“I can go?” she said, excitedly.
“Of course. I do not want to keep you a prisoner, although I do not want the kind of men you meet in a port like this to hassle you. But I realize that it is not fair to deny you either,” she said, generously.
“It could be dangerous, could it not?” she asked musingly, as she turned towards her wife’s naked body.
“I will not lie to you. There are some men who will make it dangerous for you. If a fight breaks out, I do not know if I can protect you. I would hate to see you get hurt.”
Claire remembered the near rapes she had experienced and realized that both times Tina had prevented them, but that did not mean she could control the situation in a port. She had to be smart about this. They had taught her to fight, but there was always someone stronger or better and she had only fought in practice.
CHAPTER TWENTY
It took them an extra two days to route themselves to Ledersay, but they were trying to avoid other ships, especially any other slave ships which would gladly take their passengers off their hands for them.
Tina did not want these confused people, who no one could speak with, to miss their chance of freedom in their home country. It was another reason she had the two ships that contained the crew from the ship stay back while they went in. She went ashore before her crew, along with James and Frank, to find someone who might speak the natives’ lingo.
It took nearly all day before they found someone who could speak with them, someone who they felt was honest. He, too, was black, but was owned by a fellow captain who promised them he was honest as the day he was born and ‘lent’ them his services to speak with ‘their’ slaves. They could not very well just start to offload the blacks on their ships or there would be hell to pay. Tina wanted to avoid as much conflict as possible so they could get on with their voyage.
They rowed the man, who spoke English, French, a smattering of Spanish, and several dialects of African, out to Tina’s ship. He was frightened when he saw the big, black and white, hairy dog looking over the edge along with the frightened eyes of many black people who stared at him dressed in white man’s clothes.
Tina, in a chess move, kept their Blackamoor near her even though he knew none of the dialects of these people, but he scared the slave enough to keep him honest, or at least that was what she hoped as he translated for her to one of their elected headmen. While the other half of their contingent was on the other ship anchored nearby, she felt by talking to her own passengers first, they could share with them when they departed. After several hours, she ordered the anchor up to move her ship and signaled to the other ship to follow. Light signals to the waiting three ships translated her desire for them to wait an additional two days to come into port, especially the one carrying the sailors from the sunken ship.
“You realize there will be slavers in Ledersay that will be plenty angry if they get wind of us doing this,” James ventured to say as they watched their boats, and the ones from their accompanying ship, rowing their passengers to shore.
“Aye, and there is no helping it. All we can hope is that these poor, unfortunate souls get into the interior quick enough to stay hidden or to make it home and warn their people,” she said sadly, watching the boats row the frightened and confused people ashore. They had been able to spare some rations, but she worried it would not be enough for the many people. She was still saddened by the many that they had been unable to save, and who had gone to the bottom of the ocean.
“Do you think the owner of him,” James nodded towards their interpreter. “Has set up an alarm for his disappearance yet?”
“I told his first mate it would be a few days, and as they were fixing some leaks on his ship, he has nothing to worry about. Besides, I could not just let him go back right away until these blokes had a chance to get away could I?” she gestured at the people even now going ashore from their boats.
They took several hours to get all the ‘passengers’ ashore and the repeated thanks that the slave ‘George’ translated was enough to help soothe Tina’s soul. He was envious of their freedom, but knew that Tina was obliged to return him to her fellow sea captain. As Tina and her crew quickly got under way to return to Ledersay, he asked her a question which surprised her. “Would you buy me?”
She looked at him quietly as she considered. Claire, standing nearby, held her breath. “I do not believe in owning another human being,” she told him honestly as she made a signal to one of her men, sending him scurrying up into the sails. She was trying to watch her ship and crew, as well as direct things to get them going once again. They were low on supplies and Ledersay would be their last chance for a while to get them restocked.
“I will work off my price here on your ship if you would buy me,” he told her earnestly.
“You would work anyway, as a slave,” she pointed out, amused. Seeing Claire’s horrified face, she wiped the amusement off her face. “I do not know that your owner,” she said, with a sneer. “Would sell you. Do you think he would?”
The man thought for a moment and then suggested, “You could steal me?”
Tina was already shaking her head. “I am an honest captain. I could not do that. I have my honor.”
“You are Black Betty of the Black Betty, and do not think I have not heard of you,” he said belligerently.
Tina’s eyes narrowed at his revelation. “Regardless of who you think I am, you will hold a civil tongue in your mouth,” she told him bluntly.
“I am sorry, you are right,” he quickly answered when she called his bluff, realizing his place. “It is just that I think being your slave would be better than being a slave on my master’s ship,” he told her honestly.
“I told you I do not hold with slavery,” she told him and moved away to end the conversation.
He looked at her, dejected, and moved out of the way of the busy crewmen who were getting the sails in place so they could return to Ledersay quickly.
* * * * *
Tina sailed right up to a dock this time to offload the black man she had ‘borrowed’, and to offload some goods she could trade for water and foodstuffs they would need on her ships. She anchored in the bay so her other ships that had followed her could do the same rather than row the supplies out to the ships. It was easier when a dock was available, but not many ports had deep enough water or long enough piers and docks.
The passengers on the other ships were soon ashore and already making trouble. Tina had to rescind her promise to Claire that she could go into town, and other than being on the dock, she had no time ashore.
“It is simply too dangerous. Those men are angry at the Salty Brine for bringing their ship to ruin. They also want answers about the slaves and where we took them. They have eyes in their heads, they saw us leave with them and return without them. They are going to ask questions, and I am sure George is going to tell them,” she told her before they left the dock.
“George will not say a word other than he translated for you,” Claire assured her.
“How do you know? He seemed pretty angry that I would not buy him.”
“Well, I did buy him, and he is to work off the price of his purchase as an indentured servant on your ship,” Claire told her.
“You did what?” Tina asked, astonished.
“Frank went with me to the tavern where you returned George to his former master, and I told him I wished to purchase him,” she explained.
“And he sold him to you?” she glanced at her wife in her trousers and shirt, and thought that a beautiful woman had become a pretty boy.
“After some haggling, yes, he did,” she said proudly.
“Where did you get the money?” she asked, confused at the things her wife did.
“Well, he is to deliver the man here shortly to collect, and I was hoping you would...” she said, looking uncomfortable.
Tina began to laugh. “So not only did you purchase a slave, but with my money?”
“I was hoping it
was our money? I did not have any after all, leaving Balenesia like I did,” she pointed out. Although she never had money before that either, Tina had given her money whenever asked, when they were in the village where her grandfather lived.
Tina shook her head and answered, “Of course it is our money. How much did you pay for him?” she asked. When Claire told her she exclaimed, “That’s outrageous. You could buy two men for what you paid!”
“Well, he would not sell until I came up with that figure,” she said, reasonably.
Tina could not believe it. Exasperated, she told her wife, “In the future, you keep the books and I make the deals, okay?”
Claire hugged her in appreciation as she smiled.
* * * * *
George officially became a member of their crew and as if to make up for the outrageous amount of money Claire had spent on him, he tried to do the work of two men. Tina could see he had learned a lot on his previous ship and would prove an invaluable member of their crew, but she still did not like the idea that they ‘owned’ him even though Claire had a bill of sale for him.
They quickly loaded their supplies, restocked their water, and moved out into the bay for the other ships. She had sent messages to the other captains to be prepared to leave quickly once the passengers were ashore in case their anger and actions got other pro-slavers excited. Even though she had paid for and arranged delivery of supplies for all her ships, she was prepared to abandon them in favor of a quick getaway for her fleet.
Very unobtrusively, she had her guns prepared to fire. The great cannons could quickly decimate any hostile actions on the pier they had used…but at what cost? She saw the other ships’ crews quickly loading supplies in a manner that bespoke haste, as their passengers filed off. She knew some of those passengers would spread the word, and she hoped they got enough supplies before it got organized.
It was as one of the ships was casting off, and the other transporting the last of their supplies aboard, that they saw the first of the mob angrily approaching the dock. Her fifth and final ship had not been able to resupply, but she would have the other four ships, her own included, share out what supplies they had managed to obtain, rather than risk the ship or its crew. It was then that she noticed the supplies on the dock were completely gone. The last two ships must have sensed the growing unease and taken on the extras meant for the final ship rather than leave it to the angry mob that was even now approaching.
“Fire over their heads, just so,” she indicated. They did not have cannonballs, but rather a type of birdshot that would rain down on the angry mob. She had hoped to scare them rather than maim them. Heads came up from all five of her ships as her ship fired on the mob. It worked! They scattered, running back along the pier, some diving into the water, sure she was firing on them. The hot shot raining down on them was not pleasant, and several received nasty burns, but rather a burn than a death she had reasoned.
“Let us get underway,” she ordered her tired men. She herself was seen climbing to put on sail and get them going. Her men knew she could do every job on the ship herself and did not hesitate to lend a helping hand.
* * * * *
“You were so commanding,” Claire said, as they ate a late dinner in their cabin. Geoff, as always, had made a delicious meal for the crew.
“I just did my job,” Tina dismissed, but she was pleased they had not had to fight their way out of this situation. She had left the former captain of the Salty Brine in her brig in order to put him off at Cape Town. She reasoned he would get a fair trial and be more likely to make his way back to civilization from there.
It took many more weeks to make their way to where the two oceans met. The Algulhas Current brought them down the western side of Africa, but as they got to Algulhas Point they experienced a major storm that had them all lashing down and fighting the raging seas. As the Benguela Current met them, they fought against it to make their way to Cape Town. The waves were some of the largest any of them had ever seen, waves mightier than their ships. They tried valiantly to climb the waves, and nearly failed. They almost lost men on their ship. The others signaled that they had lost men, swept over the side by the mighty seas. They limped into port with repairs necessary before they could go on.
Tina gave the men liberty in shifts, so that work could still get done on the ships and they would be prepared for the journey ahead.
“How far to the Orient from here?” Claire asked, as they watched the authorities take the former Captain Richly away. He looked worse for wear, having resided these many weeks in the brig, a dank and dark area of the ship in the deepest part away from the crew. Claire had shuddered when she had been shown the brig long ago. Even though Tina provided anyone she put in there with straw for the floor and a blanket, there were still vermin, rats and other crawling things that resided in so rotten a place.
“We are not quite halfway,” she told her wife, as she watched the man taken away. She had gone to the authorities with the newly appointed captain of the Salty Brine so his statement could be taken. In gratitude for his promotion, he was justifiably going to give a good accounting so that Tina’s version of events regarding the sinking of the slaver and his insubordination would hold sway.
“Wow, this is going to be an adventure,” she said, with a smile. “Can we go ashore soon?” she asked, as their ship was the least damaged of the fleet and the most quickly fixed. The men were eager to get ashore and blow off some steam.
“Aye, let us plan on spending a couple of days ashore. I want you to see some of the countryside too while we are here,” she said, enthusiastically, as she anticipated showing her wife around.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Cape Town had a population of several thousand Europeans and there were many that owned slaves. The town was very pretty, very neat, with straight streets that formed a grid pattern. Tina showed Claire the tree-lined canal that ran from the Company Gardens, down the main thoroughfare called Heerengracht, and around the Grand Parade. Eventually it flowed into the sea by the castle that stood prominently up on the bluffs guarding the town.
Along the shoreline where they started were warehouses and shipyards. It soon gave way to townhomes with white lime-plastered walls. Many of the shutters were painted a lively green color and the roofs were thatched. It was very picturesque.
“It is of Dutch origin, but you can see the Orient in some of these designs,” Tina told Claire when asked about the architecture. “Those are the homes of some of the wealthy burghers and officials,” she pointed at the two-storied townhomes right between taverns and shops.
George listened avidly as he tagged along as a self-appointed body guard to his new ‘owners.’ Although Tina had told him he was welcome to enjoy the sights and sounds of the town with the rest of the crew, he felt he was needed to protect his mistresses more. He could not comprehend that two women alone in a town such as Cape Town would be unmolested. He did not discount the swords they both wore, or the scimitars that Tina had begun to wear again across her back. He just had never seen either of them truly fight except when Claire was at practice on deck with oak replicas of swords instead of the decorated, but deadly one she now sported. Both were dressed as men, and while Claire pulled it off better, appearing as a pretty boy instead of the attractive woman she really was, Tina could not hide the fact that she was outrageously beautiful in her men’s clothing.
They laughed as a wagon bobbled among the rough roads further out from the town, and people dodged wandering animals in the streets. The open sewage was distasteful, and stank, but then that was a problem of any town of this size.
Still, the odd couple of women and their slave, were welcomed in this town. Visitors brought news and money, so the locals offered bed and board and traded exotic goods from their private homes as well as their shops.
Tina had Geoff trading for fresh food since it was abundant. Each of her captains stocked up for what lay ahead across the Indian Ocean. Wines were grown inland, and they
were able to lay in a supply. Tina took Claire on a tour of Table Mountain and George carried a hamper for their lunch. It surprised him when he learned they brought enough to share equally with him. While he refused to eat with them, he appreciated their thoughtfulness in including him, something other slaves did not benefit from. He thanked his gods that these women had purchased him and there was the hope of freedom once he had worked off his outrageous purchase price.
“See, that is all of Table Bay,” Tina told Claire, as they stood and looked out over the wide bay at the waters dotted with ships from all over the world. Some of them would stay for weeks on end to take on cargo from Africa, to offload cargo they had been commissioned for, or to rest before heading east or west from this point.
Tina knew her crew, and the crews of her other ships, would find their way to boarding houses and even tents that had been erected for the purpose of finding prostitutes. She had warned them all about brawls as the local soldiers were a contentious lot, having to deal with so many sailors from all over the world. She even took Claire into The Scottish Temple, a popular bar and brothel known for its delights.
“Hello, Bettina!” she was greeted by name and felt Claire stiffen up at her side.
“Who’s your latest fella?” she heard called out and ignored them as she smiled and waved, but did not answer back as she would have of old.
“I take it you’ve been here before?” Claire asked coldly, seeing first-hand the warm welcome that her wife received.
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