Chapter 1
"It must be something, to walk in the sun with such a lovely woman," Archie Kennedy told Horatio, but mentioning Horatio's lovely companion brought up memories of the girl he once knew.
"Do you have a sweetheart in England, Archie?" Horatio asked him. Archie immediately thought more about Abigail, the only girl he had ever loved. He thought about their time together, however short it may have been. Unintentionally, he thought back to the day he met her . . .
--
The waves lapped against the side of the boat, rocking it back and forth. The movement forced Archie awake. He looked around him, noticing first the bright summer sun illuminating his position. Second, the Indefatigable was nowhere to be seen. His last memory put him in a small boat preparing to attack an enemy ship, only now he was alone in the small boat with no ship, enemy or friendly, in sight. He eased himself into a sitting position, trying to figure out his next move. As he sat up, his head reminded him of the last few minutes before Horatio knocked him out. He had been having a fit, he was pretty sure, for what other reason would Horatio have knocked him out. Raising his arm to feel the back of his head, he found a large bump from the blow, confirming his memories. Again, he looked around, this time spotting a ship in the distance. Without any sort of spy glass, he waited for the ship to draw closer to see its occupants. The flag told him they were French, meaning he was about to be captured by the enemy.
Archie merely waited for the French frigate to overtake him, with nowhere to run and no way to avoid capture. They drew alongside him and with guns pointed at him they sent a man down to bring him aboard. He had no energy to fight, nor any desire to get himself killed. The captain spoke first.
"Qui ĂȘtes-vous? Que faites-vous ici?"
Unfortunately, Archie only spoke English and a little Spanish. He couldn't understand a word of French. The captain repeated the questions, but still received no answer. He then spoke quickly to the soldier holding Archie who responded with what only Archie could guess was an acknowledgement of an order because he saluted the captain. The soldier pushed Archie forward and led him below deck, locking him in the brig and leaving him there.
"Who are you?" a voice asked from behind him, in perfect English. He turned around and saw a girl standing in the corner.
She wore a dress made of expensive-looking silk, a pale blue color which accented her grey eyes, trimmed in lace and ribbons, and silk gloves reaching above her elbows, though all were covered in dirt. Her ash blonde hair fell in ringlets around her face, very little still in the bun at the back of her head. Her skin, pale even in the dim light, was smudged with dirt and grime from the brig. She only came up to his shoulders when she stood, and everything about her seemed small and petite, even frail. By all appearances she looked about sixteen. He wondered who she was, and how she had come to be a prisoner on a French frigate. Her clothes were enough to tell him she was an aristocrat. She held herself with dignity, despite her surroundings and situation.
"Did you hear me?" she asked him, reminding him to answer her first question.
"Sorry miss. I am Midshipman Archie from His Majesty's Ship the Indefatigable," he told her, standing at attention. "Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
"I am Abigail Spencer, daughter of George Spencer, Duke of Marlborough in England." She gave a curtsey, which Archie responded to with the required bow. Even in the dim cell in a French frigate, proper etiquette was observed.
As Archie thought about Abigail's status as a duke's daughter, he realized she probably spoke more than one language, and hopefully French. He decided to ask her.
"Do you speak French, Miss Spencer?"
"Please call me Abigail," she told him. "I hate the way it sounds when you call me 'Miss Spencer'. And I do speak French, but I do not want them to know that. Why do you ask?"
Archie tried to remember the words the captain asked him upon stepping onto the deck of the ship, and haltingly, in broken French, spoke them to Abigail. He then asked her to translate if she could.
"He asked who you were and what you were doing. He probably did not press the matter because it is obvious from your uniform that you are a British sailor."
"How did you come to be here?" Archie asked.
"My father decided to send me to Italy because of my poor health, and the ship was sailing around Spain to get there when this French ship attacked. I was in my cabin, and my body guard died keeping the French out of my room. When they found me, they took me prisoner. They killed everyone else aboard my ship and stole everything of value, including my family's jewels. That was a week ago."
"I am sorry you had to go through that," he said sincerely, wishing her circumstances on no one, especially a young woman. "Have you overheard anything about where the French are heading, or what they are planning?"
"They have mentioned a few cities, but I cannot remember them; they mean nothing to me. I suppose you would know what they meant."
"Yes. Next time you hear something, tell me. Hopefully we will learn something we can use to escape. Have they treated you well?"
"I suppose so, for a prisoner. They bring down bread and water twice a day. They let me use the bathroom once a day, but only if I remind them. Sometimes the sailors stay down here and yell things at me, thinking I cannot understand them, but of course I know what they are saying. Apparently the Captain has ordered them not to touch me, but they tell each other he never said they could not look at me, which is what they come down to do. They never stay long though. For the most part I am left down here by myself."
Archie felt his anger rise at the thought of men touching her. He could imagine what sort of things she overheard the men say. With no qualms as to their manners, thinking she cannot understand them, they probably use the foulest language and say the most abominable things. He pushed those thoughts aside, knowing they led nowhere.
"How did you get captured?" Abigail suddenly asked him.
Archie thought hard about his answer. He did not want to admit to having a fit, nor did he want to incriminate one of his shipmates, namely Simpson, with the accusation of setting him adrift, for that was the only explanation he could come up with. He knew Horatio would never let him go, but Simpson, a man of no apparent conscience, would not think twice about sending him off to an unknown end.
"I was separated from my ship by an unfortunate accident," he told her.
"What kind of accident?"
"I hit my head during a night attack, and the rope tying the boat I was in to the ship came loose, setting me adrift. I woke up and the French caught me."
"I am so sorry. Will your ship come looking for you?"
Not if Simpson has anything to say about it, he thought wryly.
"No. They will consider me a casualty, lost at sea. A midshipman is not worth risking an entire crew for."
"Where does a midshipman rank?"
"We are the lowest of the officers, just above being a crew member. It is the starting point for men to work their way up the ranks to a higher position."
Archie went on to explain how the ranking worked, from midshipman to lieutenant all the way up to admiral. Abigail showed great interest in learning, hanging on his every word. He enjoyed telling her how the officers worked, the hierarchy of a ship. Explaining it to her made him remember why he had been so eager to join the navy in the first place.
"So, if you are a midshipman, you must be young. How old are you?"
"I just turned seventeen."
"Why, you are only a year older than me then, for I just turned sixteen last month!"
Abigail then started into a story about her sixteenth birthday party, telling about the people who came, and the tricks her three brothers pulled. She described each present, saying just how much she appreciated every single one. At the end she told him about the meeting with her father, and how he had introduced her to a man.
"The man was just as old as my father, which I suppose is not as old as he could have been; he was already balding. Anyway, he introduced himself as the Earl of somewhere, and told me how much he had heard about me from my father at court. Then he told me he would soon arrange our marriage with my father. He wanted to be married in spring! Once he left I immediately talked with my father, who said if I was so opposed to the idea he would not make me marry. It was shortly after that when my father decided to send me to Italy."
Archie listened to the story, all the while thinking how horrible a marriage of that kind would be. Nobles and aristocrats often married off their daughters for wealth or land or some other gain; but even knowing how common marriages between young women and older men were, he did not like the idea. No one in those families ever cared for the happiness or wishes of the girls, never bothered asking them what they wanted. Of course, he never shared his opinion, knowing others would take offense.
Their conversation ended abruptly when two sailors came down, bringing two pieces of bread and glasses of water. They passed the meals through the cell bars, rather than opening the door.
"I suppose you are lucky you were captured before they brought the first meal, so at least you get to eat something," Abigail said.
Archie, used to eating ships rations, began eating the bread immediately, using the water to get the awful aftertaste out of his mouth once he finished. He watched Abigail as she picked her bread apart, putting each piece in her mouth and swallowing before putting in the next. She also drank her water throughout eating, rather than saving it for the end. When they both finished, they handed their cups back to the sailors. As they disappeared up the stairs, some of their conversation echoed back to the prisoners.
"What did they say?" Archie asked once the voices disappeared.
"Nothing important," she told him. She wrapped her arms around her small body and began pacing around the small cell. Archie watched, wondering what she was thinking. "They were only talking about me again," she told him after several minutes.
Archie stared up where the sailors disappeared. He could imagine the things Abigail heard, unable to keep from listening and understanding. He promised himself that he would do everything he could to get Abigail out of this cell and back to her family, even if it cost him his life.
