Chapter 1

Charlotte was full of joy and amazement as she looked at all the people around her. She was standing in the streets of Tortuga. The streets were dirty, smelly and strange people were walking around but she loved all the impressions, all the images and the loud noises she heard: The screaming of merchants selling goods on the street, the shouts of seafaring people making their ships ready to set sail in the harbour, the music, laughter and singing of wonderful folk coming out of tavern doors. After a year of simple life, prayers and, most of all, silence and order, she was no longer used to it.

One night in the orphanage, by pure chance and not because she had unfortunately forgotten to see to it that everything was alright in the kitchen before they had all gone to sleep, there had been a fire. And it had not been that difficult to escape in the tumult it had caused. It had been surprisingly easy. Now she was facing other difficulties, for she did not know what to do now that she had come to Tortuga. After a while she decided that the best thing to do was to pay a visit to one of the numerous taverns that bordered the street. She entered, but kept herself rather quiet, as she was well aware that young women like her were not necessarily liked here as long as they did not count as prostitutes. She sat down in a corner. The tavern was crowded with dirty, unwashed men and some women with colourful painted faces and dresses that looked as if they squeezed their breasts in a very uncomfortable manner. Some of them enjoyed a drink with sailors, others were just standing there with a smile, waiting for someone to make use of what they had to offer in the quiet chambers upstairs.

There was more than one half-drunk sailor who mistook Charlotte for one of them, but luckily none of them insisted and she could keep to herself most of the time.

Suddenly a ragged man entered. He had short dark hair and wore what looked like it had once been a uniform. Even though his appearance was rather unkempt, he had an air of determination and pride, and perhaps dignity, definitely of single-mindedness as he approached a man who had obviously drunk far too much and both his clothes and his smell made Charlotte believe that he shared his bed rather with pigs than with women. She could not help but watch the scene, as the man sat at the table right next to her. The ragged man dragged him to the floor, which proved not that difficult due to the state the pig-man was in. When she had a closer look at them, Charlotte saw that the ragged man had numerous scars. He hissed something in the pig-man's ear, then hit him in the face. It made a terrible sound and Charlotte cringed. The pig-man did not. Perhaps the rum made him immune to physical pain?

The ragged man spoke a bit louder now, so that Charlotte happened to overhear what he was saying.

"Tell me, where is he?"

The pig-man began to chuckle but said no word.

"You've got no reason at all to chuckle, my friend. I want to know where he is. I want to have my revenge."

At that the pig-man stopped chuckling but still said nothing.

The ragged man got up. With a threatening gesture he said "I will have an eye on you. I won't stop until I find him." Then he left.

Charlotte kept watching the pig-man who remained on the floor and apparently did not want to get up again.

Then the door flung open again. A very tall man with an impressive hat and two rather stupid looking men stepped inside. He looked around and found what he was looking for as he, too, approached the pig-man who had fallen asleep in the meantime.

The man with the hat just stood there while the smaller and fatter of his two companions kicked the pig-man slightly who then woke up.

"my dear friend," the man with the hat said in a gentle voice "You can't imagine how glad we are to have found you. Is he still here?"

The pig-man looked at him, then shook his head.

"Where did he go, I wonder."

"He took the map with him," the pig-man exclaimed hoarsely.

"You don't say."

"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't so," the scraggy one of the hat-man's two companions said and he sounded like a little child, Charlotte noticed.

"I don't think he is of much use," the small man muttered.

"That's what I feared," the man with the hat replied and it was evident that he was annoyed.

The small man seized the pig-man and slapped him.

Without thinking about what she was doing, Charlotte got up and slapped the small man. The four men, including the pig-man, looked at her in surprise. She was surprised herself and automatically she took a few steps away.

While the small man and the scraggy man glanced at her in anger, the man with the hat looked at her intently and she began to feel very uncomfortable.

"And what was that, young lady?"

"That," she said and paused, seeking a suitable answer, "was a slap. Nothing to worry about, I didn't hit him hard. Or did I?"

"Not bad for a woman", the small man murmured while he grimaced in pain.

"Well, maybe I did. But now I have to go." And she turned around but the man with the hat got in front of her.

"You are in my way," Charlotte said and was proud, for her voice sounded much braver than she felt.

"Have you got a name, girl?" The man with the hat asked her and examined her face.

"Of course I have," she replied sullenly.

The man with the hat said nothing and she did not know why, but in the end she told him what he wanted to know.

"My name is Charlotte Sparrow."

The man raised an eyebrow.

His two companions reached for her and she was brought to their ship. A ship with black sails.