The Huguenot Chronicles: Books 1 - 3 (includes: Merchants of Virtue, Voyage of Malice, Land of Hope): A historical fiction trilogy by Paul C.R. Monk

Author:Paul C.R. Monk
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Bloomtree Press
Published: 2021-10-08T22:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

Ten minutes later, Jacob and Captain Cox were climbing aboard the Joseph.

Men were heaving lines, scuttling up and down the rigging, and getting ready to unfurl sails. From his vantage point on the quarterdeck, Captain Brook gave Cox a short nod of approval. The pirate was led below deck with his wrought iron chest, which was lugged behind him by two mates. Captain Brook then looped his gaze down at Delpech, who was holding his sack over a shoulder and his leather bag in his hand.

‘So you be the French doctor,’ boomed the captain, who had a permanent snarl that made him look disgruntled at everything he set his eyes on.

Looking up, Jacob noticed he was hideously ugly with a pockmarked face, was of average height with powerful shoulders, and was clad, not in English uniform, but in a frock coat that must have once belonged to a Spaniard.

Although it went against his moral grain, Jacob had no choice but to play out his fraud to the full. ‘Yes, Sir. Doctor Jacob Delpech at your service,’ he said. The captain waved him up to the navigation deck.

As Delpech went to climb the steps, a crewmate scurrying down the port side stopped in his tracks. He held Jacob’s gaze for an instant. Jacob had the shock of his life at the sight of the man, who then hastened towards the capstan. Although he was bearded and his hair was tied back in the fashion of seafaring rovers, this man could be none other than Ducamp, the dragoon lieutenant who had ransacked his home three years earlier.

Jacob continued to the quarterdeck.

‘Indentured to me, you are now,’ said the captain in a gravelly voice. ‘And so as you know, all aboard this ship is equal and shall be treated as such, till death do us part.’

‘Of course, Sir,’ said Jacob, whose mind was still half on the bearded mate.

‘And we share the rewards of the catch.’ The captain rubbed his greying goatee as if he were evaluating an estimable beast. Then he said, ‘And two hundred pieces of eight will buy you back your liberty!’

This was Jacob’s second shock, and he had barely been aboard five minutes.

‘There must be a mistake, Sir,’ he said, shaken with indignation. ‘I owed not a tenth of that sum.’

With impulsive scorn and sudden fury, the captain bayed, ‘Are yer saying a doctor is worth no more than a slave or a swabber?’

‘No, Sir . . .’ said Jacob, searching for his words.

But before he could get another one in, the captain—whose rage died down as quickly as it had flared up—said in his resonantly deep voice, ‘As I said, Doctor, we share the rewards of our toil with all aboard. And there will be plenty of coin to be made where we are headed. As surgeon-barber on this here ship, you are entitled to one and a quarter shares of any spoils of war taken along the way. Fear not, Doctor, I’m not asking you to go on the account.

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