Ransome's Quest (39 page)

“What do you think you could do on the plantation?” The pain in Julia’s side fought with the gentle sway of the ship.

“I grew up on a sugar plantation outside New Orleans, ma’am. I can do everything—plant, cultivate, harvest, cure. And I can read and write and calculate.”

Julia thought not about the sugar cane and refineries, but about the white clapboard chapel. “And I hear you preach.”

“I’ve been known to do so, yes, ma’am. Had my own congregation for a dozen years.”

Jeremiah loved talking about God, but even he admitted he was no preacher. “Mr. Baptiste, I would be happy for you to come work for Tierra Dulce. Will you return to Kingston with us?”

“No, ma’am. I will sail
Serenity
back for Captain Witherington.”

Julia crossed to William’s desk, eased herself down into the chair, and pulled out stationery, ink, and quill. “I understand
Serenity
is to leave within the hour.”

“As soon as I return to pilot her, ma’am.”

But with the delays of Kent’s surgery and Charlotte’s late return,
Alexandra
and
Audacious
would now be stuck here until tomorrow morning. She penned a note to Jeremiah, sealed it, and gave it to Jean Baptiste. “Take this to the overseer at Tierra Dulce. He will find you a place to stay and put you to work until I get there.”

The sailor tucked the letter into his waistcoat pocket. “Thank you, ma’am. I promise, you will not be sorry a day that you’ve hired me.”

“I know you will justify my trust in you, Mr. Baptiste.”

He let himself out, and Julia cleaned up the writing supplies. Perhaps having one of Michael’s former crew working for her at Tierra Dulce would make her long-lost brother feel not quite so far away.

She looked up at another knock on the door. “Yes?”

The door opened and this time it was Michael.

“Don’t get up, Julia.” He hurried to her side.

“I think I will. I’m not comfortable here.” She took the assistance he offered to return to her feet.

“Do you have a place for him?”

“Jean Baptiste? Yes—or, rather, Jeremiah will find a place for him working on the plantation. When I get home I will ask him to preach for us on a Sunday to see if he is the preacher we’ve been waiting for at the Tierra Dulce chapel. What about Suresh? He isn’t looking to make a change like that, is he?” Julia grinned at her brother.

“You will never get my steward from me. Not only will I always outbid you, but he is loyal to me. That’s a rare thing in my line of work.” Michael wandered around the cabin examining the furniture and fixtures. “Not much for showing off, is he, this husband of yours?”

“No. But that’s one of the many reasons why I love him.”

Michael flopped onto the sofa in the corner—the one her desk had sat beside on the voyage over from England. He leaned his head back against the high arm and covered his eyes with one arm.

Julia almost laughed at the melodramatic pose. “You’re going to miss your ship.”

“Yes.” Michael’s wail reminded her so much of when they were children and would perform theatricals for Mama, Jeremiah, and Jerusha. “England, sister. He’s making me go back to
England.
I hate it there.”

She ventured a light chuckle. “You haven’t been there since you were ten years old. You don’t know that you’ll hate it.”

He lifted his arm and peeked at her with a grin. “I’ll hate it.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

Heaving a dramatic sigh, he covered his eyes again. “Don’t I know it? But at least I’m not as bad as Declan.”

“Declan?”

“Yes, locking Ned and Charlotte in Ned’s cabin like that.”

Julia gasped, and then gasped again, all humor gone, shock overriding the sharp pain in her side. “What?”

Michael swung his legs around and sat up. “Charlotte did not tell you?”

“William hasn’t come back with her yet.” Julia pressed her fingertips to her temples. “Oh, this is terrible.”

Michael made a face of comic disbelief. “Why is it terrible? They’re in love and they’re married. That’s what young, in-love, married people are supposed to do. Steal away and spend time alone together.”

“But they aren’t married, not really.” She wrung her hands, trying to think of how she could keep this a secret.

“How do you figure that? I was there. I signed the marriage certificate as a witness. I handed the bride over.” His chest puffed with pride.

“But they weren’t married by a rector or parish priest or bishop.”

“You doubt the authenticity of Ned and Charlotte’s marriage, but you yourself plan to ask Jean Baptiste to become the preacher at Tierra Dulce’s church? So he’s good enough for the black folk, but not good enough for us?” Michael lost all traces of humor. “If that’s what you think, then you’re not the Julia Witherington I remember.”

“No, it isn’t that…” But maybe, somewhere deep down in a part of her she didn’t want to admit existed, that was why she had such a problem accepting that Charlotte and Ned were truly married. Shame bubbled up, and she pressed her hands to her hot cheeks. “You’re right. I’ve been prejudicial against Jean Baptiste—but not because he’s black. It’s because he’s not English. Not someone who would be acceptable by
society’s
standards.”

She gaped at her brother. “Michael, I’ve become just like her! I went to England for a year, and they turned me into one of them.”

He eased the tension between them by throwing back his head and laughing. “Yes, Mother was a stickler for maintaining everything the way it would have been back in England. So, now, what is your position on Ned and Charlotte?”

Julia swallowed hard around the sting of recognizing her own weakness in allowing everyone in England to shape her into someone for whom appearances were more important than what she knew in her heart to be right. “My position is that Captain and Mrs. Cochrane should be allowed to be together, if that is what they wish.”

Her brother bounded up from the sofa and came over to gently hug her. He ended the embrace with a loud kiss on the cheek. “That’s the sister I remembered.”

“Good. Because now you’re going to have to help me explain this to William.”

Michael shook his head. “No, ma’am. Husband-and-wife waters are too rough for this pirate to sail. That’s between the two of you.”

“What good is having my brother back if you’re not going to help me?”

He gave her a smacking kiss on the other cheek. “There are times when a brother helps, and then there are times when a brother runs away.”

The door opened and William entered. Michael leaned closer. “And this is definitely a time for running away,” he whispered.

“Coward,” Julia whispered back.

“Good luck.” Michael waved, greeted William, and slipped out the door.

W
here is Charlotte?” Julia looked beyond William as he entered and Michael exited.

He shut the cabin door. “I was waylaid by the doctor, who wanted to tell me that Mr. Kent woke up and took a little water.”

“So you haven’t gone to get her yet?”

He stepped into the quarter gallery. “No.”

Julia waited until he came back out to continue the conversation. “Don’t bring her back.”

William poured water over his hands into the washbasin and then used it to splash his face. The end of the first week of October and still the full heat of summer. “What did you say?”

“Let her stay with Ned if that is what she wants.”

He looked at Julia, water still dripping from his chin, to see if she looked feverish or if she, like Mr. Kent, had received a blow to the head, causing her confusion. “Why?”

“Because they’re married.” She looked at him as if he were the one not thinking straight.

“But you said until they were married in a church, you thought they should be kept apart.”

She shrugged, a slight upward movement of her shoulders that brought no grimace of pain. “I was wrong.”

“Does this have anything to do with Jean Baptiste’s visit to you?”

“Indirectly, yes. I was being too English in my notions. I forgot that I’m more Jamaican than English.”

At that outrageous statement, he had to laugh. “I do not know what that means, but whatever it is, I am certain Charlotte will be very thankful for your change of heart.” He dried his face and hung the small towel back on its peg. “If you are feeling up to it, I thought you might like to come see
Serenity
off before I head over to
Audacious
to chart routes with Ned.”

“Yes, I do believe a walk to the quarterdeck will do me good.”

He gave her the support of his arm. In the wheelhouse and on deck, all of the officers and crew were especially solicitous toward her, and she basked in their attentions. William left her with Michael at the starboard side of the quarterdeck and gave orders for a boat to be prepared and for the sailing master to be ready with his charts.

By the time he rejoined them at the bulwark,
Serenity
was moving apace, every man of the scant crew busy with his duty. As the quarterdeck passed, Michael raised his hand in a wave, and Declan and Jean Baptiste raised theirs in a return farewell.

Until now, seeing Julia and Michael standing side by side, William had forgotten that in his initial encounter with Julia twenty years ago, upon first glance he had mistaken her for Michael, an error most of the men aboard her father’s ship had made, to Julia’s benefit, as it had allowed her to roam freely about the ship dressed in her brother’s clothes with her long hair tucked up in a knit cap. Looking upon them now, most would guess they were sister and brother, but not that they were twins.

Three bells marked five thirty in the evening. It would be dark soon—earlier than sunset, as the cliffs would block the sun once it dipped low on the horizon. William bade Julia farewell and descended the accommodation ladder while she and Michael returned to the big cabin for supper.

After a short trip across the water, shorter now that
Serenity
wasn’t between them, William, his sailing master, and his new first lieutenant, Campbell, were ushered to Ned’s cabin. In the dining cabin, Charlotte helped the steward set out Captain Parker’s china for supper. She didn’t just blush when she looked up to greet William—her entire head turned red. No need to wonder why she had not returned to
Alexandra
hours ago. His baby sister—

He set that unproductive line of thought aside. Another issue needed to be addressed, and it needed to be addressed before
Audacious
returned to Kingston.

After dining with Ned’s five lieutenants, William asked Ned to call a meeting of the officers in the wardroom—lieutenants, midshipmen, and warrant officers. With a question in his gray eyes, Ned made it so.

“Charlotte, you will join us, please.” William waved her toward the door.

Wide-eyed, she followed Ned out the door and down one level to the wardroom. More Spartan than the captain’s quarters, the main area of the lieutenants’ berth provided more room for the number present.

As soon as the last midshipman filed in and closed the door, William spoke.

“As many of you know and many of you have surmised, the midshipman you knew as Charles Lott on the crossing from England was this young woman in disguise, my sister and now your captain’s wife.”

William marked shock in a few faces, but the rest nodded, smirked, or acted as if they did not care. “Though it was an ill-judged decision on her part, Midshipman Charles Lott served with distinction”—here the two youngest lieutenants nodded emphatically—“and served with as much dedication and honor as a man.”

Beside him, Charlotte stared at him, her lips parted, eyes wide, cheeks pink.

“Since being rescued from her abduction by pirates, she has once again stepped in where needed, protecting the members of this crew, including risking her own life to board the frigate
Sister Mary
to rescue Lieutenant Gardiner, Midshipman Jamison, and Midshipman Kent—who is recovering from his surgery, according to Dr. Hawthorne. In fact, she saved Mr. Kent’s life twice, even after, I am told, he did everything he could to make her stay on
Audacious
the first time unpleasant.”

A frisson of agreement circulated in the room. “Many of you witnessed her courageous act of putting herself between Kent and the incoming fire from the pirate ship
Sister Elizabeth
during this most recent battle, for which she received the thanks of taking grapeshot to her arm, shot that would most likely have killed Mr. Kent had she not intervened.”

Now even those midshipmen who had smirked and made quiet scoffing sounds in the beginning looked ready to praise Charlotte for her actions.

“You have all heard the rumors, the legends, that have surfaced through the last thirty years we have been at war of women disguising themselves and serving valiantly in the Royal Navy. I put to you tonight that the legend of Charles Lott will add greatly to the mythos.”

Both Charlotte and Ned stared at him now, while the others around them discussed William’s proposal amongst themselves.

Moments later Lieutenant Gardiner stepped forward and the room once again grew still. “Commodore Ransome, Captain Cochrane,” he smiled at Charlotte, “and Mrs. Cochrane, the officers of His Majesty’s Ship
Audacious
are proud to be the bearers of the legend of Charles Lott. He came to us in Portsmouth a green lad with much to learn. He served with honor, led with a kind firmness, and did not retaliate when wrong was done to him. His young life was snuffed by yellow fever at Barbados, but he was not ready to leave us yet, so his ghost remained, reappearing during times of great need to protect the crew of
Audacious
and, especially, her captain.”