Pirates of the Storm (Stranded In Time Book 1) (21 page)

“Bring the others forth,” Jamison
commanded. Craig’s men were less passive about the process than
their Captain had been and all struggled against their restraints
and Jamison’s men as they were dragged forward. “Like your Captain,
you men are guilty of treason against the Brethren of the Coast.
But since you were following the orders of your Captain to whom you
had sworn an oath of loyalty and to have failed at that oath would
have also constituted treason, you shall have an opportunity to
spare your own lives. Your Captain is no longer living, and as
such, you are relieved of your oaths of loyalty to him. If you
denounce his actions and swear new oaths of loyalty to myself, to
Captain Coxen, or to any other Captain in the Brethren of the Coast
of your choice, your lives will be spared. If you choose not to do
so, you shall meet the same fate as Captain Craig.” Jamison turned
to the first man on the left, “What say you?”

“I denounce Captain Craig and him
treason. I wish to join yer crew and swear my oath o’ loyalty to
ye, Captain Jamison.”

Jamison repeated the process with the
other three men, and unsurprisingly, all three denounced Craig and
swore their loyalty to him. Jamison nodded, “It is settled then.
Your lives shall be spared, however, our law dictates that you be
punished for your part in the crimes perpetrated by your Captain.
It is my sentence that each of you be flogged and receive ten licks
across the back with the cat ‘o nine tails. This sentence is to be
carried out immediately.” The four men were pushed to their knees
and their shirts were ripped from their backs. Jamison nodded to
one of his crew, a large, muscular man who stepped forward with the
cat o’ nine tails. “Proceed Mr. Smith,” Jamison said solemnly. Jeff
winced as the first crack of the whip resounded with a loud smack
against the first man’s back and the man screamed out in pain.
Jenny placed her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to steady his
nerves, but he barely felt it.

As the punishments
continued, Jeff zoned out for a time, lost in his thoughts about
his own violent actions from the night before. By the time all four
men had been flogged, he was feeling rather nauseous. He realized
that bloody violence was destined to be a part of his life as long
as he remained in the 17
^th
century, and now more than
ever he was determined to find a way back to his own
time.

Jeff was roused from his
thoughts by Jamison’s voice, “Cut Craig down and leave him to the
sharks. Get these men to
The
Crow
and have Mr.
Mortinson attend to their wounds.”

“Aye, Captain!”

Captain Coxen spoke up, “Now that this
business is completed, let us make way to shore and celebrate!” The
men erupted in cheers and headed for the longboats. Coxen
approached Jeff, and Jenny shook him to attention by the shoulder.
“The unpleasantness is behind us now, Mr. Greene. Take heart and we
shall enjoy ourselves on shore.” Jeff took a deep breath and
followed the Captain and Jenny to the rail and climbed down to
their longboat. It was a short row to shore.

The stronghold at Utila was very
different from the town of Port Royal and Jeff’s thoughts were soon
interrupted by his new surroundings. The fort that Jeff had seen
from the ship was an imposing structure with high stone walls that
came right to the water’s edge. After beaching the longboats, the
group made their way up a short path to the fort’s entrance, a
large wooden door reinforced with metal straps. Coxen pounded on
the door with his fist and a muffled voice answered from behind it,
“What be the password?”

“Password? There’s never been a
password!” Coxen replied with annoyance.

“There be one now,” replied the
muffled voice.

“Well what is it?” Coxen
demanded.

“Brethren,” replied the
voice.

Coxen shook his head and sighed, “Very
well, the password is brethren, now open the door!”

From behind the door there was a
sliding noise and then the door creaked open. “Enter…” said the
voice. Captain Coxen led the way through the door and the group
filed in. Behind the door was a small, skinny man with dirty,
ragged clothes who Jeff noticed smelled even worse than most of the
people of this time period. “Oh, Captain Coxen, If I knowed it be
ye, I woulda let ye in without the password,” the skinny man said
with an apologetic tone.

“No harm done, Mr. Slate. Now, fetch
us some barrels of rum and let the others know we are here.
”

Jeff looked around as they walked
through the door. The inside of the small fort was pretty sparse.
The center was open to the elements and the only thing there was a
large fire pit that was currently not in use. There were a number
of doors along the perimeter wall that looked to Jeff like they
were probably barracks and an area with several large tables that
was covered by a thatched roof. Off to one side there were several
cages with chickens and pigeons and just next to them was a
fenced-off pig wallow with five large pigs. Coxen and Jamison led
the way to the tables as Slate and two other men rolled out barrels
of rum from behind the tables while two women suddenly appeared
from seemingly out of nowhere to prepare the fire for cooking. They
soon had a large fire burning and although it was some distance
away, Jeff could feel the warmth from it on his skin. Slate brought
out a box of assorted containers for rum, ranging from elaborate
pewter mugs to glass jars to coconut shells. Each man grabbed an
item and headed for the rum barrels.

A short, rotund man waddled out from
one of the doors and approached the group. “Captain Coxen, Captain
Jamison, it is good to see ye both. ‘Tis been far too long!” The
Captains bowed and shook hands with the man as they greeted
him.

“What say you roast us a pig, Smitty?
Tonight we celebrate!” Coxen exclaimed. “As you wish, Captain. It
will take me some time to prepare it. In the meantime, there is
plenty of rum and grog for you and your men and I believe that the
wenches are making themselves presentable for your entertainment.
“Very good, Smitty, you have always been an excellent
host.”

Jeff and Jenny sat down across from
each other, sharing the table with a mixture of their crew mates
and Jamison’s men. The rum was already taking effect and the group
was getting loud and boisterous. Several men raised a toast to
Jeff’s impression of Captain Craig and to Jeff and Jenny’s exploits
in defeating Craig’s ambush. In the midst of the merriment, Jeff
noticed Smitty approaching the pig wallow and was surprised at how
easily the overweight man was able to run down a pig and slit its
throat before slinging it over his shoulders to take to be prepared
for roasting. A short time later, the pig was on a spit and was
hoisted over the fire by Smitty and the two women.

As the trio departed for what Jeff
guessed was the kitchen, a couple of more provocatively dressed
women appeared from the barrack doors and approached the group.
Unlike the prostitutes of Port Royal who were in nice dresses,
these women were pretty scantily clad, wearing just petticoats and
corsets. Rather than attempting to make a deal immediately, these
women simply joined the party, laughing, drinking, and flirting
with the men. More of the party women gradually filed out of the
barracks and joined the group, and soon there were almost as many
of them as there were men at the tables.

Jeff got up and motioned for Jenny to
follow him to the rum barrel. “So what’s the deal with the women?
Are they prostitutes?” Jeff asked.

“Not exactly. They live here under the
protection of the Brethren of the Coast and in exchange for their
room and board, they provide entertainment for the men of the
Brethren when they come to the fort,” Jenny explained.

“They are entertaining,” Jeff said
with a smile.

“They get more entertaining with more
rum, but you won’t be here to see that. I have other plans for
you,” Jenny said with a wink before heading back to the
table.

As Jeff took his seat, a buxom blonde
woman placed herself on Jenny’s lap and wrapped her arms around her
neck. Jenny acted for all the world like a horny male pirate,
groping the blonde and slapping her playfully on the butt while
they laughed and drank their wine. After a time, the men started to
leave the table for periods of time to escort one and sometimes two
of the ladies to a room for additional festivities. Jeff turned
down two of the women who quickly found someone else to entertain.
The blonde on Jenny’s lap had apparently taken a shine to her and
seemed determined to get Jenny back to her room. To Jeff’s
surprise, Jenny finally relented and left the table with the
blonde, smiling at him as she left.

Jeff shrugged it off and moved towards
the center of the table to listen to a couple of Jamison’s men
telling tall tales of their adventures. While most of the stories
were probably at least mostly fabricated, they were entertaining
and Jeff was enjoying listening to them.

After a while, Jenny returned with the
blonde who looked quite pleased. “Please excuse me for a while,
Miss Esmerelda. I shall like to share a smoke with my mate here and
perhaps later we can enjoy each other’s company again,” Jenny
said.

The blonde sighed, “Very well, but do
find me later. I be waiting for ye.”

Jenny beckoned for Jeff to follow her.
He stood up and followed her across to the far side of the fort.
She led him through a door that opened into a dark corridor. As
they walked, Jeff asked, “OK, so how did you pass yourself off as a
man to your blonde friend there?”

“All I will say is that the rooms here
are quite dark and as for anything else, I have my ways. After all,
I am a woman and I know what women like,” she replied.

“Apparently. Your friend seemed quite
taken with you.”

“Aye, she did, didn’t she?” Jenny
laughed.

As they turned a corner, Jeff could
see glimmering light on the wall at the far end of the corridor.
They entered a grotto that had gas lanterns on the wall and a dock
with several longboats tied off to it. At one end the water was
moving in and out of the grotto through an opening that was several
feet wide, but only a few feet high – barely high enough for the
boats to squeeze through. “This is where the occupants of the fort
can come to escape in case the fort is ever over-run by an attack,”
Jenny explained. “They also use the boats to go out to the reef to
catch fish for meals. We should have it all to ourselves while
everyone is occupied with the celebration,” she said as she let her
hair down from the dirty bandana and began to undress. “Fancy a
swim, Mr. Gree… I mean, Jeff,” she said.

“Always happy to share a swim with
you, my dear,” he replied as he slipped off his own
clothes.

Jenny walked to the end of the dock
and climbed down the wooden ladder to the water and Jeff followed
close behind. The water here had more wave action than the cave in
Port Royal and it frustrated Jeff’s attempts to be close with
Jenny. After a time, Jenny swam over to the ladder and climbed up
on the dock. “Coming?” she asked over her shoulder as Jeff treaded
water staring at her.

“Just wanted to take a moment to
admire the view,” he said watching the water drop off of her naked
skin.

“Don’t be too long. I’m getting a bit
lonely and if you aren’t up here soon, I might have to go find my
friend from earlier.”

With that, Jeff quickly swam to the
ladder and climbed onto the dock. Jenny turned to welcome him and
she embraced him tightly as she pressed her lips to his in a deep,
passionate kiss. They eventually found themselves breathing hard in
each other’s arms, somewhat worse the wear from making love on the
rough floor of the grotto. They were so caught up in the passion of
the moment that neither of them heard the faint footsteps
approaching the grotto.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Esmerelda exclaimed,
“I be looking for Mr. Robinson. Do ye know where ‘e is?”

Jenny hid her face against Jeff’s
chest as he replied, “Uh, no. Haven’t seen him.” “I saw the two of
ye head this way when ye went off fer yer smoke, but I never seen
him come back out.”

“Oh, he left some time ago and I don’t
know where he is now,” Jeff replied nervously.

“A pity. He must ha’ gone off with
another girl,” she said with disappointment. “Sorry to have
bothered ye… Is that Annalisa?” she asked, squinting in the dim
light at Jenny’s naked backside.

“Umm hmm,” Jenny replied with her face
still buried in Jeff’s chest.

“Well ye two ‘ave fun,” the blonde
said as she turned and departed.

“That was close!” Jeff
exclaimed.

“Aye, a little too close,” Jenny
agreed, “We had better get back to the celebration before she comes
across Annalisa and starts to wonder who she saw.” The pair dressed
quickly and Jeff did the best he could to re-apply Jenny’s facial
disguise before they made their way back through the passageway.
Jenny held back while Jeff poked his head out into the main
courtyard of the fort. Thankfully, Esmerelda was just leading one
of Jamison’s men to her quarters. Jeff and Jenny casually walked
across and rejoined the men and women carousing at the long
tables.

“Mr. Greene, Mr. Robinson, do get
yourselves some rum and join us,” Captain Coxen shouted to them
with his arms around two very well-endowed topless women who were
perched on his lap.