Usual disclaimers... but I'm plotting!
I'm feeling good today – my boy goes back to school tomorrow. I'll miss him but it means I will have more time to myself again... once I catch up on the housework.
Since you've all been so nice, here are six chapters for you today!
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Chapter 25 - Persuasion
Archibald Hughes stared at the woman dangling before him, somehow managing to sleep as she swayed on the rope. Bessie Masters - only child of Horace Masters - and the only person who could know where the map was. He fingered the switch he held in his hands, twirling it round whilst he looked at her. Smiling he reached for his knife, slicing the shoulders of her undershift so that it fell to her waist. She woke with a gasp, wriggling frantically as she realised she was half naked.
"Good morning Bessie," he smiled, although he doubted it would be a good morning for her. "Now, I will ask you once more politely - where is the map?"
Bessie looked in horror at the switch in his hands, remembering all too clearly the pain that Thomas had inflicted with a similar weapon. "Please," she begged. "Please, I don't know where it is... I've never known where it is..."
"Wrong answer", he said, shrugging almost apologetically before bringing the switch down hard against her back. The force of his blow spun her round and he hit her again and again as she dangled, her screams echoing around the ship.
"Please," she gasped, tears streaming down her face as she spun to face him before spinning wildly with another blow. "Please, I don't know!"
But he did not stop until his arm ached and her body was red with welts, blood trickling from where her skin had been broken. He threw the switch to the floor in disgust, cutting her down and forcing her into a narrow part of the hold, threading the end of the rope through a link in the ceiling. The ceiling was too low for her to stand, but she was forced to kneel, her hands still above her head. "You will stay there until you talk!" he said angrily, slamming the door shut, leaving her there in darkness, dank cold water slopping around her knees from a leak he had yet to fix. Bessie sagged, crying without care of who might hear her. She prayed that Jack would find her, realising that she had to believe in him, had to trust him, else she was totally lost.
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"Captain," Ben Kayne nodded as he came to stand next to him at the helm, relieved that the woman's screams had finally stopped. "Do we have a destination?"
Archibald Hughes shook his head. "She claims not to know," he said, "but a day or so in the hole will help her memory!"
"The hole!" Ben said in shock. The lowest part of the hold was known as the hole onboard and served as a special punishment cell onboard the ship, making the brig seem like a luxury.
"If that doesn't break her then perhaps she truly doesn't know where it is," the Captain sighed.
"What then?" Ben puzzled.
"We let her heal and sell her to the highest bidder. She'll still fetch a good price in the south, despite being some man's whore..." Hughes conceded.
"Did you find out who?" he asked. "Another pirate?" He had been wondering how the woman had known the Captain's name, which made him think that her man was a pirate.
Archibald Hughes snorted with laughter. "Probably some marine from the Fort - or some docker. She's spent her life running - I doubt the stupid bitch would be the woman of a pirate..."
"Of course Captain," he acknowledged, although a part of him still worried about whether she was – and who that pirate might be.
"Hold this course, I'll send someone to relieve you at the next watch," Archibald Hughes ordered.
"Aye Captain," he nodded, keeping his gaze on the sea before him, heading ever southwards.
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Jack handed his spyglass again to Gethin Jones as he went aloft. It was nearly dusk and he had pushed the crew hard for four days, often using the sweeps to gain valuable time. "Captain!" Henry shouted excitedly. "I see them!"
Jack handed the wheel to Joshamee Gibbs, scrambling up to the crows nest to see for himself. "Where?" he urged, taking the spyglass and scanning the horizon.
"Two points off starboard Captain," Gethin replied, pointing with his free arm as the Black Pearl ploughed through the roughening seas with all her black sails aloft.
Jack peered through the spyglass, the other ship still miles ahead of them on the horizon. "Gibbs!" he shouted downwards. "Two points t' starboard an' I want us running dark!" He clambered down to the deck, taking the wheel back from Joshamee. "I want th' crew taking turns on th' sweeps throughout th' night an' t' rest fer a couple of hours before dawn... we'll be right up their arse in the night an' they won't even see us!" He grinned, thinking of Hughes' face at dawn. "Find out th' red, but I want Hughes alive!"