Chapter Forty-Four
Just When You Thought All Was Lost…
Daniel watched and waited as the great whale breached once more almost on the stern of his ship. Its long, toothed mouth gaped wide then snapped shut, barely missing the straining woodwork of the Carolyn's hull. The creature's enormous black eye glared balefully, assessing what was needed to reach its prey with one final mighty lunge to finally succeed in crushing the life from the ship and its crew.
"You've picked on the wrong ship and the wrong crew to try your little parlour tricks on, you demon spawn," Daniel muttered.
He put one hand on the long length of highly polished hardwood lying on the deck next to his bent knee. The haft felt so familiar to his grasping fingers. He had used it many times in his youth.
Some of the dark stains among the exotic carvings had been made by Turner's blood from their last encounter off Madagascar when he'd only succeeded in wounding the demon in his pride with a glancing blow. The stout shaft of dark grey metal that terminated in a wicked-looking arrowhead gave him hope he would do better this time. The viciously barbed points gleamed in the sunlight.
"Come and get us, if you dare…" he snarled, turning his head to nod sharply to his watching crew.
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Carolyn shook her head. "So, the Rebecca was seen sailing for the Azores some days ago. And the news was carried home to Schooner Bay." She bit her lower lip in consternation. "I cannot see how that brings us any closer to knowing what happened to my husband and his ship."
"Oh, no…" Jack replied quickly. "Everyone who knows of your husband and Captain Beaumont, state that he would not leave Captain Gregg to his fate. Captain Beaumont will have already sailed to find Carolyn and make sure all is well aboard her. You can be sure of that."
"You seem very confident," Martha stated, frowning at the boy.
Jack shrugged. "It's what they're all saying down at the docks. All the men who are in the know. They know. Brother captains of the sea and all that."
He knuckled his forehead at them. "Now I must get back. Mr Gregg will be wanting me to do his bidding and right sharpish. Lots to still do. Lots to do. Good day to you, ladies."
He turned smartly and left the house, hurrying back down the path and through the open gate. Martha shook her head as she shut the door behind him.
"We can only hope the dock scuttlebutt is right," she commented as they all walked into the kitchen. "But it seems they may know more than us."
"If the sailors all say it is so then we have to believe them," Carolyn stated stoutly. "Right now, I could surely use a good and strong cup of coffee. And some well-placed prayers for their safe return."
"Coming right up…" Martha nodded as she went to refill the kettle.
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Vanessa entered Lucius' cabin without knocking. She looked to be in a fine temper, her skirts swishing as she walked to the chart table.
Bent over his sea charts, the captain of the Rebecca sighed inwardly, even as he lifted his eyes to frown at her. "Do you require something more from me or my crew, Countess?"
Vanessa tossed her elegant curls. "I was just attended to by your cabin boy. He assured me we're sailing north and not west. What did he mean, we're not going straight home to Boston?" she demanded to know. "You promised me my passage would be straightforward. I paid you well for that. Too well, it seems."
Lucius grimaced at her as he fingered his beard. "Madam, you have paid me well to carry you all the way to Boston and carry you there, I will," he replied smoothly. "We made a bargain, and I am sticking to it, with God as my witness."
He grinned suddenly. "But also, with a little detour to find our sister ship. She and her crew are worth a thousand of any woman like you. I will not leave this ocean until I know her fate."
"I fail to see how it's any fault of mine that Captain Gregg has managed to get himself lost at sea." Vanessa tossed her head. "Now I demand that you change course for Boston immediately. It's that way…" She swept a hand in the general direction of the west.
"Demand all you want, woman," Lucius replied as he went back to his charts. "If you can sail a ship, then please feel free to try and change our course. Elsewise, you will button your lips shut and go below to your cabin. There you will wait patiently until we have found the Carolyn and assisted her. Then, and only then, will we sail for Boston Harbour where I may finally be rid of your unalloyed company."
"Why you…" Vanessa fumed. "I shall make known my utter displeasure in your shipping company and your conduct the very moment we sail into Boston Harbour and step ashore. See if I don't!"
"Do that, Madam," Lucius bit back. "And I also will carry the tale of how you insisted on not seeking to recover the Carolyn and her crew as any caring woman would do. And that you demanded instead that we carry you homewards. A pretty story that would be and no mistake!"
He smiled grimly. "Once word got around, I doubt that your new ventures would fare so well or prosper. Not a captain's lady worth her salt, nor seaman's wife with a few coins in her purse, would wish to set foot inside your establishment once word got out. I will blacken your name over the whole length of the eastern seaboard! A welcome return to Paris would be your just reward!"
"I…" Vanessa frowned at him, non-plussed. "I dislike you immensely, Sir. Immensely!"
Lucius' smile was lean and hard. "I understand that sentiment entirely, Madam and I reciprocate one hundred percent."
He turned his shoulder. "Now if you will excuse me, I have a ship and a very good friend to find."
Vanessa sniffed, resorting to the handkerchief she pulled from the sleeve of her gown. "Very well. I will be in my cabin. You will inform me the moment you have recovered the Carolyn. Until then I shall require, that I be attended to as befits my station in life."
"Madam…" Lucius tipped two fingers to the brim of his sea cap but the countess had already departed the scene, her regal head held high as she swept out of his cabin and slammed the stout oak door behind her.
"I'd still rather face Turner's wrath..." Lucius shook his head as he went back to his charts, trying to decide on his next course. "Just where are you, Daniel? Blast your eyes, man! Tell me where to find you!"
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"Get ready…" Daniel nodded to his watching crew as the great whale breached again almost beside the ship.
It rolled onto its side, one huge, gleaming black eye assessing the effort needed to swing its great tail and deal the final blow to the frail wooden ship which was denying him his revenge.
"Now, lad. Now's you'll see," Old Alfred said with glee as he seized Elroy by the arm in a vicelike grip. "Now that blasted great demon will feel the mettle of this great ship and her hearty crew! Come on!" He dragged his hapless apprentice forward to stand at the rail with the rest of the crew not required to man the ship.
"What are we to do?" Elroy would rather have been elsewhere as he stared at the great beast now keeping pace with them. But he was being pressed to the rail by the bodies all around him, and there could be no escape.
"Do as you're commanded!" Old Alfred bellowed in his ear as the men around them began to shout and bang on the rail and the hull with their hands or weapons of choice, setting off a great din of noise and confusion.
Daniel flicked a hand into the air and then brought it down. That was the signal they'd all been waiting for.
"Trousers down, now, lad!" Old Alfred shook Elroy's arm urgently. "Show the great beastie what you're made of!"
"What?" Elroy blanched at the odd command, his eyes standing out in his head.
"Come on now, lad! Don't be shy, we gotta give this beastie a fine show! Work him up into a goodly lather!" The old sailmaker chortled as he whipped his canvas trousers down his skinny shanks to his ankles.
All around them, their fellow seamen followed suit until every man was naked from the waist down and had turned their backs to the whale to show a fine range of light and dark backsides all waggling at him above the ship's rail.
Elroy heard his captain's grim laughter over the noise of his crewmen as they threw insults and their derision at the whale. But Elroy froze, still with his pants up. Even as he reached for the drawstring, he couldn't bring himself to untie it. Instead, he settled for shouting derisive insults and making crude hand movements, imitating his fellows.
The whale's very human-looking eye opened wide, seeming to understand what was being hurled at it and what the crew was saying. Its great mouth opened wide as it swung toward the ship to crush out the sounds of the insulting words and the leering, half-naked men.
In a single, dynamic movement, Daniel sprang to his feet, hefting the harpoon to a balanced position above his left shoulder. He leaned back at the waist then sprang forward to hurl the deadly weapon at the great beast, skewering the sharply barbed head deep into the whale's widely gaping mouth.
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Carolyn sat at her small desk on the widow's walk above the house. It was a beautiful morning. The sky was blue, the summer sun warm on her back and shoulders. Gull wheeled overhead, their mournful cries drifting on the slight onshore breeze. Everything in nature was exactly as it should be for this time of year.
"But life is what happens to you while you're making other plans…" Carolyn murmured as she tried to make sense of what she'd just written down.
She had a manuscript to complete for Sally Hall and she was behind in the finishing. It wasn't the first time she wished Daniel was here with his precise hand and clean habit with the quill pen. No matter how much she practised, she was still inclined to leave a few splotches with the ink, a small failing, but it annoyed her.
"If only there was some other way to write our stories," Carolyn bemoaned, as she blotted at another blob of misplaced ink.
She lifted her eyes to the far horizon. She stared at it for some minutes, but the fluffy white clouds she could see did not resolve themselves into any sails nor a single homeward-bound ship.
"Come back to me, please…" she whispered to the wind before she went back to her work with renewed determination to finish it today.
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Lucius sailed the wide blue Atlantic in a neat pattern, seeking his way back to where they'd last seen the Carolyn running before the great storm that had been hunting it. The moment the Rebecca had been carried away to the south, the storm changed course, ignoring the other ship in favour of its main prey.
Lucius had tried valiantly to change course and tack back toward their sister ship, but the tides and currents continued to push her south toward the Azores, barring her return to the stormy scene. It seemed Turner wanted to leave a witness to his ultimate triumph. And what better witness than Captain Daniel Gregg's brother of the sea.
"Well, not this time, matey…" Lucius promised grimly as he quartered the ocean again with his telescope, seeking for any sign of their sister ship.
Right then, he was resigned to finding wreckage, torn sails or men in the water. Any sign of the other ship. But there was nothing to be seen. It had been many hours since they'd left safe harbour in the Azores and there was still not one single sign beyond the vastness of the Atlantic and a few gulls that had followed them from the islands in the hope of diving for any scraps thrown overboard.
He was about to give up and turn away on a fresh course when something caught his eye. The faintest of movements at the very line of the far horizon…
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Daniel's practised hurling of the great harpoon was unerring as it flew into the great gaping mouth of the beast. Immediately all the crewmen at the rail were smothered in huge gouts of thrown blood as the harpoon found its mark deep in the back of the whale's throat and the beast blew out from its blowhole.
Immediately, the shouting crewmen left the rail, pulling up their trousers as they hurried to seize the coil of rope as it sang over the side, eagerly following the harpoon. They yanked on it, wrenching the weapon from the great jaws before they could snap shut and swallow the wood and metal haft.
The harpoon clanged back over the rail and onto the deck, splattering blood everywhere. The whale bellowed in pain and began to thrash about, barely missing the ship as she sailed on out of reach of the crash of the great tail.
"Fine work, lads! Now, let's finish this!" Daniel panted as he seized up the harpoon again and, with four of his brawniest crewmen running with him, he sprinted for the stern rail.
"That's how it's done, lad!" Old Alfred crowed, dragging his trousers back up his skinny shanks and tying them at the waist again. "Our captain knows what he's about and no mistake! There'll be an extra tot or two of rum for us all once this morning's work's over!" He rubbed his gnarled hands together with chuckling glee.
"What now?" Elroy asked, staring after the five men who had reached the stern railing.
"Oh, aye, lad. Now for the coup de grace…" Old Alred told him as he took the younger man's arm again and hurried him sternwards.
Elroy saw his captain hold the lethal weapon high once more and hurl it seaward. There came an almighty scream of pain and rage as the great grey body of the sperm whale rose above the ship, the harpoon now firmly impaled in its great black eye.
The four brawny seamen all grabbed for the trailing line as the beast crashed back to the ocean, barely missing the ship as the harpoon tore away its eye leaving a gaping hole. The whale rolled over, showing its white belly to the sky and the crowds of gulls that seemed to have appeared from nowhere to feast on the sudden banquet of dead flesh as the demon fled his disguise, screaming in agony as he faded into the distance.
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Lucius watched the mass of gulls wheeling and diving on the horizon. They must have followed them from the Azores by some weird bird instinct that told them there was some kind of feast to be had if they got there quickly. Lucius lowered his telescope, saying a silent prayer as he spun around on his heel and hurried back toward the ship's wheel.
"Hard over to port!" he shouted at his first mate, as he reached to seize the wheel, helping to turn it and bring the ship about.
Lucius lined up the bowsprit with the flock of wheeling gulls on the horizon. The Rebecca responded to the sudden change of course, leaping forward through the waves, quickly eating up the miles of distance between her and their target.
Vanessa appeared on deck. "What is it?" she demanded to know, staring out at the horizon. "Have you found something at last?"
"I have no idea," Lucius replied shortly, brushing past her to walk to the rail and stare forward intently.
Vanessa picked up her skirts and hurried after him. "Well, what do you know?"
"Gulls…" Lucius jerked an impatient thumb toward the circling and diving birds. "Where there are gulls there's a meal for them to eat."
"What sort of meal?" Vanessa asked, seeming to be hesitant for the first time. "I mean, I thought those birds only pecked at dead things that washed up on the beach."
"Exactly…" Lucius spared her a hard look. "But what sort of dead things we are yet to find out."
"I see…" Beneath her careful make-up of rouge and powder, the countess went pale. She pressed her handkerchief to her lips. "Please inform me of your findings when you reach there. I… I'll be down in my cabin." She hurried away without looking back.
"So, she is human, after all…" Lucius looked after her before he returned his attention to the gulls wheeling and diving ahead of them. "Who knew she had a heart under all that over-scented finery."
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The crewmen of the Carolyn lined the rails of their ship, watching the bloated carcass of the great whale being picked at by the clouds of ravenous gulls. Elroy found a place among the other men and managed to make room for his sail master.
"Where'd the demon go?" Elroy asked in wonderment. "Why didn't he take the body with him?"
"Cause he'd been nought but a tenant of the great beast," a nearby seaman answered the question brusquely. "He found a body to make use of. Done with it, he ran like the devil's coward that he always is."
The man turned back to point at the gulls with a jerk of his chin. "Now the gulls get what's left. It seems right and fittin'."
Elroy stared up at the gulls, wheeling overhead. He used to love watching them dive for the scraps the ship's cook threw overboard. Elroy himself had gone overboard while watching his feathered friends. Now they were making short work of the great carcass, and he was well aware that sharks and all manner of other beasts of the deep would soon appear at the feast to finish it off. Soon nothing would remain.
"Better away from that…" Consequently, he inched back from the rail and out of the pressing crowd of his fellows.
He did not wish to risk falling overboard and adding himself to the meal. Therefore, he was ahead of the man up in the crow's nest who happened to be looking the wrong way at the wrong moment.
"Ship ahoy!" Elroy shouted, pointing with his thumb at the vessel approaching them rapidly from the south. "I'd swear on my sainted mother's life that it's the Rebecca!"
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"You took your time in getting back here," Daniel accused, standing on the ship's rail, holding onto a halyard against the strong offshore wind.
Lucius jerked his chin toward the remains of the great whale. "I see you wanted to keep all the fun for yourself." He fingered his beard. "Though I swear by all that's holy, you got the better end of a bad bargain."
He rolled his eyes toward his unwelcome passenger. The countess was standing beside the Rebecca's wheel with her arms folded and her mood was obvious by the flashing temper in her dark eyes.
"I see your point…" Daniel chuckled richly. "You chose your fate when you were seduced by her money and allowed her abroad your ship."
"Lesson learned, brother…" Lucius admitted. "Lesson well and truly learned." He shook his head ruefully.
"I think it's about time we went home," Daniel replied as he turned his face to the west and into the breeze. "I can almost smell the land."
"Aye, she's a fair wind and no mistake," Lucius agreed, making small hand movements behind his back. "The first one into Boston Harbour buys both crews their rounds of rum." He chuckled richly. "And the devil may take the hindmost!"
He'd already jumped down from his perch on the rail before the last words left his bearded lips. He ran to the stairs and the wheel, eager to get ahead.
"Damn and blast your eyes, man!" Daniel jumped down onto the ship's cleaned but slippery decking. "Mr Jarvis! Get us underway, if you please!" he shouted as he ran for the stairs and the ship's wheel.
Elroy paused in his assigned task of swabbing the last of the whale's blood overboard. The crew had worked hard to make everything once more ship shape and Bristol-fashioned. They'd earned their generous tots of rum and the tall tales of their encounter with the huge whale were growing by the hour.
"I'm cold…" Elroy looked enviously at the forward hatch.
It gave access to the lower decks and the sail master's cosy cubby. Old Alfred had already retreated to his rightful place, hunched over his tot of rum and savouring its raw warmth. Now Elroy also longed to be back there, tucked up out of the way and safe from huge beasts that wanted to swallow him whole. The rum hadn't warmed the chilled core of his being. He felt exposed and vulnerable out on deck.
He moved his shoulders restlessly. "Out of sight and out of harm's way…" he muttered as he finally cast aside his swab and hurried belowdecks. "I surely know my rightful place, now…"
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