Charlotte & The Pirate Ch. 08

The little group made good time, and it was well before sundown when they reached the sheik's land. They were met by three armed men, but Barak just introduced himself as an Egyptian prince again, and they were all quickly escorted to meet the sheik.

The sheik was overjoyed to meet such an important man. The huge prince was obviously very rich. From the way he talked and held himself, Al Taran was sure that he had just met a man who would greatly change his station in life.

Barak told the sheik how delighted he was to meet him. And how impressed he was with his lands and his home. The sheik practically glowed as the "prince" continued to praise him. Then Barak told him that word had reached him of the beautiful French woman the sheik had in his palace. He told the sheik that he dearly wanted to see this flower, and if she was as lovely as he had heard, he would be willing to pay the sum of 200,000 gold pieces for her. And that for such a purchase, he would be in the sheik's debt.

In fact, as a sign of respect to this great sheik he had brought a gift. Barak then had Tekumbe brought forward. The prince told the sheik that the beauty was simply his gift to his host. The sheik was completely taken with the girl. Her face was lovely and her figure incredible. The amazing thing was that with the rich silks that Barak and William had dressed Tekumbe in, the sheik didn't even recognize his own former slave. Instead he simply accepted the prince's most generous gift and had Tekumbe escorted to the women's quarters.

The sheik didn't know what to say. As lovely as Charlotte was, 200,000 pieces of gold was an unimaginable sum. With that kind of money he could expand his holdings greatly. And if he could count on this prince as an ally, he could become a major military power in the area as well. Besides, he would still have the English girl. His mind made up, Al Taran asked the prince to please remain as his guest. He would find suitable quarters for him and his men, and he would have the French woman presented to him first thing in the morning.

Barak, William, and the rest were escorted to an incredibly opulent room. William couldn't even look at it, though. He had wanted to demand that the sheik produce Charlotte immediately, but he knew that was foolish. Now he somehow had to get some sleep and be fresh to rescue the woman he still loved the next day.

Bright and early, the sheik summoned Barak and his party to his quarters. When they arrived only the sheik was there. Before Barak could say anything, Al Taran assured him that he had already sent for the French girl and she would be arriving momentarily. He truly hoped that she would live up to the great prince's expectations. The sheik looked forward to a great friendship with Prince Barak. He would make a strong and welcome ally.

A minute later, two huge men escorted a beautiful woman into the room. She was dark haired and buxom, and her eyes were simply enchanting. Barak glanced over at William, and the pirate captain nodded ever so slightly. This was the woman they had come so far to rescue.

Charlotte wasn't even looking at the group of men. As soon as she had come in, she had seen that there were guests in the room. She was going to have to serve them and she knew it. She would leave here with very sore openings, and all Charlotte wanted to do was get it over with.

Then things got strange. One of the men got up and came over to her. As he got up, Charlotte couldn't believe the size of the man. He was incredible. When he was standing, Charlotte barely came to the man's chest. Also the man was looking over at one of his own guards. The man he was glancing at was cloaked, and his head was down. But there was still something familiar about him.

Charlotte tried to clear her head and figure out what was happening. The sheik was referring to this giant black man as a prince, and asking him if he was satisfied. The giant smiled and said that he was most pleased. Then he reached out to shake his host's hand. The sheik walked forward to clasp the prince's hand. As he did, the strange guardsman move over next to him. When the sheik passed him and his back was to him, the man drew a sword from within his cloak, and without a word cut the sheik's head from his body.

Oh dear Lord. Charlotte couldn't help it. She started to scream, but before she could make a sound, the huge man clamped a hand over her mouth. The sheik's blood was everywhere. As delighted as she was to see the bastard dead, what did these men want? She was still drawn somehow to that one guard. Charlotte looked over at him and he looked up and let his cloak fall away. It was William. WILLIAM!!!!! Charlotte broke away from the black man and ran towards him. Then she threw her arms around him and held him as tight as she could.

Bill just hugged Charlotte to him for a minute. It was so wonderful having this girl back in his arms. But there was still work to do, if they were going to leave this place alive. William pushed his love back a little and just looked down at her. Charlotte tried to ask how he had gotten there, but Bill just told her there was no time. He would explain all of it later. Now they had to get out of here.

Priscilla, Oh Dear GOD! Priscilla. They had to rescue her. Charlotte started to tell William about her, but Bill told Charlotte that he already knew about Priscilla. They were going to see that she, as well as all the other slaves were freed before they left. But for now he needed Charlotte to do exactly as he said. With that, William put his pirates against the wall next to the door. Then he told Charlotte to scream.

The guards outside the room heard the scream from the room. Quickly they came dashing in. The sight that met their eyes stopped them in their tracks. Their sheik was on the ground, beheaded, and standing over him was that giant black man swinging a sword like a madman. The guards just stopped for a moment, trying to decide what to do. A moment later, it didn't matter as the pirates cut them down from behind.

With the guards dead, the pirate group made a run for the women's quarters. They met a few guards, but never more than two or three at a time, and they were easily dispatched. When they reached Charlotte's rooms, they found the girls cowering in the corner. Well all of them except Tekumbe. She was standing over the bodies of the two eunuchs. They both had their throats cut, and Tekumbe was holding the knife that she had had hidden within her silk robes.

When Priscilla saw Charlotte come in, she ran over to her. The two women hugged, while the men searched the room. Priscilla was so confused, but Charlotte kept telling her over and over that they were free. Then she saw the man behind Charlotte and saw him throw his arms around her. Dear God! This had to be William, the pirate Charlotte had told her about. She had told her about him over and over, and he fit the description perfectly. But what was he doing here?

In fact, Charlotte was asking the same thing. And now that things were settled a bit, William had time to explain things. He told Charlotte the whole story of how he had acquired her journal. And then he just held her close after he told her of the murder of her father. Poor Charlotte just wept on his shoulder, then she quietly asked if she could have her father's ring. Bill had kept it with him for his love, and he gave her the small piece of jewelry. Then he just sat and held the girl as she continued to sob and cry.

While Bill held onto Charlotte, his crew began escorting the rest of the slaves out. They needed to begin the trek back to the fortress as soon as possible. William allowed Charlotte to grieve as long as he could, but soon he had to pull her to her feet and insist that they be on their way.

It was already approaching noon, and the group rode for the fortress as quickly as they could. With all the former slaves with them, the return trip was much slower and it was approaching midnight when the finally reached Al Jazzar. William figured they had about two days before the army returned. That should give them enough time to leave an unpleasant surprise for them.

The men found quarters for all the former slaves. They assured the girls that they would be taken on board the Anvil and given passage to the first safe port. Priscilla was lost. Charlotte had her love back, but what was she to do? She was all alone. Even in her grief, Charlotte could see her friend’s distress.

When she saw Priscilla crying, Charlotte came over and just wiped her tears. She told her dear friend that she didn't know what would happen, but that Priscilla could stay with her as long as she liked. And that if there was anywhere in the world she wished to go, Charlotte would see that she was taken there. Priscilla was able to smile a bit after that, and she let the men lead her to a room with a nice big bed where she could sleep comfortably for the first time in years.

Charlotte just followed William. She still loved him dearly, and she just didn't want to be alone. William knew how much pain his dear one was in. After the betrayal of her husband, the loss of her father had torn deeply at her heart. Bill took her to his room, and to his bed. It was late and they needed to rest. William simply kissed Charlotte and pulled her to him. Then he just spent the night with his arms holding her. Charlotte slept like a baby, and she felt safe for the first time in as long as she could remember. In the morning, William just kissed her again. Then he had to leave to begin the day's work.

For the rest of the day, the men worked on the guns. William melted down cannon balls, and the men used the molten iron exactly as he explained. They were just laying the straw over the ground when a lookout shouted. The army was returning. They had apparently either made better time than expected, or they had discovered the trick and turned back. Either way, the Anvil needed to sail before almost 500 angry soldiers got within range.

The men got the women on board as quickly as possible. William made sure that Priscilla and Charlotte were safe, then he ordered the Anvil to full sail. She needed to get out of the harbor as fast as she could. Already, torches could be seen in the distance indicating that the army was almost upon them.

The Anvil had barely cleared the docks when the first soldiers entered the fortress. They had ridden night and day since discovering they had been tricked. Now they looked down in the harbor and saw that the men who had deceived them were escaping. They shouted back at their companions to hurry and then dashed for the guns.

More and more soldiers streamed into the fortress and frantically began loading the guns and preparing them to fire. It took a few minutes, but long before the Anvil was out of range 12 of the guns were ready to fire. As soon as they had them aimed, an officer ordered the gun crews to fire.

If the men loading the guns hadn't been in such a desperate hurry, they might have noticed that the ball and powder that they packed down the muzzle didn't go down quite as far as it should. As it turned out, the first time they noticed something was wrong was when the first gun exploded.

William's men had done good work. Each gun had had a load of powder packed in it, and then a ball was loaded in on top. After that however, a man had taken a long pole and dipped it in the molten iron. The pole had been used to place the liquid against the inside of the barrel, just above the ball. When the iron cooled and hardened, it narrowed the barrel of the cannon just enough.

As a gun was fired, it was the powder that William's men had loaded that exploded. The cannon ball packed with it, tried to exit out the muzzle of the gun. But the barrel was too narrow now to allow the ball to escape. With the muzzle jammed, there was only one place for the explosion to go, it blew the back of the cannon to bits.

Seven of the guns blew up before the crews stopped firing. As they exploded, hot pieces were blown everywhere and the straw which had been laid on the ground caught fire. As it began to blaze, the gunners frantically began trying to stomp it out. What they didn't know, was that under the straw were several long fuses which had been lit by the blaze. Only one had really needed to light, and by the time the fire was under control five of them were burning away.

The soldiers managed to get the fires out, and it was just as one of the fuses burned through a hole drilled in the wall that one of the men saw the sparkle of burning powder. He had just managed to shout to his officer, when the first burning fuse reached the main powder room. A second later, over 2 tons of gunpowder exploded.

William's men cheered loudly, as the Fortress of Al Jazzar vanished from the face of the Earth. Pieces of her walls crumbled into the ocean, and flames could be seen shooting high into the sky. Perhaps they couldn't end the slave trade, but no man would ever be held as a slave inside those walls again.

Bill was going to set sail back for Tortuga, but Charlotte pleaded with him to take her to France. She knew that it would be dangerous for him, but she had to get back to her father's estate. With him gone, the least she could do was see that their family's holdings were taken care of. William started to try to talk her out of it, but then he figured what the Hell? They were pirates. There would be people trying to hang them wherever they went. France was as good as anyplace.