The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse

Author:Kate Mosse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Friday, 19 March

Louise and Gilles were standing with Cornelia and Alis on the quay, waiting to be taken out on the rowing boat to the Old Moon.

Every moment since Louise had confessed to what she’d done had been filled with activity: frantic packing, orders sent and received, the urgent stocking of the ship for its six-week voyage to Las Palmas with provisions had occupied the hours. Louise, alone, had done nothing. Having returned from the Oude Kerk – where she had wept for the child she had been and for the forgotten crime committed so long in the past – she had sat, numb and in shock, in the drawing room, as if in the still eye of a storm with the hurricane blowing around her. She did not regret the death of Madame Roux, nor her part in it, but her conscience would not let her be.

I murdered my father.

It would take a lifetime to come to terms with that. A decades-old secret buried, even from herself, for most of her life. Louise had not slept at all, and doubted if anyone else had either.

But this morning, she felt resolved. If there had been any gossip about a foreigner found stabbed in a boarding house on Rokin, it had not so far reached Warmoesstraat. All the same, Louise was nervous and could see the same strain in Alis’s and Cornelia’s eyes, too. None of them would breathe easy until the Old Moon had sailed out of Dutch waters.

Gilles was pale, but seemed calm as he supervised the loading of her wooden travelling chest and her leather bag containing personal items, medicines and clothes onto the boot. They had still not been left alone together, but there would be time enough on the voyage.

Louise kissed Alis, then turned to Cornelia. ‘I don’t know how to repay you.’

‘I promised Minou I would look after you,’ she replied gruffly, then put her hand on Louise’s elbow and steered her out of earshot. ‘You remember what I said before.’

Louise did not pretend to misunderstand. She nodded.

‘Gilles loves you, you know that. He would do anything for you. Especially now. You cannot marry, of course, but you will be six weeks or so at sea. Do not do anything that you will regret when the ship docks in Las Palmas, nor set the captain against you. Joost is…’ She tailed off.

‘Cornelia, what is it?’

The older woman sighed. ‘This last quarter has been difficult, Louise. A guilder is no longer worth what it was. The loss of the New Star, all the changes to my licence – it is becoming harder to make ends meet. Joost’s father has been generous in buying his son a commission. Indeed, he has increased his investment in the fleet itself. Dear Captain Janssen was loyal to the company above all things. Joost is different, I fear. I have no reason to believe he will not be an excellent captain – the sea is in his blood – but I suspect his first loyalty is to himself.

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