INFINITY: There be Pirates by Catalina DuBois

Author:Catalina DuBois [DuBois, Catalina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14:

The Adventure Begins

Matthew and Sarah were served finer meals than he would have expected on a pirate ship. The cook had slain livestock to make this so. Sarah diced up his roasted chicken for him and slid the plate across the table.

Matthew caught the steaming dish with a cocky grin, “You didn’t cut my food for me when we were living as man and wife. I can get used to being treated like a king.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “It’s one thing to allow you in my quarters without chains. It’s another to give you a knife. I don’t trust you and you don’t trust me. Nothing has changed.”

“Everything has changed,” Matthew insisted. “You are not the deceased wife I believed you were. I am not the cowardly scoundrel of a husband you believed I was.”

The Galahads conversed between nibbles of seasoned meat, stewed vegetables, and sweet cornbread.

Sarah dabbed her mouth with a napkin and inquired, “When did you start eating lima beans? I thought you didn’t like them.”

“I like them on a ship in the middle of the ocean where food is in limited supply.” He took a bite of delicious cornbread to erase the waxy taste of the beans. “The ransom you are demanding is too much. It will cripple the crown.”

“Good, the less money the royals have the less harm they can do to the rest of us.” Sarah washed down her food with tangy wine. “I lost good men on this expedition. My crew will mutiny if they don’t receive their hard earned prize.”

Matthew scoffed at the nerve of her, “Earned? You consider pillaging and plundering the same as earning your keep?”

“Yes, in the same way that European royals consider kidnapping and enslavement the same as earning their keep,” Sarah shot back. “The merchant ships I’ve ‘plundered’ were selling tobacco, cotton, and sugarcane that were grown on the backs of my people. The treasure galleons I ‘pillaged’ were rich with gold and gems mined by my people. The only thing we’ve taken is what we weren’t paid for in the first place.”

“I empathize with the plight of your people. I have never owned a slave, but England cannot shoulder all the responsibility,” Matthew spoke in defense of his nation. “Your people sold themselves.”

Sarah just shook her head, “That is the weakest argument I have ever heard for such depravity. Europeans expect, nay, demand to be acknowledged as individual countries, with unique cultures, religions, and languages, all having sovereign rulers. Then you lump all Africans into the same category. Africa is a continent like Europe, with many sovereign nations like Europe. If the French and the Spanish were to invade and conquer England, and your sisters were sold into slavery, beaten, raped, and forced to work the fields would you claim that your family members had it coming because they were sold by similar looking people? Would you declare your sisters deserving of foul treatment because the tyrants who sold them invaded from countries on the same

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