Hades's Revenge (14 page)

“I don’t know what you have planned, but
don’t you do it,” William threatened Olaf and Jessop closing in on
him.

Jessop distracted him while Olaf grabbed his
arms from behind and more or less dragged him kicking and screaming
to the shower. The sailors quickly gathered to see the ruckus and
cheer them on.

Clothes and all, William was shoved into the
stall doused and with water. Before he could shake his head and
wipe at his eyes Olaf started lathering him up while William
scrubbed at the soapy residue with a long handled brush. He tried
to escape but Stubby and Joe blocked the door of the stall while
William and Olaf worked feverishly. One more soaking of water and
the door was unbarred. William broke free of the stall sopping
wet.

As he turned to look at the laughing men he
said, “Oh, you think this is funny? You wait. Your turn will come,
then who will be laughing…ME!”

Needless to say, William was not happy about
the incident, but all who bunked near him were grateful for the
lack of smell he had once he dried.

Fin who was never happy about anything
Jessop did on board, didn’t grumble too loudly about the new system
of cleanliness and once or twice he’d seen a wet Fin exiting the
contraption.

Though much of their food still was salted
for preservation purposes, a little less salt from available
drinking water was happily accepted. Bean’s had a new zest for
cooking and started experimenting more with soups instead of
stews.

With the danger of the hurricane behind them
and fair skies as far as one could see, they again headed for the
captain’s favorite stop—Diamond Island.

* * *

Leave at the Cock and Bull was pleasantly
entertaining. Drinking and cohorting were in high order. Olaf ended
each night with a ballad of some Norwegian folk song, lulling the
drunken rowdy men into submission and sleep. The barkeep was always
grateful to see Olaf step up at night’s end for he knew,
thankfully, that the fighting, breaking of furniture and abusive
slurring was coming to an end for the evening.

Though this leave was longer than the last
one they spent here, they never saw the captain leave the ship to
head to his secret place. Jessop was relieved to have not run into
Miss Patti on this occasion as well, but he couldn’t help finding
his mind wandering where she might be.

He’d had many thoughts about that night in
the barn and the things William had pointed out. He’d like to
change her opinion of him, if nothing else, so that she didn’t
think him an inept. But then he wondered why he cared so much how
she viewed him. Chances are he’d never see her again so what did it
matter. He didn’t know, but somehow it did.

When the bills were paid and the men filled
with good food and drink, they meandered back to the boat under the
watchful eye of Fin. Each man was checked off one by one in his
notebook. If Fin was nothing else, he was certainly efficient and
organized and very, very testy.

Salty skittered over to greet Jessop and
William as the captain came aboard looking fit and jolly. Behind
him was a scrawny knave in clothes far too big for his frame and a
mass of hair clubbed with a black ribbon.

Jessop watched as the boy stepped aboard
meeting no one’s gaze and carrying the captain’s leather bag over
his shoulder, a cloth tied at all four corners containing his own
personal items, and a gigantic cat.

“This is me new cabin boy, Patrick. He will
be serving me in me cabin and will take the cabin next to mine as
his own,” the captain announced.

Many of the men nodded in greeting to the
new recruit but the shy boy kept his head low and his hand wrapped
tightly around the cat.

Olaf greeted Patrick with a hearty slap on
the back nearly knocking him to the floor. The cat escaped and the
boy then pursued it. Olaf followed to help.

“Well, glad to see y’all rested and ready.
Shall we weigh anchor and set sail fer Newfoundland in search of
wayward Brits to raid and plunder?”

A boisterous “Aye, aye, Captain,” rose from
the ranks of men as they readied themselves to set sail.

* * *

The
Revenge
made her way up the
coast, just shy of Greenland. The captain confessed to hearing the
British were sending another fully stocked ship of armory for their
soldiers.

It was bitter cold waiting along the
northern coast of Newfoundland in late October and it didn’t help
they were ambushed with storm after storm for weeks, but true to
his word, along came a lone British frigate heavy in the water with
her load.

As was the captain’s style, they let her
pass them unseen then came up on her in the night, cannons blazing
and flaming through the air. Though the
Florence
was laden
with arms, her captain steered her with great agility, and for a
moment, she almost broke away from the onslaught of shrapnel, but
when one of the chain shots took out her rudder, and the main sails
caught fire, there was no hope for her escape.

Pirates swinging on ropes spate her deck and
like a wave washing over her, the men of the
Florence
soon
littered the water and whole of the ship. They fought bravely but
there were three pirates to every British sailor. Hardly a man on
the
Revenge
was injured, except for Jolly Joe who lost his
pinky and ring finger on his right hand. Luckily for him, he was a
lefty.

As swiftly as they took the
Florence
,
they also stripped her of cargo. It was a huge cache—the biggest
Jessop had seen to date, and would surely force them to unburden
the
Revenge
of her payload as soon as they could upon
Diamond Island. Surely those dealing with the captain would be very
happy with this boat load.

Jessop did notice that during the fighting
there was no sign of the captain’s cabin boy and he wondered if the
poor skinny boy even knew how to fight. He had seen the boy’s face
through the window of the cabin door as fighting was upon them and
he truly looked feminine in his horror.

Maybe Jessop could teach the boy to fight
with a sword. That would surely build his confidence and give him
the ability to defend himself. He decided to take it up with the
captain the next chance he got.

* * *

The next morning Jessop knocked at the door
of the captain’s cabin. Patrick opened the door lowering his eyes
immediately to Jessop and with a gesture of his hand allowed him
entrance.

“Mr. Andrews, what might ye be owin’ to this
impromptu visit,” the captain said sipping tea at his desk.

“I wanted to offer my services to your cabin
boy, sir. It occurred to me last night when I saw him watching our
battle, that he may not know how to sword fight.”

“That’s very kind of ye. Indeed, I don’t
believe Patrick has any trainin’ to be had,” the captain said
eyeing the agitated looking Patrick.

“I expect it would be an asset for a boy so
young and small to have aboard a pirate ship,” Jessop
encouraged.

“T’would have to be his decision, though. I
won’t be forcin’ it upon him,” the captain said directing the
conversation at Patrick.

“Uh. I…I don’t want to burden your men,
sir,” the boy said. Jessop noted the boy’s voice hadn’t even
changed yet—he was very young indeed.

“It’s not a burden,” Jessop said.

“You’d be learning from my best swordsmen,”
the captain added as Patrick’s large cat came to Jessop and rubbed
his cheek then his entire left side along Jessop’s ankle.

“Your
best
, sir, I don’t think that
is accurate.”

“It is, I’m sure of it. Why else would I
have offered ye a position on the
Revenge
? I’m sure you’ve
heard I don’t do that very often.”

“I had sir, but…”

“Don’t argue, Andrews. It’s a compliment.
Take it. Now, Patrick, what say you?”

“I…I accept,” he said, though he didn’t seem
very confident about it and seemed a little disheveled when the
captain spoke of Jessop’s skill.

“Good. Shall we start on the morrow? At
sunrise? That won’t interfere with your duties, will it?” Jessop
asked.

But before Patrick could answer the captain
spoke, “Not at all. Even if it did, we could be workin’ around
them.”

“Perfect. Then I will see you on the
quarterdeck in the morning.”

Patrick nodded in agreement. Jessop reached
down to scratch the purring cat on the head and cheek before taking
his leave. He heard the captain say to Patrick as he closed the
door:

“Did you see that, Patrick, Chester would be
liking Mr. Andrews. I’ve never seen him rub himself on the likes of
anyone but ye and ol’ Salty. What do ye know?” This made Jessop
smile.

As Jessop had promised he climbed to the
deck at sunrise breathing in the brisk salty air whipping past him.
He held a belt and scabbarded sword in one hand as he waited for
Patrick to meet him.

“Good morning,” Jessop greeted.

Only a nod came from the pupil.

Handing the belt and sword to the boy he
said, “Here. This was the smallest sword I could find. Don’t worry,
with a little work you’ll be able to wield a larger sword as your
muscles develop,” he tried to encourage.

“Have you ever used a sword?” Jessop
asked.

Patrick shook his head.

“That’s fine,” Jessop said. “Are you
left-handed or right?

“Right,” Patrick mumbled.

“Okay. Pull the sword from its
scabbard.”

He awkwardly slid it from its sheath,
struggling with the last inch or so.

He pointed out the finer points of the sword
naming them and instructed Patrick how to hold it properly.

“Good. Now toss it to your other hand like
this.”

He did and it hit the ground with a clang.
“So be it…it takes a while to get to know its weight and feel, but
you’ll get it with practice.

“Now let’s try something else. Bring your
sword up to meet mine. Right. Now tap it to the left. Yes. And the
right. Uh huh. Again. Good, now we’re going to move while we do it.
Tap, step forward tap right, move forward, tap left, move backward,
good, but don’t look at your feet or the sword, look at me. You
want to anticipate what I’m going to do. Am I going forward?
Backward, hitting right or left. Very nice.

“I’m going to come up on your right stop my
blade with yours. Good.”

They carried on like this for the better
part of an hour until he was sure the boy would be very sore from
the weight of the sword.

“You did very well, Patrick. We’ll try more
difficult footwork tomorrow, but you need to make eye contact with
your foe to anticipate his actions. I’ve noticed you find this hard
to do during our time and with the men aboard. If you look them
straight on, they’ll respect you more. The more confident you look,
the less they’ll pick on you.”

Patrick took a long hard look at Jessop in
an attempt to do as he suggested. Jessop shook his head and said,
“You suddenly look familiar. I haven’t met you somewhere, have I?”
Jessop asked.

Patrick dropped his gaze and said, “No.”

He wondered where he might have seen the
boy. “See you on the morrow?”

Patrick nodded and turned to leave and
Jessop headed down to Woody’s workshop to see if there was anything
he needed him to do this morning.

* * *

Back on Diamond Island for leave while the
Revenge
was unloaded, Jessop, William, and Olaf headed to
the Cock and Bull once more, but this time Jessop was hellbent on
following the captain.

William and Olaf wanted none of it and
stayed at the inn eating, drinking, and signing the day and night
away.

Jessop was getting tired of hiding out
behind the inn waiting for the captain to pass as he had before
he’d run into Miss Patti. He prayed that mishap would not hamper
his plans on following the man to where ever it was he went. He’d
been waiting for several hours and William and Olaf had laughed at
him several times as they came out back to relieve themselves.

“Laugh all you want, but I’m going to find
out where it is he goes, whether I freeze or not,” Jessop said
holding his jacket tightly around his neck and blowing into his
hands to keep them warm.

The sun had set and Jessop was just about to
give up and go inside for warmth and food, when lo and behold the
captain and Patrick walked past the inn and into the woods beyond.
Jessop followed silently behind them.

Darkness grew dense as they made their way
through the woods. He kept a fair distance from the two. He was
grateful when they had made it to the large meadow where they’d
spent the night in the barn. The only light Jessop had was the lamp
Patrick held yards ahead of him. He hoped there would be no
climbing sheer cliffs for this journey for he would surely fall to
his death not to be found until Patrick and the captain made their
way back to the ship.

Thankfully there were no sheer drops just
the up and down of the dirt road heading across a land mass to a
small cove with a lighthouse.

It started to rain and Jessop was getting
soaked. He had planned poorly for his adventure. No gloves, no hat,
no rain gear. He kicked himself for not knowing better since the
last time he’d been here, it had rained too.

The tiny light bobbed up and down as Patrick
and the captain walked ahead. There were no other houses in this
cove, at least on this side. He could see far off lighted windows
closer to the water on the far side of the bay, but this side was
only the lighthouse.

The rotating light was blocked, relieving
anyone who might be living there from being blinded during every
rotation. The mist of the rain shone the light as it reached to the
water and swept over the distance in a large arc, warning any
oncoming boats that land was near and hazardous.

The two he followed entered the little house
that butted against the base of the tower and closed the door
behind them. He crept closer shivering. How stupid had he been not
to grab some bread or cheese from the inn before he had left.