They had followed the Royal Fortune and its consorts for about a day, due to the most unfavorable winds, until they had reached land. After that, they had spent another full day trying to set camp and account for the ships' supplies. The island they were on was small and unimportant enough to keep them hidden, yet it wouldn't sustain them for long. Judging by the size of their combined crews, he concluded they would exhaust the local wildlife just to keep them all fed for two weeks.
For somebody whose reputation was so gruesome, Bart seemed to have quite a few incongruous quirks. He had heard much about the man, heard about his insane plans, his fits of sadism and complete adherence to a strict set of rules and beliefs that he couldn't be reasoned about. The debate they had to go over for Bart to accept Anne had taken about two hours! Fortunately, most men on Bart's side were more exasperated by their captain's own stubbornness than they were offended by permitting Jack to have an irish woman on crew. The fact that he agreed was most probably a compromise that he had accepted out of simple urgency.
That morning's meeting was postponed for a few hours due to a most unfortunate event. A murder had happened in the camp the previous night and, given that the victim was a most beloved member of the Royal Fortune crew, the rest of the pirates wanted bloodshed and requested a trial as soon as possible. As the men assembled, Jack was surprised to see Bartholomew taking a seat right next to him, on a crate, and not on the jurors' improvised table.
"Good morning to you, Rackham" he almost whispered
Bartholomew's voice was thunderous and deep, even when he tried to be quiet. Both his voice and his stature were most fit for a man who needed to lead at sea. He was tall and fit, with black hair cut short and two thick eyebrows which made the stare of his small brown eyes even more menacing.
"Good morning. Do you not participate?"
"I don't" Bart replied with an odd smile, as if Jack's question was somehow naive "My word falls heavy on the members of the crew and therefore I find it fit to stay away from such things. It would not be an impartial trial if I spoke for either of the sides, don't you think?"
He found this fact not only wise, but also honest. Most captains use their influence to gain power, win favors and make others gain or lose favors, while it seemed that Bart prefered a very honest approach towards the crew and their integrity.
The jury consisted of twelve men, each of them with the quite ironic title of "lord". These lords on Bartholomew's ships did not gain any extra share of the loot, he had learned, but their votes counted threefold. Even more, when some decisions needed to be taken, only the lords' votes were counted. And so, they were seated and the trial began, not even judging if the murder did happen or not, as the murderer had been found bloody and beaten outside the camp, trying to clean his bloody knife and get rid of his clothes under the cover of darkness. The issue discussed at the trial was the sentencing: was the murderer going to be whipped, executed or marooned? Though it all seemed to follow common sense, the way the "lords" spoke, with pompousness and use of all the rhetorical methods they could cram into a sentence, rubbed Jack the wrong way.
"Is it something bothering you, Rackham? You keep frowning"
"There is, yes. I've seen lords on pirate ships, but nobody lorded on a pirate ship"
"Ah" Bart exclaimed with the same smile "It bothers you because it's too similar to mother England, doesn't it? Well it's just a word given to those who have earned it"
"A man earning the right to have his vote worth triple? I find that too much in such a context"
Still looking away from him, Bartholomew blew some air from his nose upon hearing the argument. Most men are stubborn, yet great men such as these are hard-headed in a completely novel way.
"Do you not have wise men on your ship? Do most of them not come to them or to you when it comes to difficult decisions? Each and every member of my crew respects those who can read and write, those with naval knowledge and so on. I find it fitting to also give them a name and give weight to their votes, because the men do. You find this wrong?"
"I find it fitting that apart from ranks, all men on my crew are equal. Extra effort and responsibility are rewarded with a bigger share, but I will not have a man's opinion worth more than another's, not even mine. Those commoners that put their life on the line do not have three lives to spare in case the lords are wrong"
"I will not impose my ways on you, but keep in mind that every village in this world has a council of elders. Now please excuse me"
Bartholomew stood up and went to speak to some other man, while the trial went on, under cheers and boos. Some empty bottles flew from the gathered spectator crew towards the accused' head, who did not have it in him to protest against them.
"I don't like this" Anne growled into his ear
"Neither do I, but these are the times. Unless you can come up with three consort ships for us, dear Anne, we will side with him until we find an alternative"
The jury condemned the guilty man to marooning, under the crews' cheers, giving Jack the impression of a spectacle. All those hundreds of men gathered around to applaud somebody else's decision. But even though the image sent a little shiver into his spine, not out of fear, but of rather disgust, he figured it was not such a bad compromise after all. He has seen idiots, he has argued with idiots and he knew how susceptible they were to convince each other of completely outlandish ideas. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea to not let imbeciles convince other imbeciles.
The convict was not chained in any way and no wonder, since he wouldn't have had any place to run to, so the man was free to roam the island. As the jury was dismissed, Bartholomew came back and invited them to the great tent.
"Not you" Bart told Mark Read, who had stood up and was eager to follow
Jack turned to Mark and nodded at him. The boy understood and stood back down, though Anne gave him a look. He did not need to hear her words as he imagined them. "Look, Jack, look how he orders you and look how you order Mark to stay behind like you're a cunt officer spitting away at soldiers. Look, Jack, this is what you got us into." Regardless, they followed to the tent, where a table had been set and he was surprised to find the meeting to be held in even a smaller circle than the trial. Only them and the captains of the consort vessels were present: Walter Kennedy of the Royal Rover, a blond man with pale eyes and almost completely white skin, Montigny la Palisse of the Sea King, a man with curly black hair and a very thin face and Thomas Anstis of the Good Fortune, a balding redhead with fluffy mustaches.
"Mister Rackham here is surprised at the small size of the council" Bartholomew began, with theatrical inflections in his tone
Anstis' mustaches moved as he puffed in a laughter, with tobacco smoke coming out of his nostrils.
"Since the days of Howel Davis" Anstis began explaining "mr Roberts has communicated with him in secret because the two of them spoke Welsh. Nobody found their secrecy to be insulting and, as you know, mr Roberts earned the respect and trust of the crew by avenging his death"
Jack had heard of it and needed no explaining. The late Howel Davis, which he unfortunately did not get to meet, had been tricked by the governor of Principe and shot in an ambush. Roberts was then elected as captain by the crew and his first act had been to avenge the death of the late Davis. The plan was ludicrous but everybody liked it, or at least the lords did, so they had sailed back to the island under the cover of night and took revenge over the whole city. They murdered most of the men, looted what they could from every home and then took back to sea. That is how the legend of Black Bart had begun.
"Secrecy may not seem honorable, but it is a necessity" Bart argued "The least people know what we do and what we plan on doing, the less people can betray us. Out of the hundreds of people here, it would be foolish not to assume that at least one of them would sell us out to that Woodes Rogers. Anyway, what should be the first item we need to discuss?"
"Sir" Kennedy said "The crew hasn't seen any civilised city in six months and their pockets are as full as their balls. Unrest is growing between them"
"We cannot go on land until we are sure the ports are safe." said Anstis "And mr Rackham has told us that the navy in Nassau has eight warships. They can patrol quite a large area, it would be most unsafe to do it now."
"We can still chose to leave the Caribbean and search for another place" Kennedy argued
"It has been discussed in last week's meeting" said Anstis "We all agreed that the naval traffic in this area is the best and that it offers us most opportunities for connections that could shield us"
It had been a mystery to Jack why Bartholomew did not choose to run. There were quite a few arguments for choosing another side of the world, arguments that would dismiss simple cowardice. Something was amiss, yet it did not matter. Wherever they could go, he and Anne would be hunted down, even if it would have taken Rogers years. But if he would manage to put an end to the man first, he figured there would be nobody left with a grudge on Anne Bonny or Jack Rackham in particular.
"We have voted last week, yes" said Kennedy "But now that we have more information about the English, perhaps the minds have changed? After all, we are in this so we can enjoy our time on land, not so that we sit here hiding like rats!"
"Alright. All in favour with Kennedy's proposition?" asked Bart
Only Kennedy had his hand risen.
"Next item. I say we speak about the pardons that the navy is offering. How much of threat are those to the integrity of our crews?"
"There are no pardons offered" said Jack "The man who told me that Rogers is back also slipped me this piece of information"
"Well that's good." said Anstis "That way no idiot will run away thinking the world will suddenly embrace him for a fancy piece of paper. Next item?"
Though the call for the next item was made, Jack noticed an ugly glimmer in Walter Kennedy's eyes.
"We need to remake the inventory of weapons from scratch. Pistols, swords, guns, ammunition, everything" said Bart "I think we even have quite a few faulty canons"
He felt Anne's finger gently tapping him on his leg. With utmost caution, he pretended to scratch his nose to look at her and try to figure out what she wanted to point him to. Her eyes kept throwing glances at Walter Kennedy, making him think that what he sensed earlier was not wrong. He looked to be thoughtful, too thoughtful, since he had mentioned the absence of pardons.
He had been wondering, for some time, just what kept Bartholomew's crews together, apart from the man's charisma and valor. Save for the usual reasons of turning to a life of piracy, he sensed no higher purpose in those men. They all needed a purpose higher than themselves in life, especially in such a lifestyle, despite Bart protesting that it is not so. "A short life, but a merry one" was his motto, but that motto had its flaws … And a man like Walter Kennedy, the former redcoat, would have been affected by those flaws the most.
"Next item." spoke La Palisse Where will our new friendly port be?"
The thought of a friendly port seemed foolish in these parts. Perhaps in South America, perhaps in Africa or in the East Indies there would be a welcoming port for Bartholomew Roberts or for Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny any time in the future. Perhaps when the sun will set over the English Empire, as the saying went..
"To find a friendly port we must find friendly people." said Anstis "Who could we trust in Nassau, first of all? Not to visit, but at least to write to"
"Jack, what about that woman, Max?"
Max … was she alive? She must be, she would not let herself die, she was too valuable. Yet Rogers would find her valuable too. If he wasn't having her locked away or exiled, he surely must have had her blackmailed or spied on. And she would have to make impossible choices …
"We cannot risk contacting her" he told them "If she is alive, she is surely spied on and contact with her is compromised"
"Alright." said Bart "We have Betty"
"... the Widow?" Jack found himself in disbelief "She said she'd rather set fire to her hair than talk to you again. Then I left her employ to side with you, after I was supposed to enforce your ban on Nassau and collect your debt to her. "
"Oh, I will have my debt paid and I haven't broken my ban on Nassau" said Bart with amusement "After she gets tired of licking redcoats' boots she will come begging. Anyway, don't you have connections in Port Royal, mr Rackham?"
"They are not my connections, they are hers"
The men all looked at Anne and he was surprised to see they did not seem surprised. Perhaps he had judged them too harshly and they were more open-minded than he thought.
"I apologise for the difficulty in accepting you" said Kennedy "We have no problem with you, miss Bonnie, but you can imagine how many of the crew are outraged at the idea. Not even the idea of you, miss, but rather the idea of Rackham being allowed to keep a woman while they aren't"
The men all puffed in amusement. Certainly, it was so for the simple-minded, as he had heard it all before. Some men did not see Anne as a person, beyond her sex, they saw her as an extension of him. They did not care what a good fighter she was, what a good mind she had or her experience. No, they only saw how he was allowed to keep her company.
"I made the connections for Max" said Anne "If bad news reaches Port Royal though, I don't know how loyal they'd be to us"
"Port Royal is far away and we have small chances of getting more than one ship to it, but I have my own connections there as well" Bart said "We will leave that for a little later. We know more secret routes into Nassau than into Port Royal. We need to know what happened to our friends. What happened to Bonnet, to Edward England, to your friend Max and so on. Who can we sneak undetected?"
Sneaking undetected? It was risky, but perhaps it was necessary. Though he didn't voice it, Bart knew the importance that Max and the resources she had, along with others. They needed spies on the English authorities and those spies wouldn't come begging to the pirates. Perhaps they would, if they weren't hidden away.
"Mark can" said Anne
Mark? How the hell did she reach this conclusion about him? When had the two of them spoken about such a thing without him knowing? How much did they whisper behind his back?
"How can we be sure he can slip undetected?"
"He has his ways"
He saw Bartholomew smiling at her, as if he appreciated her secrecy. What was happening? When did he become so oblivious to what was happening around him?
"I will speak with this Mark Reed of yours alone" said Bart "I will send him along with two of my men, tonight, on a skiff to Nassau. There are some loose ends that need to be tied, there is news to be heard and I also have a gift to the new governor, to show him what we are all about."
"A gift?" Jack asked
"Any more items?" asked Bart
He did not like being so ostensibly ignored.
"No more items, captain"
They left the tent, yet his questions only doubled. After a few steps though, he had noticed that Bartholomew was following him.
"Mr Rackham" he said, handing him a tiny slip of paper "In my fleet we take the utmost caution. These are coordinates where we will meet if we are ever betrayed by Anstis, Kennedy or La Pallisse. They all have coordinates in case each other betrays the fleet, including one in case that you betray us."
It was brilliant! He had heard how Bartholomew had been betrayed before by a french captain, leaving them under fire. If something, he appreciated the man's intelligence. No wonder, such things were required if he wanted to rule over so many men, and not ordinary ones.
"And I will need this Mark of yours, if he can truly slip in and out. I need somebody to deliver my gift to the governor"
"Yes, about that … "
"I sincerely hope that you do not find my tastes to be too gruesome. In times like these, certain extreme measures need to be taken to send a message. So I have a skiff that your boy can use and he should be there in about three days"