Splendor

by Catherine Hart

  At the helm of the Mirage, which was trailing the other two sloops, Devlin tried to signal the others to wait, to beware of the shallows and sandbars that lay ahead. But in the excitement of the moment, his warning went unheeded. Rhett’s sloop ran aground near the left bank. The captain of the other sloop, unfamiliar with the river’s tricky current, found his vessel swept into the shallows at the right edge of the river, where it, too, stuck fast. It was left to Devlin to skillfully guide the Mirage between the two, the only one of them to successfully negotiate the shoals.

  Meanwhile, Bonnet had become aware of the encroaching danger and was weighing anchor. While exchanging rapid fire with the Mirage, he attempted to pilot his own ship, the Revenge, through the small passage left to him. His efforts failed when the Revenge also ran afoul of a sandbar, trapped midway between Rhett’s sloop and the Mirage, his two remaining prize ships blocked in the river behind him, with no route of escape.

  They still had some mobility, however, as did the Mirage. While the two Charles Town sloops were busy with the dual tasks of defending themselves and trying to free themselves from the shoals, Devlin took charge of returning fire from the pirate prize ships. Thus occupied, he and his crew could not readily board the Revenge, as they had hoped to do at the start.

  To everyone’s disbelief, the battle raged on in this manner for five interminable hours. Cannons roared, muskets blazed, taunts were exchanged all the while. Red-hot gun barrels belched out thick smoke, and the air hung so heavy with it that the acrid odor lent its taste to the tongue.

  It was not until Devlin’s men had subdued the barrage from the enemy sister ships that the fight began to wane and boarding became possible. The battle then turned to fierce swordplay and hand-to-hand combat as Devlin divided his crew, sending half onto each enemy prize ship. Into the thick of the fray he flew, his sword flashing, leading his men to a quick victory.

  Casting a look about, Devlin realized that the incoming tide was rapidly raising the water level in the river’s mouth. Any minute now, Rhett’s two sloops would break free of their groundings. But so would Bonnet’s flagship, which alone faced the ocean and stood a good chance of making a fast escape once it slid free of the sandbar.

  With little time to spare, Devlin signaled Nate to secure the captured ships, then hastily divested himself of his hood and clothing. Now unseen, his invisible knife clasped between his teeth, he dived into the water and swam to the Revenge. Dripping water after him, he hauled himself aboard just as the sleek little sloop floated free of its moorings.

  Bonnet stood on the quarterdeck, bellowing orders to his crew and wearing the wolfish grin of a man who has just found himself locked in a roomful of love-hungry nymphs. “By damn! We’re off and running with the wind now!” he shouted gleefully.

  “Not quite, old friend,” Devlin corrected on a low growl, slanting his knife blade toward Bonnet’s windpipe.

  Stede’s eyes rolled to the side in a futile attempt to see his foe.

  “Give it up, Stede. Call your men away from their stations into the center of the deck, where they may all be readily accounted for, and issue the command for a calm, orderly surrender. Or would you rather die here and now, your blood staining your boots?”

  At about this same time, Colonel Rhett’s ship broke loose of its own sandbar, and headed directly toward the Revenge, with the obvious intention of boarding her. To the colonel’s vast astonishment, after all the fierce combat that had gone before, the Revenge suddenly hoisted a flag of truce. Incredibly, Bonnet did not even attempt to fight further, but lay down his weapon and surrendered with remarkably good grace, his men rapidly following suit. The battle was won, the brigands captured.

  Devlin swam back to his ship undetected, donned his pirate’s uniform and hood, and once again confronted his former friend, who was now ensconced in Colonel Rhett’s makeshift brig. “How very wise of you to surrender when you did, Stede,” he commented wryly.

  Bonnet eyed him warily. “That voice. I know that voice, yet I cannot place it. Remove your mask and reveal yourself.”

  “Nay. I cannot show my face as yet, but you do know me well. We’ve shared a few adventures, you and I, and hoisted a few tankards along the way. Did you not recognize the Gai Mer, though she now flies a new flag and bears a new name?”

  “Devlin?” Stede questioned, peering more closely in an attempt to see the man beyond the enveloping mask. “Devlin Kane?”

  “One and the same, Stede.”

  “Damn your eyes! Why didn’t you say so? And why are you now aligned with those who would hang me? We’re mates, Dev.”

  “We were, until you shot holes through the hull of my newest ship back in Charles Town Harbor.”

  “I’ll pay for the damage if you’ll but help me escape.”

  “I cannot, Stede. Woodes Rogers would not take kindly to that, you see, after I have so recently sworn my fealty to the Crown.”

  Bonnet sighed. “Got your amnesty, did you? I considered it as well. Now I wish I had made the voyage to New Providence, rather than chance my luck too far.”

  “Aye. If not for Nate and my new bride, I might be in the same spot, right alongside you, a little late and a great deal sorry.”

  Sometime later, during the search of Bonnet’s ship, a young woman was found locked in Stede’s quarters. The poor lass was in a pitiful way, half-crazed with fright and pathetically grateful to her rescuers. Some weeks past, Bonnet had captured her and spirited her away with him on the Revenge, keeping her hostage to his private pleasures. Shamed and despoiled, she was nonetheless anxious to be returned to her loving family, who no doubt thought her dead by now.

  Upon seeing this unfortunate woman, and learning all she had suffered at Bonnet’s hands, Devlin’s sympathy for Stede immediately vanished. Thinking of Eden, and how he would feel if she had been Stede’s victim, Devlin could only hope the girl’s relatives would receive her back into their keeping with open arms and all the compassion she deserved.

  Nate was of a similar mind, though his thoughts went further. “Dev, if ye hadn’t acted so quickly and stopped Stede from sailin’, the poor lass might yet be with him. Though the colonel and his men be claimin’ they saved her, ’twas really yer doin’. I’m right proud o’ ye this day, and Eden will be too, when she hears.”

  Devlin scowled at him, ridiculously embarrassed by Nate’s lavish praise. “I’m no bloody hero, Nate, and well you know it.”

  “Aye, ye are, Dev,” Nate argued. “Like it or not. By heavens, lad, if ye’re not careful, ye’ll turn into a bloomin’ saint!”

  Chapter 30

  The Mirage sailed into Charles Town Harbor just behind Colonel Rhett’s small fleet, and immediately the crew found themselves acclaimed as champions along with the rest of the returning party, though Rhett received the lion’s share of the credit for leading the successful expedition. Eden became exceedingly miffed when she learned they could not reveal the most vital part her husband had played in executing Bonnet’s capture. But Devlin was content to note that the townsfolk openly appreciated the aid he and his men had delivered, and that they now seemed proud to claim him as one of their own.

  Stede Bonnet and his crew were promptly jailed, awaiting their coming trial. While most of Stede’s pirates were held under heavy guard at the watch house, he and his quartermaster, David Herriot, were lodged separately at the home of the town constable.

  When Devlin questioned Colonel Rhett about this unusual arrangement, the old man told him, “It appears that some of our town officials still consider Bonnet a gentleman pirate, despite his recent actions, though I myself fail to see their reasoning. It has to do with the fact that the fellow was born and raised to be a gentleman, that he is well educated, especially compared to most of the riffraff pirating the seas, and that before he turned to brigandry, he owned a plantation in Barbados.”

  Devlin gave a derisive snort “Bonnet came by his plantation through marriage, not merit. Furthermore, he soon abandoned his labors
and his wife for a more adventurous life. He claims his wife was a shrew and drove him to seek some measure of peace from her harridan’s tongue by taking to the sea. For my money, he simply wanted more gain for less sweat.”

  Rhett nodded in agreement “There are some who do not concur with you, however. Between the two of us, those who do not and are even now begging leniency on Bonnet’s behalf, are those who have previously done business with the man, or others like him, and despair of having their names linked with his in court. It would not surprise me if Major Bonnet managed to escape some dark night with the help of those who most fear what his testimony before the judge might do to their own characters.”

  As had happened once before, following Devlin’s rescue of Blackbeard’s beleaguered prisoners, he now experienced the same curious result. After being touched by Eden and becoming visible, he found he could remain visible for some time after she broke contact. This time the mystifying tendency was stronger and lasted longer. Rather than being normal for mere minutes, he could now walk about freely for upward to two hours or more. And, when he felt himself beginning to fade, if he concentrated his thoughts and energies against it, he could sometimes prevent himself from disappearing so soon. When he did fade altogether, he could instantly be restored to view simply by brushing Eden’s hand, or her sleeve, and remain discernible for another couple of hours.

  This development was extremely encouraging, leading all of them to hope for his complete recovery in the near future, Eden most of all. Though her pregnancy seemed to be progressing nicely, she was often plagued by worries that her child would be afflicted with its father’s invisibility. Try as she might, she could not relieve her mind of that dreadful prospect, though Devlin assured her she was being foolish.

  “Darling, the child will be perfectly normal, with all its fingers and toes.”

  “Aye, but will they be perceivable? Worse yet, will the poor mite appear and disappear in the blink of an eye, come and gone like an errant breeze?”

  “Better that than with its mother’s outrageous imagination,” he told her. “Sweet heaven, Eden! You are driving yourself daft, and I’ll wager a hundred pounds that you are fretting yourself into fits for naught. Expectant mothers are supposed to remain calm and think tranquil thoughts, not dredge up every horrible consequence likely to occur, and more that are pure drivel.”

  “ ’Tis more than drivel,” she argued. “You have merely to look at yourself to see that the impossible can happen.”

  “I still say you are being a silly twit. But I suppose that is to be expected. Your mother did warn me that breeding women are often prone to emotional disturbances, but I mistook her to mean tears and angry outbursts, not fanciful nonsense and outright derangement.”

  Eden glared at him. “I’ll remind you of that when our child arrives only half visible, O Wise One. Then we’ll see who is being irrational.”

  Autumn was fully upon them before they quite knew where the time had gone, and though Charles Town was not yet completely free of the threat of tropical storms, the torrid temperatures fell to a more pleasant level. This was a great relief to them all, but especially to Eden and Jane, who were miserable enough in their delicate conditions without the added heat and humidity. Eden clung to her mother’s prediction that the dizziness and nausea would cease within another few weeks. Unfortunately, by then her figure would have begun to expand, and her trim waistline would be but a fond memory.

  For the time being, however, it was marvelous to have a fuller bosom, which she hoped to keep after the baby was born. Her added dimensions in that area had Devlin deliriously fascinated, quite like a boy with a new toy, and he could scarcely look at the straining bodices of her gowns without salivating. The poor man walked around in a state of constant arousal, and their lovemaking was showing no signs of diminishing in frequency or quality. Though Eden wouldn’t have believed it possible, it was more passionate with every passing day.

  There was yet another love affair blossoming in the household these days, though Devlin could scarcely credit it Zeus appeared to be beak-over-tail-feathers in love with Eden’s parrot! It was lunacy and didn’t make a bit of sense, but there was no way to convince Zeus that a falcon could not become enamored of a parrot.

  “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Devlin marveled, half-despairing that his precious falcon had lost his senses over such a gaudy female bird. “Zeus and Rum Pot?”

  Eden had named her feathered friend while still under the misconception that Rum Pot was a male, but the appellation was fitting since the parrot had an inordinate liking for rum, and would pilfer a drink from anyone’s cup whenever possible. Perhaps more curious than Rum Pot’s preference of drink, or the odd attraction betwixt the birds, was the fact that the parrot appeared capable of viewing the invisible hawk, while no one else, save Devlin, could do so.

  Eden thought the feathered courtship was hilariously funny, particularly as Rum Pot was playing coy, making Zeus work for every scrap of her attention and often mocking him terribly. “Devlin, calm yourself,” she told him. “If Zeus is like most men, he’ll soon tire of the chase. Besides, Rum Pot is not giving him much encouragement.”

  “You think not?” he disputed. “Then why is she making eyes at him at this very moment?”

  The parrot was preening herself, but since Eden could not see Zeus, she hadn’t been aware that Rum Pot was putting on this fetching act for the falcon’s benefit. She had to rely on Devlin’s word that Zeus was presently transfixed with Rum Pot’s come-hither display.

  Eden shook her head in befuddlement, then gave a fatalistic shrug. “Oh, well, I suppose ’twill work itself out somehow. After all, look at the two of us. Who would ever have thought we would make such a perfect pair?”

  “There is a difference, my sweet. According to several sources, the Bible for one, like consorteth with like, and birds of a feather flock together. These two are definitely not birds of a feather, and what they are aiming toward goes against all the laws of nature.”

  Eden laughed. “So speaks my husband, the expert, who even now cannot explain the bolt of lightning from out of the blue which rendered him invisible. That, too, was supposed to be impossible, love. This world is ever full of surprises, is it not?”

  “That, and sassy women,” Devlin agreed, getting in the last word.

  At the end of October, just a few days before Stede Bonnet’s trial was to begin, the pirate captain and his quartermaster managed to escape in the middle of the night, much as Colonel Rhett had predicted. Though it couldn’t be proved, it was believed that the guards had been bribed to turn a blind eye to their prisoners’ flight. It was curious that Bonnet did not take the Revenge, or any other adequate ship anchored in the harbor. Devlin attributed this to the fact that two lone men could hardly sail a ship of that size without the aid of a crew. He suspected Bonnet and Herriot would return as soon as they could gather enough mates to reclaim their sloop.

  Governor Johnson was furious. Immediately, he offered a reward of seven hundred pounds for their capture, dead or alive, and appointed Colonel Rhett to head the search. As luck would have it, however, a fierce squall was brewing, forcing the search party to postpone their departure until after it had passed.

  The weather worsened steadily, and it soon looked as if they were due for a full-fledged tempest, if not an actual hurricane. Cursing the fact that he hadn’t been able to gauge the extent of the gale early enough to transfer the Mirage to sea, and the Dame Anise away from the dock, Devlin headed to the harbor to secure the two ships as well as he could against any damage they might sustain. Then he and Nate hurried home to latch the shutters tightly over the windows, move porch furniture indoors, and generally make the house and grounds as snug as they could.

  For three long days, the wind howled, beating rain upon the house in gusts that rattled the shutters. Thunder roared like an enraged bear until Dora was loath to venture into the kitchen by herself, afraid she would be struck by lightning eve
n through the tightly shielded windows. By dawn of the fourth day, when the gale finally began to ease, everyone was irritable from lack of proper sleep and from being restricted to the house for so long.

  Finally, by mid-morning, the storm had abated sufficiently for the men to go forth and assess the loss. The house and stable were unharmed, but Eden’s henhouse seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage. The roof had blown half off, and a good number of ducks and chickens had flown the coop. Several lay dead, littering the rear lawn.

  Next, the men went down to the docks to evaluate how well their ships had weathered the tempest. To Devlin’s vast relief, the Mirage, lying at anchor in the center of the harbor, had escaped unscathed. The Dame Anise had not fared so well, however. Necessarily tied up at the wharf, she’d taken quite a beating, and it would take much time and effort to restore her to seaworthy condition. It was hardly a consolation that they’d scarcely gotten a good start at refurbishing the crippled vessel, for now it would take twice as long to get her ready to sail.

  “I swear this frigate has become a millstone about my neck,” Devlin bemoaned. “She is my personal albatross. Mayhap ’twould be better to sell her to the first buyer with coin in his pocket and be done with it.”

  “And do what? Buy another?” Nate asked. He shook his head. “Nay, Dev. She’s a good little ship, only wantin’ someone to see to her care. Don’t throw good money after bad by purchasin’ someone else’s raft o’ problems.”

  They returned to the house to find Eden weeping copiously. Sure that something dreadful had happened, Devlin rushed to her side. “Darling, what’s wrong? Is it the babe? The demise of your chickens? I’ll buy you more, you know.”

  Seating himself next to her on the divan, Devlin pulled her to him and kissed her sweetly on the lips. Almost instantly, he recoiled, his expression one of horror. “Damnation, Eden!” he exclaimed. “What on God’s glorious earth have you been eating?” He swiped hastily at his mouth, as if to remove the awful taste.