Chapter 16: 1721 Reginald and Cutler Beckett

It was already near dusk when Jack decided it was time to leave the pier where he had just inspected the „Eagle's Wing" and to head towards home. Heading home in this case had the meaning of heading towards the mansion of Sir Edwin Cole a distance outside of London town.

He knew he was late and he also knew he would reach the weaving mill and the idyllic mansion near the river long after nightfall. Letting out a silent curse, he wrapped himself tightly in his jacket, when an icy wind blew through the narrow lanes and made him shiver. Obviously, Winter wasn't willing to surrender to the upcoming Spring without struggling hard and persistently, this year. With a sigh Jack turned round to have another look at the pier and his ship, then he went to hurry home.

It would take at least another two or three weeks before the "Eagle's Wing" would finally set sail again and before she'd finally head towards the open ocean and towards a new adventure, with new orders and an eager crew aboard. Jack wanted to make use of the remaining days ashore to assure himself that she was ready for the sea, stuffed and stored with everything they would need at sea and crewed by a bunch of trustable men.

Together with his first mate Jacobsen, he did spend the whole day aboard searching the ship from bow to stern and from top to keel for spots, holes and rips the craftsmen Lord Beckett had hired to restore the "Wing" might possibly have overlooked, but neither he nor Jacobsen were able to find fault with the work. The "Wing" found herself within an excellent condition and Jack longed for returning aboard and to the open ocean.

The Winter came surprisingly early and shortly after they returned to London and even though it was mid the month of March, meanwhile, there did not seem to be an end in reach of the cold days and the icy nights. Never before did the passing of the days, weeks and months ashore feel that slow to Jack like they did this time – despite the fact that Sir Edwin tried everything to make Jack's and Caithleen's stay within his house as comfortable as possible and despite the fact that the chart drawers Jack used to help throughout the winter months had enough work to do to spend both, night and day, on it.

"Jack! Wait a moment, lad!" Jacobsen caught up with him just when he wanted to get round the next corner: "Are you sure you don't want to accompany me to the tavern, tonight? It could be of help with hiring men if you would be the one to hire them, this time. You didn't for a rather long time..."

"Don't get me wrong, mate but I only long for just one thing tonight..."

"...which, of course, is cuddling up within Miss Caith's warm embrace, aye? Oh, I already got you, lad."

"Have I ever told you..."

"...that I'm annoying and that my behaviour is inadequate?" Jacobsen grinned and shrugged: "More than once. You never cared, right...?"

"Never!" Jack returned the grin and added: "Hire the men, mate, and pick up some eager guys. I trust you with this. And now, before I will perish from the cold..." He greeted his first mate and left him where he stood while he himself hurried over the street straight towards the lane ahead.

Jacobsen looked after him for a short moment before he turned on his heels and headed towards the tavern where he knew he would find some fitting men to hire.

Only a few men left the "Wing" after they returned to London with the intention not to sail under the command of the young captain any longer, but, nevertheless, they were in need of some more hands on deck if they really had in mind to set sail with the first mild breeze in Spring.

Jack did not look back. He trusted Jacobsen and he would never doubt the decisions the old salt would make and the only thing he wanted to think of was to get home as soon as possible to place himself in front of the heated fireplace within Sir Edwin's parlour – not to mention Caithleen's warm embrace...

Barely half an hour might have passed by when Jack realized a rumble behind him coming from the road he had to take himself. It followed the river leaving the town in the direction of the settlement where Sir Edwin's mansion lay. Jack had a strained look around the whole place being enlightened by the pale light of the full moon only, whose round face hung calm and clear high above the river and the town.

"Bugger!"

He wasn't unprepared for the awareness that there was no possibility of hiding himself but the riverbank and the back slope, but it was exactly this awareness which felt to be very unwelcome within this moment. He found himself without his weapons as he did leave his sword and his pistols behind when he left the mansion earlier that day. It would have meant to belie himself, if he'd have denied that he longed for both, the sword and the pistols, within this moment, but as he had no other choice, anyway, he decided to wait and see.

The rumbling, caused by the wheels of a heavy carriage, soon got closer and he didn't have to wait for long until the carriage stopped just a few meters away from him. Its lanterns threw a bright but cold light at his face when the coachman let the horses stop and Jack was finally able to recognize the emblem of the East India Trading Company adorning the door.

So, there was no doubt about its owner: It was the carriage of Lord Reginald Beckett.

But it was not the old Lord in person who opened the door and waved him to enter the coach: "Mister Sparrow! Would you be so kind to share a small amount of your surely precious time with me to provide me with another small amount of your undivided attention?"

It was the presumptuous and not less arrogant voice of the young Lord to-be and the leader of the company to-be: Cutler Beckett.

Jack wasn't really surprised to find the young man inside the carriage instead of the old Lord. Even he got reached by rumour and hearsay about the health and the physical condition of Lord Reginald. It was obvious that the first man of the East India Trading Company felt weak and tired, and it was not to foreclose that there was some truth hidden within the rumour, because Lord Reginald had turned some of his duties over to his son, already, but, still, there was no sign that he planned to retire all too soon.

Deep inside, Jack hoped the old Lord would stay with the company as long as possible and that it would need even longer before young Cutler Beckett would become the head of the company.

Jack turned round and sashayed over to the coach. He gazed in with a smirk and said: "Ah, the future Lord in person! What is it, providing me the honour of you following me the whole way from out of town towards Sir Edwin's mansion?"

"As reluctant as I've to admit this, there's an urgent need to talk to you, Sparrow." How reluctantly, was to get while paying attention to the undertone of his words.

"And, therefore, you take a ride out here during an icy night like this?" Jack wasn't able to hide a certain undertone, either: "Why is this, Beckett? If you want to talk to me, why did you not pay me a visit with the chart drawers? You will barely have forgotten where I'm to find throughout the day..."

"Barely! No need for reminding me! It's just because I'm not interested in getting eavesdropped by some pairs of curious ears, a dozen chart drawers or some overeager privateers with what I've to discuss with you, tonight."

"Ah! I see! You hide some secrets from your father then, aye? And you want me to share them?" Jack grinned: "Of course, you will understand if I prefer heading home, will you?"

"Mister Sparrow, this was neither an invitation nor a plea! I expect you to join me and to listen to what I want to tell you. By free will! If not, I've no other choice but handing the part of getting you inside this coach over to my trusted coachman. He will help you with getting in, then."

"Well, I think this helping-me-in-thing won't be necessary, mate. Why haven't you told me this right when you arrived?" Jack beheld the coachman, but due to his straightened up coat collar he wasn't able to spot the man's face. After a few moments of reconsidering the pros and cons of not following Beckett's 'invitation', Jack decided that he had no other choice but getting into the carriage.

Beckett looked contented and remarked while he closed the door behind Jack: "I knew you would be amenable to the right argument, Sparrow!"

"Oh, I already got you right away, but, tell me, would not a pistol have been the much better argument in this case? A pistol pointing straight at my brow? I dare to claim, you'd enjoy killing me..."

"Not now!" Beckett replied with a strange smile: "And, of course, not here. First, because it's not to foreclose that some invisible and unwelcome witnesses are strolling around here, that close to the river, and, second, because I'm definitely not interested in besmirching my coach and my clothes with your blood."

"Charming as always and still hitting the spot without talking around it..."

"I'm not here to waste my time having some chit-chat with you."

"Not?" Jack cocked an eyebrow in some acted astonishment: "Should I've been that wrong about you all the time?" He bent over and had a straight look at Beckett's face: "No? Of course not! You're not the one for having some ineffectual chit-chat – no matter whom you're talking to. You're with me out here at this time and at this godforsaken lonely place to betray your father. Aye?"

Beckett's pale face and his powdered white wig were shimmering in the moonlight and it was abundantly clear what was going on behind his brow: If it was the right decision to let the young pirate in on his plans. Finally, he declared: "Belike you may wonder, why I want to talk to you out of all men. Am I right?"

"Believe me, Beckett, there is not much out there, any more, which is supposed to make me wonder about, except of this one single question: Why can't you wait with betraying your father's values until he's dead? You will inherit his title, his influence and his reputation. Although, if I think about it, this you should have to earn, not to inherit. But this is not part of my question. So, tell me, where's the difference between you starting your own secret business now to you starting your own secret business after your father's death?"

"That's easy, Mister Sparrow, and I thought you might be somehow more clever", Beckett covered his legs with a blanket and stared at Jack: "The 'Wing' is still moored to the pier, at the moment. So, I'm still able to entrust you with a new mission, one you can accomplish effortlessly besides your other duties against the company."

"Is that so? Well, I guess I get your plan, mate. Some secondary business, aye?" Jack smirked: "So, tell me, then, how secondary this business is..."

"Extraordinarily secondary, Sparrow, but the same it's extraordinarily promising, extraordinarily seminal and extraordinarily profitable. Means, your share of this profit would also be extraordinarily high."

"What makes you think I'm that extraordinarily greedy?"

"Now, now, Sparrow! Earning a good amount of money for just doing a bit of a secondary business has nothing to do with greed."

"Has it not?"

"Listen to me carefully! What I will tell you now is just meant for being heard by you and me and if the company or my father should get informed about it I will deny having ever talked to you, having ever met you and having ever known anything about it!"

"Tell me why I did not expect anything else from you, Beckett?"

"There's no need for getting cynical, Sparrow! You know my father and you know he would never do anything which could turn out to be a mistake, if it comes to deal with the company. It's just that he regrettably sticks to his values and old traditions. Too much! He still sticks to his privateers and to all those letters of marque. He still believes that it is profitable enough to capture French or Spanish ships, to plunder them and to sell these goods on our own. Thereby, he misses that neither the French nor the Spanish really suffer from the loss of theses goods. Not to mention other seafaring nations."

"And you believe in having found a solution to this problem?" Jack frowned. This conversation got a turn causing him discomfort.

"I found a solution, yes! And as it turns out you can be very helpful with getting the company much more influence and reputation."

"Will you tell me what goods you are talking about? Of course, you will understand that I want to know what it is you want me to take aboard my ship. Not that I'm distrustful against you, but..."

"It's not your ship, Sparrow. It's the company's ship and whatever it is the company wants you to take aboard, you will take aboard. Never forget, while making your decision, that it is up to me to displace you from the vessel and your duties." Beckett waved this words aside with a gesture of his hand and went on: "We should not waste our time discussing such negligibilities. I want to prove to my father that it is time to think about new ways of trade and you will help me with this. Your next journey will lead you to the Mediterranean Sea and to the African shores. As far as I'm informed. So, I will make up a concourse where you will meet another of my trustworthy captains. You will take the goods aboard he will send over to you and you will set sail towards our colonies in New England immediately. Without asking for the why, the wherefrom and the whatfor. Did I make myself clear?"

"Whow! One moment, mate! Not that fast! What do you think how stupid I am, Beckett? You want me to trade slaves over to the colonies? Against the explicit orders your father gave us?" Beckett was barely able to keep his mien steady and Jack gazed at him contentedly when he went on: "Ah! I see! I'm right! Slaves then! And I was supposed to act the fool not being in the know about it, eh?" He shook his head: "No, I will neither provide my ship for this nor myself. You want to sell slaves? Well, you will have to do this on your own. And now, Mister Beckett, you will for sure understand that I've to leave. I'm a privateer in the name of the company not a slave trader in the name of Cutler Beckett. Good evening, Sir..."

Jack opened the door of the carriage and wanted to jump out of it when Beckett remarked: "If you want to sail for the company in the future, Sparrow, you should think your decision over, soon. My father will not remain the head of the East India Trading Company forever. Good evening, Mister Sparrow..."

Just when Jack wanted to enter the parlour of Sir Edwin's house, the next morning, he stopped in front of its door in astonishment, when he already heard voices inside at this early hour. He knocked at the door, opened it, had a look inside – and stopped short.

The sight this morning provided him with was definitely not a common sight and he asked himself what led this unexpected visitor out of town and straight towards Sir Edwin's mansion at this hour. Towards the mansion of his political opponent.

The matutinal visitor was no one less but Lord Reginald Beckett.

Sir Edwin raised his head when he heard Jack closing the door and gazed at the young man while getting up: "Ah! Jack! Come in, son, no need for hesitating. Our guest is here because he wants to talk to you not to me."

Apparently, a question mark appeared upon Jack's face, because Lord Reginald smiled at him and answered his not asked question: "I'm in the know about your nightly encounter, Mister Sparrow, and it's exactly why I want to talk to you."

Beckett nodded at Sir Edwin and he responded: "I will leave you alone, then. If you want me to I will send fresh tea over to you."

"No, thank you, Master Cole. I don't think this will need that long."

Both men exchanged another look and with it Sir Edwin left Jack and Beckett alone.

Jack placed himself within a chair close to the fireplace and kept taps on Lord Reginald: "You came to know about said nightly conversation?"

"I'm still the one running the destiny of the company, Sparrow, and nothing my son is going to do is kept from me. Even, if he assaults one of my privateers in the middle of the night like a kind of highwayman."

"An amusing image." Jack smiled: "But not really fitting..."

"What do you want to tell me? That I'm not aware of everything my son tries to do behind my back? He's driven on by his blind ambition, but not in the way I want my follower to be driven on."

"Something wrong?" Jack frowned, being surprised about Beckett's open words: "You sound much less confident than some years ago when you asked me to sail for you and when you provided me with letters of marque."

"No, that's true, young man", Beckett answered while letting out a sigh: "You're a smart and resourceful young man, Jack Sparrow. I'm aware of it, you're aware of it and my son is aware of it, even though he's not as convinced about my sympathy against you as I am. Last night, he neither acted in my name nor in the name of the company – and it was not for the first time that I had to realize this." He hesitated before he added: "The Holy Lord may be my witness, it's not the first time, either, that I doubt my decision to make him my follower."

"I understand what you want to tell me, but, may I ask, why you are telling me this? Wouldn't it be a case to deal with for the company and its shareholders?" Jack leaned back into the chair still keeping taps on Beckett.

"My dear, young friend, what I will tell you, now, is not meant to leave these walls no matter what may happen."

"Sir?"

Beckett waved Jack to join him and he went on as soon as Jack sat by his side at the small table: "My son is eager, ambitious and intelligent. What I never wanted to believe is that he is also greedy and ruthless." He smiled a tired smile when Jack gazed at him in astonishment: "What? Don't tell me you did not notice, young man! The two of you may be of the same age, but you could be no more different. No, Sparrow, my son handles secondary business behind my back. I know it. Gold is no longer the most valuable treasure to find aboard these ships you and other privateers are capturing in the company's name. Spice, tea, coffee, cocoa and other goods are much more lucrative now. And one trade has become the most lucrative..."

"Slave trade?"

"Yes, young man, slave trade!" The old Lord grimaced: "I always tried to act for the company in the best way I knew and its profit always proved me of having been right, but I never had in mind to trade slaves. Maybe, this is the one single topic I agree about with your host."

"Well, that very well may be, but it still does not explain why you're telling it to me?"

"My son will become my follower no matter what's supposed to happen, but I fear he will lead the company in dangerous waters which can lead to its ruin in the long run. That's why I decided to put my estate in a new order. No one is allowed to tell me if or how to divide the parts of my estate, in the end, and I decided to divide it."

"So there is someone you can trust in?" Jack beheld him for not to miss a single move the old Lord made.

"Yes, Sparrow, there is someone I can trust in. One half of my estate, I will transcribe to my son..."

"And who will get the other half of it?"

"You, Sparrow! I want you and my son to share this responsibility, if I have to leave these shores forever, one day."

Jack stared at Beckett out of wide open eyes – all confused and surprised. He raised his hand in some kind of a warding gesture and replied: "Whow! One moment, Sir, not that fast! Did I get you right? You want me to become one of the two future leaders of the East India Trading Company? Pardon, Sir, if I'm asking. I'm nothing but a humble pirate, well privateer, and I've not the slightest idea about politics or leading a company. I'm a sailor, Sir, married to my vessel and the sea. I get disturbed, if I'm forced to stay ashore much longer than necessary. I need to feel the planks and the waves under my feet..."

"I would never force you to stay ashore, Sparrow, but knowing you at my son's side would leave me with the certainty that there is someone around him being able to stop him if necessary."

"How much time do I have to think it over, Sir?"

"Oh, I don't have in mind to pass away that soon, Captain Sparrow. No one will come to know anything about this conversation. I will keep silent about this meeting and I guess you're clever enough not to talk about it either. Take your time. It will do, if you'll give me an answer as soon as you're back from your next journey."

Jack hesitated before he asked: "Is it true that our journey will lead me and my crew to the Mediterranean Sea and along the African shores?"

"That's what I've planned, so far. I want you to find out which of our privateers betray us. I know some of them playing a double game, but I don't have a proof. Provide me with this proof, Captain Sparrow, and I will think about transcribing the 'Wing' to you..."