Chapter 42 – A Certain Something
July 5, 1660

Several days of sailing later brought us back to Saint Martin, going slow as the rotted ship could only take so much. I wasn't sure what ship I was going to take first but I was sure that nothing could be worse than a ship whose mast was held up by the shrouds and threatened to break in any strong breeze. Still, it beat rotting away in prison and sharing my cell with the rats, so I was at least thankful as we pulled into Saint Martin.

"Ay," a brown haired woman in a similarly colored overcoat said in a slight British accent as we tied the Senora Borracha off. "You call that a worthy ship of the king's navy?"

"She gets me around," I told the woman who scoffed and shook her head.

"She'll sink the first storm she sees," the woman yelled but I shook my head.

"She'll do to get me a better ship," I called back but the woman shook her head slowly as she dismissed me as a failed privateer as she turned back to a well armed sloop that lacked a mast and I had to wonder who was the failed privateer here.

Leaving the docks behind, I made my way to the local warehouse and purchased a ton of dried meat and vegetables per Colette's request and list. I didn't bother with more since it was agreed we'd get more with the ship's we took, something Colette personally oversaw rather than Timon or I. With the purchase done, I began walking towards the governor's mansion, soon arriving and coming across Elsa and her sister Anna sitting on the front patio with a gray parrot, a small rope around its leg tying it to a metallic stand.

"Admiral Hunt!" Anna said brightly as she noticed me approaching. "I didn't know you'd returned."

"I wish under better circumstances," I said as I stopped a few paces away.

"Where's your ship-of-the-line?" Elsa asked as she looked over the near empty harbor. "I don't even see your brig."

"That would be the 'better circumstances.'" I told her and her jaw dropped as she turned back to me. "The ship-of-the-line I named the Scarlet Empress and soon set sail after leaving for San Juan to take ships there."

"Oh," Elsa said her face brightening for a moment. "We signed a treaty with the ambassador of the alcalde of San Juan, a Gencho Martinez, I believe...which you didn't know about."

"No, I didn't," I told her as she realized my predicament as she fell silent after the last sentence.

"How many did you take?" Anna asked me as she plowed ahead with the conversation.

"Over a dozen," I said and she smiled, then frowned as I nodded. "I lost the Empress when the alcalde called for my head. He sent both a flag galleon and a fast galleon working together to take me down. I couldn't outrun the fast galleon, but I don't think it was their intention to ever board me. They just wanted my mast so the flag galleon could catch me."

"And you lost the Empress…" Elsa said as she took it all in. "How did you escape?"

"They left my crew aboard the sinking Empress as I had proof I was a privateer," I told her and she gasped as I relayed the tale of how my crew survived the sinking of the ship and came after me. "I doubt they send anyone after me, but it will likely be some time before I am ever welcome in San Juan."

"Undoubtedly," she said as the parrot eyed me.

"So, what's with the parrot?" I asked and the girl's giggled.

"He was a present," Elsa told me. "Still young, or so I'm told, but he doesn't know how to speak yet."

"Ah," I said as I looked the gray feathered parrot over. "A young African Grey, I think. One of the better parrot breeds and quite intelligent. But why the lanyard tying it down?"

"So it doesn't fly away," Elsa informed me. "It tried once before, got loose from its cage in my room and took hours to catch."

"Ah," I said as looked the parrot over. "You can try clippings its wings."

"Absolutely not," Anna stated firmly.

"The language is a misnomer," I told her. "May I?"

"Sure," Elsa said as I stepped forward and ran a finger over its wings. Pinching the wing bone lightly between two fingers, I stretched its wing out while the girls looked on fretfully.

"The feathers on the back edge of the wing do the heavy lifting for flight," I showed the girls who seemed anxious at my handling of their parrot. "Taking a pair of scissors and trimming the back edge through here isn't painful, much like cutting hair really, and prevents the bird from flying. Has to be redone about once a month, though. Those feathers do grow back and a bird can resume flight if you don't keep it trimmed. You can also see that it doesn't hurt the bird to handle its wing, just be gentle."

"Huh," Elsa said as she looked to her sister. Without further word, she rose from her seat and went inside the mansion and for a moment I thought I had done something wrong when I caught Anna smiling and stroking the bird but making no movement to leave. Elsa soon returned with a pair of scissors and together, the three of us trimmed the bird's wing feathers.

"Moment of truth," Elsa said as she untied the string from the stand, holding it between her fingers so she could keep it from flying away as I prompted it to fly by giving it a slight toss. The parrot took the hint and tried to fly, flapping its gray wings but as expected it wasn't getting the necessary lift then fell back to my hands. It jumped in my hand, angling away from me and towards freedom, then tried to fly again, but its efforts only allowed it to land on the ground. I bent down and offered it my hand which it took, allowing me to raise it up.

"Aww," Anna cooed as she untied the lanyard. Once the lanyard was untied, the parrot spread its wings once more, making the hop to Elsa's shoulder where it cuddled up to her ear.

"Such a sweetie," Elsa said as the bird settled itself. "Thank you...Lord Hunt, is it now?"

"Baron of something or other," I said as the girls giggled. "Once I build and name my manor, I'll figure out what I'm a baron of and its name."

"I'm sure you'll bring prosperity to Saint Martin," Elsa said as she rubbed at the parrot's breast feathers. "Though I imagine you'll want to speak to father about that."

"Yes, I am here to report in on recent happenings," I told the girls.

"He was in his study," Anna told me happily. "Through the main door, turn right at the suit of armor with the battle axe. His study is at the end of that hall."

"Thank you, Miss Arendelle," I said as the girls curtsying to me and my apparent status as I turned to go, the parrot giving a squawk and spreading its wings as Elsa shifted her weight to curtsy but staying where it was on her shoulder. I followed Anna's directions to the governor's study where he sat to a messy desk and tried to make sense of things.

"Oh, Lord Hunt," he said as he stood quickly from his desk at seeing me. "I wasn't aware you had arrived."

"I had an unfortunate run-in with the alcalde of San Juan," I told him as I explained what had happened.

"Most unfortunate about the Scarlet Empress," he said as he frowned about my lost ship. "Are you going to continue your privateering career?"

"Most certainly," I told him to put a smile on his face. "I stopped by Saint Martin for supplies and to have a manor built, along with a house for certain...guests...of mine."

"The ladies you retrieved on our trip here?" the governor asked and I nodded. "I'm torn between welcoming them and rejecting them."

"The argument of ethics and morality," I said as I understood the argument made in the Old West days of America. "I've always heard it said that it's the oldest profession in the world, one of the first things men actually traded for, and no matter how oppressive a ruler one ever is it can never be stopped or stamped out short of killing all the women or locking them away."

"There is that," the governor said with a sigh.

"Now, I would argue there is a case for civility and decorum involved with the practice such as it must be kept off the streets and no woman should ever be forced into the practice," I told the governor who raised an eyebrow at that.

"Those are rules you can live by?" he asked me and I nodded.

"All of the women who will be plying their trade under me are willing participants, though most would rather settle down and start a family," I told the governor. "All of mine are free to do so and if my home fell silent because every woman found a husband and moved out, I could live with it and be happy for them."

"That I can accept," he said with a smirk as talk moved on to my manor and location of my lands. It ended with the governor and I taking a ride in his carriage out to the site, just outside the town and atop a small rise. Most of my land was hilly and rocky, like the island itself, which didn't lend itself to farming crops. I could raise animals on it, goats coming to mind to eat the brush off of which there was plenty. That would be something I'd have to send for or find myself locally, but I had my mind set for more traditional farming animals like chickens and cows, if at a later date.

The governor also introduced me to the local carpenters which I then contracted to build both the brothel Clarion and I had designed and my personal manor. The manor was one he and I designed together, both grandiose in design and very roomy. I was also sure it would be easily seen from the harbor, the hill was rather prominent, but the brothel was to have priority as I wanted to protect the girls by getting them out of harm's way and also the simplest to build.

The last thing I did was to search for the local blacksmith and commission him to make some prosthetics for the girls, getting Ella a hook hand and Evelyn a leg. A trip to the local craftsman had him working on a leather vest and buckle set for Ella. It took two days for the tradesmen to finish their work, but once it was done Ella could walk without help and Ella could pull her arm on like a shirt and fasten it in by herself. Of course with some extra modifications to her clothes, a loop for her to use her hook to raise and hold her pants up while she buckled them on, finally allowed her to dress herself without help which made her happy she didn't have to have someone helping her with something as simple as using the head.

"Ladies," I said as I gathered the remaining girls around me. "The house for you will be ready in about a month. Now, I know you've suffered a lot by staying aboardship…"

"We're staying," Evelyn said as she stepped forward on her pegged leg, somehow becoming the de facto leader of the group though maybe it was just the fact she was the most damaged with the loss of her leg. "If we left now, we'd be holed up at the Dirty Bird and, honestly, I'd rather sleep outside."

"I swear their beds are infested," Sera groused. "I itch all over after sleepin' in one."

"Then we sail at dawn," I told the girls who smiled at me. The crew went ashore for one last night of partying and drinking, the girls plying their trade as Evelyn acted as their pimp and collected their money after services were performed. Evelyn brought the money in and added it to the ship's collection in the morning as they returned and finally got some sleep.

But it was time to plow a raging sea, all I could hope for was to soon do it in a better ship before I was doing this in a longboat.