Chapter Eighteen
~.~
It hadn't been Bella's intent to cause strife between Edward and his father, but Edward was furious and his open, honest nature didn't give him many options for concealing it. Perhaps Carlisle had noticed his son wouldn't look at him the rest of the day after Alice's wedding, nor that evening when they returned home after Meeting. Edward kept striding forward whenever Carlisle neared him and wouldn't even glance in his father's direction. Esme kept casting concerned looks between them, and then looking at Bella with a question in her eyes.
It wasn't until they were back inside the house that Carlisle finally asked his son if aught was amiss. Edward was in the process of hanging up his hat when his father spoke and he stilled with it in his hand. He turned around slowly to glare at Carlisle with the full force of his anger in his eyes.
"I have difficulty accepting that as a serious question," Edward said, his words sharp and clipped, and without noticing it, his hand clenched into a fist, crushing his hat. Bella rescued it, prying his fingers off the wool nap and trying her best to re-shape it before hanging it on the peg.
Edward hadn't taken his eyes off his father. Carlisle blinked and stepped back, as if staggered a little by the force of his son's anger. "What -? Why ...?"
"As a guest in my home, you impugn the honor of my wife - the woman who saved the life of your daughter." Edward spat out the words as though they tasted vile. The color was rising in his cheeks, and though he hadn't raised his voice, his words had the same impact as a shout, as hard as a punch on the ear.
Carlisle raised his hands, as though to ward them off. "Son, 'twas never my intent -"
"Your intent matters not. What matters is that you shamed my wife."
"I didn't! I said only that she knew the savages were in this region again."
"You lie to me now?" Edward stared at him in disbelief. "James knew she had traded with them."
The color drained from Carlisle's face, and Bella knew in that moment that Carlisle genuinely hadn't thought of how this would affect the colony's opinion of Bella. "I had to explain how she came by the knowledge."
Edward threw his hands up in disgust. "You slandered her by implication, and you well know it."
"I did it only for the safety of this colony. The men at arms needed to know the savages were lingering in this region. Had they attacked us -"
"They had no intent of attack," Bella said. "None."
"You do not know that," Carlisle retorted. He turned to Bella, and his own anger, perhaps born from defensiveness, rose to the fore. "You may think you know about the savages, daughter -"
"Do not call her by that title," Edward snarled. "You have forfeited the right."
Carlisle took a sharp breath, but continued. "Bella, you may think you know them, but your knowledge is slight. You were not here when they attacked us during the Starving Time."
Bella crossed her arms. "After you plundered the graves of their ancestors."
"How were we to know they were graves?" Carlisle shouted. he shoved his hands into his hair and the gesture was so like Edward when he was frustrated that Bella's heart ached again. " "Twas no marker commemorating the dead, no stone or slab. We thought it was a food cache, and we were starving. Our children were starving!"
Bella shook her head. She could feel the anger sizzling in the air, but all she felt was sorrow. Sorrow that all of this pain could have been avoided. And over her long life, she had seen the same cycle again and again, the same mistakes the same conflicts - the same story, played over and over. The characters changed, but the conflict never did. "All of it has been naught but misunderstandings, one after another. Had our peoples tried to talk to one another, we might have avoided such strife."
"They're savages," Carlisle roared. "They're not people who can be reasoned with. They do not think as we do."
"And that," Bella said, "is why we will always be at war with one another. Not because of what the 'savages' may do, but because you refuse to accept them as human."
The silence yawned between them.
"This is a discussion for another time," Edward said. "What is at issue is that my father cast aspersions on my wife."
"By reporting her actions honestly?"
"Knowing they would be taken out of context by people who do not know her, yes."
"Perhaps you do not know her as well as you believe."
His words fell like stones between them. A muscle in Edward's face twitched as if an invisible string had been pulled. His eyes were burning green fire as Edward stared at his father. When he spoke, his words were slow, almost hesitant for a moment. "I cannot believe I heard such a thing from you."
"Carlisle, Edward, please." Esme slipped between them, holding her hands out as if she feared they were about to come to blows. "Edward, your father did not intend to cause your wife any harm."
"But he has." Edward turned to his stepmother and his face softened. "Esme, I've come to love you as a second mother, and I know Bella loves you, as well. Because of the love I bear for you, it pains me to say this, but I must. I cannot host someone beneath my roof who brings harm to my wife. I will not turn you out into the street, but I ask that you leave as soon as it is practical."
The indignation faded from Carlisle's face and it slowly ran the gamut of emotion from horror to pleading. "Son ... You cannot mean ..."
"But I do. Father, you're no longer welcome in my home. You do not know how much hurt it causes me to say it, but I must."
Carlisle turned to face Bella. "Is this at your instigation?"
"No." Bella shook her head. She hadn't expected this.
"Don't blame her," Edward said. "She told me only of the gossip that had arisen in the wake of your revelation to the elders. She asked nothing of me, but told me only to warn me of what was being said."
"Son, I ask you only to understand the risk to the colony, and thus the risk to your own family."
"Unlike you, I trust my wife when she says there is no danger from Jacob's people."
"What does a woman know? Women know nothing of the ways of war. She makes a friend of one savage and thinks she understands their nature?"
Edward nodded. "I understand the nature of your doubts. Not that I agree with them, but I understand your way of thinking. That said, you could have found a way to warn the colony if you felt it necessary, without involving my wife. You either chose not to, or didn't think of the potential damage to her. You once chastised me for failing to protect my family. Are you guilty of the same flaw?"
"I chose the path of honesty," Carlisle said. His jaw was set in hard lines, and in that moment, father and son looked so much alike it caused a little break in Bella's heart.
She bit her lip as she laid a hand on Edward's arm. "Perhaps ... perhaps we could come to some accord."
Edward turned to look down at her and a smile softened his face for a moment, but did not ease the hard light from his eyes. "My love ... Always trying to promote peace, even when it is you who've been wronged."
"My son has made his wishes clear," Carlisle said. "We'll not tarry. We'll be gone in the morning."
"But where will you go?" Bella looked over at Esme, who gave her a small shake of the head.
"I'm sure that's none of your concern," Carlisle said in tones of exaggerated politeness, as if to a stranger. He gave a short bow, and took his wife's arm. They turned and headed up the stairs, but Esme was looking back at Bella, a pleading expression in her eyes, as if begging Bella to repair this situation. But Bella had nothing to offer at the moment.
Edward watched them as they went. The muscles in his jaw stood out as he clenched his teeth. Bella took him into her arms, as she'd been longing to do, and felt a shudder go through him. He laid his forehead down on her shoulder and let out a long, slow sigh.
"The last thing I wish is to cause strife in your family," Bella said. She slipped her hand up the back of his neck into his tousled hair, smoothing it just to relieve some of her own urge to soothe him in some way.
"I know that, but it could not be helped. I couldn't allow him - my own father - to bring calumny down upon my wife."
"Edward, my love." She turned her face into his hair and gave a sigh of her own. "I only fear that we may come to a time when we need all the allies we can have."
Edward straightened up to look down at her. The green of his eyes looked like the shadowed forest in the low light coming from the fireplace. "I cannot trust him. How can I hold him as an ally?"
"I believe him when he says he meant no harm."
"Yet harm was done." Edward sighed again and rubbed his brow. "Bella, I am weary. Let's retire to bed and we'll talk more of this on the morrow, if you still wish."
She picked up Rose from the baby tender followed him up the stairs to their room. Rose laid her hand against Bella's cheek and her mind was flooded with the confused little girl's thoughts. Bella tried to explain that grown people sometimes didn't agree, but Rose only wanted her family back to the way they were, smiling and loving. She wanted Emmett, too, but he was in Carlisle and Esme's room. Bella got her ready for bed after a quick visit to the chamber pot, and then tucked her into her cradle with the thought that perhaps things would be better in the morning. Rose wasn't soothed, but she drifted off soon after Bella laid her down and rubbed her back.
She began to undress, stripping off her sleeves and tucking them away in the wardrobe and divesting herself of her heavy skirts and petticoats. She reached behind her to loosen her bodice lacing and that's when Edward's hand caught hers. He drew it to her side and pressed a kiss into the the palm before releasing it. She felt his finger trace from the nape of her neck down to her spine, slipping below the lacing cord to pull it from the eyelets one by one. He bent and his lips traced the curve where her neck met her shoulder. It made her whole body tingle and Bella let out a soft gasp as a shiver shook through her.
Her loosened bodice fell to the floor. Bella turned to face Edward and the light in his burning green eyes made her shiver again. He trailed his hand around from her shoulders along her collarbone to the dip between her breasts where the tie of her chemise lay, a thin silk ribbon in a bow. He tugged at one end of it and the bow slowly slipped apart.
"Edward," Bella whispered.
He shook his head. "No words. No words until the morrow."
The bow came apart. He nudged the linen from her shoulders and the chemise fell down her arms, pooling at her elbows. For a moment, he just looked at her, the soft gleam of her flesh in the candlelight. And then he traced his fingers over the curves of her form, as a blind man might, learning the contours by touch. He brushed the sides of his fingers down the slope of her waist, and tilted his head slightly, like a man appreciating a work of art.
It was torture. Bella had to bite her lip to keep from speaking his name again.
He knelt and began to kiss the skin he had exposed, bit by bit, inch by inch. Bella could finally stand it no longer. With a growl, she tangled her hand in his hair and yanked back his head. His lips quirked in a smile, but Bella wasn't smiling. She felt feral, desperate. The kiss she gave him was almost an attack, ravaging his mouth with her hunger.
He stood and swept her up off her feet and Bella felt her body cry out in relief as he dropped her into their feather bed. She helped him pull at his clothing, hearing a stitch or two rip in their haste, but neither cared.
They paused when they came together, their eyes locking in a deep and quiet moment. Bella wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him as tightly as she dared, afraid she might crush him with her preternatural strength but wanting to hold him closer, tighter, never to let him go. She savored it as he began to move above her, feeling his weight, his warmth, the slide of his muscles against hers, his hot breath against her kin.
Here. Alive. Hers.
It was all that mattered.
~.~
When they rose in the morning the house was unusually quiet. Carlisle and Esme were gone. Bella had heard them stirring in the pre-dawn hours. Edward hadn't woken, and perhaps that had been best.
Bella rose and donned her nightgown over her chemise and petticoats before she went downstairs. She stirred up the fire and made them porridge for breakfast, smiling at the yawning Edward when he finally clumped down the stairs. Rose babbled while Bella fed her, turning her head away from the spoon frequently and looking around. Bella didn't need her mind connection to know Rose was looking for Emmett. Edward didn't mention it, but of course, he had to be feeling the significance of the empty chairs as well.
"I'm going down to the docks this morning," he said. "They'll be selling the indentures from the servants who arrived with the new ship."
Bella had almost forgotten it in the excitement of Alice's wedding. The ship had arrived just a few days ago, the Unity, bearing new colonists sponsored by the Crown itself. "What sort of servants?"
"Now that Alice is gone, don't you want someone to help around the house?"
Bella shook her head. "Not as yet. I can manage, I think, and if I wish to hire someone, I may just get one of the village girls to come in the afternoons."
Edward gave a soft snort. "A duchess with no servants. 'Tis a scandal."
"I'll tell no one if you don't."
He gave her a kiss on the cheek as he stood. "I need some farm hands. Without Jasper's help, I'll need at least one man to help me. I want to plant that acreage I cleared last year and set to work on clearing more for next season."
"Will they have to live here?"
"Not if you don't wish them to. The shed is large enough for several cots."
Bella winced at the thought of making their servants sleep in the shed, but Edward continued the line of thought by talking about expanding it and making it warm for winter by adding a stone fireplace. Eventually, he said, it could be an overseer's house as they built on to the farm. His eyes shone as he talked about his plans, converting the virgin forest into rich farmland, carving out portions for indentured workers who would become tenant farmers when they'd paid off their debts, creating plantations for various crops and hiring more people every year. "Eventually, our children will be able to subdivide it into several large properties. Think of it, Bella. This is how those noble families back home began. We own more land here than some of those great houses do today. We're carving our or own new duchy in this wilderness, something that will last for generations."
Bella smiled with him, but her thoughts were tinged with a hint of sadness. These were children she would watch grow old and die, after all, generations that would march on without her as she loved them from a distance, never able to reveal who she was to them. But it was the choice she had made in loving a mortal, she reminded herself.
After Edward had left, she cleaned up the breakfast dishes and went upstairs to dress. One of the last things that she and Alice had done before the wedding was to get Bella's spring and summer clothing out of storage. It had all had to be aired and pressed, a long and boring task for which Bella had been glad to have assistance. It would have to be repeated this fall, she thought as she picked through her choices for the day. Maybe Edward was right about Bella needing some help.
She selected a green linen gown with floral embroidery at the neckline and hem and muttered and cursed her way through all of the complicated lacing. Dressing Rose was much easier, and Bella wished fiercely that adults could wear smocks like this. She tied on both of their bonnets and headed out the door into the bright sunshine. The day was shaping up to be a hot one, she noticed. Not a cloud in the sky.
The streets bustled with people. There still weren't any horses in Plimouth Colony, so the few wagons that passed were two-wheeled carts, drawn by people who held the shafts beneath their arms. Four cattle had been brought by The Jacob, and Bella saw one of them being driven toward the town common for grazing. She stopped to give it a pat and the animal told her she didn't much like the forage in this new place. It upset her stomach.
The cow's owner stared at Bella, and Bella did suppose it was odd to see a woman want to pet a cow. She gave the owner a smile that wasn't returned and continued on her way. But as it turned out, the cow's owner wasn't the only one who didn't return Bella's pleasantries. She spoke a greeting to two women who quickly turned their heads away, shielding their faces with the sides of their bonnets.
No matter. Bella assumed her "duchess posture" and held her head high, her shoulders erect. She continued to smile and greet everyone she passed, regardless of whether they returned it. Even the men at the gate didn't meet her eyes.
"I won't play this tiresome game," she whispered to Rose. "I won't." But even as she walked with her chin held in the air, her heart pounded and her nostrils tingled with the memory of the scent of smoke. Alice had assured her that the people of Plimouth Colony weren't "like that." But Bella knew how thin that line was, how easy it was to cross. And she knew how dangerous it was to be on the other side of that line.
She walked the path through the woods toward the marsh and followed it to a little cottage perched on a small hill above the reeds. She found Alice outside, a shovel in hand as she broke the earth a few paces away from the door. Esme was with her, holding another spade, busy breaking the large clods of soil. They stopped as Bella approached her with exclamations of joy and hugs. Bella put Rose down on a blanket beside Emmett and the babies hugged too, delighted to be reunited.
"Both of my favorite people visiting at the same time," Alice said. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.
"I didn't expect to find you digging up the earth the day after your wedding," Bella said. She took the shovel from Alice's hand. "Let me do that for a bit."
"But your beautiful dress!" Alice protested.
Bella waved a hand. "Stuff and nonsense. Go sit in the shade." She shoved the end of the spade into the earth and easily turned over another clod. "Creating a garden?"
"Aye. Jasper has been working on the house and just hasn't had the time."
"Speaking of houses, where do you find yourself?" Bella asked Esme.
"Carlisle went to the Governor this morning about renting a place. He hasn't yet returned."
Bella sighed and shoved the spade into the ground again. "I am sorry about that."
" 'Twas not your doing. That I know." Esme chopped at a chunk of dirt and didn't look up at Bella. "Men can be so... set in their minds."
"I need you to be honest with me, Esme. Have you any money?"
Esme pinkened. "I have a bit from my sewing. But ..."
Bella leaned the spade against her hip and reached through the slit in the side of her skirt. She had a pocket below, tied around her waist. She pulled a handful of coins from inside. "Please."
"I couldn't."
"You must. Take it in the spirit it is given, for you know you would do the same if it were me."
Esme took the coins and slipped them into her own pocket. When she looked up again, her eyes were gleaming with tears. Bella gave her a wordless hug and set back to digging. She had to remind herself to go slow and pretend there was some effort to it. Alice tried to take back the shovel after a while, but Bella insisted on keeping it. "You must be a little tired after all of the ... excitement yesterday."
"I am tired," Alice admitted.
"I imagine you may have stayed up late." Esme gave her a sly glance and giggled when Alice's cheeks reddened. Bella laughed too, turning her face up into the sunshine. It was one of those little joyful stolen moments in which their problems, fears, and troubles were far away and there was only laughter and happiness. Bella knew by now they had to be cherished as they came.
"How are you finding married life?" she asked Alice, who was helping to make Rose a poppet from rags.
Alice froze for a moment. She seemed to be struggling to control her face. She lost the battle and looked up at Bella with a grin so huge that Bella burst into laughter at the sight of it.
"That good, hmm?"
"Oh my, Bella ... I had no idea." Alice shook her head."God has given us an amazing gift in marriage. I'm going to recommend it highly to every young woman who crosses my path."
"I am so glad you're happy."
"I am. I'll have to show you my little house in a bit. Not that there's much to see, but it's mine, and I love it."
Around noon when the sun was at its zenith, Alice insisted Bella and Esme stop and have dinner with her. She was cooking for supper that night, so all they had was the bit of food Esme had packed for Alice in a basket. They had slices of ham while Bella ate jam smeared on bread. Both women teased her for her addiction to sweets, which Bella cheerfully admitted to. It was easier than having to explain why she never ate meat.
As Alice had said, there wasn't much to her little home. It was a single room with a bed tucked in the corner by the fireplace. A table took up most of the rest of the floorspace. Shelves on pegs held her few household utensils, and a small trunk on the beaten-earth floor below it held their clothing. There was a single window on the opposite wall, covered with a pair of shutters. She showed Esme and Bella the curtains she was sewing for it. It was a humble little place, but Alice was as happy with it as though it were a palace.
Jasper came in soon, redolent of sweat and covered dirt from the fields. Alice gave that massive grin again when she saw him and brought him a mug of cool ale to drink while she fixed him a plate. Jasper watched her every move, forgetting the ale. He had his elbow on the table, his chin propped up on the heel of his hand as he watched her, and Bella and Esme exchanged amused glances. He looked like every illustration Bella had ever seen of the love-sick swain.
Bella was grinning herself. It was so delightful to see the people she loved happy.
They had most of the garden completed by the time Carlisle came to get Esme that evening. He froze in his tracks when he saw Bella. He decided to ignore her. He picked up little Emmett, who protested with a long cry as he was pulled away from Rose. He waved his little arms toward her, but Carlisle captured them and tried to distract him by tickling him as he spoke to his wife.
"I've found us a place. It is in town, which will be safer for you, though I'm sorry to say it's down near the docks."
A hierarchy had already sprung up with the better neighborhoods near the hill and the Meeting House and the working class down near the sea. Esme smiled. "I'm sure it will do quite well. Alice, I hope the rest of your evening goes well, and Bella - I hope to see you again soon."
"The same." Bella kissed Esme's cheek. "Let me know if you need anything. Anything."
"I will."
Carlisle took her arm and led her out the door, still pretending that he didn't see Bella.
Bella sighed as she watched them go. She turned to Alice. "Do you want me to stay until Jasper comes home?"
"No, I think all will be well. And I have visitors coming."
"Who?"
"My prayer group." Alice went over to stir her pot of stew. "I hope I made enough ..."
"Alice, Governor Bradford is really upset about your meetings."
"This time, the guests are just coming for dinner to congratulate a new bride."
Bella arched a brow at her.
Alice rubbed her forehead. "I know. I've taken steps to reduce the number of men who attend, since that is what seemed to anger Bradford the most. They take turns now."
"Just... be careful. Please."
"I will." Alice spread her hands. "But I feel that God is leading me to do this. How can I not do His will? Surely, he will protect me."
"I saw several go to the stake saying the same thing," Bella said grimly.
"God's protection doesn't mean bad things will never happen. Only that He will give you the strength to endure."
"I don't want strength," Bella snapped. "I want my family safe."
"Oh, Bella." Alice came over to her and wrapped her thin arms around Bella's shoulders. "Please have faith. If I could give you one gift, it would be the assurance I feel."
Bella didn't say it, but she was thinking she would give Alice the sense not to take those risks in the first place. She kissed Alice's cheek and took Rose up into her arms, heading back to her own home. Under her cloud of worry, she didn't take time to notice how the people she passed were reacting to her. But it was one more layer of concern. She could not protect Alice any longer, and she herself was facing the community's censure.
She couldn't escape the sense, deep in the back of her mind, that something dark and dangerous was coming.
~.~
Bella opened her front door to find Edward seated at the table with a man she didn't recognize. "Oh! Good evening." She took off Rose's bonnet and plunked her into the baby tender, smoothing her dress instinctively. Smears of dirt marred the skirt and her sleeves were caked with it at the cuffs. She must look a fright.
"I know you weren't expecting a guest tonight, Bella." Edward stood. "I apologize."
"No trouble."
"This is Mr. Jason Jenks. Jenks, my wife, Bella Cullen Masen."
Bella curtsied and Jason bowed to her.
"Cullen? Are you from the Duke of Cullen's kin?"
Bella nodded, knowing Edward must have included her previous name intentionally to make the connection. "A cousin."
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. It happens that I am a close friend of the present Duke."
Edward smiled over at her and now she understood why Edward had brought this stranger home.
"Ward?" Bella's breath stopped and her heart pounded with excitement. "You know Ward? How is he? When did you last see him?"
"Nay, his son, Charles."
"His son ... is now the duke?" Bella had to grip the back of a chair to keep from falling. The room swam around her in sick, dizzy circles.
"Bella! Bella sit down." Edward gripped her shoulders and guided her into a chair. Bella's breath came in tiny gasps. Edward was speaking to her, but the words didn't seem to make sense. She couldn't see him through the sheen of tears in her eyes.
"God's teeth, Bella, I'm sorry,"Edward said. "I didn't realize ... When he said the duke, I thought ..."
Bella couldn't say anything, but she laid a hand over his to let him know that it was alright. She struggled to catch her breath.
"I too am sorry," Jenks said. "I regret you had to learn of the death of the old duke this way. You must have been close to him."
Bella nodded.
"I did not know Ward Cullen, but his son is a good man." Jenks shifted awkwardly on his feet, obviously unsure of what to do.
Bella closed her eyes and fought for composure. She thought of Ward as he had been when he was an infant, as he had been when he fought the fever, as he had been when he was a bold little boy showing Queen Mary his sword. Her son, Edward's son ... Her finger tips brushed the locket she always wore at her neck, the locket he had given her on their last visit.
She took a deep breath. Mourning would come later, when she had privacy. She had to maintain her composure i front of her guest lest he wonder why she was grieving a distant cousin so deeply.
"What brings you to our colony?" she asked finally. Edward put a mug of ale into her hand and she took a gulp of it, more for a way to hide her face temporarily than because she wanted a drink.
"A charter from the king himself." From Jenks's tone, he was proud of that. "His majesty sent us on a trading venture. I came here hoping to trade with the Natives, but most of them seem to have fled. There are still some here and there, and I'm trying to coax them back, but in the meantime, I have my men setting traps wherever I may. I spoke to your husband of using your land, and he told me of his need for labor, so we thought we may be able to work out a trade. But in talking to him, I found him an interesting fellow, and that seems to be a rare thing in this land of grim moles."
"You have made contact with some of the Native, then?" Bella had known some of them would come back to trad after Jacob's people had gone, but there had been few sightings as of yet around the colony.
Jenks nodded. "I had to range afield to find them, but they are out there. They're skittish at present, but who could blame them after what happened with the Wôpanâak? I enjoy their company. The Infidels seem friendlier than the Christians I've met thus far."
"Does Captain Standish know you've made contact with them?"
Jenks shrugged. "I try to avoid contact with Captain Shrimp, so I cannot say."
At Jenks's nickname for Standish, Edward burst into laughter.
Jenks leaned forward. "I've heard rumors about you."
Bella's eyes narrowed. "If it's a claim about the Natives -"
Jenks waved a hand. "Not interested in that. "What I am interested in is the cache of books I hear you have."
Bella gave him a small smile. "Perhaps that one may be true."
"Please. My mind is starved for anything but another treatise on minute points of doctrine. I was able to bring only a few of my law books with me and they are nigh as dry. I am pleading for your help, Mistress Masen."
"You are a barrister?"
"I am. I read law in London at the Inns of Court. It's what eventually led me to the king's court, and then here, to this benighted place." Jenks's eyes twinkled. "There is money to be made here, but the cultural life leaves much to be desired."
Bradford must hate him, Bella thought. He was exactly what Bradford disliked about the economic realities of the colony. Forced to let in people who were not part of the religious dissidents when their dream had been to found a colony of nothing but believers. Now, the "Strangers" were starting to outnumber the "Saints." They would dutifully attend church, as the law required, but they were going to change the culture here, there was no doubt. The only question was how hard Bradford and the other believers would fight back to try to keep the colony as they had envisioned.
~.~
~.~
Historical Notes:
- Jenks is based on a man named Thomas Morton. He really did call Standish "Captain Shrimp." Many of the lines I've used for him, including the one about the "infidels" being friendlier than the Christians, are really things Morton said.
