Lion Triumphant

The Captain held the chairs for us as we sat down.

“You do not perhaps feel hungry,” he said, “but it is well to eat a little.”

“Can you tell me why you struck down my husband?” asked Honey.

“I ca

“You knew others had come to take us away?”

“It was the purpose of our mission.”

“To raid our coasts to take women …” I began.

“No,” he said. “To take you. You will understand in due course.”

Honey spoke gently then: “And you will understand that we are bewildered. We want to know what this means. We fear you have brought us here to…”

He smiled at her courteously. “No harm shall come to you on my ship if you obey my orders. I have issued a command that no one is to touch you.” He was looking at me. Then he turned to Honey. “I will command the same immunity for you.”

“She has already been attacked,” I said.

“I trust…”

Honey touched the Agnus Dei. “This saved me,” she said. “This and John Gregory.”

“Any man who dares touch either of you will pay for it with his life,” said the Captain.

“Then I demand to know for what purpose we have been brought here,” I said.

“This is something you will know in time.”

“You have snatched us from our homes,” I began, but again Honey restrained me.

“For Heaven’s sake, Catharine, let us discover all we can. The Captain is anxious to help us.” Pregnancy had brought a serenity to Honey which in the circumstances seemed u

He gave her a grave smile.

“It is my duty to see that you shall not be harmed. I shall do my duty. But I ask your help. You will not go where I do not wish you to. You will never go unescorted. The man Gregory will be with you. Do not go on deck without him. The men will have been warned, but it is not always possible to control them, and although they know they risk their lives there may be some wild enough to thrust their attentions on you.”

“Where are we going?”

“I ca

He applied himself to the meat and beans on his plate. I could not eat much, nor could Honey.

I could not believe that this was really happening to me. I would wake up soon, I promised myself, the Spanish galleon would become the Rampant Lion, the Captain change to Jake Pe

But this dream—this nightmare—went on and on and it was reality that had faded.

Very soon after Honey became violently ill. It was small wonder. We were unused to the roll of a ship; we were exhausted mentally and physically; we were bewildered and uncertain of what was happening to us. And Honey was pregnant.

I looked after her and that was a good thing to do because it made me forget everything but that I feared she would die.

John Gregory was never far away. How I hated that man who had slyly come to our house, posing as a priest, and who had led our captors to the house and to us. A spy! A traitor! What could be worse? But he was now our protector. I could not bring myself to look at him without expressing my contempt. But he was useful.

I said to him: “I fear you are killing my sister. You know the state of her health; this shock has been too much for her, as indeed was to be expected. I should have believed those who had been befriended by us would never have betrayed us, but I was mistaken. We had liars and traitors in our midst.” When I berated him he would stand before me, his eyes downcast, contrition in every gesture. Honey always tried to stop me, but I couldn’t stop myself and there was some relief in giving vent to my feelings.

On the second day when Honey was so sick and I feared for her life I said to John Gregory, “I need our maid here. She must help me nurse my sister.”

He said he would speak to the Captain and very soon Je

She looked much the same. Is it possible, I asked myself, that she could adjust herself so soon?

She was in an old gown which she had snatched up before she was taken; and already she was regaining that complete placidity which was a feature of hers.

The sight of her face irritated me once I had felt the relief that she was alive and well. She looked as though she were satisfied with her lot. How could she be? And what had happened to her?

I said: “The mistress is very sick. You must help with her, Je

“Oh, poor lady,” she said. “And in her condition.”

Honey’s pregnancy was visible now. I thought anxiously of the child and I fervently wished that we had both gone home to my mother the day after Jake Pe

Honey seemed comforted because the three of us were together, and Je

I learned that Je

Je

“Just him,” said Je

She cast down her eyes and blushed and I wondered that she so wanton—for it was clear that she was not displeased with her state—could appear so coy, for she was not assuming modesty; she was too simple for that.

“I do think he be a good man, Mistress,” she murmured.

“He was not your first either,” I said.

Her blush deepened. “Well, Mistress, in a ma

“In a ma

“He were but half a man,” she said scornfully.

Je

She talked a good deal about him as we sat watching Honey. It took my mind off what was happening to us all as I listened.

She had not in truth been eager to marry Richard Rackell, only it was good for a wench to be married; and having given in like, well, there might be results.

“And what if there are results now?” I asked.

She said piously that that was in the hands of God.

“Rather in yours and your pirate lover,” I reminded her.

I was glad to have her with me. I said we should keep together, the three of us; she should help to look after Honey because Honey was going to need care.

So she was with us during those uneasy days though she crept away at night to be with her lover.