The Time Pirate by Ted Bell

Author:Ted Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780312578107
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

27

THE BRETHREN OF BLOOD

· Port Royal, Jamaica—July 14, 1781 ·

Now, Cecily,” Katie said, “I am telling you, you have absolutely nothing to be afraid of. As soon as my brother Nicky finds that letter I left for him in the pie basket, he will certainly come and rescue us. Besides, you have to realize that I have been in far more frightening situations than this silly one. Why, I was once kidnapped by real Nazis and held captive aboard a giant U-boat! But, in the end, my friend Hobbesie and I outsmarted them, captured the U-boat in Hawke Lagoon, and here I am.” She paused a moment and added, “Kidnapped again.”

Kate was lying on the thin mattress of the cot in her small white-washed room on the third floor of the Black Crow Inn. She was having a very serious conversation with a raggedy red-headed doll named Cecily about their impending rescue from the despicable pirates who’d stolen her away from her dear home and family.

Because of the white walls and the big tall window overlooking the Port Royal harbor, the room was filled with sunshine all day. She had a splendid view. It seemed that every ship in the world had come to Port Royal. The harbor was full to overflowing with ships of every description, but, she’d noticed, they all had something in common.

Every ship, be it large or small, was flying the skull and crossbones flag at their mastheads. Pirate ships! So many, in fact, there were at least twenty or so anchored well outside the narrow entrance to the harbor.

The streets were filled night and day with throngs of rowdy pirates, most of them drunk as far as she could tell. Coarse language, rum bottles smashed in the cobbled streets, fights breaking out every few minutes. It was great fun sitting in her chair by the window and gazing down at the pandemonium in the streets and out in the harbor, aboard the great vessels themselves. The sound of steel on steel would bring her running to the window—that meant a sword fight!

So far, no one had hurt or even threatened to hurt her or Cecily. She was locked inside her room, of course, and never let out, but a kindly old black man named Lucius, from the inn’s kitchen, tapped on her door thrice a day. With a key from the great ring of them hanging from his belt, he unlocked her door and came in with a tray of food and a glass of wine. She kept asking for water, but Lucius was a bit addled and never remembered.

“You got lemons, you make lemonade,” he’d said this morning when she’d complained.

“A lemonade would be lovely!”

“We ain’t got lemons, miss. Or potable water. We got wine.”

She hated the taste of the wine, and it made her hiccough, but she was ever so thirsty and so she drank every last drop. It made her feel a bit odd for a while, but the feeling soon passed if she lay down and slept.

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