Pirate Freedom

by Gene Wolfe

  After dinner, Bouton and I went down for a look in the sail locker. There were studding sails for every sail on the ship, sailmaker's supplies, and a lot of spare canvas. Everything was new. As I said, I had already fallen for that ship, and just looking at her stuff made me feel good. When I went back up on deck, I got a couple of men started on a jib for one of the forestays.

  Maybe here I should explain that both masts were raked. That means the foremast slanted forward and the main backward, so their tops were farther apart than their bases. Raking the masts like that meant that each could carry more sail, and that the main was less liable to kill the wind for the fore with a following breeze. It also meant that there was more rigging and more complicated rigging, and things were more likely to go wrong with it. The foremast had a stay running to the top of the lower mast and another running to the top of the topmast. We bent that first jib sail on the fore topmast stay.

  After that, I took the keys to the cabins and let Bouton drill the men at the guns while we searched. The first place we looked was the cabins that had belonged to de Santiago and his wife, and Guzman and his. It seemed to me that those were the most likely places for them to have hidden their money, where they could keep an eye on it.

  I know I have written before about the smallness of the cabins on ships. These were smaller than that. There are rich people with walk-in closets that are bigger than those two little cabins under the quarterdeck. I had to walk bent way over in them. Novia could stand up straight, but it always looked to me like the top of her comb was going to hit the deck beams.

  There were two doors, both locked and very small and narrow, down a few steps from the main deck. One went straight into the tiny cabin that had been the Guzmans'. The other went into a hall a few steps long that was so tight my shoulders rubbed both walls. It led into the back cabin, the one that had been the de Santiagos'. That cabin was a shade bigger and had two windows. (The Guzmans' cabin only had one.) When she saw it, Novia said very firmly, "This is where we sleep, Crisoforo."

  I said, "Yeah, sure," and sat down, which was a big relief after all the bending over. The little table was in that cabin, with two chairs, chests, a cabinet, and two tiny little bunks. The Guzmans' cabin had not had anything beyond bunks, a matching cabinet, and four chests, and it had been crowded just with those. "When we get to Port Royal," I told Novia, "I'm going to have that wall torn out and make one cabin for us back here."

  "One door, too, Crisoforo."

  "Right. One door, twice as wide as those two little ones. They must go crazy getting this table out of here."

  "It folds." She showed me how, and while I did it myself she went back to looking up between the deck beams. Finally I asked what she was looking for.

  "A box. A wooden box for the money and fit between the beams. It is dark up there in the spaces, no? A box the same color, not so deep as the beams. Open it, and the money is in a bag so it will not scatter. That is what I would do."

  "Okay," I said, "but Senora Guzman couldn't hide up there."

  "We say there is a woman. I say it, too. What if we are wrong? Suppose there is not a woman?"

  "Suppose there's no box, Novia?"

  "You are not helping. If there is no box, the money is elsewhere. We must burn the feet of Don Jose." She got up to feel in a corner. "You say the woman hides where the money is. Why a hiding place so large?"

  "So a lot could be hidden there, I guess. Silver bars, maybe. Or silver and good dinnerware. Something like that."

  Novia kissed me. "I love you, mi corazon, but you are wrong. He would put such things in a chest."

  "Then let's look in those chests," I said. We did, and found a lot of clothes and a little jewelry. After that we looked in the bunks. There was a cabinet on the blank wall between the two cabins, high and wide but very shallow, a place where you could hang a few clothes out of sight, and maybe put a spare pair of shoes.

  "Senora Guzman left hers out for everyone to see." Novia was holding up a necklace. "So were we told. Did you see it?"

  I shook my head.

  "Nor I. One of your buccaneers took it, perhaps."

  I promised to ask Bouton.

  If I were to detail all the places on that ship we searched, I would be sure to leave some out. Let me just say that we searched every place we could think of, and looked in a lot of them twice. We found no woman and no money.

  We did not find a ghost, a curse, or a monster, either.

  The wind died toward evening, and we held a little meeting in the captain's cabin of the Magdelena-Bouton, Rombeau, Novia, and me. I explained that I was going to keep the Castillo Blanco as a second ship for us, arming her with bigger guns and more of them at Port Royal and making a few other changes. Rombeau was captain of the Magdelena now, and Bouton first mate of the Castillo Blanco. I was going to be captain of the Castillo Blanco, at least until we found the woman and the money, and maybe after that.

  When everything was settled, we ate, drank some wine, and sat around yarning. Novia gave Rombeau and Bouton a little Spanish lesson, and we taught them a Spanish song.

  So it was way dark when we collected our sea chests, got into the tender again, and started back to the Castillo Blanco. The sea was glassy by then, and you felt you could have touched the stars with the boat pole. Bouton took the tiller, and Novia and I sat in front of him with our arms around each other.

  Back on board, we said hello to Boucher, who was being officer on, and went down to our cabin for serious kissing. We were undressing when it hit me, and I froze.

  "What is it, Crisoforo? You have thought of something."

  Maybe I should have told Novia everything right then, but I was not sure enough to do it. What I said was "Right. I'd meant to ask Bouton about the jewelry, the stuff Senora Guzman left out. Only I forgot."

  "He is asleep now, perhaps."

  "Yeah. But Boucher might know."

  I pulled my pants back on, told her to get back into her dress, and stuck my head out the window. "Boucher! Come down here when you've got a minute. Bring a lantern."

  By the time I had run my fingers through my hair and rubbed some of Novia's cosmetics off my face, there was a knock at the door. I opened it expecting Boucher, but it was Bouton. "Someone ought to be on the quarterdeck," he said. "I heard you and came myself."

  I told him he was right, which he was, and that he would be better and asked him about the jewelry.

  "I did not take it."

  "Okay, I believe you. Do you know who did?"

  He shook his head. "No one was to touch it, although some of us touched it when we found it. That was Rombeau's order. He was sure there was something in these cabins we had not found, and locked them until they could be searched with thoroughness."

  "I've got it."

  "He searched them, but he found nothing and locked them again. I gave you the keys, Captain. They were locked when you came?"

  Novia said, "Oui, but no jewel." She was lighting candles from the one in the lantern.

  "So we've got another mystery," I said, switching to Spanish. "But the main reason I called Bouton was that I want you to try out those little brass pistols you wear. You loaded them quite a while ago, and the charges may have gone bad. Salt spray and so forth." Back to French. "You know how that is, Monsieur Bouton?"

  M. Bouton looked mystified, but he nodded.

  "It's the same for me. I don't think mine have been loaded quite as long as hers, but mine may not work either. We're going to use this wall between the cabins for practice-it looks solid enough. Then we'll all have some more of that wine. Go tell Boucher not to worry when he hears a few shots. Then come back down here. You can have another drink and help us test."

  While he was gone, I told Novia in Spanish what I had told Bouton in French, although I knew she had probably understood just about all of it. I did all that pretty loudly, but when I had finished I got a lot closer and whispered in French: "When I leave, count to ten, not loud, before you fire."

&
nbsp; "As you say, Crisoforo." She looked as puzzled as Bouton.

  When he came back, I had her draw one of the little guns hooked to her belt. When she started to cock the hammer, I made her turn and pointed her gun out the open window. After that I left. I was barefoot already, and I tried to make it as quiet as I could. Before that little gun banged, I had the key in the lock of the other door.

  The only light in there was the starlight coming through the window. I could see her just the same, a dim black shape a lot smaller than I was. I grabbed her as quick as I could, figuring she might have a gun or a knife and might use them if I gave her a chance.

  As soon as I got my arms around her, I knew she was a woman, like Senora de Santiago had said, and a young one. As I hustled her out of the Guzman cabin, down the tiny hall, and into ours, I was getting all set to explain to Novia and Bouton how smart I had been.

  Then Novia screamed and the woman I had been hustling along burst into tears. Her legs went limp and I let her go until she was crouched in a sad little ball in front of Novia, whimpering and sobbing.

  I had slipped up once already, and that was when I slipped up again. Novia had her other pistol out, and she cocked and fired it before I could stop her. I hit her arm, though, and the bullet went wide and into the deck. The shot made the girl she had been shooting at look up, and I saw her face in the candlelight.

  Even so, it took me a good minute or more to really get it through my head. This was Estrellita.

  When I sort of woke up from that, I had opened a bottle and was pouring myself a glass of wine. I took it to Estrellita instead, and told Bouton-he was standing between them by then-to get her into a chair. He did, and I got Novia into the other one with a lot more trouble.

  Between sobs Estrellita said, "I am sorry, Senora. So very, very sorry. God has punished me."

  "I have not even begun!" I had forgotten about Novia's big folding knife, but it was in her hand.

  I made both of them shut up. "I think I understand all this by now," I told them. "Maybe I even understand more than the two of you do. We'll see."

  I switched to French and told Bouton, "You don't understand any of this. There's no way you could."

  He shrugged the way only a Frenchman can. "An affair of the heart? I will go."

  "You will stay," I told him. "I'm not sure I could manage both of them alone, and you've already seen a lot. Are you going to talk about it?"

  He shook his head violently. "Not I, Captain."

  "Good. We'll explain it to you. That might be the best way."

  Novia's French was not bad, she could understand most of what anybody said, although she had a lot of trouble sometimes when she tried to speak it. But Estrellita did not speak a word of French, which meant I had to translate for her until I got Novia to do it. Whenever Estrellita talked, I had to translate it into French. All this stuff would get old fast, so I am not going to write it when I get back to this.

  18

  This Horrible Ship

  I am not sure it was the first thing I did, but one of the first things I did was make Estrellita show us the catch on the inside of the cabinet. It was pretty clever, a wooden piece (the same color as the rest of the wood) that was a peg to hang clothes on, only if you pushed it sidewise it would slide about half an inch. With it like that, you could swing the big, shallow cabinet out and step through the opening. Inside was the money in two heavy leather bags, with some dried fruit, wine, a couple of glasses, bedding, and a slop jar.

  I told Estrellita I was surprised she had been able to stock it before Rombeau and his guys got her, and she said the food and wine had been in there already. That was the reason it was as big as it was-Don Jose had it built originally as a place to store wine and food where the crew would not steal it.

  One of the bags was embroidered with the letter G.

  I carried them back to the table and Bouton and I dumped them out. It was beautiful-more gold than I had ever seen in my life.

  "This belongs to everybody," I told him, "our whole bunch, on all three ships. We'll share it out when we get to Port Royal."

  He nodded, but he was staring so hard I am not sure he had heard me.

  Novia pointed to the one with the G. "That one is mine!"

  "I'm afraid not," I said. "If I were as mad at you right now as I ought to be, I'd give it to you and shove you out the door. That bunch outside would have it before you got ten feet down the deck, and then they'd have you, one after another until everybody'd had his shot.

  "Only I'm not going to do that, Senora Guzman. You didn't take this ship or any of the others. We did, and this is part of the loot. You're down for one share."

  Novia was staring at me. "You know!"

  "After you said it was yours? Heck yes. Anybody would. Sit down."

  I was sitting on one of the bunks already, and Bouton made her get back into her chair. With the gold in the bags again, I said, "Okay, we'll start with you, since you left home first. What's your real name?"

  "You know it." Her chin was up, and I knew she would have loved for those little pistols to be loaded again. "I am who you said."

  "Senora Guzman. Sure. But what's your first name?"

  She would not say a word, but Estrellita whispered, "Sabina."

  Novia looked daggers at her.

  "Fine. Do I call you Novia or Sabina? It's got to be one or the other."

  "It is a matter of no difference to me what you call me, Capitan."

  That hurt. It still hurts just to think about it. I tried not to let it show. "Okay, Sabina, if that's how you want it. You were the lady who looked at all the parrots, then got your maid to carry the one you bought. Estrellita here was the maid. Go on from there."

  She only shook her head.

  Estrellita said, "You came back to play for me. We held hands, and once I came out to dance to your music. For that I was beaten. Oh, most terribly!"

  "I, too," Novia muttered.

  I nodded. "That's what the cook said. Your husband beat you both. Why did he beat you?"

  She would not speak, and Bouton offered to make her. I told him no.

  "What was your husband's name?"

  Still nothing.

  I turned to Estrellita. "What was it? What was the name of the man Sabina here was married to?"

  "It was Jaime, Senor Capitan." Her voice shook.

  "He was the man who brought you on this ship?"

  "Yes, Senor. This horrible ship. My husband."

  We had to pull Novia off of her. It took a few seconds, and she did some damage. When I got her knife away from her, I threw it out a window.

  After that I had to patch up Estrellita enough to stop the bleeding. The devil of it was that I could not have Novia do it, and if I had Bouton do it I knew what would happen. So I had to do it myself, and that was bound to be bad. I took her into the other cabin, and went back for two candles.

  "It does not trouble me that you see so much of me, for I have always loved you. How many nights I have made your picture in my poor, fretted thoughts and clasped it to my heart, mi marinero!"

  I made her shut up and hold still.

  "Will you not kiss my wound? For me?"

  When I got her back in the bigger cabin with Novia and Bouton, I sat down again. I was getting pretty tired by then and trying not to show it. "Okay, Bouton," I said, "here's what happened. If anything I say is wrong, they can sing out. Only they'd better tell the truth, or we're going to get into it.

  "Jaime Guzman beat them both. I won't ask them what was going on, or what he thought was going on. Or what may have gone on before. He did what he did. Sabina wouldn't take it. She ran away."

  "He beat me because I was in love with you." Sabina's voice was so low I could hardly hear her. "I can draw. Have you not seen my pictures, Crisoforo? I learned in my father's house. In my tocador in Coruna, I had drawn your picture over and over. Many pictures. He found them."

  "I see," I said, and wondered whether I could believe her. I turned to Bouto
n. "She ran away. I don't know why she didn't go to her father, but my guess is that he'd have taken her back to her husband. She was afraid her husband would find her-"

  "I searched for you!"

  I nodded. "Yeah. That's what you said when you said you were Estrellita. If you lied about one thing, you could be lying about a hundred."

  Bouton said, "They all lie, Capitan. I have never known a woman who did not lie, not even my mother."

  "I could not make myself known!" Novia jumped up screaming. "I was a married woman! You were a sailor!"

  I tried to say okay or something like that, but she kept yelling. "I watched, every night! You had eyes for my maid! Only her! I watch and envy her! Holy Mother, how I envy!"

  I pushed Novia back into her chair, and she finally shut up.

  "She bought sailor's slops," I told Bouton. "She's slender, and small in the chest. She tied a rag around those to keep them in and passed for a boy. There was one thing she said to me when we first got together that ought to have bothered me a lot more than it did. She said she would be my lady, wear a gown, and stay in my cabin. And pretty soon her hands would be soft for me again."

  I reached over to Estrellita, felt her hand, and put it down. "Only Estrellita's hands hadn't been soft. We'd held hands, and hers had been almost as hard as mine. They're soft now because she hasn't been doing the work she used to do when she was just the Guzmans' maid, sweeping floors, washing dishes and so forth."

  Estrellita's chin went up. "I had maids. Two! One for the house, and one for me alone."

  "I've got it. Ugly girls, I'll bet. I wish I could see them. You were sleeping with Jaime."

  "He forced me!"

  Novia laughed. "For one real. 'How could I refuse, Mother? He gave me a real.' "

  "He did! Defend me, Crees!"

  I told them both to shut up. "So you lived together as man and wife, only you couldn't be the real thing. You couldn't get married, because everybody knew Guzman had a wife already. She'd run away, but he was still married just the same."