“Going home,” she managed in broken English. “To Kongo.”
“What does she mean?” she asked the men, but no one answered.
The girl returned to the line and disappeared into a skiff. Once they were all gone, another bell sounded and the other schooner departed.
Jean-Luc moved closer and wrapped his arm around her. “I tried to tell you. We are sending them home. That’s the sort of pirates we are.”
“When we can, we intercept vessels carrying human cargo,” Mr. Bennett said. “Just as the captain did for me when he freed me from a vessel like the one we found these people on. Sometimes Rao and Piper come along. Spencer, he’s a doctor now, so we bring him when we can, but mostly he’s with those who need him at the charity hospital in New Orleans.”
“Is he telling the truth?” she asked Jean-Luc.
“He is,” he admitted.
“It started out as a search for my wife, Nzuzi,” Mr. Bennet said. “We started doing this regularly because after a while of working for the captain, I earned enough to go back and get her. I went back to find out she was gone—captured by traders and sold off, so every ship we stopped for years, I held out hope she was on it.”
“Oh,” she said and then found herself incapable of saying more.
Tears were flowing and Maribel could barely speak. All she could do was turn around and allow Jean-Luc to wrap her in his arms. “I’m so sorry,” she finally managed. “I—”
“Hush,” he told her. “If you don’t collect yourself, we will be late for the celebration.”
“Celebration?” She shook her head. “What do you mean?”
“Your homecoming,” he said. “Apparently there is quite a party being held, and we are missing it.”
She swiped at her eyes and laughed. “But how did they know?”
“How does Mother Superior ever know?” He nudged her. “By the way, use of the inlet has always been at her discretion. And she has never failed to know when we would be arriving. You may not have noticed, but there is a signal that goes up when we bypass the inlet. Once we are given the signal, we know it is safe to land.”
“I would ask what that is, but there’s no point, is there?”
“Not really.”
He laughed and escorted her off the ship. A few minutes later, she found herself surrounded by laughing children. Standing at the edges of the circle were the more soft-spoken nuns.
Mr. Bennett pressed past them to disappear into the chapel. A moment later, he returned carrying a tiny dark woman. The children giggled as the woman’s good-natured complaining drifted toward them.
Finally the pair reached Maribel and Jean-Luc. “Miss Cordoba,” he said as he returned the lovely lady to a standing position. “May I present my wife, Nzuzi?”
“You found her,” Maribel said as tears welled in her eyes.
“He did,” Mr. Bennett said, nodding toward Jean-Luc. “And thanks to him we have two sons now. Named Evan Connor and Jean-Luc.” He grinned. “I felt I ought to honor both men.”
Evan Connor. The name should have meant something, this much Maribel knew. And yet like so much of her childhood, the memory had been lost. “Do I know this Connor fellow?” she asked.
The men exchanged looks and then Jean-Luc’s expression softened. “That is a story for another day, but suffice it to say that Evan Connor is a greater man than I ever could be.” Jean-Luc smiled at Nzuzi. “And what will you name the next one?”
Mr. Bennett looked down at his wife, who did appear to be expecting. “She says this one is a girl, so it will be up to her.”
“So very pleased to meet you,” Nzuzi said in softly accented English. “I have heard much about you.”
“Do not believe all of it,” Maribel said, and they both laughed.
Off in the distance she spied Mother Superior. As the old nun approached, everyone else parted to allow her to walk through. Even little Stephan gave way as she moved past him.
“Welcome back,” she told Maribel. “I knew you would return.”
“You did?”
“I did,” she said. “In fact, I have taken the liberty of preparing the cottage for you and your husband. And one for your mother and grandfather when they come to visit.”
“I have no husband,” she said, shaking her head.
“I wish to remedy this,” Jean-Luc said as he came to stand beside her. “In the absence of her parents, might I ask you for her hand?”
Mother Superior laughed. “My boy, I think you’d best ask Miss Cordoba. She always was the independent type.”
“Maribel?” he said as he took her hand. “Will you marry this pirate and sail the seas with me now that you know what our mission entails? I cannot promise you smooth sailing, but I can always promise you my love.”
“And a cottage on Isla de Santa Maria,” Mother Superior added.
“And that is of the upmost importance,” Stephan called from the crowd.
“Let me think about it,” she told him with a grin.
She would marry him, of this she was certain. But for now, she would let him guess whether she would become this pirate’s bride.
And then he kissed her.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
and Bent History:
The Rest of the Story
As a writer of historical novels, I love incorporating actual history into my plots. As with most books, the research behind the story generally involves much more information than would ever actually appear in the story. In truth, I could easily spend all my time researching and not get any writing done at all!
Because I am a history nerd, I love sharing some of that mountain of research I collected with my readers. The following are just a few of the facts I uncovered during the writing of The Pirate Bride. I hope these tidbits of history will cause you to go searching for the rest of the story:
The opening quote of the novel from Stede Bonnet’s sentencing speech by Judge Trot is part of the transcript of a lengthy speech actually given by the judge upon this occasion. Throughout the speech, which spanned a number of manuscript pages in my resource book, the judge liberally refers to scripture and salvation and calls on the name of Christ to save the sentenced pirate’s soul.
Maribel’s favorite book, The Notorious Seafaring Pyrates and Their Exploits by Captain Ulysses Jones, is loosely based on A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates by Captain Charles Williamson, which was first published in London in 1718.
The position of Consul General is a fictional one. Havana, Cuba, was a Spanish colony ruled by the king of Spain. As such, Spanish noblemen were regularly posted to this and other colonies.
Speaking of the king of Spain, in January of 1724, Louis I of Spain became king upon the abdication of King Philip V. When Louis I died from smallpox just over seven months later, Philip V returned to the throne and reigned until his own death in 1746. An interesting side note: Philip V was the grandson of Louis XIV of France. Thus, there were times during the tumultuous history of Spain and France when the two countries were allies. For the purposes of my story, it is assumed that during the periods the novel takes place, the two were once again at odds.
Letters of Marque are essentially licenses issued by an entity—usually a country—that allow their holder to capture and claim ships or their cargo, or both, for that country. Holders of these letters are generally referred to as privateers although some might incorrectly call them pirates. Essentially, these privateers had a license to steal from one country’s vessels as long as they followed the rules—very specific rules, including appearing before admiralty courts to report and receive shares taken from vessels—and only chose to seek out ships flying the flag of countries covered by their letters. Even when those rules were followed, privateers were still occasionally branded pirates and hung for their “crimes.” Letters of Marque have been used throughout history—including by our own American government—and are a fascinating topic for study outside the scope of this novel
.
Although Captain Beaumont considers that Maribel may end up at the Ursuline nuns’ convent, in truth, the Ursuline nuns did not arrive in New Orleans until 1727, and their convent was not completed until 1734. An interesting fact associated with this building is that although France owned the land upon which the city of New Orleans was built at the time, the designer of the building hailed from Bavaria and held the honor of the King’s Master Carpenter.
Upon the death of King Louis XIV of France in 1715, King Louis XV succeeded his grandfather to the throne at the age of five. Because of the new king’s young age and due to political struggles among those closest to the crown, the Duke of Orleans—namesake of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, and closely related to Spanish nobility—acted as regent until the new king came of age in 1723. Because the French and Spanish royal families consisted of marriages between the two royal houses, there were many noblemen from one country who claimed relatives in nobility in the other country.
Though you would think that wars among folks who were related would be less likely, the countries of Spain and France continued to be either friend or foe depending on the day, month, or year. When relations with England is factored in, suffice it to say that at almost any given time for the past few centuries, one or all of these three countries were at war with one another. Because of this, it was easy to imagine a scenario where my poor hero gets in trouble with politicians who previously encouraged him. However, this scenario is completely fictional.
Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, was a French-Canadian explorer and the founder of New Orleans. Jean and his brother Pierre founded New Orleans on the banks of the Mississippi River on March 3, 1699. As a fun fact, for those of you who know of Louisiana culture, this date coincides with Mardi Gras, which, similar to modern convention, was the day of celebration before Lent in that year. Bienville was governor of Louisiana from 1706 to 1713, 1717 to 1723, and 1733 to 1743. The last period, he returned as the ambassador of the king during French rule. History does not record the names of the children of his siblings (there were more than a dozen children born to his parents), but I promise my hero Jean-Luc is not really one of them. That association is completely fictional.
Isla de Santa Maria is a fictional island I created and plopped down in the Caribbean Sea near the island of Jamaica. It is not to be confused with the actual Isla de Santa Maria in the Azores chain off the country of Portugal. The orphanage and nuns are also a figment of my very active imagination. However, any mention of the city of Port Royal or the island of Jamaica is based on my understanding of the history of the area at the time my story is set. And, yes, there really was a hurricane that hit Jamaica in September of 1734.
The real-life city of Mbanza Kongo, first settled in the 1300s, was a city of substantial size and sophistication during the time of this story. The name was changed by the Portuguese to Sao Salvador in the 1500s. When Angola received independence in 1979, the city’s name was changed back to Mbanza Kongo, which means city of Kongo. Kongo is the original spelling of the current version, Congo. The judgment tree I mention in my story is real and can still be seen in downtown Mbanza Kongo. It is the site of a rectangular ground-level structure where local tradition claims the king’s body was washed before burial.
The character of Marcel Valmont is loosely based on a real French merchant named Anthony Crozat who, in 1715, was given the exclusive privilege of trading in the Louisiana Territory. Upon signing this contract, Sieur de Bienville was dismissed from office and replaced by Lamothe Cadillac. While Crozat had no luck with the venture, I have allowed my fictional character to be much more successful. I also allowed him to be married to the fictional sister of the real man who lost his job after the contract was signed. As you have read above, however, Sieur de Bienville got several more chances to be governor of the territory, so everything did work out fine for him.
The city of New Orleans is very old. By the 1700s, a number of buildings had been erected, including the ones described by the fictional Mr. Lopez-Gonzales as he escorts Maribel to her grandfather’s home. The streets were laid out in 1721, and the Director’s House was built on the corner of Levee (now called Decatur) and Toulouse Streets facing the river. Like most of the early buildings in the city, it was built with wood timbers directly touching the soggy ground. To be certain, the house did not last long. The governor’s house was built two years later on the corner of St. Ann and Chartres Streets. Governors Perier and Bienville lived in the home during their administrations. Scientist Pierre Baron built the observatory in 1730 on a lot adjacent to the governor’s house, and he did make accommodations to the building that would allow him to study the stars with his telescope.
Bestselling author Kathleen Y’Barbo is a multiple Carol Award and RITA nominee of more than eighty novels with almost two million copies in print in the United States and abroad. She has been nominated for a Career Achievement Award as well as a Reader’s Choice Award and is the winner of the 2014 Inspirational Romance of the Year by Romantic Times magazine. Kathleen is a paralegal, a proud military wife, and a tenth-generation Texan, who recently moved back to cheer on her beloved Texas Aggies. Connect with her through social media at www.kathleenybarbo.com.
CONTINUE FOLLOWING THE FAMILY TREE THROUGH HISTORY…
The Captured Bride
by Michelle Griep
A War-Torn Countryside Is No Place for a Lady
Mercy Lytton is a lady like none other. Raised amongst the Mohawks, she straddles two cultures, yet each are united in one cause…to defeat the French. Born with a rare gift of unusually keen eyesight, she is chosen as a scout to accompany a team of men on a dangerous mission. Yet it is not her life that is threatened. It is her heart. Condemned as a traitor, Elias Dubois faces the gallows. At the last minute, he is offered his freedom if he consents to accompany a stolen shipment of French gold to a nearby fort—but he is the one they stole it from in the first place. It turns out that the real thief is the beguiling woman, Mercy Lytton, for she steals his every waking thought. Can love survive divided loyalties in a backcountry wilderness?
Paperback / 978-1-68322-474-7 / $12.99
The Patriot Bride
by Kimberley Woodhouse
Spies Work Together for the Patriot Cause
Faith Jackson is a wealthy widow, friend of George Washington, and staunch supporter of the Patriot cause. Matthew Weber is friends with both Ben Franklin and his son William, who increasingly differ in their political views; and Matthew finds himself privy to information on both sides of the conflict. When a message needs to get to a spy among the Loyalists, Faith bravely steps up and in turn meets Matthew Weber. Suddenly she believes she could love again. But someone else has his eye on the Faith she portrays in elite social circles. What will Matthew and Faith have to sacrifice for the sake of their fledgling country?
Paperback / 978-1-68322-606-2 / $12.99
The Cumberland Bride
by Shannon McNear
Love and Adventure Are Discovered on the Wilderness Road
In 1794, when Kate Gruener’s father is ready to move the family farther west into the wilderness to farm untouched land, Kate is eager to learn and live out her own story of adventure like he did during the War for Independence. She sets her sights on learning more about their guide, Thomas Bledsoe. Thomas’s job is to get settlers safely across the Kentucky Wilderness Road to their destination while keeping an ear open for news of Shawnee unrest. But naïve Kate’s inquisitive nature could put them both in the middle of a rising tide of conflict. Is there more to Thomas’s Shawnee connections than he is willing to tell? Is there an untapped courage in Kate that can thwart a coming disaster?
Paperback / 978-1-68322-691-8 / $12.99
The Liberty Bride
by MaryLu Tyndall
War Forces a Choice Between Love and Country
A trip home from England to Maryland in 1812 finds Emeline Baratt a captive on a British warship and forced to declare her allegiance betw
een the British and Americans. Remaining somewhat politically neutral on a ship where her nursing skills are desperately needed is fairly easy—until she starts to have feelings for the first lieutenant who becomes her protector. However, when the captain sends her and Lieutenant Owen Masters on land to spy, she must choose between her love for him or her love for her country.
Paperback / 978-1-68322-617-8 / $12.99
The Pirate Bride Page 23