The Lion Triumphant (17 page)

They screamed at each other in Spanish, which I was beginning to understand a little.

They were all calling on the Mother of God to intercede for them and as they prayed they worked the pumps.

I saw Richard Rackell among them.

He noticed me too and gave me that rueful smile which I suppose was meant to imply contrition.

I retaliated with the contemptuous look I reserved for him and then I thought: This could well be our last hour on earth. I must at least try to discover what had made him deceive us so. I half smiled at him and the relief on his face was apparent. Someone shouted at me, for I had lowered the lantern. I was able to recognize what was required and held it high again.

That nightmare seemed to go on for a long time. My arms ached with holding the lantern, but at least that was better than inactivity. The galleon had taken on a new character; she was like a living person. She was taking a furious beating and standing up to it. I realized then a little of what Jake Pennlyon felt toward his
Rampant Lion.
He loved that ship perhaps as much as he could love anybody, and witnessing the fight for survival the galleon was making, I could understand that.

Two cabin boys came down to the pumps and one of them recognized me, for I heard him say something about the Señorita.

One of the men came over and looked at me closely. My hair hanging in wet strands down my back betrayed me.

The lantern was taken from me. I was pushed toward the companionway.

All about me were the rhythmic sounds of the pump; the carpenters were patching parts of the ship with thin strips of lead and ramming oakum into the spots where the sea was coming in.

I found my way back to the cabin.

Honey was distraught and when she saw me her face shone with relief.

“Catharine, where have you been?”

“I’ve been holding a lantern.” I was flung against the side of the cabin as I spoke. I got up and clung to the leg of the fixed table. I told the others to do the same. At least we could not be dashed about if we could keep our grip on that.

I thought the ship was going to turn over; she rose and leaned so that her starboard side must have been beneath the sea. She shivered as though she were being shaken and then seemed to remain in the position for minutes before she crashed down.

There was the sound of heavy objects being flung about. There were shouts and curses. If I had been on deck at that moment I should certainly have been swept overboard.

Honey murmured: “Oh, God, this is the end then.”

I felt my entire being crying out in protest. I would not die. There was so much I had to discover. I must know for what purpose we had been abducted. I must see Jake Pennlyon again.

After that, although the storm raged, it began to abate a little. It was terrifying yet, but the ship was still standing up to the storm and the worst appeared to be over.

For hours the wind continued to shake us; the ship went on creaking and groaning; we could not stand up, but at least we were all together.

I looked at Honey; she lay exhausted, her long lashes beautiful against her pale skin. I was overcome with a kind of protective love for her; and I wondered when her child would be born and what effect these terrible happenings might have on it.

On an impulse I bent over and kissed her cheek. It was a strange thing for me to do, for I was not demonstrative. She opened her eyes and smiled at me.

“Catharine, we’re still here then?”

“We’re alive still,” I said.

“And together,” she added.

For two days and nights the storm had raged, but it was over now. The waters had lost their fury; they were smooth blue-green and only the occasional white horse ruffled them.

There was cold food only—biscuits and salt meat—and we were hungry enough to enjoy it.

The Captain came to the cabin while the storm was still raging and inquired for us. I noticed how he looked at Honey, tender, reassuring.

“We are riding the storm,” he told us. “The ship has come through. But we shall have to put into port to repair the damage.”

My heart leaped. In port. It would not be an English port, of course. No Spanish galleon would dare risk that. But the word “port” excited me. We might escape and find our way back to England.

“While we are in port I shall have to keep you confined to this cabin,” he said. “You will understand the necessity of this.”

“If you could tell us where we are being taken we could perhaps understand it,” I said.

“You will know, Señorita, in time.”

“I want to know now.”

“It is necessary sometimes to wait,” said the Captain. He turned to Honey. “I trust you were not afraid.”

“I knew you would bring the ship through to safety,” she answered.

Something seemed to pass between them: an understanding; a rapport. I had never really understood Honey. It came of her connection with a witch and the strange way she had come into our household.

Edward was dead, it seemed, and she had mourned him, but for not as long as might have been expected. He had been a good husband to her and she had grieved, but she was not prostrate with her grief as I had thought she might be. Her main preoccupation was with the baby and the Captain’s solicitude had brought her great relief.

“As soon as the galley fires can be set burning there will be hot food,” he said.

Honey murmured: “Thank you.” And he left us.

“A maddening man,” I said when he had left us. “He knows where he is taking us and why, and he will not tell. I could shake him.”

“He has been good to us,” said Honey, “and it is another’s secret he keeps.”

“He has certainly found favor with you,” I said.

She did not answer.

The storm had died down; the ship, though battered and not quite her former dignified self, had come through. She was still afloat and capable of voyaging. It was a matter for rejoicing.

The Captain told us that there was to be a thanksgiving service on the deck and as every soul on board had been saved all were commanded to attend.

We should take our stand on deck with the others. John Gregory and Richard Rackell should stand on either side of us. We should come up on deck after the ship’s company were assembled and leave as soon as the service was over.

There was a keen wind following the ship and it was an impressive moment when we mounted the companionway, John Gregory before us and Richard Rackell taking up the rear. The men were lined up on deck: men of all ages and sizes. A wooden box served as a pulpit and on it stood the Captain. He looked a fine man with his rather pleasant face, yet stern. He was a mild man, but one had the impression that if the occasion demanded he could be fierce and forbidding.

It was a moment I would remember for many years—the chill wind billowing the sails, blowing our hair about our faces, ruffling our garments and seeming good after the stuffiness of the cabin; the sky a light blue with the clouds visibly drifting across; everywhere the smell of damp wood and sweating bodies and musty garments, to make one rejoice even more in that clean fresh air.

Life was good; one knew that when one had come near to losing it—yes, even to captives on a pirate ship who were being carried to some unknown destination it was good to be alive.

I knew in that moment that my zest for living would never fail me. Whatever was in store for me I should endure and remember that I intended to go on living to the full every minute of my life until I died.

The Captain read from the Bible; I did not now know what but it was beautiful; and the silence broken only by the wind in the sails and the sound of his voice.

I suppose everyone there on deck was giving his heartfelt thanks for life.

Then I was aware of the glances which were coming our way and that in the main these were directed at me, strange, almost furtive looks, looks which implied a certain hatred … yes, and fear! What did this mean? I glanced at Honey, but she was oblivious of whatever it was and a tremor of apprehension ran through me. I was deeply aware of how vulnerable we were.

The Captain was no longer speaking; John Gregory touched my arm lightly.

It was time for us to go below.

We had shipped anchor a mile or so from land and the Captain had come to talk to us.

“I regret,” he said, “that I cannot allow you to go ashore. It is important that while we are in port I make sure that you are well guarded. I trust you will understand.”

Honey assured him that she did.

I demanded: “Could we not at least go on deck for fresh air?”

He said that he would see what could be arranged, but we should have to give our word not to attempt any folly. “Folly being to attempt to return to our own home?” I asked, for I could never resist implying how these people had wronged us.

“That would not only be folly but an impossibility,” he replied gently. “You are in a land alien to you. How would you without means find your way back to England? You would be beset by dangers on all sides, so it is for your own good that I guard you.”

“And for him whose orders you obey?”

He nodded.

We were allowed to go on deck with John Gregory and Richard Rackell to guard us. We were about two miles from the coast. I saw trees and grass and a cluster of houses. It was good to look on them after seeing nothing but the ocean.

To her great delight Jennet was allowed to go ashore. We watched her climb down the ladder into the bobbing boat; her sailor caught her in his arms and she was laughing. I saw him pinch her buttocks affectionately and she laughed up at him. She seemed to have no regrets for her abduction. She was the most adaptable creature I had ever known.

I said to Honey: “Give her a man and she will be content.”

“She seems fond of her Spaniard,” said Honey tolerantly.

How I should have liked to step ashore. I wondered whether Jake Pennlyon had ever come here. It was possible, for I guessed it was part of Spain and that we were en route for the Barbery coast. He had talked of these waters. I looked to the far horizon where the sea and the land appeared to meet and I said to myself: One day a ship will appear. The
Rampant Lion.
He will come, I know it.

We leaned over the rail and watched the coast. We were not near enough to see people, but we could see the boats bobbing to and fro.

Jennet came back with tales of what she had seen.

“People jabbering away in Spanish!” she said. “I couldn’t catch what they did say. But my Alfonso he could.”

“I should hope so since he is a Spaniard,” I retorted.

She had been taken into a wine shop and had drunk wine accompanied by little savory cakes which had been “rare tasty.” She was full of the sights her Alfonso had shown her.

The next day we were taken into harbor and there we stayed while the repairs were attended to. The rigging had to be overhauled; seams had to be freshly calked; the shipwrights were busy.

All day long there was activity on board. Not only were the repairs carried out but fresh stores loaded. Some members of the crew deserted; the storm had no doubt cured them of their desire to go again to sea; there had to be replacements.

It was a busy time for them, an irksome one for us, and out of sheer boredom I began to consider plans for escape. They were absurd, I knew, because we were foreign women in a foreign land, without money and unable to speak the language—though we had by now picked up a few words—and one of us pregnant! But I found some comfort in planning. My mother had always said that I was impulsive. “Count ten before speaking, Cat darling,” she used to say. “And think well before acting.”

But it was a comfort to plan. I said: “We could dress ourselves as sailors. We could slip ashore and in no time we would be out of that little town.”

“Without clothes, without money, without knowing where we are?” asked practical Honey.

“We would soon find out.”

“It would be a worse fate than that which awaits us now. We have been lucky. The Captain is a good man.”

“He will protect you, Honey, because you have charmed him and he implies that he is protecting me for some purpose.”

“I do wonder what is awaiting us.”

“Could you not lure it from him?”

“He will never give a hint.”

I was frustrated. Constantly I looked for that ship on the horizon, but it never came.

Once I talked to Richard Rackell, for I was on deck alone with him.

“Why did you lie to us?” I asked. “Why did you pretend to be what you were not?”

“I did what I must,” he answered.

“You were ordered to come?”

He nodded.

“For what purpose?”

“I cannot tell you.”

“You deceived us, you lied to us, you accepted our bounty and because of you a good man now lies cold in his grave.”

Richard Rackell crossed himself and murmured: “May God rest his soul.”

“And you are his murderer.”

“I would never have laid hands on him.”

“But because you came and worked with our enemies he is now a dead man.”

Richard Rackell’s lips moved; he was murmuring a prayer.

“You murder and ravish, you pirates and rascals and rogues!” I cried. “Yet you are all very religious men, I observe.” He did not speak and I went on: “And your affianced bride—what of her? You seduced her; you promised to marry her knowing full well that you never would. Am I right?”

He bowed his head.

“You have need of your prayers,” I said with sarcasm. “I hope you are repaid a thousandfold for what you have done to us.”

“Mistress,” he said, “I ask forgiveness.”

“There is no harm in asking.”

He sighed and looked out to sea.

I said after a while: “Tell me who sent you to us with your lies of coming from the North.”

“That I am forbidden to do.”

“But you were sent, as that rogue Gregory was sent.”

“We were sent.”

“And the purpose was to take us away.”

He was silent.

“Of course it was. But why
… us!
If you wanted women could you not have raided any coastal town and taken them? Why did you have to come, you and Gregory, and this great galleon to take us away?”