4. More surprises

‘Jack,’ said Stephen as the three chests were safely stowed in the great cabin, right next to the elegant, and strangely out of place-looking harp, ‘are you quite, quite certain we have searched all of the ship? If only one of these would still be lying about, and would fall into the hands of the men, none of our lives would be worth a farthing.’

‘What could be so God-damned dangerous that you believe the crew would mutiny over it? Stephen, forgive me for speaking plainly but what do you know? What is in those chests?’

‘It is not mutiny I speak of. It is a general mayhem, a dissolving of command, of discipline going by the board, a state of utter chaos. The danger cannot be exaggerated. Men losing their senses; men killing each other for mere trifles… A disease, a force so powerful… You will see for yourself when we open the chests together, but we must be certain that there are no more aboard. Now think, please, Jack: have we searched the entire ship?’

Jack did not have to think long: he knew the Surprise like the back of his hand. ‘The cable-tiers. The damned cable-tiers! We were so happy to have found the chests that we never looked there! Did I ever tell you how I had a girl stowed there when I was a mid, in this same Surprise? And how the Captain turned me before the mast because of it? Oh, how I cried! But I never fully understood what I had done to the poor creature until that son of a whore LaSalle captured me when I was a passenger aboard the Lively and she fell into his hands, he had the Medea then, and he kept me locked up in his cable-tiers for a fortnight. Only because I had tried to take over the ship! It is an officer’s duty! The man had no honour, I tell you, no honour whatsoever. Killick, pass the word for Mr. Pullings.’

With Tom guarding the door to the cabin with his life, Jack and Stephen quickly and quietly moved though the reasonably empty ship – Stephen was always amazed at how Jack could very well be stealthy if he so choose, big and blundering as he would normally come across – to reach the damned cable-tiers as quickly as possible.

And there they found their third surprise, and this time it was as big a surprise to Stephen as it was to Jack. They found not another chest, but a young woman. A very dirty, very scared, very naked young woman.

She crawled into a corner, visibly frightened to death of these two men looking at her, and she hid her face in her arms and shivered pitifully in her fear. Jack did not hesitate one instant, shrugged off his coat, and held it out to her.

‘Here you are, cover yourself, child, and go with the doctor here; I am sure he will be able to… You can’t stay here; did Captain LaSalle keep you here? Upon my word…’

At the mention of the French Captain’s name, the girl cowered even more, and started shaking uncontrollably. Stephen motioned to Jack to keep still, and crouched on his knees, cooing like one would to a frightened animal, or a child. It sounded very strange in Stephen’s harsh voice, but amazingly, it appeared to work. She let him approach, and allowed him to drape Jack’s coat over her. She tried to cover herself with it completely, and still she shook and shook. She did so in total silence, accompanied by the creaks and groans of the ship and the sound of about seventy-five men filling the space intended for at least two hundred, and her silence made the scene all the more eerie, her situation all the more jarring.

Jack found he had tears in his eyes, looking at her. What would LaSalle have done to her, to make her lose her mind so? Or perhaps he cut out her tongue? Oh, he wouldn’t have, the infamous brute!

Stephen in the mean time had put a hand on the young woman’s shoulder, and was – still muttering to her in his strange, but apparently comforting manner – carefully trying to turn her towards him, so that he could assess any possible damage to her body. She resisted, but suddenly gave up her resistance and went completely limp, her eyes rolling back in her head.

‘She is having a seizure,’ Stephen pronounced, ‘but she is not convulsing. Jack, you must carry her to my cabin, and be quick about it, before she comes out of it and starts resisting my treatment.’

Immediately, Jack stepped in, rolled the young woman in his coat as best he could, and lifted her as easily as he had lifted the chest earlier. ‘I must protest, Stephen,’ he said. ‘She will have to go in my cabin. It will give you much more room for treatment, and some privacy for the lass. And above all: no distraction for your sick and the rest of the hands. You know how I feel about this; not that I would not want to see this poor creature happy and healthy again, but we all know very well how it is with women aboard. Complaints, demands, fresh water for washing, soap… jealousy among the men, not enough to go round… It just won’t answer.’ While he spoke, he carried the young woman up the ladder to the deck without even getting winded. He growled to inquisitive eyes to look alive now, clap on to that line, and then there was Tom, guarding the door to his cabin, opening it quickly without a word.

Jack deposited the girl onto the cushions on the locker with tender care, and stood looking down on her for an instant. She had her eyes closed, and underneath the dirt and bruises it was eminently clear that she was beautiful. Very beautiful. Alabaster skin, a mass of long, tangled, wine red whorls of hair, a sprinkling of freckles on her delicate nose. Something tugged on Jack’s heart. He turned away abruptly as Stephen approached the young woman with his instruments.

She remained unconscious as Stephen carefully washed her body and examined her bruises. Jack paced his cabin on the leeward side, directly below where he would be pacing his holy sanctuary on the quarterdeck. He wasn’t squeamish, but couldn’t bear to look at the naked, battered form on his locker. LaSalle was a vile, despicable rake, to capture a young woman and keep her prisoner like that. Where would he have found her? In port? A young, gullible strumpet, come aboard to cater to the captain’s needs, never to be released again? Or aboard a prize: a female passenger on a vessel that fell prey to LaSalle’s guns? She would be English then. How long would he have held her there? What would he have done to her? The possibilities tumbled around in Jack’s mind as he paced to and fro, until Stephen’s voice shook him out of his musings.

‘She has not been fed well, nor has she had enough to drink, and for a considerable amount of time. Look at how her skin reacts when I do this,’ he pinched the skin on her forearm, and the fold stayed raised for a while before it slowly sagged back to its natural state. ‘Shameful, shameful,’ Stephen muttered, steadily cleaning the young woman’s skin. ‘She has been shamefully abused, Jack, I dare not name what has been done to her, and repeatedly so. Look at the pattern of bruising here, and here…’

Jack raised his hands and shook his head, a tell-tale pallor on his face. ‘I believe you, I believe you without question. Now, where has she come from, and when and where can I get her ashore safely? That is first and foremost on my mind. The sooner the better; you know my feelings on the subject.’

Stephen smiled. ‘Have you ever contemplated upon sex, my dear?’

‘Never,’ said Jack. ‘Sex has never entered my mind, at any time.’

‘The burden of sex, I mean. I am sure that, had she been an ugly, rough-hewn, dull, stupid girl, she would have been spared this lot. Now, with her beauty, it has come to this… Shameful, Jesus, Mary and Joseph!’

‘Will she not have put herself in harm’s way? Any port’s trollop must surely face a certain amount of…’

‘Do you think her that? A whore, captured by a lascivious captain?’

‘Well,’ said Jack, but then he was interrupted by Tom Pullings, who knocked and subsequently entered with such urgency that he found himself propelled into the centre of the cabin by the roll of the ship even before Jack could call ‘Enter!’.

Chapter Five

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