Robbie Taggart

by Michael Phillips

  “A merchant vessel is hardly a fit place for a girl,” said Robbie as she ate.

  “Ah! I’m a natural sailor! Look at me—I feel great, though it’s only my second day out.”

  “But aren’t you the least bit frightened?”

  “Me?” she said, looking up coyly from her meal. Then after a pause, she added, “I suppose there ain’t much left that could scare me.”

  “Been on your own a long time?”

  “Long enough. All the more reason to keep me; I can take care of myself.” She paused, stuffing a crust of bread into her mouth. It took several moments before she could continue. “’Sides, you don’t look too awfully fearsome to me.” As she spoke, her voice seemed to take on the hint of a sweeter, higher-pitched tone.

  Before Robbie could respond further, Pike made his belated appearance. He eyed his new passenger with disgust, and not a little contempt. Delays due to weather he could tolerate; they were to be expected. But now because of this fool girl, he would have to lose another two or three days putting her ashore.

  “All right, ye little harpy!” he said without prelude, putting his most menacing tone to full use, “what have ye to say fer yerself?”

  “I’ll pay you your money!” she shot back defiantly. Robbie noted her confidence with an interested glance; it was no small matter to stand up to men like Pike and Digger.

  “Likely story!” snorted the skipper. “No doubt ye’d rot in the chokey first!”

  “Come on, Ben,” put in Robbie, “go easy on her.”

  “She’s done a crime, and jail’s where she belongs!”

  “In the meantime, we have to decide what to do with her till we reach port.”

  “Put her in irons!” sneered Pike, then added with a wink, “as much for her sake as for ours, if ye take my meaning, Robbie.”

  “I can work,” said Kitty quickly, for Pike did not appear the sort of man who made idle threats.

  “Ha!” scoffed Pike at the idea. However, by the following morning Robbie had convinced him to let her share Sammy’s work, for he had more than enough to do as cabin boy. Kitty was relieved not to have to spend any more time in the dark, rat-infested places on the ship. Robbie gave her his quarters and took up temporary residence in the aft cabin with the other men of his watch.

  Kitty tackled her assignments with the same vigor with which she had consumed her meal. She appeared enthusiastic, and her surly disposition was soon replaced with a contented smile. With good reason too, for she had succeeded in securing a place of acceptance aboard the Sea Tiger when she could well have found herself handcuffed to the rail. Now she just had to find a way to convince her benefactors to keep her on for the duration of the voyage.

  When she’d decided a few weeks ago to make her break from merry old England and expand her horizons in the directions of the rest of the world, she hadn’t realized how difficult it would be for a girl, capable though she was, to find a place on a ship. But once Kitty set her course, she was not easily deterred. The idea to stow away, while perhaps not the most creative of notions, was nevertheless the solution she had settled upon. She’d figured that once at sea, she could depend on her wit and cunning, not to mention her immature feminine wiles, to keep her aboard. She had hoped to delay her discovery until they were far out on the open sea, at least past Gibraltar. But when she made her untimely venture out of her place of hiding, thinking the coast was clear for a few minutes to stretch her legs, her plans were suddenly altered by Torger Overlie’s unexpected appearance.

  Still undaunted, she knew she would find some other way to achieve her ends. From what she could judge thus far, the first mate would be easy to maneuver. As she scrubbed down the deck she reflected on the fact that the nicest blokes were never a problem.

  Kitty was but sixteen, but during her short life she had managed to pick up a fair understanding of how to use the lines of her body and the smile on her face to optimum advantage. The times were not few she had been told she was a pretty young thing, and when she put her mind to it she knew she had what it took to charm and beguile an unsuspecting sailor, even if he was a dozen years older than herself. If only she had something more in the choice of a wardrobe! Well, she’d just have to be resourceful.

  Her next problem would be the captain and that bo’sun who seemed to hold some power aboard the ship. The bo’sun was a brute, to be sure, and not overly bright. But she thought she could handle him. It was the captain who worried her. She didn’t relish the idea of tangling with him. Or having anything to do with him for that matter. Though she was an expert at concealing her fears, he was a man who could make her quiver. There was something in the evil stare of the man’s eyes. She didn’t like it!

  “Well, no need to bother with him,” she told herself. “I’ll just concentrate on the mate and the big man called Digger.”

  She squeezed out her mop and dumped the bucket of dirty water over the side. But she reminded herself as she gazed out at the gray, turbulent sea that she had been found sooner than planned, and that the Sea Tiger was barely underway. There were still any number of European ports that would not be greatly out of their way. That meant she would have to work quickly if she hoped to secure her continued presence on this particular ship. If she couldn’t prove herself, Captain Pike would make as fast as he could to the nearest convenient port to discharge his unwanted passenger.

  And Kitty was determined to prevent that if she could.

  14

  Designs

  Two mornings later Robbie stood at the forecastle rail looking for a break in the contrary weather. But all that greeted him were heavy gray skies and persistent winds coming from the west. Luckily they were northerly enough to allow them to tack down the coast. But progress was slow. He did not even notice that Kitty came up behind him.

  “I love the movement of the ship,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to see distant lands.”

  Robbie turned to face her. “I know what you mean,” he replied in a kindly voice. “No sailor can be contented for long without that rocking under his feet. But I’m afraid, Kitty,” he went on, “that France is going to be the farthest land you see on this trip. The skipper’s going to put you off first chance he gets.”

  “Aw, doesn’t he know I can be a help? Wouldn’t you like to keep me on?” she said, inching closer.

  “A ship’s no place for a young girl.”

  “I’m not really so young.” She stood very close to Robbie now. “An’ what I might lack in age, I more’n make up for in experience. Why, I’ve been accepted for eighteen—even twenty, many times.”

  “I suppose it’s been rough for you, having to grow up faster than most,” said Robbie sympathetically.

  “It ain’t been easy. Not that I’m complainin’, mind you! But . . .”

  Here she let her voice trail away dreamily. When she began again it was with a melancholy sigh. “I hoped that jist maybe if I got away, you know, to someplace new—that I might be able to get a new start.”

  She paused again. “You won’t laugh if I tell you somethin’, will you?” she said after about a minute.

  When Robbie shook his head in reply, she continued. “I always dreamed that somethin’ grand would one day happen to me. Every girl does, I suppose. But I’ve felt that deep down it could really happen to me. Who could tell but what I’m supposed to go to a far-off country an’ meet a prince who’d fall in love with me—an’ make me his princess—”

  She stopped and looked up quickly. “You ain’t goin’ to laugh, are you?”

  “If I’ve learned anything,” answered Robbie wistfully, “it’s not to laugh at other people’s dreams. They sometimes do come true. I knew a girl who was very much like you, Kitty—homeless, penniless, unlearned. Jamie was just a ragged shepherd girl when I found her. Now she’s Lady Graystone, of one of the noblest families in northeast Scotland.”

  Kitty’s eyes glistened eagerly with Robbie’s words. “See!” she exclaimed. “It does happen! An’ it can hap
pen to me—I’ll make it happen—!” But she broke off sharply, realizing all at once that she had begun to reveal more of herself than she had safely intended.

  “Kitty, you can’t always make such things happen. Jamie didn’t. It just came her way.”

  “Well, maybe this Jamie is the lucky type—but I don’t like to leave things to chance.”

  They fell silent a while, watching the movement of the sea, each deep in private thoughts. From the tone of Robbie’s voice, Kitty thought, he must certainly have once been in love with this Lady Graystone. If he meant what he said about her reminding him of Jamie, then this Mr. Taggart no doubt had a weakness for the helpless type.

  The Tiger suddenly lurched to one side, but it took Kitty less than a fraction of a second to seize her opportunity. She stumbled sideways, falling against Robbie. As she had hoped, he instinctively reached his arms up to catch her.

  “I guess I’m not as accustomed to the sea as I thought,” she said, making no move to pull away from him.

  Robbie relaxed his arm to loosen his hold, but she quickly laid her hand on his arm.

  “Robbie . . .” She turned toward him, slipping her own arm around his waist. “I can call you Robbie, can’t I?”

  “Kitty—”

  “It must get mighty lonesome for you out here.” She leaned her face closer to his.

  “Kitty,” said Robbie, gently pushing her from him, “I’m not your prince—”

  “Oh, Robbie,” she replied tearfully. “Can you blame me? I ain’t ever met anyone like you before.”

  “That’s because you’re still young. You will one day, maybe just like you said.”

  “I’d give up all them dreams for you, Robbie!”

  “Don’t give up your dreams, Kitty. Someday—”

  A clattering behind them interrupted Robbie’s sentence, and he turned to see the Vicar climbing up the companion ladder to the raised deck where they stood.

  Relieved and embarrassed, Robbie turned to greet Drew, while Kitty fell quickly back, flustered by the untimely intrusion.

  “I’d better get back to work,” she murmured, giving Robbie a coy smile as she turned and walked off.

  “Making progress with the young thing already, eh, Robbie?” said Drew with a wink.

  “Hardly that, my friend! Hardly that,” replied Robbie. “If there’s one thing I don’t need right now, it’s the problems a woman brings.”

  As Kitty resumed her tasks, Robbie’s last word still rang pleasantly in her ears. Someday . . . he had started to say. And from that single word she was able to build all sorts of airy castles in the sky as to what he might have meant. In truth, her vain imaginings were worlds different than what Robbie had intended to say. Even a Sadie Malone, cut out of the same cloth as she was, could have warned young Kitty that her sights were set much too high. But in her childish innocence, Kitty went away encouraged, and began making preparations for her next conquest.

  ———

  Later that day Kitty was busy sweeping out the forecastle cabin where the stores were kept. Sammy stopped at the door.

  “Need any help?” he asked.

  “Thanks, but I’m doin’ fine,” she answered. Then she added as if the idea had only just occurred to her. “Sammy, maybe there is somethin’ ye can do for me, if ye was of a mind to?”

  “Anything ye say, Kitty,” replied Sammy, the only crew member so far to have succumbed to the young stowaway’s charms.

  “This room’s a mess, an’ maybe if I do a real good job cleanin’ it, it’d impress the first mate—ye know, so’s he’d convince the captain to keep me on.”

  “That’d be fine, Kitty!”

  “Could ye keep the mate away till I was finished, then, say in about twenty minutes, bring him by—just casually, ye know—so I can surprise him? Ye see, he was sayin’ this mornin’ as how this place needed cleanin’.”

  “Sure! You can count on me!”

  Sammy ran off. The moment he was out of sight, Kitty set down her broom and set off herself. She found Digger not far away, supervising repairs on the capstan.

  “Mr. Digger,” she called in the sweetest voice she could muster.

  Yes, the bo’sun was quite willing to give her a hand in moving the heavy cartons in the cabin. Why, no, he wasn’t too busy at all. It was much too strenuous a job for her alone. In point of fact, Jack Digger had not been so willing to do something for another person in a very long while.

  “Oh, Mr. Digger,” said Kitty some fifteen minutes later, as he was in the midst of lifting a heavy box of iron fittings, “I ain’t never seen a man as strong as you are.” She used what she judged to be her most alluring tone, and though it fell far short of what she had intended, it helped that Digger was not particular. “Why, just look at them arms!” she added, laying a hand on his thick forearm.

  Digger paused, his brow knit with a puzzled expression. Only the day before yesterday this little snip had hissed at him like a she-cat. But why should he question such feminine attentions? It had probably just taken these two days for her to realize what kind of man he was. Quickly he shoved the carton aside, and as Kitty picked up the broom to resume her work, he grasped her shoulder in his hand.

  “It ain’t sweepin’ ye really want to do, now is it, missy?” He let his hand slip from her shoulder, taking her into his arms.

  “I got my work to do,” she answered faintly, as if she did not mean it.

  “Yeah, but there’s somethin’ more important than work, eh, missy?”

  “I wouldn’t want no trouble.”

  “Don’t ye worry about a thing.”

  Digger moved still closer, pressing her slight body up against the wall of the bulkhead.

  “But you might get in trouble with the captain or the mate,” said Kitty, thinking to herself that Sammy should be back by now. How long could she hold this brutish man off anyway?

  “Ha! Fools, both of ’em! I do wot I wants around here!” Digger declared. “Nobody tells Jack Digger wot to do!” Then, as if to emphasize the validity of his words, he planted his lips against hers.

  Kitty cringed at the awful sensation of the man’s kiss. For all her claims of worldly experience, she had in fact been kissed only once or twice, and that by boys no older than herself. And certainly never like this! To make matters even worse, this man smelled! But she tried to still her revulsion. She had to keep him here until Robbie arrived.

  “Hmm. Mr. Digger,” she sighed, in a small but determined voice.

  “Ye liked that, did ye, miss . . . ?” He grabbed her up in both his arms and brought his lips once more to hers.

  Sturdy girl that she was, Kitty felt faint and sick. But before her growing fear had a chance to master her, she heard the door open. Robbie saw exactly what she had wanted him to, and to insure his proper reaction, Kitty immediately began to whimper and squirm helplessly.

  “You’ve gone too far now, Digger, you no good low-life!” yelled Robbie as he burst through the door. He grabbed the bo’sun’s shirt in his fists and flung him away from Kitty.

  “Why you . . . !” cried the enraged bo’sun. “I’ll kill ye for that!” He lurched toward his prey, but Robbie was quicker, and, stepping aside, sent Digger stumbling against the wall. Fuming and blustering loudly, Digger swung around as he rose, making ready for another attack. But he never saw it completed, for Pike, just then passing the cabin, had stepped in to investigate the tumult.

  “I knew ye’d be nothin’ but trouble, ye little vixen!” he said, leveling his cold gaze on Kitty, while keeping Digger at bay with his crutch.

  “B—but I—”

  “She’d be far less trouble,” put in Robbie, “if Digger showed her some respect! She’s a mere child.”

  “Aw, she was askin’ fer it.”

  “From what I could see,” Robbie went on, “she was trying to get out of your clutches.”

  “Why, you dirty—!”

  “You get out of here, Jack!” said Pike. “Cool yourself off. I’ll tal
k to you later.”

  “Me!” exclaimed Digger. “An’ wot about him, actin’ as if he owned the bleedin’ ship!”

  “Get outta here!” hissed Pike, “before I lays ye on the deck.”

  Grumbling noisily, Digger stalked away, momentarily at bay, but by no means confessing defeat. The next time, he swore to himself, even Pike wouldn’t be able to stop him.

  But Pike had already forgotten his boatswain, now directing his wrath at his passenger. “I should ’ave locked ye in the hold the first time I laid eyes on ye. But we’re puttin’ in the first chance we get—Lisbon, if I can manage it—and till then I don’t want to see yer little face above this deck, ye hear?”

  Kitty nodded submissively.

  “Now get outta here!” Pike added with an oath.

  Kitty was gone in less than a moment. Robbie started after her, but Pike caught his arm.

  “Lock ’er in the cabin,” he said. “’Tis the only way any of us’ll be safe.”

  “She’s but a child, Ben,” said Robbie.

  “That’s yer problem, Robbie,” said Pike, “always seein’ the good in everyone. Don’t be so naive—you’ve seen her flaunt herself around here!”

  “She’s too young to understand half of what she’s doing. We are grown men, and ought to be able to act accordingly. She could be a help around here.”

  “Maybe so . . .” Pike said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “On the other hand,” he added with a sly wink, “maybe ye’d jist like to save her for yerself, eh, Robbie!”

  He laughed in a knowing manner. “Don’t worry, Robbie, I’ll keep Digger out of the way fer ye!”

  Disgusted, Robbie turned and left the small cabin without another word.

  15

  A Stop at Lisbon

  Kitty knew her chances were pretty well ruined. But when Robbie knocked on the door of the cabin, she tried to answer sweetly.

  “Come in,” she said, not moving from where she lay sulking on the bunk.

  Robbie opened the door and stepped inside.