Land Interlude I: Oxbay
"Se lever! Se déplacer là-bas. Ne pas me faire tirer vous aime un chien!" the French soldier shouted at the prisoners in what remained of Oxbay's fort. The prisoners, mostly navy officers, looked blankly at each other; no one understood what he was saying.
"I think what he means to say," James Hartley, former Commander of the fort at Oxbay and current prisoner of war, explained. "Is that he doesn't want us near the gate."
Hartley gestured towards the center of the fort courtyard, where a gallows had been erected. Three citizens (who had attempted to kill the leader of the French forces in his bed) had been hung already. "Let's just go over there. Besides," he said curtly, "Here, we don't have anything, but over there, there's rope."
"What good is rope going to do us?" someone asked. Hartley turned to see an ensign looking up at him, nursing a cut on his leg.
"I'm not sure. It's better than nothing."
Hartley turned around when he heard the French guard laughing obnoxiously. "Un autre idiot anglais? Oui, oui, l'amener à l'intérieur," he said, waving a hand. Hartley peered beyond the soldier, where his friend Captain Marcus Mariner was being lugged forward by two Frenchmen, his black hair disheveled.
After dropping Mariner unceremoniously at the foot of the gallows with the rest, the Frenchmen turned and began to walk the perimeter of the fortress courtyard, talking and laughing to themselves. Hartley dropped to his knees next to Mariner and said, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Mariner said quietly. "Took a nasty bump to the head, but that was because I tripped over my boots in my haste to fight off the French."
"Are you sure? You look pale," Hartley said gravely.
Mariner looked peeved. "I'm fine," he insisted. "Anyway, you remember how we said we'd always look out for the other? Well, I was able to sneak into your house. I didn't find Verity. She wasn't at the tavern, and I spoke to Mrs. Henry, who had taken all the girls into the jungles."
"Was Verity with them?" Hartley asked, looking alarmed.
Mariner shook his head. "No. But, James, I'm positive she wasn't taken to the French brothel." The captain patted Hartley's arm.
"She can't have left the island." Hartley looked up at Mariner. "Could she?"
"I don't know, old man," Mariner replied, shaking his head. "There were rumors that a privateer ship was able to escape, but no one knows who was on it. The only person not accounted for is Verity."
"You don't think she's d—?"
"No," Mariner said sternly. "Your sister is fine. Just take it easy, James."
"All right," he said quietly, nodding his head. Finally, he sat cross-legged on the ground and began rubbing his face with his hands. "All right. I'm sure the crew of the ship that escaped has enough sense to tell the Governor over at Redmond what happened. We'll have the French out of here soon, and my sister will be still here. Hiding. Somewhere."
James heaved a sigh and looked up. A French flag fluttered over the fort. He vowed that it would not remain there long.