please listen to Policy of Truth by Depeche Mode for this chapter.
-gg.
June 1720
Liete hummed softly as she rested against a wall in the reading nook she'd nestled into, eyes hooded but still alert. One of her hands rested against her now much smaller but still rounded stomach, and her other rested on the small stockinged foot of her son.
Now a strapping lad of nearly a year and a half, he was the sweetest thing Liete had ever beheld in her entire life. Only crying at the most extreme of moments (although Liete was so hyper focused on him at all times it may have been she caught the soggy nappy or fed him before it ailed him too much) and his smile made up of twelve little teeth was near constant.
He was a quiet one, with eyes that watched the world around him as if to say if he didn't take it all in at once he might miss something.
Liete named him Michael, For just as the archangel had done, he acted as the angel of death, bringing lost souls to heaven.
And so had the little one before her. She'd been a lost soul, left in torment, and with his coming had brought something forth in her that she couldn't quite comprehend.
Liete completely understood the women who did not want children, she had vehemently been one of them in her own private thoughts. Even now, as she gazed languidly on her son, she knew she'd never want children again.
But she wanted Michael.
As her thoughts quieted, she opened her eyes a little further to look around the small parlor as fear began to sneak its way into the space left once more in her mind.
She'd never given it credence when she'd rode on the waves, at the bow of the Jackdaw, saltwater thickening her hair.
Now it was her constant companion, like a judge's gavel waiting to drop, a guillotine to take her head. She'd once more found solace, a love that made all the darkness seem to cower, now it seemed as if all she could do was wait for it to be taken from her again.
Would she survive the heartbreak again? It had been the same thought she'd had as she'd been by Kenway's side. Could she survive when he'd leave she'd asked herself.
She had, but the cost had been so high. So high that shed nearly taken her own life.
Now she knew she'd never be able to pay it, knowing that that the price would be larger than the one before.
No, losing Michael… Liete was made up of nothing else but him now. There'd be nothing less.
Giggles brought her back to the parlor and away from her thoughts as two maids went about cleaning the nursery room just off through a door to her right that was slightly ajar.
The manor she'd been sequestered in was quiet, even in the midday, and rightfully so as it was well off the path of Kingston's main streets. Glancing out the large bay window from her perch, an exuberant amount of grouped guards made their way around the property and gardens outside.
Her left leg gave a slight twinge at the sight, where her last escape attempt had left her with a deep wound that had left an angry scar and a pain that came and went with the weather.
Since she'd made the attempt a few months prior, Rogers had upped the security and had essentially left her to rot.
He'd given up trying to force a marriage ever since his wife had refused the annulment he'd sent over for request. With no legal ability to wed her, and with the painfully obvious child that was definitely not his own yet still claimed to grasp at her name, Rogers face had seemed to twist into a perpetual state of anger and disappointment whenever he had come about, until his visits became fewer and fewer.
She had almost expected the man to try his hand again, force himself on her to prove a point. He was not a man to take such a comeuppance lightly, but with the change to Kingston, it may have been the fact that the politics sunk its teeth into the man with far more trouble than the Nassau pirate republic.
A letter had come from Peter Beckford Jr. the first week of arrival in Kingstong, and Woodes had flown into a rage upon reading its contents. Liete had listened from her guarded rooms above with pleasure, whatever her relation had to say, if it caused such a reaction from the gargoyle she agreed with it.
The following week, Liete's brother had set a meeting to what she could only assume see if it had been true. This claim of a Beckford heir. Liete wasn't a fool, and although she'd been kept locked away, she saw the men coming and going from the house, even the very one Kenway had taken prisoner.
Hushed tones and secrets abounded in the drawing room late into the evenings, after which Rogers would go off and find elsewhere to sleep.
Although it had been from afar, she'd seen her brother the one time. She held no love, no wonder at his face. It was like seeing a painting of some forgotten noble, why should she care?
Liete had been marched out of her prison, and brought to the small Parish Church, where she'd been sat to the back row sandwiched between two brutes as the empty church held Woodes Rogers and another with the younger face of her father far off in the area of the pulpit.
They'd not spoken, but as she'd stared at him anger pulsing straight to her heart, it had been one of the rare moments when Michael began to wail.
It occurred to Liete then, as the men spoke with hushed words that were louder than a friendly exchange, that maybe just maybe Woodes plans weren't going to work out after all.
From whispers in halls, she'd found that Nassau had outlived the illustrious career of Woodes Rogers and with his machinations in Kingston, he didn't seem long for governorship. What was to happen to her then at that point was in the air.
Time was needed now to see what would come of her and Michael.
"Have you heard the gossip from Port Royal?" Liete looked to her son once more who had woken from his nap but simply fussed with the cotton of his shirt as he clemched his small fists and let go over and over. His chubby cheeks were rosy with the afternoon heat as he gave her a soft chortle Beginning to rock himself turning his eyes towards the window and the clouds above.
Liete smiled to herself as Michael began to play his own little game with her as he pulled his leg back and forth to hit against her palm.
"Is it a new batch of pirates to hang?" Another giggle came from the maids, leaving a nasty taste in her mouth. She'd lived among pirates long enough to know they were similar in mindset, simply wanting freedom.
"Not just, two women! Mary Reade and Anne Bonny, dressing in breeches like a man!"
"Really? And they were pirates?"
Liete could not help herself as her head snapped to look out towards the door, a side profile of one of the maids, no older than fifteen and fair haired, visible as she ran a feathered duster over a rocking chair as she spoke once more in excitement.
"Yes! They've been terrorizing the coast for nearly a year with a crew of fighting men."
"How exciting!" The other maid, this one dark haired came into view as she made to grab her friend in excitement as she nearly pranced with the thought of the dangerous women.
The original maid grinned and scurried from her friend holding the duster out between them as if it were a sword.
"They took on two naval ships by themselves, and almost won! They were held trial three months ago and pled their bellies!"
Liete felt a sheer cold dread wash over her, déjà vu of her own circumstance dumping a near pitcher full of panic in her mind.
Anne Bonny, she'd been flighty but sweet for the small amount she'd seen her in Nassau.
Mary Reade… Kidd. She'd heard the bolstering among the guards, all sure they'd have known that he had been a she at first sight if it had been them. It had not surprised her in the least, she'd known there had been something hidden there.
Now, now they'd been caught just as she had.
Was this the fate of all those who sought something more than suppression? Something more than servitude, and blind faith in a king that didn't give a damn about them?
"Pregnant? I wouldn't think such fearsome women would even allow a man to come that close to them!" Both women snickered as Liete couldn't help herself then as she gathered Michael into her arms, drawing a sweet coo from him as he moved to wrap his little fists in clumps of her hair.
Liete needed his warmth now, as her heart felt heavy within her chest.
Kidd or Mary deserved better, they all deserved more than this.
To know they'd been taken left an emptiness in the pit of her stomach akin to when she'd learned of Blackbeard's passing.
She knew all to well the anguish the women were now going through.
Unlike her unsure circumstances, there was no doubt they were going to have their children stripped from them and then hung.
Standing to rock Michael in her arms, the maids oblivious to the eavesdropper in their midst continued their fun.
"Not only that, but they've also a pyrate that's been plundering about since Blackbeard!"
Liete's breath caught, unwilling to betray herself by even thinking the name just yet.
"A fearsome dog, apparently captured and brought in by one of his own."
"Charles Vane? Old news that he's been taken."
"No, not him."
"Calico Jack?"
"He came in with the women. Apparently one of them was his lover."
Liete heard the scuffle of soft leather and backed away from where she stood and past her window, as Michael looked up at her with sweet calm and wonder. The maids leisurely passed the parlor continuing on to other chores but just as they passed by the door opposite the one she'd been listening at, Liete tore across the room listening intently hoping, grasping that she'd not hear the one name she wanted more than amything.
The original maid had spoken but in her movement, Liete had missed it. She didn't have to wait long for her fears be confirmed.
"Kenway? What sort of pirate is he, I've never heard of him." The dark-haired maid sounded less than impressed with the name she blurted out.
"It was said even Blackbeard toed to him. Met a servant once who said she'd seen him the night Prinze died. Like a ghost, careful and quiet."
Laughter suddenly erupted and the words following it left Liete breathing hard as her hands shook against her son.
"He isn't a ghost now. He'll hang like the lot of them." The maids drew off leaving her unable to hear any more of their conversation, but it had already been too much.
A part of her soul sang, he was alive after all this time… but not for long.
The rest of the day found her gazing softly at Michael, her heart heavy and anguished. His father now languished just across the port, and she could do nothing. Was she just as he'd been when she'd been left in Nassau?
It wasn't long that she dwelled with the information, a few nights a best, till she was woken from her slumber in a panic.
It was well past the witching hour, all candles and lamp posts snuffed or run out of their wick, but it didn't matter as Michael gave off a small frightened howl.
The noise was shrill and sent her into an immediate frenzy.
They were coming for her son, it was finally happening.
She'd fallen asleep with one hand on Michael's bassinet as she always did, and she clenched that hand into a fist now as she sat up. Eyes wild and scanning the darkness.
Finding nothing moving in the room just yet, she steadied herself, and slid from the bed to her feet keeping the bassinet behind her. The room although dark, was partially lit by moonlight, and nothing was out of place. All was still.
Until she heard the telltale patter, and a soft guttural watery gasp from outside her door.
Liete sprung into action, first pulling the small silver letter opener she kept under her pillow, then gathering Michael into her arm resting his bottom on her hip.
Wide awake, the babe gave a gurgle of his own, secure now that she held him close, but thankfully gave off no other cry now.
Rushing to her window, she shoved again it with all her might, until what felt like eons passed y and the wood of the lock gave way and shambled open.
Without glancing below, Liete sat on the sill and swung her feet over the open air only then looking around panicked for anything to break the three story fall.
Just as she angled herself towards a button brush, the bedroom door clicked open followed by a hissed whisper.
"Miss Liete?"
She knew that voice.
Throwing her head back, sharply enough for her bones to give a crack, she found long hair framing bright eyes, ruddy cheeks, an offset note, and a mouth pulled back in a genuine smile of relief with teeth missing that only made the man standing in the doorway look roguishly sweet. A sword in his hand tinged with red reflecting in the moonlight made her catch her breath for just a moment, before her shoulder sagged and the letter opener tumbled out of her hand clattering against the floor making the giant flinch.
"Oh, Drew." With those words, Liete felt so much all at once it threatened to send ber into a crumpled mess. She'd only allowed herself to pour all of her emotions and care into Michael, that she'd completely closed off herself from any thoughts outside of it, any emotions. She forced herself to bottle everything to handle later before glancing to check her child, she was bemused to find he'd fallen back asleep in all the fuss. As Drew entered the room, another familiar dark and scarred face filled the space he left.
Adewale.
It was he who spoke then, his own teeth flashing in the darkness.
"Woman, you act fast." The tone was filled with an awe, as he sheathed his own blade and moved forward arms out to help her back into the room.
Drew nearly lunged to follow the man, and as they came near, Liete turned from her perch, nestling Michael into Ade's open arms even as they man started in wide eyed surprise. With her arms free, she accepted the help Drew had then offered once Ade had backed off as he lifted her like a sack of potatoes back to safety.
Liete's mind was having trouble with accepting the two men in front of her, to truly take into mind what they were doing here, and instead for a moment gathered Drew's face into her hands searching his eyes with her own.
He was thinner, and his hair grown out past his ears dark brown and feathered. Tears spilled from his eyes as he smiled in relief just for her, and Liete could not help as his own smile infected her with one as well.
Slowly he released her to her feet, and Liete moved her hands from his face to gather one of his hands in her own. She needed to touch him. Just to know he was real.
Ade held the bundle the child made up with wonder as he glanced down to find not a newborn but nearly a toddler fast asleep.
Turning from Drew, Liete's nightdress baggy and wide, motioned to the clearly astonished man that she could take her baby back. With movements of stone, the man carefully held him out to her. Liete couldn't help but grin at the odd gentleness behind the action and once more settled the child in her arm and hip.
She spoke now before either of the men had the chance too.
"I'm going to guess you've come to liberate me?"
Ade simply nodded, still to shocked to speak, but Drew on the other hand squeezed her hand and gave it a light tug towards the door.
"Miss Liete, we need ta' hurry. Pack yurself a ruck sack. We've taken out tha' guards but spared the servants since none be up. Like ta' keep it dat way." Drew's drawl was different, as if someone had been teaching him how to pronounce words more crisply and prim. It was for another time.
Liete nodded seriously and once again passed Michael to Ade, who looked more panicked that she'd ever seen him.
Drew followed behind her silently as she threw on a pair of leather boots and a heavy outer petticoat. As she pulled out her small trunk that had travelled with her all this way, shoving in young sir's nappies and an additional set of clothes for them both, another man came to the door in sandals and with a cheeky grin.
It had been the man from years ago, and he remembered her as well as he gave her a small bow his voice rumbling like thunder in a cool rain.
"I told you we'd meet again."
Liete wanted to laugh and woop at the turn of events, how a random stranger from a back street could be here now to rescue her. Life was full of surprises. He spoke again but this time he directed his words towards Ade & Drew.
"The maids are to wake soon to check on Miss." Ade nodded and motioned with his neck towards the trunk. The sandaled man moved from the doorway as well, leaving the room now crowded with the three large men taking up the space, as he motioned to a white and red clad women outside the door.
Her skin was dark, and her eyes amber as she entered the room immediately moving towards Ade offering to take the child from his arms. Liete bristled then, nearly pouncing on the women as she jumped in front of the women with teeth barred.
She trusted Ade with her most valuable possession, but not anyone she'd never seen before. She had never even allowed the maids who'd been with her for month to even go near Michael.
The women backed off quickly and Liete turned to take the boy back into her arms once more.
Ade, deciding to ignore the exchange, pointed towards the small chest and moved towards the door to leave.
And so, as she followed Ade, the sandaled man leading them through the dark house, and Drew right behind her, Liete was lead from the manor to a small dingy.
As Drew and Ade both rowed in the night, just on the edge of the port, The Jackdaw came into view.
Still she held back any emotion that meant to burst free, barely allowing herself to breath or believe. It was too cruel to believe just yet. What if she woke from this moment, leaving it behind as a dream?
It felt a matter of moments, as she was helped to the deck she knew like the back of her hand, and sails she'd folded many times opened in the stiff night wind.
Only then did she allow herself to breath, to stare out at the town of Kingston growing smaller behind them.
Michael began to fuss, small cries of discomfort bringing her back to reality for a moment. She couldn't quite process everything that had happened, the fact that she was free, but she could help her son.
All the late night commotion had been bothersome and upsetting, and with a little additional jostling on her part, she tucked him into her coat shimming an arm of her night dress off till he found his way to begin nursing.
As he suckled away happily, Liete covered herself once more, holding him within the folds of her petticoat for modesty.
The wood beneath her feet felt like home as she kept her footing with no effort even as it creaked with effort, tilting with the high wind. Liete closed her eyes for a moment as the spray of the ocean dampened her face, calming her racing heart.
"I'm sorry we left you in Nassau. We'd been told you'd chosen to go with Rogers." The apology that she'd been expecting now voiced pulled no emotion from Liete as she opened her eyes to glance at Ade.
Just behind him, Drew spoke softly to the still smiling man who wore the sandals, an eye still on her but respectful of her boundaries.
In fact everyone around them, none dressed as the pirates she was used to but all clad in the same garments as the women who'd tried to pick up Michael. All of them to kept an eye to her, curious… unsure.
Liete used her elbow to softly nudge the guilty faced man.
"I am not angry. Not anymore. I suspect most wouldn't understand the ridiculousness of it all."
"All except Drew."
Liete smiled then, a true smile as she glanced again at Drew who having finished speaking with the older man, simply stood off but watchful giving them their moment.
"Of course Drew, he's the most intelligent of us all you know." Both of them took a moment to really accept that truth, as the realization that although the man had been considered the simplest of them all, his heart and compassion made him a truly good man.
Softly, Liete spoke again.
"i accepted an invitation that had I refused I'd have been taken away by force. At least with the way I choose, I wasn't sent to a mad house."
Ade flinched as he crossed his arms, as he silently beat himself up. He should have known better, but he'd always been wary of her, and they'd all been in a panic making rash decisions. When she'd not been there on the fireship run, and he'd listened to whispers that she'd gone with Rogers willingly, it had been hard for him to even register it.
The woman had looked at Kenway with fire in her eyes, something he'd not seen her do for anything or anyone else, willing and able to meet his recklessness and insanity with her own.
The crew had all been left with a bad taste in their mouth, as they escaped with her behind.
"We should have gone back for you."
The words hung heavy in the air, as Ade tightened his grip on his arms before his next words came out as little more than a whisper.
"Liete, did Rogers hurt you? Did he…" He hesitated then weighing the appropriate way to ask and then went against it. Well, Liete had never been one for appropriate any how.
"You mean to ask me, who fathered this child." The child in question had finished his suckling and had now begun to push the fabric in his face away. Modestly moving her coat and dress aside, producing the baby in question, Liete held Michael in front of her as he gave off a tired tiny yawn before staring in puzzlement at his mother and her dark friend.
A year and a half had done nothing to mar the resemblance between father and son, as his hair had grown in thicker like golden wheat. His chin now held a small crease and his eyes were no less blue silver than they'd been at birth.
As Michael looked at Ade with happiness and tired interest, Ade couldn't mistake those eyes. Not for a million years. Words began to spill from him then, as if he needed to fill in the time that had come between them, to let her know just what the man who fathered the beautiful boy in front of them had done when they'd left her to rot.
"Kenway went a little mad after Nassau. First we tracked down Thatch. I know you were close, so it pains me ta tell you this, but we were ambushed. Thatch was killed."
"I know Ade… I know." That was all Liete wanted to hear of the man she'd truly seen as friend, at least in this moment. She still mourned him in her quiet moments wishing she had one last moment to share with him.
Hesitating for only as moment, Ade continued.
"From there we team with Rackham and Vane to bring down the sage. Both captains were marooned against with help from Jack, they attempted to sell me… as you can tell it was not that easy. They set them adrift in wreckage and Kenway managed to incapacitate a schooner and came back to Great Inagua to find the Jackdaw with me."
Liete listened, and although a part of her did not want to hear it, did not want to know what hardships how now found her death in a Jamaican prison, she sensed that the man needed to bleed off the pain. Liete may have not cared for anyone just two years ago, or their needs.
But now, a tenderness had grown within her, and she simply stood and took in what the man needed to say to find his own peace.
"We went after the safe ourselves then and found him in Africa. We followed him, now named Black Bart, like dutiful pups. Killing and massacring in his name, all for some damned pursuit that none of us believed in but Kenway. The crew grew weary, angry, and Liete forgive me… but I did too. When we followed this man to this god forsaken place, for this Observatory, we'd grown so tired of the never ending chase by such a man so intoxicated by greed… we left him there to his new found friend and his greed."
This was a confession, Liete knew it like it had been written for her in black ink. Her thoughts of him needing peace had been on the right track, but more that he needed forgiveness. And he wanted forgiveness from her.
She'd only ever wanted to make men feel the same panic and fear that they'd inflicted on her all her life , to keep them on their toes… It had never occurred to her to be the one to give them true clemency.
Ade had quieted, unsure of how she'd take his confession as the horizon seemed to suddenly split with orange and yellow as the sun began to peak over the ocean, dawn breaking.
Liete having cradled Michael back into her chest, fast asleep once more, turned away from the ocean to pin Ade with a willful look of calm acceptance.
"And now, now he rots in Port Royal with Mary and Anne. Tell me Ade, did his greed deserve that? Did theirs?"
True surprise took over the mans face, as he bellowed in true exasperation and bewilderment, waking Michael who wailed and drawing Drew closer as all the ship seemed to still.
"WHAT? THEY ARE WHERE?"