Charlotte & The Pirate Ch. 10

It took a little over another hour, but the French ship had closed to where her cannon could reach the Anvil. The captain ordered his ship hard to port, and as soon as they came to bear he fired his starboard guns. Twenty-two cannon fired into the Anvil's rigging. A moment later, her two main masts came crashing down to the deck.

The Anvil was almost dead in the water. She had one small mast still standing, but it didn't have enough sail to make any speed. The French ship closed very quickly now.

As his ship closed on the Anvil, the captain was surprised to find that the pirate ship never fired. She must be preparing to be boarded and readying for the fight. He could of course simply stay back and sink her. But Black Bill was known to keep treasures of great value aboard his ship. There was no way the French captain was sending that ship to the bottom.

The huge warship pulled into the side of the anvil. The crew grappled onto her and immediately scrambled over the side. The captain had no illusions about what was coming. The pirates had a well earned reputation as skilled swordsmen. But his crew outnumbered the pirates better than two to one. The battle would be fierce and bloody, but Black Bill would be taken.

The French captain left his first mate and five sailors on his ship. Everyone else he ordered with him into battle. Except there was no battle. When the French crew boarded the Anvil, there was no one to meet them. The captain realized that Bill was trying to get them to split up. Then at the opportune moment, the pirates would come out of hiding and attack. Well the captain wouldn't give him that moment.

Keeping everyone else together, the captain sent two of his sailors below deck to search. Their orders were to simply search. If they saw anything, they were to yell and immediately come back.

As the two men crept below, they found it was pitch dark. There wasn't a lantern or any light of any kind. After stumbling around for a minute, one of the sailors went back to the stairs and found an unlit torch. He brought it back into the room and pulled out a flint. He struck it, and after a few tries the sparks caught and the torch lit.

With the room lit, the two men were puzzled to see that the area was completely filled with dry straw. Then a moment later, as the smoke began to rise, the sailors realized that the sparks from the flint had lit some of the straw. In seconds, the whole room would be ablaze. Desperately, the two men ran screaming for the stairs.

The captain heard the two men yelling and prepared his men for battle. A second later, the two sailors emerged and smoke began to pour up the stairs behind them. The French officer didn't even have a chance to decide what to do.

A second later, the gunpowder that was under the straw reached the main magazine. The sparkling gunpowder ignited the first of a dozen full barrels of powder. A moment after that the Anvil ceased to exist.

Sadly, William watched his little sloop die. He and his men had just managed to reach the island when the ship exploded. It was like losing an old friend, but it had been necessary. William had to capture one of those French ships. Even now, the two British ships had circled the island and were approaching the French warship.

The Frenchmen were in shock. The blast had thrown the six men off their feet. In a split second, their entire crew had been killed. At least their ship was intact. The blast hadn't caused any real damage to the French vessel.

Then it got worse. Two full-sized British ships were closing on them. There was no way six men could sail their ship. Sadly, the mate simply ordered the colors struck and surrendered. He really had no choice. An hour later, a boat was carrying William and his men to his new flagship.

After leaving the French sailors on the little island, the three warships headed for St. Dominique. William was now only outnumbered four to three. But his ships were still smaller, and he barely had enough crew to sail the French man-o-war.

It was night now, but there was enough moonlight to sail by. The harbor was on the south side of the island and William sailed his new warship directly for it. Meanwhile, the two British ships circled the island to the north and waited.

Once again flying French colors, Black Bill's ship slipped into St. Dominique's harbor. Quietly, she docked, taking her position between two of the other ships. Then, as soon as she was positioned, William fired his portside guns.

Twenty-two cannon firing into the French ship was the first sign that the harbor had of trouble. By the time they could react, the ship was already listing badly. A minute later Bill's starboard guns fired, and a second French ship was listing. But that would be the last cannon that would fire. The two French ships that William had hit were out of commission, but the other two couldn't be hit from where Bill was. It would be cutlasses now. In seconds, French sailors would be coming aboard the ship.

Confusion reigned on the docks. The French had no idea what had happened. Then they realized that it was one of their own ships that had fired. The crews of the two crippled ships were working desperately to save them, while sailors from the other two ships were streaming onto the dock.

A group of men headed over to William's ship to see what was happening. It was night, and they were still completely befuddled. Then, when they boarded the ship it didn't matter. Before they could even draw swords, a huge black man came out of the dark, and the next thing the sailors knew was that they were swimming in the harbor.

While the confusion allowed William to win some time, he knew it wouldn't last forever. Sooner or later, an officer would organize the men and they would board his ship. He positioned his crew and waited for the battle.

Meanwhile, the two British ships heard the cannon shots. It was what they were waiting for. They sailed as close as they could to the north shore of the island, and then all but a dozen men entered the boats and headed for the island. With the shots drawing everyone south, no one saw the six boats land. A couple of minutes later, a hundred and fifty British sailors were headed south towards the harbor.

William's plan had worked better than he knew. The fleet commander had been killed aboard the Anvil, and a much more junior captain was left in charge. The original commander might have had the nerve to take his remaining two ships out of port and blow the captured one out of the water. But not this man.

First of all, he had no idea what was going on. The thought that it was the pirates who had captured a French naval vessel never entered his mind. Second, he had already lost two first line ships. That would be bad enough to explain. He wasn't about to do anything to lose a third. Therefore, the only thing he could do was order his men to board her.

The French numbered over 250 men, but there was still only one narrow entry onto the ship. William, Barak, and five of his best men waited for the French to come. They did their best to stay behind the rails and force the French to come onto the decks. If they could force the enemy to fight with blades they had a chance. But if the French could get targets within pistol shot, they would all be picked off.

For twenty minutes the fight had gone well. The pirates had driven off four rushes onto the ship. The French were gathering for a fifth attempt, when things got more challenging. Unknown to William, five French sailors had climbed into the rigging of one of the sinking ships. They had swung over onto Bill's ship and were even now scrambling down to the deck.

When the first man landed, all he could see was a black woman waving a rapier. She was obviously terrified, and had no idea how to use the sword. But she did have the biggest tits he'd ever seen. The girl was wearing some sort of tight leather shirt, which was obviously much too small to contain her incredible attributes. He had to get a better look at those things. They were... Tekumbe's rapier piercing the man's heart cut off any other thoughts he might have had at that point.

The black girl managed to kill the next two men down, but then she got into trouble. The final two men dropped at the same time, and they had seen what she had done to their friends. They both attacked at the same time, and neither one took his eyes off Tekumbe's sword. After what they had seen her do with it, her boobs were no longer much of a distraction.

Tekumbe screamed for help and tried to hold them off. The pirates had trained her with the rapier and she was very good. But she was no match for two large men with cutlasses. Sooner or later, their sheer strength would push through her guard. She continued to yell for help, but she knew it was pointless. No one would hear her over the battle at the other end of the ship.

It took five minutes, but finally one of the men pushed Tekumbe's blade aside, and the other man's cutlass slashed into her shoulder. It sank to the bone, and Tekumbe's sword dropped from her now nerveless fingers. Bleeding, she sank to the deck and waited for death. Sure enough she saw one of the men standing over her raising his sword. Then to her utter shock, a moment later his head was cut from his body.

With a roar, four pirates charged to Tekumbe's aid. They saw her fall with an armed man standing over her. Before he could move, a pirate slashed his sword through his throat. The other Frenchman saw the enraged pirates and tried to run, but he was cut down before had he made two steps. Then the men bent over Tekumbe to see how badly she was hurt.

The wound was bleeding badly, but didn't appear to be fatal. One of the pirates, who had been sleeping with Tekumbe off and on, scooped her up in his arms and carried her to safety. Up until this, he had just thought she was a lot of fun. But when he saw her lying there bleeding, he realized how much he loved her. The man managed to stop the bleeding, and Tekumbe just smiled up at her savior.

At the same time, the battle was going hot and heavy at the front of the ship. The French had thrown three more gangplanks over the rail and were now pouring onto the ship. William and his men were trying to hold them off, but they were gradually being pushed back. In a short while, the overwhelming numbers of the French would start to take their toll.

But then, the tide of battle turned again. The British sailors reached the dock and charged into the French from behind. Taken completely by surprise and outflanked, fifty French sailors died before they were even able to react. A minute later, British tars were cutting their way towards the ship. The battle continued for a little while longer, but the French ultimately broke and ran.

When everything settled, over 150 French sailors lay dead or wounded. William hadn't come through completely unscathed. Eight of his men were dead. Three of them had been friends from the original mutiny and Bill would mourn their loss greatly. Also, fifteen British sailors had died in their charge. Tekumbe of course was badly wounded, and Barak was bleeding from several sword cuts. The giant black man would live, but he would have a great many more scars to tell stories about.

The harbor taken, Bill's force headed inland. Everyone knew where they were going. The governor's palace was less than a mile from the dock, and the little army was running there as fast as they could.

Word of the battle had reached the governor's house, when fleeing sailors arrived and told what had happened. Andre wasn't overly worried. The worst thing that would happen would be that the British captured him and held him for ransom. After all, he was too valuable to kill outright.

The governor went to the walls to spy the oncoming force. He ordered all his men to defend the palace, but there were only fifty guards. Even with the twenty or so sailors who had fallen back there, they would be no match for the oncoming force.

A couple of minutes later, Andre saw the leaders of the army approaching. The man in front wasn't in uniform, but he was very big. And to his surprise, there was a woman running beside him. What was a woman doing there? And she looked familiar. Dear GOD! It was Charlotte. And Andre immediately began to suspect who the large man running with her was. Suddenly he was terrified. The frightened man ran for the back gate. To the utter dismay of his men, the governor fled the estate and flew into the woods beyond.

Seeing the governor run sapped whatever morale the guards might have had. As the army entered the gates, they simply lowered their weapons and surrendered. The main force charged into the palace and began to search. After a few minutes they emerged with a prisoner. They hadn't found the governor, but a squealing Daniel was being dragged out.

Charlotte just walked over to the weasly little man. She smiled and asked him where Andre was. Daniel just begged her to have mercy on him. Charlotte assured him that if he told her where Andre had gone, she would see that no blade touched him. Daniel thanked Charlotte over and over. He told her how Andre had fled out the back gate. The man sagged with relief as Charlotte and William ran off to follow Andre. He was so out of it, that he barely heard Charlotte yell back to hang him.

As soon as they were out of the gate, William spotted tracks headed north. The area outside that gate was heavily wooded. William realized that he should have waited for some men to come with him, but his rage had clouded his judgement. Now Charlotte was already running ahead and there was no stopping her.

William started to run after Charlotte, when an arm snaked out from behind a tree and grabbed her around the neck. A moment later, Andre emerged. One arm was around Charlotte's chest, while the other was holding a knife to her throat. William stopped where he was. He wouldn't give the desperate man any reason to use that blade.

Andre screamed at William to drop his sword. The pirate did as he was told and backed away a bit. As the pirate stepped back, Andre told him that he would release Charlotte when he was safely aboard a ship. Until then, she belonged to him.

Bill took a couple more steps back, and Andre began to smile. It was going to work. The idiot was going to let him go. Oh he'd give Charlotte back to him alive. At least she'd live a few seconds with a cut throat. Then, just as Andre was going to tell Charlotte to start walking, he heard a dull click. A second later, there was a loud pop and Andre felt a burning pain in his abdomen. He looked down, and Charlotte dove away from him. She was still holding the pistol that she had kept hidden under her bodice.

The governor screamed as he looked down. He had been shot right through the stomach. As he sagged to the ground he pleaded with Charlotte to help him. His wife just smiled. "Andre darling, I couldn't really kill you. So we'll just leave you here in the woods. You'll live, well at least three or four days. If it hurts really bad, love, I hope you'll think of me." With that, Charlotte headed off back to the palace. William hesitated a moment, and then followed the girl back. They could still hear screaming from the woods as they went back through the gate.

EPILOGUE

It had been six months now since the battle. Bill had indeed been named governor of the island by King William. Also, while the king had demanded the return of all treasure William had stolen from the British, he had only demanded a tenth of the remainder. Bill had split most of the rest evenly with the pirates, and they were all now very rich men. The last quarter he had given to the British sailors, and even split 150 ways that was a very considerable amount of money.

He and Charlotte had married immediately, and his beautiful wife was now expecting. The happy man rolled over in his bed and just looked at his beautiful wife.

Charlotte just smiled back. Things were going wonderfully for everyone. Even Priscilla was happy. She had fallen in love with a British officer, and they were to be married the next day. Charlotte also couldn't help being amused by the fact that after everything she had gone through, she had ended up happily married to the governor of St. Dominique.

And there would be another wedding in a month. Tekumbe had recovered from her wounds, and had agreed to marry the pirate who had saved her. Her sword arm would never heal completely, but God willing she would never need to hold a sword again.

Charlotte did still remember the past, though. She still had dreams where she could hear Andre screaming in the woods. It was at those times that William would look at the woman he loved, and realize just how beautiful she was when she was smiling.

THE END

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Dear Readers,

I hope this story has been enjoyable. I admit I've had a good time writing it. If you have enjoyed it please let me know. You can either send me feedback, or leave comments after this tale. Also, if you have liked the story and would take the time to vote for either this chapter, or any of the others, I would be very appreciative.

For those of you who have asked, the third and last installment in the Casino series is next. I probably won't write much for the rest of the year, so look for the first chapter of "Casino Plot" sometime in January. In the meantime happy holidays to all and a happy New Year.

mcfbridge.