Captain Kate in the Caribbean
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: We all know by now who owns Castle, right? Rating: K Time: An AU 18th Century.
Author's Note: This is a sequel to the many Captain Kate, the Pirate Queen, stories, the most recent of which was Captain Kate and the Dragon. This story begins exactly where that one left off.
Captain Kate Beckett leaned back into her husband's arms.
"I can't believe were back in the Caribbean and hunting for Bracken. For years and years he's been this all powerful monster who's been chasing me all over the world. He's not quite so formidable now."
Dr. Richard Castle leaned forward and kissed Kate's cheek.
"He's not powerless, you know. He still has his lands and his wealth, not to mention the corrupt merchants who grew rich from his support of piracy. And the pirates still support him. He's the only person of any wealth and power who doesn't want to hang them."
"True, but Bracken was removed from his post at the Admiralty, he lost his supporter, Lord Desmond…"
"Good riddance." Castle muttered.
''…and the King hates him for what he did to the King's mistress. There are very few Englishmen, or any other country, that would support Bracken against the King. All I need is a willing foe, and sea room to fight him."
"And there's the problem, Kate. Bracken is no fighter. Sending assassins or posting a massive reward on your head is his way of fighting. He'll not fight you unless his back is to the wall."
Kate laughed. "Then let me find a wall to back him up against."
They were interrupted by Alexis Castle.
"Father, Mother. Dinner is on. It'll get cold if you don't come in."
They both headed to the captain's cabin and dinner. There they found Alexis, Priscilla Bracken, the estranged daughter of Sir William Bracken, and their two Asian guests, Lhamso Thondup and Zhu De. Both were Buddhist monks, one from Tibet and the other from China. They had both become curious about the science and technology of Europe and wished to travel there. Both Alexis and Priscilla were very well educated, in fact, better educated than many young men of their social class. Over time, the monks and the young ladies had become each other's teachers.
"If you will excuse me, Captain Beckett, how do you intend to find and confront Sir William Bracken?" Lhamso Thondup asked.
Kate slowly shook her head.
"I really have no idea. The first thing I need is information about him. Since his fall from grace, more people will probably be willing to give me information."
"Might they not be unwilling to give information to a lady renowned as a pirate?" Asked Zhu De.
"A bit of gold can often work wonders for persons such as that." Kate said with a smile.
"Is there no way to resolve this matter without bloodshed?" Thondup asked. As a Buddhist bonze, he was a pacifist, and would personally never commit any act of violence. However, he recognized that all the world was not as enlightened as he was. He also realized that evil existed in the world and must be confronted. This dichotomy often troubled him.
The found their first information two days later. The information was not good.
"Deck there." Cried to lookout from high above the mainmast. "Wreckage fine on the starboard bow, two miles and a bit. Might be survivors clinging to it."
The Revenge, Kate's 36-gun frigate turned slightly and put a boat over the side. Castle, as a doctor, was in the boat to help if he could. The Witch of Endor, under Captain Kevin Ryan, as fine a twenty-gun brig as you'll ever see, stood off, keeping watch.
The long boat, with Castle in it, soon returned.
"There was nothing I could do. Both men were dead, tangled up in the rigging of some sort of mast or spar."
"T'gallant spar, Captain." George Cray, a topman, muttered. Although Castle, as a doctor, was a learned man of science, he had never quite grasped the terminology of a sailing ship.
'Yes. The t'gallant…Thing. They were both long dead. Nothing to be done."
"A storm, perhaps?" Kate asked.
"No. One man was shot, low in the back and the other had several stab and slash wounds. They were killed."
"Not that I ever doubted it, but there are still pirates loose in the Caribbean."
Days later they found themselves in a tropical downpour south of the Yucatan Peninsula. As visibility was near zero, they were proceeding at no more than steerageway. The lookout in the bow called it.
"Fishing boat dead ahead. Two men in it."
Kate turned to Esposito.
"They probably speak some Spanish. If they have fish, we could use some fresh food. Invite them aboard and have them brought to my cabin."
The two men came aboard. One was old and was named Pablo, the other was his grandson, a lad in his early teens named Alfredo. Both were Mayans, but having a Catholic church in their little town, both spoke Spanish as well. They were both obviously uneasy about being brought aboard a warship.
"Please tell them I wish to buy all of their fish. It looks to me like they had a good catch."
Pablo mumbled that the catch had been good. He assumed that the captain of a powerful ship, although a woman, would take his catch and give him a few coppers.
Kate pulled a small leather pouch from her pocket and took from it two large gold coins. She gave them to Pablo.
"Tell him that's for his fish and ask him if he'd care to have lunch with me."
Pablo had never seen that much gold before, much less had it. He nodded and agreed to have lunch.
Kate had plates of bread, cheese, pork and beef brought forth as well as two glasses of rum. Two large glasses.
The two ate as fast as they could, both looking malnourished to Kate. When the plates were cleaned of food, she ordered more plates and then more. Finally, the two men stopped eating.
"Ask them if they've seen many ships in these waters." She told Espo.
Kate understood enough Spanish to follow along. Espo reported that they had only seen small, coastwise traders for several months.
"Has he seen any warships?"
Pablo nodded and spoke to Esposito.
"He says he say a saw a warship in the distance last week. He's sure it was a warship as he could see the gunports were painted white and the rest of the hull black. But he doesn't know how many guns she has, nor who she belonged to. He does his best to avoid warships."
"That makes two of us." Kate said. "Thank him for his information, and tell him this gold coin is for him for being so cooperative." Kate took out another gold coin and handed it to Pablo.
They sailed the Caribbean Sea trying to gather information on Sir William Bracken. However, any ship they tried to approach clapped on all the sails they could and sped away. While the Revenge could have caught any of them, but Kate did not want a lot of captains telling one and all that two well-armed warships had chased them. Accordingly, when a ship fled, they did not pursue.
They did find a ship that was not capable of running.
Kate looked through her telescope at the other ship.
"What do you think, Mr. Esposito, Castle, and ladies?"
"Aground for sure." Espo replied. "We're just short of high tide. So, if he doesn't get off soon, his ship is done for."
"I agree." Kate thought for a moment. "Have Captain Ryan come over from the Witch. When he gets here, we'll put him and several likely looking others into our new Royal Navy uniforms. We'll run up the Union Jack and go help the poor grounded captain save his ship. Then Captain…Hmm. We can't really call him Ryan, can we?"
"Perhaps he could be a Huguenot refugee?" Alexis said, "An oppressed French Protestant who fled to the safety of England."
The captain of the grounded ship was pleased to see two warships flying the English flag sailing towards him. The larger of the two hove to and the Royal Navy captain called over to him.
"Are you aground on a coral reef or a sand bar."
"On a sandbar. I can clearly see it now."
"We'll pass you a cable and pull you off."
The grounded ship's captain watched in admiration as the larger warship took station off his stern and passed a cable to him. The warship was anchored and soon the frigate's capstan was pulling the ship off of the sandbar.
"Is your ship damaged?" The naval officer called over.
"A few small leaks. Nothing we can't manage."
"Would you care to come over for a bit of rum and a bite?" Ryan asked.
"Delighted."
In moments the merchant ship captain was in a small boat and was aboard the warship.
"Good day, Captain. I'm John Stallings, captain of the Barbara Ann, out of Newport, Rhode Island. We've a cargo of sugar cane and rum we picked up in Cuba and are headed for Jamaica."
Ryan nodded. "I'm Lieutenant Thomas de la Billiere, commanding HMS Magician."
"You're quite young and junior to command such a fine ship." Stallings said.
Ryan frowned. "I wish it were not so. We lost the captain and the most senior lieutenants to the fever. Our consort, HMS Swan, was hit even worse. I had to send my only surviving lieutenant and two midshipmen to her as no officers were left." Ryan smiled. "But enough of sadness. Join me below for a tot of rum and a bite."
Captain Stallings was quite talkative, but had little of interest to say. This was his first voyage to the Caribbean and he knew little of the politics and military situation in that sea. Soon, he was on his way back to his ship and the two warships went on their way.
They had better luck a week later.
"Deck ahoy." Shouted the lookout. "Gunfire to our port. Two ships, fighting at half pistol shot."
Kate ran to the port side and studied to two ships as they came into view.
"One's Royal Navy and the other…The other is flying a black flag. A pirate. Why would any pirate attack a warship?"
No one had any idea.
Kate smiled. "I think we're about to become French. Please send for Ryan again and break out the French naval uniforms."
As soon as the pirate ship saw two large warships bearing down on them, they broke off the battle and ran, clapping on all the sail they could manage. The Witch of Endor went after the pirate and the Revenge stopped to see if they could assist the Royal Navy ship.
"Allo,"Cried Ryan, "Do you need assistance?"
"No." Was the reply. "They were shooting at out mast and rigging, trying to disable us, but not sink us. Material damage is easily repaired and our casualties are either dead, or only slightly wounded. And thank you for your assistance, monsieur. It is much appreciated."
"It is nothing." Ryan called back. "Pirates are the enemies of all men. Would you care to come aboard for some food and drink? I would like to know more about this pirate who is so bold as to attack a Royal Navy warship."
The ship's captain would rather have stayed aboard his own ship and supervised repairs, but he did owe the French officer.
The Royal Navy officer was piped aboard with the naval pomp and circumstance accorded to ship's captains. A line of sideboys led to the French Captain and a bosun's pipe shrilled as he boarded.
He bowed to the French captain.
"Lieutenant Gwinnel, sir, commanding HMS Hermes, sixteen."
Ryan bowed back.
"Le Chevalier Capitaine Eduard de Lacy, commanding the frigate Danae, thirty-six."
"Lacy? You're Irish, sir?"
"My grandfather was from Ireland, and so I speak English. But our nations are at peace and we fight the enemies of all men, pirates. May I offer you some wine in my cabin?"
Gwinnel provided them with two pieces of information. One, Hermes was carrying gold to pay for the British garrisons throughout the Caribbean, which was why the pirate had attacked. The second item was that Sir William Bracken was now living in a place called Windward Manor on Jamaica.
When Kate heard this, she was shocked. Windward Manor had been her parents' home. Her home.
TBC