The Dark Secret of Josephine rb-5

by Dennis Wheatley

  Showing her splendid teeth in a broad smile, she replied: "You have made a good case, M. le Gouverneur. But whether I sail with pirates or privateers I can take care of myself; so let the men choose. I will abide by the decision of the majority."

  A show of hands was called for. Lucette, three pirates, and two Porto Ricans refrained from voting. These apart, all the others put their hands up for abandoning the Vicomte. It was a clear triumph for Bloggs. But Roger was quick to grasp his chance of continuing to dominate the situation. Beckoning to Pedro, Bloggs and Lucette he said:

  "Now we must make our plans; and for that it would be best to return to the cabin."

  They followed him obediently as he shepherded the women towards the poop, and when they were all gathered in the saloon a general conversation took place m a jargon of English, French and Spanish. It opened by Roger saying briskly to Pedro:

  "The ladies and myself are deeply grateful to you, Captain, and I shall do my utmost to ensure that you have no cause to regret the decision you have taken. I assume that your first move will be to turn the ship about as soon as night has fallen, so as to put as great a distance as possible between ourselves and M. le Vicomte before dawn informs him that we have made off on our own?"

  Pedro nodded. "That is what I intend. The next thing to decide is where I should put you ashore in exchange for the pardons and com­mission you have promised us."

  Roger raised his eyebrows. "But that is already decided for us. It must be in Martinique."

  "No, no!" The Carib gave a violent shake to his lank, greasy locks. "I am born in Cuba and know the coasts of the Great Antilles well; but I have never sailed to the far southward among the lesser islands."

  'That difficulty can be overcome. I understand enough of the rudiments of navigation to keep the ship in fair weather on any course we may set."

  "But Senor, it is a voyage of a thousand miles. The men would grumble at so great a delay in disposing of the loot we have taken with this ship, and having a fling with the money it fetches."

  "That cannot be helped," Roger declared firmly. For over forty-eight hours circumstances had rendered him utterly helpless, but now that he was once more in a position to negotiate he was back on ground that gave such opponents no chance against him. Bloggs and Lucette joined their protests to Pedro's, but Roger produced arguments the logic of which there was no contesting.

  First he put it to them that should they conduct their operations in the northern Caribbean they would sooner or later run into the Vicomte, which would at best mean a bloody battle to no profit and at worst the exacting of a terrible vengeance by their old master. Then, more telling still, he pointed out that his writing on a plain sheet of paper would be next to worthless. For the pardons and commission to be any real protection they must be properly drawn up with seals attached, and that could only be done after he had actually assumed his governorship of Martinique.

  At that Bloggs and Pedro gave way, but Lucette called them a pair of numbskulls, and vowed that Roger was trying to lead them into a trap. It was certain, she said, that there would be one or more British warships lying in the harbour at Fort Royal; so what was to prevent him on their arriving there from having the Circe boarded and all of them hung.

  Roger countered her accusation that he meant to go back on his word by a proposal which would put it out of his power to do so; namely, that instead of entering a port they should anchor in some secluded bay and that as a first move he alone should be put ashore. The womenfolk would remain on board as hostages until he had made his way to the capital and returned with the documents which were to be the price of their freedom.

  To this Lucette could raise no objection; so he quickly passed to another matter, and asked: "Now, what of our clothes and personal possessions? I take it you consider those as part of your loot?"

  "Certainly," Lucette replied promptly. "You will be allowed to take only the things you stand up in, and we shall assure ourselves that you have no articles of value concealed about you."

  He smiled. "I thought as much. But tell me now, how do you propose to fight this ship as a privateer while she is armed with only a bow gun and a stern chaser?"

  In the hurried conspiracy which had led to the take-over this point had not occurred to any of them. Now in some consternation they discussed the matter, and the only suggestion forthcoming was that to start with they must confine their operations to attacking ships with their own weight of metal until they could gradually accumulate cannon from such prizes.

  Roger's smile broadened to a grin as he said: "I think I can do better for you than that. In the ports of Martinique there must be a number of spare cannon taken from captured ships that are no longer seaworthy. If I can provide you with two broadsides of eight guns will you agree to give up to us all our personal property?"

  Lucette met the offer with a sullen frown. She protested that securing an adequate armament was the men's business, and she did not see why she should pay for it by surrendering the fine clothes of the captives and her share of their jewels. But Pedro and Bloggs over­ruled her; and, as a concession to lessen her hostility to the deal, Georgina diplomatically suggested that Amanda, Clarissa and herself should each make her a present of a good gown apiece, together with some silks and laces.

  That being settled it was further agreed that the captives should again be allowed the liberty of the ship, so that they could take the an* on deck, and that a better service of meals should be organized at which they would feed with their captors.

  By the time Lucette, Bloggs and Pedro left them Roger was again played out. He was also somewhat worried about one aspect of the deal he had made. Had the Circe's legitimate captain applied to him for a privateer's commission it would have been within his rights as a Governor to grant him one—but Pedro was not the Circe's legitimate captain. What would the Circe's owners have to say when they learned of this unorthodox transaction. Of course it could be argued that they had already lost their ship by piracy, and normally they would be able to claim the amount for which she was insured. But should the underwriters maintain that the ship had been re­captured by Roger's coming to an arrangement with her repentant mutineers, they might refuse to pay; then quite possibly the owners would bring an action against him for the value of the vessel and its cargo.

  It was a most unpleasant possibility, and one which in the long run might cost him the whole of his small fortune. But being philo­sophical by nature he realized that he had been envisaging a far more terrible outcome to the voyage only a few hours back, and decided that it would be quite time enough to face this new anxiety when they arrived in Martinique. Meanwhile he had every reason to be overwhelmingly thankful that Bloggs's scruples had led to a new situation, and pleased with himself for the way in which he had handled it.

  While Amanda attended to his head, she praised him for his clever­ness in inveigling their captors into carrying them to their original destination, and they all agreed that he had performed the next thing to a miracle in securing for them their personal belongings. That night, for the first time since the Circe's capture, they felt a reasonable degree of safety, so decided to sleep in separate cabins. Their relief at the turn events had taken was so profound that all four women wept a little before going to sleep, and mingled their tears with thanks­giving to their Maker for His merciful preservation of them.

  In the morning they once more took care with their toilets, and when they had gathered in the big cabin their faces showed fewer signs of strain. Breakfast was the usual casual spread by the hunch­back and the first foods that came handy, and Lucette reminded Roger that he had suggested improving their cuisine. After a moment's thought he looked across at Georgina and said:

  "That is simply arranged. Madame la Comtesse shall cook for us.'*

  "I?" exclaimed Georgina, aghast

  He nodded. "You have ever shown great interest in cooking, and are a very good cook yourself. The rest of us will help you with the meaner tasks, but I p
lace the sceptre of the galley in your most capable hands."

  They had known each other for so long, and so intimately, that they were at times able to read one another's thoughts; and now his unspoken intention flashed upon her. He knew that she was grieving desperately for Charles and had decided that to give her a task requir­ing considerable thought would be the best possible thing for her.

  An investigation into Monsieur Pirouet's remaining stores occupied them for most of the forenoon, then they went up on to the poop. At a glance they saw that the state of the ship had seriously deteriorated since the ending of Captain Cummins's regime. Instead of the white decks being spotless they were now littered with every kind of filth; and, apart from the man at the wheel and one look-out, the crew were idling the day away, either dozing or playing games of chance in the shade of the awnings. However, the squalor of the once tidy ship was a matter of little moment compared to the fact that the coast of Santo Domingo lay on her starboard side; for, although she was tacking against the wind and making slow progress, every mile now carried her farther from the dreaded Vicomte de Senlac.

  After a very welcome three-hour spell in the fresh air, they went below to prepare dinner, and under Georgina's directions the first really appetizing meal they had seen for four days was cooked. Jake had been appointed second mate so that Bloggs could enjoy the hot food with the others. He sat down to table with them almost apologetic­ally, and ate his food in embarrassed silence. Pedro, as usual, wolfed his, and, disdaining the glass that had been set for him, took swigs of wine from the bottle. But Lucette did real justice to each dish and was loud in her praises of Georgina's efforts.

  Wishing to repay her compliments in some way, Georgina re­marked: "I should be interested to hear where you learned French, Madame, as you speak it when you wish with hardly a trace of the Creole accent, and most fluently."

  Lucette's white teeth flashed between her full red lips. "Madame la Comtesse is most gracious; but French comes naturally to me, for I am a member of a noble French family. I am a Tascher de la Pagerie."

  Georgina, taking this to be a bare-faced lie, quickly lowered her eyes to conceal her disbelief at such a pretension; but Roger thought it quite probable that Lucette was speaking the truth.

  For well over two hundred years colonies administered by French aristocrats had been established in Saint-Domingue—the western third of the otherwise Spanish-owned island off which they were cruising—Martinique, Guadeloupe and several other islands. By the reign of Louis XV many of them owned vast estates, and on visits to Versailles had outshone their relatives who lived in France, owing to the immense wealth drawn from their plantations. Unlike the British they paid small regard to the colour bar, with the result that a high percentage of this Creole aristocracy now had a good dash of black blood. The Comte de Caylus, whom Roger had fought and killed seven years before, had been a product of just such a family history, for he had owned estates in Martinique as well as Brittany and had himself been a mulatto. Yet, while there seemed to Roger no particular reason to doubt Lucette's claim, it did strike him as strange that the daughter of a French nobleman should, even if captured or kidnapped in the first instance, have willingly adopted the sort of life she was leading. So he asked her:

  "How comes it, then, that we find you in your present situation?"

  She replied without hesitation, and this time none of them felt doubt of her honesty. "For having aided my young mistress in an intrigue I was punished by being sent to work in the cane fields, so I ran away."

  "Pardon my curiosity, Madame," remarked Clarissa, "but what you have just told us is difficult to reconcile with your being the daughter of a nobleman."

  "I did not say that I was," Lucette retorted, quite unruffled. "My white blood comes from the present M. de Tascher's grandfather. But I will tell you my story if you wish."

  A murmur of encouragement having greeted her offer, she went on: 'I was born on the de la Pagerie estate in Martinique, and as my mother was a slave, I, too, was technically a slave. But, as you must know, there are varying degrees of slavery. My mother was a much beloved servant in the house, and it so happened that she gave birth to me in the same week as Madame de Tascher was delivered of her second daughter, Marie Rose Josephine. In consequence my mother was given Josephine to suckle as well as myself, so we became foster sisters.

  "It is the custom on such estates for white children to be given coloured children of their own age as playmates from earliest infancy, on the principle that such a bond will lead to the slave child becoming a most devoted personal servant to the other later in life. For Josephine, I was the natural choice to fill this role, so we were brought up together, and treated in every way as though we were sisters by blood.

  "Josephine had no brothers and only one elder sister, named Manette; but she was an insipid creature much given to introspection; so Josephine was much more drawn to myself. She was very pretty and of a very frolicsome disposition. Both of us loved to dance and sing, and as we grew older we encouraged one another in naughty escapades. Out here in the Caribbean white girls as well as coloured began to feel the urges of sex very young, and from the time Josephine and I entered our teens both our minds were filled with the thoughts natural to fully grown women. I let myself be seduced by the over­seer's son; while she developed a passion for the son of one of our neighbours, who fell equally passionately in love with her.

  "The name of her beau was William de Kay, and his family, had been settled in Martinique only for some twenty-five years. Originally, I think, their name was MacKay, for they were of noble Scottish descent and related to many great lords in their own country; but they had been deprived of their estates and exiled for having taken up arms in the cause of the Stuart pretender during his attempt to gain the throne of England in 1745.

  "Madame de Tascher and Madame de Kay had long been close friends, so from childhood little William was always in and out of the house, or we at his, and was our most cherished playmate. As he and Josephine grew older the two mothers smiled at the devotion they showed to one another, for at that time the parents of both children favoured the idea of a match between them. But later, on both sides, events occurred to alter their plans.

  "I never fully understood the complications of the inheritance that devolved on William, but it seems that his father was heir to a Lord Lovell and that his own succession to the estates was dependent on his marrying this old nobleman's niece. Whatever the rights of the matter, news arrived that Lord Lovell had died; it thus became necessary for Monsieur de Kay to present himself as the heir in London, and he decided to take William with him in order that the young man might complete his studies at the University of Oxford.

  "At that time William was not aware that he would be called on to marry his cousin, and he considered himself irrevocably pledged to Josephine. Naturally, at the idea of a separation which might last for several years the two young lovers were distraught. Their parents had, some months before, consented to their regarding themselves 4 as unofficially betrothed, but that no longer satisfied them. They craved some means of entering into a more indissoluble bond before a cruel fate tore them from each other's arms.

  "Since both were of such tender years, no French priest would have married them without the consent of their parents; but, then being greatly devoted to my young mistress, I took it on myself to secure for them an opportunity to exchange the vows by which they set so much store.

  "As you may know, there is nothing incompatible about being a Roman Catholic and a practitioner of Voodoo. In fact, all the best known Christian Saints are also gods and goddesses in the Voodoo pantheon; and a part of the training of the Houngans, as the Voodoo priests are called, is to fully familiarize themselves with all the rituals of the Roman Church. For some time past a local Houngan, who had recently graduated from the Roman Catholic Seminary for coloured men, had been casting eyes of desire upon me, so I had no great difficulty in persuading him to do as I wished. I then told the two lo
vers that I had found a priest who would marry them in secret, and two nights later the ceremony was duly performed beneath a giant cedar tree that grew not far from la Pagerie mansion.

  "Some months after William arrived in England M. de Tascher learned from M. de Kay the conditions of the inheritance, but he was not particularly put out by these rendering a union between their families no longer practical, as by that time he had other plans for Josephine.

  "His sister, a Madame Renaudin, who resided in France, was a rich and influential woman. Being a good aunt she was strongly set upon arranging an advantageous marriage for her eldest niece, and it had already been agreed that Manette should cross the ocean to live with her. But, just then, Manette was taken with a fever, and within a week she was dead.

  "Monsieur and Madame Tascher decided that Josephine should take her place, but they did not tell her so at once, because she did nothing but dream and talk of William, and they feared to disturb the balance of her mind. Instead, they suppressed his letters to her and hers to him, hoping that both would believe each had lost interest in the other.

  "She became greatly worried by William's silence, but no whit less devoted to him; and at last the time came when her parents could no longer postpone breaking it to her that she must forget him, and that they were sending her to France where she was to make a splendid marriage.

  "You can imagine their consternation when, instead of protesting and fainting, as they expected her to do, she told them she could not accede to their wishes because she was already married.

  "An earthquake could hardly have created a greater upheaval in the household. By threats and abuse they had the whole story out of her that night From her description of the man who she said had married her to William they recognized the Houngan, and sent for him. Threatened with being sent to the galleys, he confessed to having performed the ceremony, and disclosed that it was I who had persuaded «im to unite them by the Catholic ritual.