by Gian Bordin
"— what about the rest?" It was the red-haired sailor who had told her about the precious loot being in the captain’s cabin.
"For your own safety, the rest will remain in shackles until the anchor has been lowered in the harbor of Piombino. Then all will be freed. The ones that operate the ship will be constantly watched. There must never be more than two of you together. So avoid each other like the plague. Any mutiny attempt will be punished by immediate death. Each guard has two primed crossbows. All are top marksmen on moving targets, and I have four knives and a long bow with six arrows. So, if some of you have toyed with the idea of retaking this ship once we are in open waters, forget it."
A low murmur rose among the sailors.
"Once we are in Piombino, you will all be paid your four-weekly pay. I’ll intervene on your behalf with Count d’Appiano that you’re not prosecuted for piracy — something difficult to prove without evidence and the evidence is safely in Castello Nisporto. Ser Hakim has promised that he’ll then take the ship to Porto Pisano and report its arrival to its rightful owners in Pisa. So everybody will benefit and you’ll get another chance at an honest life as sailors." This was greeted with calls of approval. "Stand up when your name is called out. If you don’t want to be one of the twelve, simply remain sitting."
She nodded to Hakim. He called the twelve names. All rose. She noticed that the red-haired sailor was not one of them. She gave the key to Paolo, who opened the shackles of the first man and then ordered him to open the ones of the other eleven, before returning the key. Most grinned after being freed, rubbing their wrists and ankles.
She stood with Hakim on the forecastle and watched him give orders — raising the anchor, ordering the sailors to their station. The ship was slowly turned around. The next order was to raise the first sail and set it at the correct angle. The ship caught the light breeze, slowly moving out of the bay toward to open sea. Once there, the other two sails went up and swelled in the wind. The Santa Caterina was on its way.
Watching the sailor do their work, Chiara enjoyed the experience. A few times, she needed to warn groups of three sailors to split up. Except for the first time, this was usually met by grins.
They needed to tack a number of times until they were past the northernmost point of the island and then followed an almost straight course all the way to Piombino, the sails straining in the breeze. Three hours later Piombino was less than an eighth of a league away.
She now fetched the box of silver coins from the cabin, ignoring Niccolo’s protests. Starting with the ones still in shackles, she gave each two silver coins. Then she gave twice this to each of her own men. She returned the half-empty box to the chest and locked it again. Up on deck, she handed the key to Hakim.
As the ship got closer to Piombino’s natural harbor basin, she could see that there was considerable commotion along the shore, the throng of people getting larger by the minute, among them a dozen or so guards wearing the colors of d’Appiano. Several small row boats got launched and came to meet them. They must have recognized the Santa Caterina, she guessed.
The sails were lowered and the ship coasted into the inner harbor. When the anchor had been dropped, she gave the keys to the shackles to one of the sailors, and within a minute all were free.
"Thank you, sailors, for your patience," she shouted and then shook hands with the first mate. "And thank you, Ser Hakim, for bringing us safely into harbor."
She turned back to the sailors. "And now men, some sound advice. All of you stay on board. The only person to leave the ship is Ser Hakim. He has to give a report to Count d’Appiano. I’ll have a small keg of wine sent on board as a gift for you, but not enough to get you drunk this time." This was greeted by laughter and cheers. "But then there’s no danger of the ship being boarded." Renewed cheers. "It’s in your own interest to avoid drawing any adverse attention on you, and you all know why. Remember that you just came back from a trading mission to Bastia, where you delivered bales of cloth and picked up cured leather." She winked. These words were first met with perplexed silence. A few caught on and grinned, murmuring to others. Suddenly, somebody shouted: "Long live Lady Chiara, the knife woman." The call was quickly picked up by others.
She held up her hands and when the shouting stopped, she addressed her own men: "Men of Nisporto, my heartfelt thanks to you. You’ve proved yourselves as a valiant and disciplined force which gives me pride to have led. You will now disembark with me." She turned back to Hakim. "They will leave twelve crossbows and arrows in the captain’s cabin, for the ship’s protection until you are at Porto Pisano. I think it would be advisable that you disembark with me and leave the command of the ship to your second mate."
While she had been talking, a boat with the colors of d’Appiano had come to the port side. The officer was hailing them. She went to the railing.
"Greetings, Captain Fiorini. How kind of you to come and fetch me."
"Lady Chiara, what are you doing on the Santa Caterina?"
"Coming back to Piombino. I borrowed it from Casa Sanguanero."
He frowned. Not a man with a sense of humor, she thought.
"I have come to arrest Signor Sanguanero."
"I have already done that for you. My men will bring him down shortly." She nodded to Paolo. "Get him; remove his leg irons."
She lowered the rope ladder down to Fiorini, who climbed up on deck and looked around perplexed.
"You have arrested Signor Sanguanero." He seemed completely confused. "But I saw you ride out toward the mountains."
"Oh, I made a small detour via Populónia." She turned around. "Here comes your man, Captain Fiorini. He’s all yours. I’m glad to get him off my hands."
When Niccolo saw the officer, he shouted: "Captain, arrest this woman. She has stolen my ship and plundered its content."
"Captain, please take this sniveling fool away."
"Signor Sanguanero, I arrest you in the name of Lord d’Appiano. You may lodge any complaints to him. I will now take you to the palazzo."
He too ignored Niccolo’s continued protests and returned to his boat. Paolo forced Niccolo to descend after him.
"Captain, may I and Ser Hakim, the first mate, come along too?" Chiara called out.
"Please forgive me, Lady Chiara. I am completely remiss to have neglected you. Please, come, by all means."
"Thank you, Captain, and will you also send the boat back to pick up my men. There are twelve of them."
"Your men? I don’t understand."
"Twelve guards, all tenants of mine, who accompanied me."
"Ah … certainly, my Lady."
While Captain Fiorini took Niccolo to the palazzo, Chiara waited with Hakim for her tenants, surrounded at a polite distance by dozens of onlookers, who were openly commenting on her male dress.
"How’s your chest, Ser Hakim?" she asked, trying to bridge the awkwardness of the situation.
"A bit painful … Lady Chiara, you will support me, please." He sounded anxious.
"I will. There’s no need to worry. I’ll also see that a reputable doctor looks at your injuries and that you get a place to rest in comfort for the night before you return to your ship tomorrow."
When her men landed on shore, she gave the key to the captain’s cabin to Hakim. Paolo got another six silver coins to arrange for a keg of wine, meat, bread and cabbages, enough for the twenty-four sailors to be taken to the Santa Caterina.
Ten minutes later they entered the courtyard of the palazzo, Hakim at her side, and her twelve men, each armed with a crossbow and a sword, marching in a double column behind. The countess and Beatrice, as well as a number of minor nobles, were already waiting on the steps. Chiara bowed low, as a man would, copied by Hakim and her tenants.
"My Lady, please forgive my unusual attire."
"Chiara, what mischief have to done now. My Lord told me that you brought Signor Sanguanero … And I see, you brought your own troop of soldiers."
"My Lady, these valiant men are te
nants of mine and helped me to bring Signor Sanguanero to justice. They will return to their farms on Elba within a few days. Until then, I would be grateful if they were assigned sleeping quarters. I also brought a witness, Ser Hakim, the first mate of the Santa Caterina, who will testify to the truth of my accusation that Signor Sanguanero attempted to have me killed. And as a final favor, I would like that you have your doctor check that my administrations to his injuries have not permanently damaged his health."
Hakim, visibly embarrassed, burst out: "Lady Chiara, you have done better than any doctor I know."
The countess laughed. "Ser Hakim, do not believe a word this young woman says. She is all tongue in cheek. If she looked after you, you were indeed in good hands. But I will have my doctor check you out."
"Beatrice, come, give me a hug," Chiara exclaimed, turning to the girl who could hardly hold herself still.
She came literally flying into her arms.
"Thank you, Lady Chiara, for coming back so soon. I knew that you were not going back to Chianciano, and I prayed for your safety every day."
"That was good of you. I am sure that this has helped keeping me safe."
* * *
An hour later, after having washed and changed into an outfit lent to her by the countess, and the latter had stilled her curiosity about her exploits, as she called them, while Beatrice listened avidly, Chiara was summoned to Lord d’Appiano.
She curtsied. "My Lord, you called me."
He looked at her for a long moment. She met his gaze. When he did not speak, she said: "My Lord, I sense that you are again displeased with me."
"Displeased? … I don’t know. I am totally perplexed by your behavior, by your deception, telling us that you were going back to Chianciano, when in fact you intended to go to Elba, by your lack of trust in us, by your recklessness and complete disregard for any dangers to you, not to speak of my utter astonishment of how you managed to bring the Santa Caterina back to Piombino with Signor Sanguanero as prisoner. I don’t think that I will ever understand you, young woman."
"My Lord, I accept your reproaches. All I can say in my defense is that I thought I had good reasons for my deception, and I regret having reaped your disapproval. It was not lack of trust in you that was behind my deception, but fear that if Signor Sanguanero were to hear that I planned to go to Elba, he would make good on his threat to destroy Castello Nisporto and steal whatever he could from my tenants. And I also knew that you would forbid me to go to Elba." A small smile lit up her eyes.
"You are damn right that I would not have allowed you to go there," he replied vehemently. "I would have locked you up before."
She had never heard him use such language.
"But even if I had allowed it and provided you with an escort, why would Signor Sanguanero have known about it?"
"Because all walls have ears, even in this palazzo, my Lord. If I were Signor Sanguanero, I would have my spies in Piombino, if not in the palazzo itself, and I would also have people in Porto Longone and Porto Ferraio to inform me instantly of any suspicious arrivals. I wanted my home back intact, not as a ruin."
He narrowed his eyebrows, seemingly pondering this. She expected him to reply, but he let it go.
"How did you get there?"
She told him and then recounted how she had retaken the castle and captured the ship. He shook his head repeatedly, as if in disbelief, getting increasingly caught up in her story, asking for details and clarifications.
At the end, he remained quiet for a minute or more, holding his folded hands in front of his mouth, looking at her, fleeting smiles flitting several times across his face.
"So you brought me a witness who is willing to testify against Signor Sanguanero … without being tortured." He winked with his left eye.
"Yes, Ser Hakim, the first mate of the Santa Caterina."
"I will question him shortly."
"My Lord, I would like to ask a big favor of you."
"Yes?"
"I persuaded Ser Hakim to testify and take the Santa Caterina to Piombino with the promise that I would convince you not to prosecute him for having been part of the group that chased me and for any allegations that under Signor Sanguanero’s orders he and his crew had participated in acts of piracy."
"But why should I not punish them?"
"For several reasons, my Lord. First, Ser Hakim, in fact, ran away when Signor Sanguanero ordered his tall blonde slave to kill me. There is no proof that he knew beforehand that killing me was the intention. Second, I did not find any loot on the Santa Caterina after we took her, that could have pointed to piracy. They only loot I found were things that had been removed from Castello Nisporto and the tenants, like all the valuable wall hangings, weapons, tools, and other things. Furthermore, even if they had engaged in piracy, if the only boats or ships they looted were those of enemies of Piombino or Siena or Pisa, and its friends, it would hardly be viewed as a crime against Piombino. And last, but not least, the cost of keeping more than two dozen prisoners for any length of time is a big drain on the coffers of your Lordship. This was one of the reasons I decided to gain the crew’s cooperation and be done with fast, rather than have to feed them for weeks until your Lordship would have taken them off my hands."
A big smile appeared on his face. "Lady Chiara, your arguments, as always, are thorough and convincing. I will let Ser Hakim know of your recommendation."
"You may add a proviso to it, my Lord, if I may be so bold."
"Yes, I am listening."
"That this is done under the condition that the Santa Caterina returns to Porto Pisano and reports to Casa Sanguanero, whom I consider to be the rightful owner of the ship."
"Good, but what guarantees do we have that they follow this order?"
"None, except the threat that if this does not happen, the Santa Caterina will never be able to visit any port along the Tuscan coast. But my reading of both Ser Hakim and the crew is that the majority would prefer to have a new start as honest sailors."
"So be it… And since you have assumed the role of counsel to the judge," but his eyes were smiling, "what punishment would you see justified for Signor Sanguanero?"
"When I took him prisoner, I promised him the gallows. But he really is simply an arrogant fool, following in the footsteps of an equally arrogant father. So, on second thought, I think a good while in a dungeon would be a more appropriate punishment."
"I will consider that… And now, young woman, since, to my utter astonishment, you have achieved all your aims, will you give in to Lady Maria and accept her mediation to a marriage? When your latest exploits become known, there should be princes knocking at your door."
Chiara smiled without answering.
"Naturally, assuming that there exists a candidate that meets your four conditions."
"Naturally," she replied. "And how is Messer Mercurio, my Lord?"
"Have you not seen him yet? … He is recovering well and still telling to anybody willing to listen the story about the biggest boar ever killed."
"I will go and see him."
The old warrior greeted her warmly. She had to undergo another interrogation. In the end, he said: "Oh, Chiara, how I wish I could have served under you."
* * *
Ser Hakim thanked her profusely for her intervention on behalf of himself and the crew and then offered to take the twelve tenants back to Elba. It would not add more than half a day to their trip to Porto Pisano. She gave him a letter for Filippo Baglione, Lady Lucia’s husband, informing him of the tribunal’s verdict, of Niccolo’s attempt on her life, and of taking back Castello Nisporto and her land by force from him, that he was now in custody at Piombino, likely to be sentenced to imprisonment for a while, that she had convinced Lord d’Appiano not to charge him and the crew of the Santa Caterina with piracy, and that she was sending the Santa Caterina to Porto Pisano for Casa Sanguanero to do with it as he saw fit. She recommended Ser Hakim to him as a competent man that he could trust. As a postsc
ript, she sent her warm respects to Lady Lucia in the hope that there could be peace between them.
On the morning of the ship’s departure two days later, she accompanied Hakim and her men back on board. The crew whistled and shouted when she climbed on deck in women’s clothing, her broad belt with the four decorative knives around her waist.
"Lady Chiara, we have all heard about your skill with the knives. Will you show us?" the read-head sailor shouted.
Why not? The little devil in her was already acting. "All right, move away from the captain’s door."
She was standing about eight paces away, all eyes on her. Suddenly, she shouted: "What’s that?" pointing to the foremast. While most of the crew looked up the mast, she whipped out her first knife, threw it, catching some of them unaware, and then quickly followed it up by the other three. The four knives were almost perfectly aligned in a row. The sailors and her own men erupted in wild cheering.
The red-haired now stepped in front of her. "Now, my Lady, we got you without weapons. What if we take you?"
Her men and some of the crew muttered protests.
"Try it, sailor," she challenged him, as her right slipped into the pocket of her skirt.
He took a step closer and stopped in mid-stride, the tip of a small knife in Chiara’s right pushing into the soft flesh below his chin. He raised his head. The knife followed, the pressure increasing slightly.
"On your toes, sailor."
He raised himself on his toes, leaning farther and farther back. And then the knife disappeared. He rubbed his right hand under his chin and looked dismayed at the blood on it.
"You nicked me!" he complained, sulking.
"Be thankful it’s only a nick, sailor. You could be dead by now. You still have to learn a lot, don’t you? Like knowing when to keep your mouth shut and not let it run away with you."
After a brief uneasy silence, there was renewed cheering, ending in repeated "Lady Chiara, Lady Chiara."
Climbing down the ladder, she heard one sailor say: "She showed you up for what you are, you braggart."