It was best that the meeting was to take place on her neutral terrain. In truth, it wasn't truly neutral, but given the circumstances, she couldn't risk having one of the sides feeling in the least threatened and having their decisions affected by it, though she feared there would be suspicion in the air, at least from the English authorities.
"Max" Idelle whispered to her as they were waiting for their guests "You need to stop trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds!"
She was glad that her friend was cautious enough to whisper, as they would have been heard by the firsts guests arriving, who just then knocked at the door.
"Good day, mister Rogers" she welcomed him "I believe it is in your best interest that I facilitate this meeting"
"I trust your intentions" he coldly replied
He had come accompanied by a man she knew was named Julian Byron. She had been informed that Julian was a skeptical man with a minor sub lieutenant rank, yet she was surprised to find out that he was close enough to the governor to be the only by his side.
"Shall we begin?" Max asked them, and with their approval, Idelle went out of the room to bring in the other two guests
Had she not been entirely confident in both her ability to be diplomatic and her knowledge of her guests' minds, having those exact people in the same room together would have put her, or any other sane person, on guard. She, however, had no problem of bringing Woodes Rogers face to face with none other than Long John Silver and Madi Scott.
"I considered it best to arrange this meeting between you, than to let resentment fester and stir conflicts that could easily be avoided" she calmly declared
She had told both parties, in advance, who they would be meeting, to avoid any harsh and unpredictable reactions from either of them, yet a heavy tension filled the air as soon as they all sat down and faced each other. The tension was natural, given the history that the four of them had, yet facing it was necessary. She had decided to make this first move quickly, to show that her intentions were as promised, as she needed to make sure that the governor would also hold all his ends of the bargain. Apart from her own safety, there were so many whose lives clinged onto hers: Idelle, Featherstone, Elisabeth and many others.
"I have been informed that you had retired" Woodes began
"I have. And you have been forcefully retired yourself for a few years" John replied with a hint of amusement
It also amused her, in an ironic way, how having these two men speaking together would have seemed like opening the gates to a flood for most people. The man who wanted the end of piracy in the Bahamas and the one who lead the pirate rebellion. Yet the reasons for the pirate rebellion of years ago were long gone, and the new pirates had a complete lack of ideology as Flint did and bore little interest to Long John Silver. Though he was a legend amongst the giants, the man had simply retreated himself with his wife in his little corner of the world. That innocent and idyllic end to his saga was something that many sailors longed for, but most of them had very different motivations for being on the account. What his peaceful retirement proved though, was that it was John's motivation all along and she knew that Woodes Rogers could only reach the same conclusion.
"Yet now I am back." Woodes replied "However, The Bahamas are the reason for my return and I have no interest in your land, which is mostly unfit for cultivation and therefore any viable commerce. Where would you say your interests lie?"
"The same as before you ever set foot here" Madi replied, seeming the fiercest of them "To live in peace, away from the white man's enslavement and wars."
"In regard to some of your concerns" Woodes replied "I am a more enlightened individual than others as I do not share most of my peer's views on race, a thing that can be easily verified by the fact that I own no slaves. On the second issue, I cannot promise you that no war will ever touch you, but I can assure you that as long as you do not ally yourself with the pirates, I have no reason for conflict with you."
"I believe both parties present today only wish for peace" Max intervened, after she realized that some remarks her guests made could have sounded more threatening than they actually were
"I have brought peace to this place once" John argued
"You did" Woodes remarked "By removing Flint, you single handedly ended the fighting. You removed the man who was the reason for which the two of us did so many things against each other. The reason for which you ended up besieging my wife in the fort"
The voicing of the painful event made her stomach tighten, yet unearthing it was the right thing to do. She had been blaming him for her death for years, yet as the months passed, she found his fault to be smaller and smaller, until it faded in the face of the rest of the events. Had Long John Silver not lead the attack, there would have been no reason to run to the fort. Had Berringer listened to Eleanor, the rebels would have been caught. Had Flint not agreed to the exchange, Eleanor would not have gotten out of the fort. In the end, had Rogers not brought the spanish army to the shores, there would have been no spanish soldier to put a knife through his wife's body.
"... and the reason for which you held my wife prisoner" John added, thankfully with no hint of resentment in his voice
" Given that you were willing to trade the cache of gems for Madi, given that you have retreated yourself peacefully for the last years, it does make me think that the only reason you fought me was that all you wanted was peace. Just the same as I did."
"I truly did it for peace" John replied, as if his facts should have been self-evident "In the end, I removed Flint because I wanted the chaos to end, I wanted all the thousands of people here to not suffer for a war that I was not sure would have benefited each and every one of them. Now you … I know that you have enough force to wipe our island off the map and you must know that I would rather not have war again, but for the sake of it … I want you to convince me that you are not here for some sort of revenge, but that you truly seek peace."
What John wanted to be convinced of was what she also wanted to be convinced of. She had never forgotten how she had met John, she had never forgotten how they had been animated by the same thought: one big score to make them afford living peacefully in a corner of the world. In a way, they had both managed to do it, at least for three years and were both being faced by the same threat. She had never seeked to be a leader of business, yet she was forced by circumstances to be in this position to keep her peace, just as John had been forced to become what he had become just to get closer to his goal. Now the only thing she did not know was what motivated Rogers and even if she could ask him, she was sure that not even himself knew. She could have asked him why he left her alive and why she trusted her with so many things, yet she chose to wait for him to voice it, if he ever would. Perhaps he had no reason to and perhaps he would discard her after he reached his goal of eliminating piracy, perhaps he used her to get to her friends, yet she still chose to stay. If she would find her end in her own home, be it intentional or by some awful mistake as Eleanor did, it was an end she preferred to the other alternatives.
"I cannot say anything that would convince you that I seek peace" Woodes told Silver "but I can show you something to convince the both of you and all the population of former slaves on your island that I am not the one who seeks war. Julian, please bring our guest in."
Mister Byron went out as instructed, though Max did not know of what guest they spoke of, as Woodes kept staring down John, with either of them unwilling to give up and look away.
"Perhaps I did turn out to be the monster that Flint convinced you I am" Woodes spoke, as she heard an extra set of steps coming back in the hallway with Julian "But I can show you a greater one. One that is truly guilty of the sins and prejudices that you decide to accuse me of."
Following Julian, inside came a black man who had horrible burns over his head and over one of his arms. He looked rather confused at the whole scene and uttered no words, hinting that he did not even speak English.
"I think that on your island you may find somebody who speaks his language. Then you can ask him about what happened to him and to all his travel mates who are no longer of this world and who was the one who ordered it"