This file is a part of Elf Sternberg's Collected Works on ASSTR.  The
complete archive of Elf's work can be found on his website at:

http://www.drizzle.com/~elf

The author can be contacted at:

mailto:elf@drizzle.com

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------


Bloody Beth, Chapter 09

Jacob walked into the tiny cabin he shared with his wife. Somewhat
stunned, he exclaimed, "I just caught my sister and the lady Speer on
deck, stark naked!"

Elaine, nonplussed by the announcement, looked up with a smile. "And
what were they doing, dear husband?"

"They claimed to be bathing. I suppose--" He heard something fall over,
and a loud moan. "I suppose that claim could be taken as true.  They have
apparently retired to their cabin and--" A louder moan, clearly from
the lady Speer, again interrupted him. "I don't understand it."

"Understand what?"

"I don't understand what it is that they're doing in there. I can imagine
sodomy, although it strikes me as a painful and unhealthy practice,
not to mention the Church's opinion on the subject! There's always--"
The loud cry of his sister's name interrupted him again and he shot a
black look at the door. "With two men, it's easy to see what there is to,
um, handle. But, my God, Elaine, I can't imagine what two women would
do with one another. There are two insides there."

Elaine stared at him, that faint, deliriously lovely smile alive upon
her lips. They listened as a final soft moan died away next door, then
the rustle of bodies climbing into bed. Above it all, the patter of the
rain on the upper deck continued. "Bathing sounds like a wonderful idea,"
she finally announced, walking toward the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To bathe," she said. "Coming?"

Jacob stared at his impetuous wife for a moment, then smiled. "Someone
will have to stay on deck and guard your honor."

"From the sodomites?" Elaine laughed. "You must be joking."

"There are at least four people, aside from myself, whose eyes follow
you around with a lean and hungry stare, Elaine."

"Four?" Elaine asked as they made their way up the narrow steps to the
deck. On her fingers she counted off names. "Patrick, Spike..."

"Jessica Speer and my sister. And my sister I trust the least of all in
this matter. She has commented on your beauty often enough."

Elaine pulled her shirt over her head, allowing her pale breasts to
swing free in the darkness. She pushed her breeches down over her wide
hips and stepped out. "Your sister and I have talked earnestly and
often, Jacob, about you and her, and her interest in the lady Speer."
She began opening the buttons on his jacket before tossing it aside.
"And I admit that she has piqued my curiosity. But I am curious about
many things, Jacob, that I cannot do because I have sworn myself to
you, and obeying that oath has brought me such happiness and... and...
and adventure! For me to break my oath would be a terrible pain that I do
not wish to bear. I am happier being your wife than anything." She pulled
open the belt about his waist and let his breeches fall to the deck.

Jacob pulled Elaine into his arms as the warm rain beat down upon them. It
dripped into his eyes, making him blink. "Oh, Elaine, you have made my
heart the gladdest thing on the Earth. I would put Mohammed's mountain
back for you, one teaspoon of dirt at a time if that's what I had for
a tool." He could feel her large breasts pressed against his chest and
his own heart beat loud in his ears.

She squirmed free and, grabbing a rag and a bucket, returned to him.
"Let me wash you, Jacob?"

This was a new offer, but Jacob agreed readily. She looked around the
deck; there was nobody else here. The one man on watch had readily moved
to the forecastle where he could see much of the sea but little of the
deck below. He could hear them, but he had been gracious enough to leave
them alone otherwise.

She began at his shoulders, washing under his chin and along the line
of his back. "You are a handsome man, Jacob. So athletic. I did so love
you at first sight."

"I'm glad your father agreed to the marriage."

"As am I. I think he was hoping that I would find someone not inspired
to the journeys that he has traveled. He would be angry to discover
that I have found someone as romantic and attached to world as he, as
I am." Her cloth washed his buttocks, then she trailed down his long,
lean legs. "Turn around."

She stood back up and began again, doing his arms, his chest, his flat,
strong belly. "Oh, in the olden days, you'd be a knight in shining armor,
Jacob!" As she knelt before him she said, "And here is your lance,
Sir Jacob."

Jacob gritted his teeth as the coarse cloth stroked the length of his
already inflamed manhood, then treated his testicles and the space
behind them with as much care as Elaine could manage with such a rag.
He closed his eyes against the rest of the onslaught, but instead gasped
as he felt something incredibly warm and soft engulf his sex.  He looked
down to see Elaine with her mouth about his sex, her head slowly closing
in on his belly. He couldn't believe it; she had to be choking herself on
this manhood. But she persevered, taking the whole of it down into the
back of her mouth, and then she began bobbing back and forth on it. It
was more than he could bear; he had never been given pleasure in this
way, had not even believed that such an act was possible for a woman of
Elaine's breeding.

Her tongue did obscene things to the underside of his swollen sex as her
lips and the back of her throat teased the head and shaft. He entwined
his hands in her hair, holding onto her. He promised himself that he
would let go if she needed him too, but he didn't believe that he would
be able to keep that promise at some point.

Elaine's fingers diddled about his sac as she slowly teased his erection
ever harder. Jacob could barely keep his balance as she sucked his manhood
down her throat until her nose was buried in the hair of his belly. She
was tossing her head now, wild, an animal wrapped around heaven wrapped
around his throbbing need. He could feel the fire welling upwards between
his thighs, and when it erupted he shouted her name like a benediction.

She knelt there for a moment, letting his climax wane, and then she
stood, visibly swallowing down the last traces of his climax. "My God,"
he breathed. "When did you learn to do that?"

"Just now," she said. "I thought that after cleaning you... Did you
like it?"

"Like it? It was so wonderful I'm sure the Holy Church has condemned
it!" He gasped, still reeling from the explosion that had wracked his
body and soul.

He was still trying to figure out what to say next when Elaine handed
him another rag. "Wash me," she insisted.

Blinking, his body weakened from the effort, he took to washing her.
He washed her neck and her shoulders, then spent such time on her breasts
that she had to remind him, "There's more of me than that."

"What? Oh. They are very lovely."

"Yes, but there's more of me to wash. Please?"

He grinned and resumed his assigned duties. Soon he had her completely
clean, from top to bottom. Or so he believe.

"You missed something," she said.

"I did?" he asked.

"Let me," she said, taking the rag from his hand. She knelt on the deck,
her legs parted, and with the rag liberally washed her sex clean. Jacob,
familiar with the texture of the cloth, had avoided washing her there
for that very reason-- he had expected it to be painful. But Elaine
washed her sex very seriously, rinsing it completely with water two
or three times. Jacob had never been aware of the insensity with which
women treated their genitals and was fascinated by the ritual. "There,"
she said as she stood. "Clean as the day I was born. Come on, let's go
back to our cabins. I must show you something."

They gathered up their clothing and hung it in the cabin. Jacob retrieved
the long shirt he had taken to wearing as a nightshirt but Elaine stopped
him. "I said there is something I must show you."

"Yes, you did say that. What did you mean by it?"

"Come here," she said as she sat on the edge of the bed. She lifted
one leg onto the bed, exposing her sex to his eyes. "Have you ever had
a good look at my pudenda?" she asked. The filthy Spanish word rolled
off her tongue without a blush from her.

"I can't say as I have. I never thought to look."

"Then look," she said. "Look well, Jacob. This is the portal to your
paradise, and mine, and this is the gateway from which your babes will
come." With but one oil lantern, Jacob couldn't see much, but he could
make out the basic shapes. She touched herself with two fingers, parting
what appeared to be lips, showing him her core. There was a small opening,
barely large enough for his finger. How he had managed to find such a
tiny orifice with his organ in the dark all these times, he could only
guess. She had guided him often enough. He looked closer, and finally
she whispered, "Jacob, kiss me. Here." She indicated a tiny object, just
a little more pale than the surrounding skin, near the top of her pudenda.

Jacob thought to protest, then remembered how studiously she had washed
herself. This must be the reason why, he realized. She had wanted to
be clean for him, so that he wouldn't be put off by her request. He
considered it for a moment, and then, with his eyes closed, kissed her
where she had indicated. "Oh, Jacob..." he voice trailed off in a kind
of surprised pleasure. "Again. With your tongue.  The way we kiss."

Jacob pressed his open lips to the lips of her pudenda, his tongue
reaching past his teeth to find that little spot she had pointed to,
treating it as if it were her tongue and they were is one of those
wrestling kisses she adored so. Her body went rigid, her knees trembling,
her moans soft and constant. "More, Jacob, more..."

Jacob forgot treating it like a kiss and took to licking her in earnest,
kissing her sex. He found that the further away from that spot the
less she moaned; the closer and the stronger the sensation.  "Slowly,
Jacob, build slowly..." she moaned as he intensified his attention. He
relented and went back to the slow, gentle flickering she had been so
enjoying. "Whatever happens, do not stop, beloved," she gasped. "I will
be all right..."

If that was meant to make him feel less anxious it was a miserable
failure. He was concerned, but he didn't know what to do except plunge
onwards. He pressed his mouth to her sex, stirring his tongue about that
solid little spot. Her body shook with an intensity he had rarely seen
before. She held one hand on her belly, the other holding her up on the
bed, as he licked her pudenda, now harder. Suddenly, her body bucked
upwards so hard he had to grip her thighs to follow her. She stopped
breathing except to whisper, "Don't stop!" He pressed his tongue hard
against her and then, with a sob, she fell to the bed, gasping, trembling,
her whole body shaking like the ship in a storm.  "Oh, Jacob!"

She was crying. Jacob scrambled onto the tiny bed with her. "My love,
have I hurt you? What happened? What have I done?"

"No, beloved, you did not hurt me. You have given me what I have craved
since your sister described it to me. The pleasure of the pearl, Jacob,
that little thing at the top of my sex, where my ecstasy can be as great
as a man's. You have given me a climax I did not think a woman could
have. It was so powerful I feel like I have been reborn." She stroked his
hair gently. "And you, my beloved Jacob, oh, you have given this to me."

"I... You climaxed? Much as man can?"

"No, not in the same way. But with the same pleasure. I have no shaft,
I do not shoot as you do. But I can feel the same way, Jacob, in a
womanly way." She kissed his mouth softly, thanking him with her body.
"That is what two insides may do with one another."

Jacob smiled. "Oh." Then he grinned wider. "You are an excellent teacher."

"Thank you," she grinned. "Now, if you are satisfied, I am as well.
Let's to bed."

He agreed. "And the next time, we do that when it is sunny. There is
more I want to see, Elaine."
  _________________________________________________________________

Four bells and dawn broke over the ship with quiet shafts of light in
a sky barely littered with pearlescent clouds. The cries of men and
the sounds of grinding drifted across the ship as the pirates hauled
sandstones back and forth over the deck, polishing it clean. This was
one of many behaviors that at first had astonished, and then pleased,
Jacob, about the Ladder. Elizabeth had assured him, however, that
any pirate vessel worth its salt did much the same. It was not the
discipline that men chafed under and so deserted their fleets for the
pirate vessels; it was the bloody unfair-mindedness of the Captains with
their self-importance and callous attitudes that drove men away.

The men who stayed with the pirate ships truly loved the sea and the
work they did. To Jacob, there was a feel to the ship as if the whole
of it were alive in its own right. The days traveling out and back
were some of the most peaceful he had known. It was completely unlike
the trip from England, which had been all workmanlike and unpleasant.
The captain had been a good sort, but not the kind of man one would invite
to dinner. He supposed that he understood some of the men's complaints
about English captains.

He commented on the ship's liveliness, but Beth disagreed. "We loaded the
gold too fast, Jacob. There's a gripe and a bent to her, a tendency to
swing to port if we're not paying attention. We didn't get a chance to
trim her right." Beth looked up. The mainsail was full and the foresail
billowed out. "But we're getting good wind. Even with the cargo we're
full up to seven knots." She stepped up on a ratline to get a good look
along the length of the ship. Cupping one hand to her mouth she shouted,
"Spike! The smaller jib and tighten the spanker."

She jumped back down. "We'll be in Jamaican waters tomorrow, if I don't
miss my guess."

A whistle brought her attention. She looked up to see one of the younger
boys in the crew, Filip, pointing out over the sea. "Sails on the horizon,
Captain! It's a corvette!"

She spotted Dismas climbing the ropes, glass in hand. He reached Filip
and found himself a secure spot to sit. "It's trouble, Captain! It's
the Medusa!"

"Damn!" Beth swore. "All hands, prepare for war!"

"What is it?" Jacob asked. The deck was a flurry of men pulling the
protective canvas off their deck guns. Other men with buckets hauled
water up from the sea, wet down the canvas, and prepared for wraps of
powder to be hauled up from the powder room.

"Jacob, go below. Find Elaine. And pray. It's Morrow's Medusa."

"There is to be a battle?"

"Jacob, if Morrow sinks us, he gets my bounty, plus a bonus, plus a
pardon from Marbry for being a pirate himself! Better still, Morrow
hates me with a passion for being a woman and a better seaman than he.
Accuses me of being a weather witch, among other things." She growled,
a deep sound that alarmed Jacob. Such sounds should not come from one's
sister, he thought.

"How soon?"

"At best, he is six miles from here." She glanced at the sun. "Maybe by
sundown. Maybe tomorrow. It is one ship against another here, a small
action by any measure. Unless he's an impetuous bastard, and he is, we
will be waiting a while. We can't outrun him. Not with the gold loading
us more ballast than our usual stones." She turned and found Patrick
beside her. "Patrick. Port guns with iron, starboard guns half iron,
half grape. And you know what to do with the Americans."

"Aye, Captain," he smiled and hurried to her orders.

"The Americans?" Jacob asked, nervously.

"Aye. Two red-skins from a country inland called Sher-o-kee or
Ker-o-kee. I cannot pronounce it correctly. Brought to Haiti as slaves,
but they got out and into the Jacob. Sharpest shots with a rifle you
ever saw with your own eyes."

She watched as Stede brought the ship to starboard, running before the
wind. "Keep the yards in, Spike!" she shouted. "We can't outrun him and
I need all sails in all points!"

She watched, anxiously, as Medusa swung about and began the chase. "I
want the topsails gently reefed," she told Spike, "and ready to drop,
just in case."

He nodded. "Keep the wind in reserve."

"It's a steady wind," she said. "How is the glass?"

"Steady as she can be, Captain. If we're lucky, it will be the one
constant."

She sighed. A sea of glass, a constant wind. This would a game of
chess, every move out in the open. She shooed Jacob down into the
cabins. "Good. Spike, move as much powder as you can from the gunroom
into the mess."

"The mess?" he asked, surprised.

"We're going to give Morrow our rudder. He'll think we've made a mistake,
and try to ball us there, either to smash the rudder or light the
powder. If we're lucky, he won't do the one, and if we move the powder
he won't do the other."

"It's a risky maneuver."

"He's got heavier guns but fewer men. He needs all the hands he can get."

"Ah," Spike said. "I think I see. The men aren't going to like it."

"Then hope that there's not too much blood on our side, Spike. This is
for everything."

"It's always for everything," Spike observed.

Nervously, she watched as Medusa swung out wide. "Keep her astern us,
Stede."

He nodded. He didn't take it as an affront at all that she reminded him.

The morning wore on. Noon, and dinner, arrived on deck-- hard tack,
wet beer, and strips of salted beef that sat in the stomach like the
18-pound round-shot neatly stacked by each gun on deck. The Medusa came
upon them, her flag a bloody red flag with a black skull sewn to it
waving out behind the ship like a war pennant. Morrow was telling them
what they already knew: no quarter.

The crack of a gun from the rear told her that Morrow was already sizing
up the range. "Fire in kind, Spike," she shouted.

The men leaped to her command. Morrow had the wind on his side, and
so his range was better. This would be the hard part of the fight,
she thought; getting Morrow to think she was scared. "You men! Make it
look like we're putting on more sail! Make it look desperate! But not
one extra tenth-knot out of her, you hear?"

They heard. Although she feared greatly for her men-- back there was
no mere merchanter, no Company ship taking the long way, but the real
thing-- it was also one of the few times when her heart soared to the
cap of her mainmast, to see them all enthralled to action, all called to
the same desperate measures. Some men may die this day, but none would
go down unwillingly, without giving his all while he lived.

A ball skipped off the water; Morrow was firing his shot low to get
his range. Like a stone on a pond, it skipped thrice before striking
the Ladder on the starboard quarter, doing no damage. Beth swore.
"They've got our range."

The next ball went high, sailing through the rigging. It tore through
a shroud and fell harmlessly into the sea; men leaped to tie the shroud
tight lest another one weaken the sail. It was all to the the pretense
to desperation. "Let it fall!" Beth cried. "Let it fall, but be ready
to haul it back at once!"

The men, surprised by her command, paused only a second before they
took their action, moving to drop down the main topsail as if the
roundshot had actually done the damage. "Up the ratlines!" Beth cried.
"Every man without a gun, make it look right! Up the ratlines, damn you!"

The ship slowed even as the men tried to make it look as if they were
sailing faster. The Medusa now came upon them hard, even as Stede pushed
the Ladder to port, desperate to keep the profile narrow and the Medusa's
aim hard. "Down, down! Take to repair! Oz! Saverri! Get below, I need
my carpenters alive!"

Beth smiled. It was all going well. Another ball hit the Ladder, glancing
downward by her waist, splintering her port gunrail. Men scrambled to
pick up the roundshot that had scattered. Nobody had been hurt.

"Stede! Now!"

The ship tacked hard to port, and Morrow came up, his front guns
taking their shots long, whistling through the lines. There was a
pause. "Starboard guns ready," she said low to the man beside her.
"Crawl to it if you have to."

The man took off, passing the word down the line to the men who hid
behind the gunports on the topdeck. They removed the tompions. Beth
waited. "Stede... NOW!"

The ship wheeled to starboard even as Morrow bore down on them. "All
sail, all sail!" Beth yelled. Morrow's wheelman panicked, sure that he
would crack his own ship ramming the Ladder, and turned hard to port.
It was fast enough to prevent a ram, but not so fast to prevent what
Beth intended. "FIRE!" she shouted.

Eight cannon spoke all at once. Four heavy roundshot soared almost
precisely the length of the Medusa, smashing the wheel and cracking at
least one mast. Four rounds of grapeshot, small balls of iron held in
the cannon by a bag of thin canvas, scattered across the deck, killing
mercilessly. Screams went up from the men of Medusa, shouts of pain.
"Now!" Beth shouted as Stede wrestled the ship to port again.

For a moment, her rudder was fully exposed to the Medusa at nearly
point-blank range. The Medusa took full advantage of that. Her ten guns
fired, smashing into the Ladder's rear. The gunners knew what they were
after; their shots went at her orlop, the bottom deck. They meant to
flood the rudderroom and keep the carpenters out until she sank.

"Captain!" Stede shouted. "I can steer! It's hard, but it's there!" It
lightened her heart to know that Medusa had half-failed; the rudder was
still there, splintered but there. But they were taking water now, and
they would be able to neither patch nor pump until they got out of battle.

"Keep the turn!" Beth shouted. "Starboard guns, roundshot! Port
guns..." The ships were now at broadsides, even as the Medusa's men
fought to reload. "Fire!" The cannon roared again, their roundshot
smashing into Medusa's guts. Fire and water seemed to billow about
Medusa. "Stede, get us out of here!"

It was not to be. The wind died to almost a whisper. "No!" Beth swore.
"Half and half, keep it going!" They were almost close enough for pistol
shots, and up high Beth heard the sound of rifles. The Americans! One
cheered hard, a strange whooping cheer.

Then the wind picked up again. Stede turned the wheel to get the Ladder
away. The Medusa's men had reloaded her cannon and hit the Ladder hard and
low. The Ladder shuddered as she pulled away, the sounds of splintering
and a scream filling the air. "She's wallowing like a grogged pig,
Beth!" Stede cried out.

"Keep her moving, Stede! Buckets and pumps!" she shouted. Men ran back
to the chain pump to clear the bilge and hopefully save the Ladder
from sinking.

The Ladder and the Medusa lurched away from each other. "What's the
numbers, Spike?" she asked as her second came to the deck. He had blood
on his shirt and a long look on his face.

"Eamonn is dead. A roundshot knocked a splinter off the foremast,
went right through his heart." He gestured with his hands to suggest a
'splinter' some two feet long. "Alban is wounded and may lose an eye.
Only slight wounds otherwise. You were right to move the men forward.
No grape," he said, amazed.

"Morrow needs my head to collect full," she pointed out.

"Lucky us," Spike replied without a touch of irony.

"Captain!" called Dahaya from the top of the mainmast. "Sails on the
horizon! Another one! Big ship!"

"By my God," Dismas shouted, looking through his spyglass. "It's the
Mary's Ranger. 74 guns. Three masts. A full head of wind. And we're
limping like a three-legged dog with the shits."

Beth sighed. "So close. So close. Prepare to surrender."

"Aye, Captain."

"And, Spike? Run up the English flag."

Aghast, Spike looked at her. "They'll hang us all if we do that!"

"They'll hang us all anyway," she pointed out. "Run up the Union and
the House of Harcourt. Signal 'English privateer, attacked by pirates,
please help.' Put that on the port yardarm."

Spike shook his head. "If we get out of this, Captain, I'll raise a
toast to you in old age."

"You'll probably die of some horrible disease caught in one of those
old knocking-houses."

"From now on, I can afford Lofn's graces," Spike said with a grin. "If
we survive." He hurried to the stores.

The massive ship came on them fast. In forty minutes she could see people
on the deck, walking about, peering back at them through long-glass. The
carpenter's mate came out to tell her that the rudderwell had taken canvas
well enough and they'd be able to pump it dry enough for patchwork, but
she really needed to be hauled out and fixed proper. Beth took the news
easily enough. The Ladder was an old boat. She needed a lot. Looking
through the glass again, Beth wondered if she would get it.

The Ranger came on, approaching fast. Without a change in her flags,
she turned to the Medusa, bearing down on her with all speed. Suddenly
she let out a tremendous volley of gunfire, raking the Medusa to the
waterline. She went down silently without firing a shot in return. The
soft crack of rifle fire reached Beth's ears, and with great sadness
she realized that they were murdering the pirates left in the water.

"That could have been us," Beth said.

"It may yet well be us."

"Another sail coming fast!"

"What!?" Beth asked, pulling up her glass. "The party is complete.
It's the Macedonia."

The Macedonia was Ranger's replacement; both of them took to the water
until Marbry released one.

Ranger turned around and headed back toward the Ladder. "Ahoy, Ladder!
Is your Master on board?"

"Get Jacob!" she ordered, sotto voce, then shouted "Lay on the sail, men!"

A minute later her brother, bruised but none the worse for wear,
appeared on deck wearing a blue coat. Beth thought that a nice touch of
Patrick's. "What am I to do here?"

Beth said, "You are the rightful inheritor of this boat. You have hired
these men to do a job for you. This ship is a privateer, and you have
the legal paperwork to show it. We are on a contract from King George."

"Do I?" Jacob asked.

"Yes!" Beth hissed.

Jacob surprised Beth by repeating what she had said in a loud and steady
voice. "Spike. Help him." She disappeared down into the hold.

"Lie to, Ladder. I am coming aboard!"

Five minutes later, Beth emerged from her cabin to see Allison and Jacob
standing on the deck. Allison was smoking some of that foul weed the
Americans sometimes enjoyed. Jacob spotted her, and her change of attire,
and smiled. "Ah, captain," Jacob said. "I see the quiet has finally coaxed
my sister out of her hiding place. You have met my sister before? Captain
Allison, Elizabeth Harcourt."

Beth, pleased that Jacob was such a fast learner, curtsied awkwardly
for the captain. "A pleasure to meet you again, sir."

"Indeed," he said, with appreciation and amusement. "And in better
light. It is nice to know that our meetings have been so fortuitous.
Your brother and the first mate have explained much to me."

"Captain," Jacob said. "As you know, the Macedonia is bearing down on
us even as we speak, and will be here in just a few moments. What shall
we tell him?"

"The truth, of course. That William Marbry crafted an illegal order
making the Jacob's Ladder a pirate vessel when it is, in fact, an armed
merchanteer operating under the King's aegis."

"This will keep you in Jamaica a little longer," Beth said.

"If my men can get off the ship, they'll be happier for it. I've been
forced to keep them on, in sight of land, for too long for fear they'll
abandon." He looked back. "We may have that chance now." He took Beth by
the arm and led her out of earshot of the officers who had accompanied
him. "I don't know if it is you or your brother who is truly in charge
now, but since you have been Captain of the Ladder for so long it is you
I will ask. I need a favor of you. I know that a significant weight of
the gold is yours and your family's. Since the Medusa is sunk with all
hands and probably had not much on board anyway, could I ask you for a
favor, peer to peer?"

"You want a prize?" she asked.

"A small one. Enough to give my men a night in the stew."

I don't know the meaning of that phrase," she said. "I haven't lived in
England in quite some time, sir."

"A night at Lofn's. A full meal. Warm beds. That kind of thing."

She smiled. "Anything to make them happy, but not so much to think they
can abandon dear old England, eh?" He nodded. "I will do what I can,
Captain."

"Thank you, Captain," he said, his voice earnest. She liked Allison.
He was a capable officer. They returned to the forecastle even as the
Macedonia came into hailing range. The Captain of the Macedonia, a man
named Higgins, joined them on the deck.

The difference between the two was night and day. Where Allison was trim,
Higgins was given to portliness. Where Allison understood the nature of
long duty, Higgins was fresh from coastal patrols along the civilized
coasts of the Mediterranean and Atlantic and not the wilds of the New
World and the Gulf of Florida. He was the sort of man who employed
floggings more frequently than oakum or bilge duty. "These are grave
charges, Allison. What proof do you have of them?"

Allison spread his hands. "We have the principles here. The Lady Jessica
Coke, the Duke of Harcourt, his sister long thought dead. We have the
Letter of Course, and we have the gold with the King's insignia upon it,
which Lord Harcourt here is well and ready to take to England. That
alone should be enough to make the point. And we have Marbry's own
suspect activities. As a pirate vessel, the Ladder was a mere irritant,
the Medusa a true terror. Yet the Ladder not only fetched a price ten
times higher, but the Medusa was hired and pardoned if she should sink
the Ladder. Finally, the Letter of Course specifies the Harcourt family,
yet the Harcourt map was found in the home of the Duke of Coke." He
stunned the listening conspirators with his next words. "A man whom Marbry
murdered to keep the gold for himself. Isn't that true, Lady Speer?"

She nodded, mutely, her own eyes hovering between guilt and surprise.

"That is a very serious charge," Higgins said.

"It is nevertheless true. The night that Lady Harcourt learned the truth
from the duke, Marbry was alerted of the meeting and rode to the duke's
residence. He failed to stop the Harcourts, but murdered the duke in a
frustrated attempt to keep the secret for himself. I have the testimony
of several people, including the one who alerted the Governor. I hate
to bear bad news, Lady Harcourt, but it was Amalynn who betrayed your
meeting at the duke's residence. I saw her speak with the duke moments
before he tore out of Lofn's for home. Then she left the house, I would
guess to find Marbry."

"Amalynn?" Beth closed her eyes. "I am a sadder woman for it. To
know that one of my sex could be so deceitful." She tried to hide her
disappointment, but the news stabbed her deep as a knife in the guts.
She had adored Amalynn for her skills and bright eyes. Had it all been
deception? What price had been worth...

Allison nodded. "I understand. Come. Your ship is wounded. We will tow
you back to Jamaica, where we will entice the Governor into open ground
and arrest him for treason."

Jacob shook his head. "We will not accept a tow, Captain, not while she
has a mast standing."

Allison grinned. "You are a true man of the sea, Lord Harcourt." That
made Beth's smile return, if only as a flash before her grief took her
again. "Very well. We will... escort you back to Kingston. And we shall
make it once more a town of the King."
  _________________________________________________________________

Original document is available from:
http://www.drizzle.com/~elf/bloodybeth

Bloody Beth
is Copyright (c) 1989-2000 Elf Mathieu Sternberg. Distribution limited
to electronic media not-for-profit use only. All other rights are reserved
to the author.
