, as if it made her somehow less of a woman.

  It was late afternoon when they headed out, down the road to College Landing near the head of Archer’s Hope Creek. Riding with them, bareback on a tired old mare, was a boy from the inn who took the horses back to town once they had arrived at the landing: Elizabeth’s to be liveried and Billy’s to be returned to the man from whom he had hired it.

  At College Landing they hired a boat pulled by two big watermen. Evening was settling around them as they rowed down the creek to the James River and then down the James to the shallow mouth of a tributary on the southern bank called the Pagan River. Up the Pagan, as far as it might go without taking the ground, a solitary brig was riding at anchor. She was all but invisible from the James, her hull lost in shadow, her spars undetectable against the tall trees that lined the banks.

  ‘Hoay, the boat!’ a voice called from the brig’s quarterdeck, called with a low, rumbling menace.

  ‘It’s Billy Bird, come back to you!’ Billy called out, and nothing more was heard from the dark ship.

  The watermen pulled alongside and Billy said to them, ‘I would be pleased if you would forget all about the presence of this vessel.’ And then he pressed into their hands two coins, pieces of eight, and from the look on their faces it was clear that Billy had just bought their undying loyalty.

  Billy stood, tossed his seabag aboard the low-sided brig, grabbed Elizabeth’s, and tossed that as well. ‘Come along, then,’ he said to her matter-of-factly, man to man.

  Elizabeth nodded. Her palms were sweating and she knew if she held her hands out straight she would see them shake. She felt very exposed, as if her disguise was just the merest wisp, as if it should be clear to everyone that she was not a man. But the boatmen and the boy from the inn had not given her a second look, and she tried to take some comfort from that.

  But again, the boatmen and the boy would not leave Billy Bird to die of thirst on some barren strip of sand if they found out, would not have their way with her until they were satisfied and then cut her throat, as the pirates would.

  Billy stepped out of the boat and up the brig’s side and Elizabeth stood and followed him, not nearly as sure on her feet as he, certain that her every move would betray her sex. She tried to step with a self-confident air, the kind of cock-first swagger she associated with men such as these, but that only made her feel pathetically obvious in her deception.

  She took hold of the cleats mounted on the brig’s side. Her leather gauntlets – Thomas’s gauntlets – were ill-fitting, though Billy himself had restitched them with a care and delicacy that surprised her. Her shoes did not fit right either; handkerchiefs were stuffed around her feet to hold them in place. But despite these encumbrances, and the strange sword hanging from her waist, she managed to get aboard in a credible manner.

  Bily was talking with a rough-looking man, a big man with a battered cocked hat on his head, a long, dark broadcloth coat, a cloth tied around his neck in the manner of seamen, all but hidden under a thick beard, cutlass, pistols thrust in his belt.

  Elizabeth stepped through the gangway. The man glanced up at her; Billy followed his eyes, said, ‘Ah, Mr Vane, this here is an old friend, who will be taking passage with us. William Barrett, younger brother of Malachias Barrett. Do you recall Malachias Barrett, from Port Royal, some years back?’

  Vane frowned, then nodded, slowly. ‘Yes, yes, I do.’ He extended a hand to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth, who had anticipated that, grabbed it lustily and shook, squeezing back as hard as she could, which she feared was not very hard.

  ‘I told William we would give him passage to Boston. He’s just cargo, I fear, never the seaman that old Malachias is. William, Mr Vane here is quartermaster, runs the show, pretty near.’

  Vane nodded, released Elizabeth’s hand, and Elizabeth nodded back. ‘Welcome aboard, William,’ Vane said.

  ‘Pleasure,’ Elizabeth said, and Vane turned back to Billy and the encounter was done, and if Vane had any suspicions about their passenger’s gender then, he gave no indication that Elizabeth could see.

  She was tense, she realized, every muscle in her body taut. Now she forced herself to relax, to let her muscles loose, like untying the laces of a bodice. She crossed her arms over her chest in what seemed to her a masculine stance, and ran her eyes over the brig.

  She had seen just one pirate ship before, the one that Thomas had captured at Smith Island back when he had command of the guardship, and she had heard his tales and Bickerstaff’s of what others were like.

  T
he deck she stood on now did not resemble those descriptions, she had to admit, nor did it remind her of the one she had seen. There were none of the empty bottles kicked into the scuppers, none of the tangles of cordage and discarded remnants of meals and men passed out in various places around the deck.

  Rather, it was fairly tidy, shipshape, more like the respectable merchant vessels she had been aboard – Thomas’s guardship, the Plymouth Prize, or her namesake Elizabeth Galley. There were a few men on deck and they were working at something, talking quietly, and paying no attention to the business of their captain and quartermaster.

  She heard Billy Bird say, ‘Very well, then, three bells in the middle watch,’ and she turned to him and he turned to her and he said, ‘Come along, William, we have some hours before the tide turns and we can get under way. I shall show you your cabin and let us have a glass together.’

  He led her aft, under the overhanging quarterdeck and through a door in a bulkhead that led to the after cabins, a series of doors lining a narrow alleyway dimly lit by a few lanterns swinging from the beams overhead. At the far end of the line of cabins, the door to the great cabin, the captain’s domain. Billy opened the door, gestured her into his rather finely appointed quarters: wine rack, sideboard, polished cherrywood table amidships, various weapons mounted on the bulkhead and ceiling.

  ‘Very nice, Billy. I had thought that pirate captains did not enjoy the full privacy of a cabin, that the others were free to come and go aft as they pleased.’

  ‘Dear William, will you please stop referring to us as pirates? We are merchants, free traders, and as captain of the vessel I enjoy all the luxuries of any captain, including the absolute privacy of the great cabin.’

  As he said that he pointed emphatically over his head. Elizabeth followed his finger, saw a skylight in the deck above, like a little raised house with glass ceilings. Those ceilings were propped open, allowing the night air into the cabin, allowing anyone on the deck above to hear whatever was said in the great cabin below.

  Elizabeth looked down, nodded her understanding.

  ‘Now, young sir,’ said Billy Bird, ‘as a favor to my good friend Malachias I shall allow you my own personal sleeping cabin.’

  He crossed the day cabin, opened a door on the starboard side. Within was a small sleeping cabin, much smaller than the pantry at Marlowe House, fitted out with a hanging cot, washbasin, chamber pot, and a chest lashed to the deck.

  ‘You may take your rest in here,’ Billy Bird said, ‘but lest you become too relaxed, be aware that on a ship one might be called out, day or night, at a moment’s notice. You are free to sleep through any of the regular emergencies, but anything truly grave will require you to be on deck. So, pray, always be ready to appear on deck.’

  Elizabeth nodded. The message was clear. No lacy shifts or feminine sleeping gowns. The disguise was to be maintained at all times.

  ‘And when do you think we shall see Boston?’

  ‘Ah, Boston,’ said Billy, ‘Boston I think will be no more than a week, perhaps ten days’ sail from Charles Town, if the wind favors us.’

  ‘Charles Town?’

  ‘Yes, quite. I fear we have some business there, which we must attend to first. That is the other consideration.’

  ‘Goddamnit, Billy, why are you telling me this now?’

  ‘Well, dear Billy Barrett, I am kind enough to tell you while we are still affixed to Virginia’s soil. If you would rather go ashore and arrange another passage, then we can still do that. But where you will find simple merchants more discreet than us, I do not know.’

  Elizabeth glared at him. He did not tell her about Charles Town because he wanted her aboard, still hoped for a casual fuck, she was quite certain of that.

  ‘Forgive me, Lizzy,’ Billy said, so softly that he would not be heard on deck, ‘but in truth I did not want to discourage you, not when it was clear to me that you had no choice. We shall be in Charles Town and then up to Boston in less time than it would take you to find another vessel sailing direct from this dismal outpost, and that is not even considering the danger you face of arrest.’

  ‘Humph,’ Elizabeth said.

  ‘And what is more, I could not let you face the dangers of Boston alone. I absolutely have to be with you in your quest. Knight-errant and all that.’

  At that Elizabeth smiled, her defenses shot through. ‘Damn your eyes, Billy,’ she said, but there was no malice in her words. She had never succeeded in being angry with him, never for more than a few moments at a time. ‘Very well, I’ll wait patiently as you go about your no doubt honest business in Charles Town. And, please, tell me, I have forgotten to ask, what is the name of your honest merchant brig?’

  ‘Why, she is called the Bloody Revenge. It is a name the men insist upon, though I daresay it is a bit … bellicose … for honest merchant sailors such as we.’

  Frederick Dunmore reined the horse to a stop from a full gallop, braced with his legs to keep from pitching forward over the animal’s head. Jumped down from the saddle, ran across the dark lawn, lit only by the stars, took the stairs to the porch two at a time, pistol held in one sweaty palm.

  Bold man, when you know it is only the woman at home, and not even her, most likely, he thought. Coward, bloody coward.

  He stopped at the door, listened. Nothing. Nothing from within, nothing without, save for crickets, the far-off screech of some night creature.

  I am a night creature too, he thought. A hunter by night. I am the fox.

  He crossed the porch with bold strides, seized the doorknob, the white sleeve of his coat a dull gray in the black night.

  He was alone. Even his watchers were dismissed, the useless bastards.

  They had come to him, heads down in deserved shame. ‘She’s gone again,’ one had said. ‘Didn’t see her all day, so we got closer, looked through the windows even, but she ain’t there. Might have gone back with them niggers …’

  Of course she had not done that! Dunmore was furious, but he did not let any of that show, just dismissed the men with a ‘Very well,’ and a wave of the hand.

  He had had Marlowe House watched from the moment the woman and the Negroes had fled into the woods. He knew she would come back, a delicate creature like that could never live like a savage in the forest. And he had been right. After their last raid, the one in which they had nearly taken them all, it was right after that that the watchers saw her again, saw her through the windows, moving about.

  They had reported to him. He had been right. And that only reinforced his knowledge that he, Frederick Dunmore, was controlling events entirely.

  Talking to the governor, talking to the burgesses, seeing what charges might be leveled against her: arming Negroes, aiding the escape of slaves. (How legal was it, what Marlowe had done? Really, now, are we to think of his people as freemen, able to come and go as they please?)

  And those people, Nicholson, the burgesses, were listening. A day or two more, a few more carefully worded arguments, and the bitch would have been in jail.

  It was something. It was all that was left. He could not catch the Negroes in the woods. He had realized that at last. The others had realized it too, had given up the hunt, left him alone.

  No matter. The so-called free blacks were in exile, run off, pushed far from civilization where they might spread their poison, and that was almost as good as rounding them up and selling them off. Better, perhaps. And she was still within his reach.

  He rested his left hand on the doorknob, readjusted his sweating grip on the pistol in his right hand.

  What if I do find her home? What will I do to her?

  He felt a surge of conflicting desires and passions, dark and ugly and secret things. He twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

  It was blackness within, perfect dark, and he stepped into it and closed the door behind him.

  In the foyer, he stood absolutely still. He let the tiny sounds of the house fill him, the sounds and the faint smells of past fires
and past meals and traces of perfume, until he was as much a part of the darkness as they were.

  When he was certain the house was empty, he stuck his pistol in his belt, fished in his haversack for his tinder-purse, and pulled that out. He knelt down, feeling for flint and steel and match and arranged them with practiced hands. He struck steel on flint and the sparks that drifted down to the match gave him a faint glimpse of black and white checks painted on the floor.

  And then the match caught and flared and he picked it up and with it lit a candle. The room revealed itself in dull yellow light. A wide staircase up to the second floor, a sitting room opening up to the right, a hallway leading to the back of the house on the left of the stairs.

  Against the wall nearby stood the tall case of a clock, silent, unmoving, like a dead man propped up there. Was that some indication of how long she had been gone? There was no way to tell.

  He moved to the bottom of the stairs, looked up as far as the throw of the single flame would allow him to see.

  Why am I here? To find out where she has gone. To bring her to justice, to help stop the spread of the plague …

  Liar, liar, liar. Coward.

  He stepped onto the first step, tried his weight. It did not creak; his shoe was silent on the plush runner that covered the center of the steps. The next and the next, he stepped up, thrilled, terrified, filled with righteous purpose and self-loathing. The storm battering his brain.

  He was in Marlowe’s house, inside Marlowe himself, it felt like. Swaggering, self-assured Marlowe, who would step into a fight to the death with never a thought.

  As would I, Dunmore thought. I am in that now, a fight to the death, and I will fight till my last breath to keep the pestilence out of these colonies.

  But you are careful not to give Marlowe leave to call you out. Coward.

  But is a coward worse than any friend of the black man? One who would see them all free if he could, populating his country with their little black babies? He felt his courage spread as it did with the first effects of an excess of wine.