Freedom on the Sea

"She silenced that with her boots yesterday," I promised.

"Good." He knocked and then opened the door, pushing me through and closing it behind him.

Captain Cold Eyes 's cabin was well furnished. She was obviously a successful pirate. Odd that I'd never heard of her. But then again female pirates were pretty much a complete oddity. Even Anne Bonny and Mary Read, for all their stories and reputations, wouldn't be taken seriously without Calico Jack, whom the world acknowledged was the captain of their ship. All the successful pirates were well known. The fact that Captain Cold Eyes wasn't may be from the world not wanting to admit a woman could do what a man could do. And, if Cold Eye's success and respectful crew was any indication, do it better! That would offend the masculine world for sure!

The captain herself was behind a desk. Her red hair shined in the sunlight streaming in from the window. "Sit boy," she said.

I sat. I wondered what was coming. "So," she began. "Several of my crew spent a fair amount of time trying to convince me to flog you, then tie you to the mainmast of the ship for two days as punishment for running that pretty mouth of yours. McNally and his friends want me to kill you outright."

"I'm not surprised. He seems touchy."

"He's an experienced member of my crew and has earned his place here, little though I like his attitude or his drunken stupidity. You, on the other hand, are a pretty ship's boy who's admitted he has no real use to my crew. So I find myself wondering why I should keep you alive? Maybe I should just give you to McNally or flog you. Or whatever it is they want to do."

"I said yesterday and I repeat now, my fate is in your hands captain."

"What no 'M'lady the Captain' flattery today? Has that glib tongue abandoned you?"

"That glib tongue was silenced when the captain's boot kicked it back into my mouth and half down my throat."

"Smart boy," she nodded. But I noted there was a small expression of disappointment in her face for a brief second. But before I could think on it she resumed on speaking. "So your fate is indeed in my hands. And my dilemma remains unchanged. Why should I keep you alive? Especially when your mere presences irritates some of my crew greatly."

"I have nothing except my experience sailing and the ability to speak Italian to offer."

"Those aren't good enough."

"I figured as much Captain Cold Eyes. Therefor I have little else to say."

"You are surprisingly well spoken for a ship's boy and a silk merchant's son."

"Captain Brussels was ex Royal Navy, as you know. He dislikes sailors that actually sound like sailors. So all of us ship's boys were taught how to speak proper. So we could address the captain and officers with due respect and proper words."

"Brussels was an idiot."

"I wholeheartedly agree Captain."

"You still haven't answered my question boy. Why should I keep you?"

"Actually I did. I told you what I had. You, Captain Cold Eyes, told me it wasn't enough. I have little else to offer."

She leaned back in her chair. Seeing her up close I noted her breasts were rather large and round. But I kept my eyes locked on her cold blue ones, lest she catch me looking and cut my own eyes out. "Convince me," she said.

"I beg the Captain's pardon?"

"I said, convince me. Convince me you are worth keeping, that you have SOMETHING to offer besides what you've stated. I could use younger crew. Especially ones who have the ability to actually think. Crew that have minds of their own are in short supply. After two conversations with you boy, I believe you can think. How else would you have survived this long? But after the insults you heaped on McNally, I can't keep you without a valid reason. Not without making the rest of them mutinous. So convince me you're worth keeping. Your life depends on it."

I felt sweat build on my neck and face again. I didn't bother to hide it. This was serious. My only assets were working hard, speaking Italian, and my mind. All of which she said was not enough. The important thing was she wanted to keep me! So Leo, I thought, now you have to give her a valid reason to keep you! But what? I've already told her my father wouldn't pay for my return. What else do I have? I'm no sword or gun fighter. I'm a pretty boy who speaks Italian and is a half decent brawler. What good was that on a pirate ship in the Caribbean?

"Well?" she asked.

"I was not expecting you to offer me a chance Captain. Forgive me if racking my brain is taking too long."

She grabbed an hourglass off her desk and held it up. "When I turn this over, you will have until it runs out to come up with a reason. After that, you're fate is sealed." Cold Eyes turned the hourglass over and set it on the desk.

It was clearly not a long hourglass. Judging by the speed at which the sand fell I had five minutes at best. Think you daft idiot, think! The sand fell away. In what felt like seconds and at the same time also felt like hours, the sand filled the lower half of the glass. Time was running out! Think!

I knew the secrets of silk traders! Maybe that would do! "I know how silk merchant's run their trading business's!"

"We don't find enough silk merchants down here. Not good enough. Try again. And hurry boy, not long left."

That hope dashed I began to feel angry. Nothing-to-lose angry. I thought of my father and how much I hated him and his silk trade and then something else struck me. "You can use me to gain information on actually finding a silk merchant!"

Cold Eyes grabbed the hourglass at set it on it's side. "Go on."

Oh God, you have heaped such misery on me for so long I've cursed you too many times for you to be listening to hear my prayers now. But if you are listening, please let this work! "As I said," I began trying to keep my voice level and not show my desperation. "I know the silk trade. You told me you don't find enough silk merchants to make it worthwhile but I grew up around the business! My father never let me do anything that mattered in if, of course, that position was reserved for my stepbrothers once they grew up enough. But I could act as a mole in a silk merchants business and lead you right to a rich silk haul, which you can then steal and take back to wherever it is you pirates sell your goods. Tortuga, Nassau, or wherever it is." I finished with a smile, hoping this worked. There wasn't enough time in the hourglass left for me to think of anything else. If this didn't work, I was done for.

"How would you do that?" she asked. Her eyes looked less ominous and more curious now.

"I speak Spanish as well as Italian," I revealed. I tried not to smile as her blue eyes widened a bit in surprise. "Send me to Havana, a place rich with silk trade. I will find my way into a silk business and lead you to a serious haul!."

"It sounds like you have it figured out," she said her eyes narrowing. "But you didn't answer my question, how would you do it?"

"I'll have to try and impress someone with how much knowledge of the trade I have. Hopefully that can get my foot in the door to someone that matters. After that, it's a matter of time and planning."

"Sounds reasonable. But what's to stop you from reporting my ship and it's crew to the Spanish governor in Havana and betraying us? We'd be dead. Havana would dispatch one of their Man O Wars and sink us."

I had known that this question was coming. "Well the truth is, you'd have to take a chance Captain. Not a very appealing option I know," I added before she could speak. "But I can only say that I like living. Which will always be dangerous on a pirate ship. But I left my tyrant father to escape his ways, only to wind up under another tyrant, this one my captain. So my freedom on the seas hasn't actually been a real freedom! The kind of freedom you pirates enjoy sounds like what I was looking for! But I realize that your crew wants to kill me. And every one of them will ask the same question. Can I be trusted? How can I be believed? Didn't you just beat that boy and toss him the brig last night? How can you trust him?"

"You're not convincing me you're trustworthy here boy. Far from it."

"I am aware of that Captain. But getting back to what I said, you'd have to take a chance. My word may not mean shit to you or McNally or any of the other crew you have that want me dead in some horrible way but it means something to me. I will find some way to hand you a successful haul of merchant silk you can take and sell to whomever you sell stolen goods to, then you can do as you please with me. Keep me, let me go, or kill me. I'd hope, of course, than such a successful haul would earn me one of the first two options. But then pirates are notorious for betraying each other so the third is still likely. I accept that. Even expect it. But on my life, which is yours to take if as you know, I will not sell you out."

My little speech done I sat back as much as my pained ribs would allow and waited. She looked away. I took advantage of her eyes being elsewhere to take in a fuller view of her. A tough pirate no doubt. As a woman in a world that thought woman were weak, she'd have to be tough. But she was a woman nonetheless. And a wonderfully attractive one too.

She looked back and I closed my eyes. I doubted being caught leering at her would help my case. "Well boy," she said. "I may be a dammed fool for this, but I'm going to keep you and we'll see if this scheme of yours will come to anything."

"As the Captain commands," I nodded. I kept my face from showing any emotion but on the inside I was dancing like I was on hot coals! You'd done it again Leo! You'd managed to avoid death!

"We're a week from Havana. So," she stood up. Her breasts shook as she stretched. "I will have you remain in the brig for now, while I explain your plan to the crew. Provided they don't mutiny, you will then spend your week working among them until we get close enough to Havana. Work on your story and we'll set you ashore. I know a quiet place we can moor the ship and wait for you to send word. We'll establish a place for you to send messages to us when we get there. I have contacts in Havana that keep me appraised of the goings on." She looked me in the eye. "I won't lie boy, this plan will be a hard sell to my crew but I'll sell it. And in doing so my reputation, and likely my life, will be on the line for this scheme. So if you fuck up, I swear to God if he exists, I will kill you before I die. Understood?"

"As M'lady the Captain commands," I said, completely forgetting her warning about not calling her that. Realizing my mistake, I recoiled on my chair, wondering if my ribs could take another kicking.

But she actually smiled. "You know, I do like the sound of that. But don't go wearing it out boy."

"Understood."

After that the refined pirate from before came in. "Does he live? McNally is dying to know," he asked.

"He does. And what's more he may be able to land us a rich silk haul. Boy, this is Lawrence, my first mate and quartermaster."

"Well met," I nodded to the man.

"Aye boy," said Lawrence with a smile. "McNally will be disappointed something fierce."

"He'll get over it. Take the boy back down to the brig. I want to explain his plan to you first. Then we can explain it to the crew."

I got up and, partly because I was feeling confident about avoiding death, I bowed to the captain. Cold Eyes looked at me for a moment, long enough to make me wonder if I'd pushed it too far again before she laughed. "Your courtly manners will do you good in Havana. Now, back to the brig."

I was back in the dank, dark, and stifling brig not long after but this time my heart was as bright as the sun that barely made it down here in slivers. I had staved off death and managed to win back some level of the captain's affection. No, I scolded myself. Don't go thinking she likes you. You amuse her, and are the key part to plan that will make her a lot of gold. Don't assume you're more than that. I'll still be lucky to escape this alive.

Chapter 3: McNally

My time aboard the ship was no less perilous than before but now at least I was safe from harm. Captain Cold Eyes ship, I'd learned, was named the Defiance. An appropriate name given it's captain was in complete defiance with the way the world viewed women. But I'd also learned that Captain Cold Eyes reveled in that defiance.

I'd managed to learn much in the few days here. None of the crew trusted me. But the captain's supporters, including Lawrence who seemed to consider it his job to ensure I didn't get myself killed, made the case successfully for my plan. McNally and his ilk protested viciously but Cold Eyes backed him down with a threat about earning the same punishment he wanted for me if he went against her orders. The rest had quieted after that. Then the next day, they put me to work, The fact that I was still sore from both McNally and Cold Eyes having kicked my pretty ass didn't matter one bit. Lawrence told me the only way most of the crew to eventually get over disliking me was to make me work. McNally I'd never win over. But the rest, he said, would come. Especially if I could actually deliver on my grand scheme.

So I worked. In reality, little had changed in that regard. I worked like a dog (and got treated like one) for my father. Then I worked like a dog (and got treated like one that ate it's masters favorite slipper) for Captain Brussels. Now I worked like a dog (and got treated like one that had shit on the deck) for the pirates. I didn't bother trying to make friends because likely all of them were expecting me to try and do exactly that. No I kept my head down and did my work, as I always did, and ignored the snarls from those who disliked me.

Despite having no friends I still learned a lot. I would listen in whenever people started talking. Captain Cold Eyes, I learned, stole this ship out from under a Royal Navy officer who was commissioned to captain it. Her crew consisted of privateer veterans she'd found after they'd all been fired when England's war with Spain had concluded years ago. Other crewmen were those she'd taken on from captured ships. She kept the fact that she was actually female hidden by hiding behind the mysterious name of Cold Eyes. A name that didn't imply whether the individual was male or female. Nobody knew on the crew knew her real name, though many believed quartermaster and first mate Lawrence did. But if he did, he never said. And nobody asked. Last person who had dug too deep trying to prize Captain Cold Eyes past out of the past had wound up with no future. Cold Eyes was, according to the scuttlebutt, fair, firm, consistent, listened and respect her crew but would tolerate no challenge to her captaincy. And she was completely unmerciful if you fucked with her. All needed qualities to be a pirate. Especially if one was woman.

All of them men were well aware of their captain's looks and attractiveness. They were men after all! But looking, and the occasional masturbation fantasy at night, was all they ever got. She bedded none of them. Nor would she ever break this rule. Because, as Lawrence put it to me on my second day on the crew, "Cap'n knows that once a man sees her naked with her ass in the air and tits a'bouncing, he thinks he ain't gotta take her orders anymore! So she never breaks that rule. And never will. Not ever for some pretty little boy like you."

A wise attitude, I thought to myself. I was currently in the hold enjoying a brief moment of rest. I'd been on deckhand duty all morning of my fourth day on the Defiance. We were still a few days from Havana. I took my rest while I could before Lawrence showed up with some other task that was equally difficult and annoying. Likely something some other pirate would refuse to do and then say "give it to the pretty boy" with a smile. I'd spent the day yesterday cleaning refuse buckets with a brush thanks to that attitude. Cold Eyes insisted they be cleaned every other day, lest some infection overtake the ship. Which was smart but it was certainly a miserable and pungently disgusting duty to preform. And dear McNally turned up to shit in one bucket I'd just cleaned for the sake of making me clean fresh shit. Which, he taunted me, was all I was to him. And many others.

Think of the devil and he shall appear, I thought to myself as McNally and two of his minions, including the ex slave who'd helped him capture me came down. Lawrence was nowhere in sight so I knew I was about to take some abuse.

Sure enough, over came the toothless Irish wretch. "Loafing boy?"

I ignored him, as I had been want to do on my previous three days aboard the Defiance.

"I'm talking to you!" he said. He was not to be deterred.

"And I'm listening," I said. "But only because I can't close my ears and not hear you as easily as I can close my mouth and not talk to you."

"Keep it up boy, some day Cap'n ain't gonna be around to save ye."

I took a breath and kept my silence. Giving the toothless pirate only my back, which I knew infuriated him. McNally hated being ignored. He liked being the center of attention and I'd seen over past days that he'd go to great lengths to make sure he had everyone's attention whether he actually had anything important to say or not! "Captain Cold Eyes is not here now," I said.

"Mark my words boy, you are gonna be our deaths."

"Not yours. Booze is going to be your death. But then, you're Irish. So what else is new?"

That little sally was all it took. McNally snarled, that Irish temper flaring combined with complete hatred for me. He forcibly turned me around but in doing so I used the moment to shove him into his buddies. Not expecting me to get physical, he staggered into them. "Keep your dammed filthy hands to yourself."

"I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

"Oh please, get a new threat."

"You think I'm only threatening?"

"Then why haven't you done it?"

"Cap'n's orders!"

"And thus, here we are. You won't back up your threats. And once I've made the boys rich off of my scheme, they'll all like me more than you! Not that that's any great feat of accomplishment." I spat

Normally after infuriating McNally, I'd go about my business. He hated to lose an argument as much as he hated not being the center of attention. But today, after 3 days of abuse from the fucker, not to mentioned having to clean the wretch's shit as if I was his mother, my temper was frayed. "Go fuck yourself McNally," I said. "Which, by the sounds of the crew quarters at night is all you do! Not that I'm surprised. You couldn't pay me enough, were I a whore, to lay with you."

And that was McNally's breaking point. With some yell he came at me. I ducked his first punch and then his second. I wouldn't hit him, though I had three opportunities to do so before he threw his third punch. He was getting more enraged by the moment, as he realized he couldn't hit me.

"Enough!" yelled a voice. Lawrence had arrived with about a dozen of the crewmen.

"He started it!" protested McNally.

"No he didn't," said another crewmen. I didn't known his name but he was one of the ones who seemed to think I was a risk worth taking. "I saw the whole thing from above, through the deck gate. You went up to the pretty boy and started running your mouth. He got you good. You took a swing. You attacked a crewmen."

"He ain't a crewmen!"

"He's our ticket to a rich haul," said Captain Cold Eyes appearing at the stairs. "He's a risk the crew agreed on taking. I've had enough of this childish bullshit between you two! We're taking him on his scheme. Which is more than you've come up with McNally! Now enough! Either of you starts this kind of shit again, keelhaul the both of you at the same time!"

I wisely kept my mouth shut. McNally looked mutinous but nodded. "Put the boy back in the brig. And McNally, you just earned yourself an afternoon securing all the rigging atop the masts. Each one is to be inspected and secured before sundown or you will go the night without any dinner!"