Tina had planned this voyage for years and was only grateful she had Claire to share it with. The sights they would see would give them a lifetime of memories. She was determined to ‘settle down’ and be ‘respectable’ when she returned. She wanted Claire to have a life of ease and while she already had a fortune and could afford to live well, she had not known she would have a wife to provide for, and wanted a buffer against what might be hard times. She could see wars possibly breaking out between England and the Americas, and who knew how this would affect trade. She’d already seen that being a pirate could net you a fortune, but she had seen pirates blow it all in the next instant. She wanted security in her old age.
She could see her grandfather wished he could go with them. He was excited and depressed by turns, helpful and cautious as well. He had many meetings with Tina, giving advice and tapping into his vast knowledge of sailing and the waters he knew so well, and missed. As aggravating as he could be with all his important conversations, she knew he meant well and his advice was actually very valuable. He grilled her on her own knowledge; where she planned to put in for food, supplies, and water; how long she thought stops would take. She started to avoid him towards the end, but she relished the time she had with him, knowing so much could happen on a voyage such as this. She could be killed, the ship could wreck, she could be captured and enslaved, or he could die while she was gone these two long years. She did not want any regrets between them as she listened, joked, cajoled, and discussed the long arduous journey ahead of them.
They were taking Sir Barkley with them and debated taking one or two of the pups for trade, but they were still too young to be separated from their mother and no one wanted to feed them to keep them alive. It had taken more than one mating to get this batch, and the young pups were desired. Feeding them would take up too much time for someone. They did not want to take a goat with them on the ship, they were smelly, and messy, and no one wanted that on a long journey. As it was, they had a large supply of chickens along that they would eat and replace as they could.
David was difficult as he did not want his sister and ‘his’ wife-which he still had trouble understanding that Claire was not, to leave. In his mind they had just arrived and while a month had gone by as they prepared and waited for the other ships, to him time had no concept. His behavior worsened, and he fretted, pouted, and misbehaved by turns. Claire’s worry of being alone with him was nearly realized when he entered the library where she was enjoying a book on a rainy day. He had tried to talk to her, but she had difficulty understanding his language sometimes. But when he unbuttoned his pants and his erection sprang forth, she had no trouble understanding his intentions, and had screamed for help. Jacques was the first on the scene.
“Put that away, David,” he bellowed out an order.
David cringed and quickly tucked himself away. He was not ashamed, but he did not understand why his ‘wife’ would not play with it. The other women his grandfather supplied him with occasionally, to relieve his needs, understood.
“Go find Paul,” he ordered the man-boy and once he had left the library he turned to Claire. “Are you all right?” he asked, concerned.
“I did not understand him and he just unbuttoned,” she told him. In retrospect, it was kind of amusing, she just could not laugh about it at the moment.
“Aye, he does that. It is sad really as...” he started and then considered, looking at her. “Well, it is in the past,” he finished.
Tina hurried in, having heard the scream. “Are you all right?” she asked, echoing her grandfather.
“I am fine, just a fright really,” she assured her.
“What happened?” she asked, concerned.
“Oh David being David, he just frightened her is all,” Jacques assured her, dismissing the incident. “She just is not used to the boy.”
Tina accepted that for the moment, but later asked Claire to tell her specifically what had happened. After some badgering she told her, but Claire now found it amusing. Tina did not. “He is a full grown male animal and he has the instincts of a whore,” she found herself saying angrily. “Grandfather knows he has to be watched at all times, and his caretaker should not be lax!” She was ready to go tell Paul what she thought, but Tina persuaded her to let it go as they would be leaving soon, after the dances.
“I will be more careful,” she told her.
“It was not your fault at all. David should not be wandering about the castle without his caretaker in attendance,” she assured her.
“I know that, but like any child he will slip away, given the opportunity,” she argued with her in his defense.
Tina was convinced not to confront Paul, but she was still angry about the incident.
Now, as they finished the last minute preparations for sailing, one ship on each side of the busy dock, she did not regret that her brother would be left behind. She had taken him on short voyages over the years with his various caretakers, but now that she had a wife, a good-looking wife that her brother had obviously been attracted to, she did not want him on her ship. He had thrown a temper tantrum just this morning as they tried to eat a last breakfast together before departing. It had been early, as they had to go with the tide. The large river was fresh water from one way, but salt water from the incoming Atlantic Ocean, and they had to go when the water would be rushing east towards the ocean. Already three of the ships had departed down-river.
“Well, Grandfather, I will send word as I am able, but you know how sporadic that can be,” she said, as he stood there wishing them well. David had been escorted away as he was still acting up and now had a new gripe: they were taking Sir Barkley, who stood by the wheel, determined to go with them. Even though all indications were that he would be going, the dog was not taking chances.
“I know you shall do well,” he told her. “I love you, my darlings,” he said, including Claire in his statements. “See the world and take it for your own!” he smiled as he first hugged Claire, whispering in her ear, “Take care of her for me, ma cherie,” before releasing her to take Tina in his arms. “Love her well, Bettina, love her well,” he told her, and she was not sure he meant the ship or her wife.
They saw him waving from the promontory as they cast off and began to slip off into the strong current towards the sea. At one point, the spy glass caught sight of Fluffy and perhaps it was Tina’s imagination, one of the pups. She petted Sir Barkley as she guided the ship down the center of the river.
“Two years eh?” Claire stood beside her, dressed in a dress this final time, but she had already told Tina she intended to dress the same as her with all the clothes that had been delivered in the additional trunks she now owned.
“Two years, me darlin’,” she teased, with the accent she mocked that could have come from anywhere in England. Her own tones were uniquely Tina’s, a mixture of British aristocracy, a hint of her French heritage, but also a bit of what people were now calling American thrown in.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tina and the last ship at the dock with her own, sailed south once they left the mouth of the mighty river. They had agreed to meet the other three further south, and as Tina had a few ports she was to hit to pick up more ginseng and other New England goods, they would arrive much sooner than she.
They sailed into Boston Harbor, and then a few days later into New York, for various goods she had consigned to be made. She had put the word out for a couple of years that she would purchase ginseng and had a good load as they sailed south to Virginia and the Carolina’s before heading east into the deep ocean well away from Bermuda and its storms and unexplained happenings. They rendezvoused with the other three ships many weeks later off the coast of Africa and began their voyage down its vast western coast towards the Cape.
They stayed well at sea past the Ivory Coast, where slaves and ivory were harvested in plenty. A slaver ship could be smelled from far off. It smelled of human sweat and misery as well as despair. Passing one, Claire was am
azed that she could actually smell the human depravity. Tina had warned her, and they had had several conversations about the subject. She wanted no part of it, she agreed whole-heartedly with her wife on the subject now.
They also stayed away because slavers did not necessarily wait for the Negroes that were harvested. Some slavers would take whites, and especially women if they could. The Mediterranean was still a hotbed where slavers could operate and sell their human crews. The Red Bettina was back in service and the Black Betty hidden indefinitely. They would not be flying the pirate flag out of respect for the honest merchantmen that were in their fleet. As far as anyone was concerned, they were honest traders, and as they neared a port to put in for water and food, they would continue with this charade until it became true.
“I miss the good old days where a good man could get a good fight,” one of the former pirates complained.
“Oh you’ll see some fighting I am sure, Jake,” Tina assured him. They had all had more than a good month’s rest up while staying near her grandfather’s castle, wenching, drinking, and fighting, but that did not mean they would not go ashore and live it up at the first opportunity they had. Several of the men overheard Tina and chuckled knowingly.
They were absentmindedly watching as Tina gave Claire lessons in fighting with a sword, a knife, and even a little hand to hand. She would not use the beautiful sword she had presented her with or the equally beautiful knife with the genuine cobalt stones in the handle that ‘matched her eyes.’ No, instead for instruction they used good English oak so that she could get the ‘feel’ of attacking and being attacked and learn from it. Sometimes, she had others spar with her wife so she could see where Claire needed improvement. She could not see when she herself was sparring. Other times, she would have some of the younger members practice like this as they spent their days sailing south. This prevented boredom, as the men enjoyed the activity and placed bets and cheered each other on.
“Now this is how you throw a knife, me lady,” one of the pirates, a Blackamoor told her. He was a big black man from the north coast of Africa and had been freed by Tina in one of her raids to supply her ship with willing pirates. He owed her his life he told her, since he was black and more likely to be resold than rescued from a prison. He had perfect balance on his knife and it went into the target they were using. They had originally set it up against the side of the ship, but Claire’s learning curve was such that they lost several knives over the side before they turned it so they were throwing towards the target, hitting the bulkhead, but not losing any more knives. She was becoming more proficient as the weeks flew by. Most days that were nice, found some sort of instruction going on.
Claire was popular with the crew, but especially after she baked a few cakes as a thank you for teaching her not only knife and sword fighting, but how to tie a knot and how to load and unload a gun. Far from shore they could not waste gunpowder for her to practice, but she was warned that it had a helluva kick and that it could break her wrist if she was not careful.
Claire also showed anyone who wanted to learn how to read and write a little. Some of those who learned surprised Tina, as it was not just young’ins, but some grisly old pirates who wanted to at least know how to write their names.
“I will not be going to me grave without knowing,” one of them said, emphatically, and a few nodded in understanding as they agreed with the old codger.
The day they landed in an African port to take on water and do a little trading, Tina was shocked and dismayed to find that Claire had cut off her blonde tresses and her hair was as short as a boy’s, shorter than her own red locks that were now down past her shoulders. Angry, she confronted Claire about it, but was told it was her hair and it got in the way of her activities. Tina was furious and did not care who knew it on the ship. She could not punish her own wife, but she was not happy. She frankly did not like that she had been disobeyed when she had made it clear that she did not want her cutting it.
“But you could cut your own without consulting me,” Claire pointed out, reasonably. They were trying to talk away from the men in their own cabin.
“That’s different!” she replied emphatically, and meant it.
“How is that different?”
“I am the captain!”
“Does that mean that you own me?”
“I do not own you, you are my wife!”
“Then does that mean you own me?” she repeated, annoyed. She was trying to remain reasonable, but she was certain that Tina’s anger could be heard throughout the ship. Lord knew, her anger had been felt all day long.
“I do not own you, but you should respect me and what I say,” she tried to argue, but hearing herself, she was believing it less and less.
“Then you should respect what I want and say too,” her voice quieted in the hopes that Tina’s angry tone would lessen.
“I do respect you, and I listen to you all the time,” she countered, her voice was not getting any softer.
“Apparently you do not if you react this way when I simply did what you did too.”
“So this was to pay me back for my cutting my hair without consulting you?” her voice was incredulous.
“No, I am not that vindictive or childish, but I saw your point that it would be easier to take care of on this long voyage.”
Tina could not see past the red before her eyes, she was so angry. “But you disobeyed me!”
“Are we back to the argument that you own me and I must obey you because I married you?”
“No, I do not own you, but I told you specifically that I did not want you to cut your hair, and you deliberately disobeyed me!”
“It was not a matter of disobeying you. I heard that you liked my hair longer. I felt that cutting it was necessary so I do not need to brush it out every time I come back in the cabin from being on deck and in the winds.”
“Then you should have stayed in the cabin more!”
“Is that what you really want? Me to stay in the cabin all the time?”
Tina knew she was being unreasonable at this point, but she could not see a way to gracefully back down and slammed out of the cabin. Everyone stayed out of her way, including Sir Barkley, for the rest of that day.
Claire had started going to the kitchen for meals instead of having someone bring them a tray, which was not always a good idea anyway with the way the ship rolled sometimes. This also allowed her to socialize and get to know the other men on the ship. Most, if not all the men who had not liked the idea of her sailing with them, were long gone. The ones who still did not like it, just stayed away from her, and she respected that. Some did not think having women on a ship was lucky, some felt she distracted the captain from their pirating, and some plain out did not like women. They avoided her, and she was fine with that aspect of their relationship. She noted, when they stopped in a port, it did not stop these men from seeking out whores though. They apparently had a problem with her being a lady, something she could not hide due to the circumstances of her original abduction and Tina’s having married her.
Today, she sat in the kitchen for a fine meal topped off with a bit of cake that was left. Finding out all the men had a sweet tooth meant they had to increase their stores of sugar and flour so she could occasionally bake for them all. The smell evidently carried to the other ships in the fleet, and her gifts to the other ships’ captains were greatly appreciated. The gifts she received in return from these captains and hopeful sailors were prodigious. She had more hair combs and gee-gaws than she could ever hope to wear, and some were quite ugly. She hoped she could trade or give some of them away at some point and that they would stop giving her these trinkets now that her hair was gone.
“She is on a fine terror,” the cook, Geoff, commented as he served her plate.
“She has got no one to blame but herself,” Tina responded as she said a short prayer and dug into the delicious concoction. Her coming to the kitchen had endeared her to many because it meant she was
no better than the rest of them and socializing with them had further made her one of them.
“She is blaming enough of the rest of us,” he muttered.
Claire had to admit that was true. She had tried to get Tina to talk it out, but the haircut was too new and too in her face, and while Claire loved it for its shorter feel, it made her head feel terribly lighter. She had saved the long tresses carefully to find a wigmaker to sell them to. She knew the blonde color alone would fetch a large sum, especially because it was natural.
“You know they cut hair like this in France,” she commented in return.
“You ain’t in France though, are ya?” he teased back and then lost his smile as he looked beyond her to the slate green eyes of their red headed captain.
“Where’s my dinner?” she asked ominously and Geoff hurried to dish up her meal, which consisted of roast pork, a type of potato that was found only in Africa and which he could not pronounce, but it was like a sweet potato, and beans…,eternally beans. They carried these dried in bushel bags and it was a daily staple.
Tina sat down and did not look at her wife. She was less angry, realizing she had over-reacted and having thought about what her wife had said. She did not own her; she did not want to own her. She did, however, want respect and consultation, but was that not what Claire wanted too? She ate quietly, ignoring her wife, and drinking half a bottle of wine before returning to the deck; no words were exchanged between the two women.
Tina took the wheel from James so he could go down and eat. Sir Barkley was at her side as usual, and nosed under her hand to get her to pet him briefly before sitting down and putting his nose into the wind, content to be at her side. As the wind blew through her hair, escaping from the tie, she thought about what she did want with her wife. She knew that she could not always stay on ship, as much as she loved it. It was why they were transitioning from being pirates to traders; it made sense. Time changed things. Someday she might have to give up the sea as well.
Pirated Love Page 19