Untitled

The laughter and gaiety had been really quite entertaining now that she didn’t have to fend those men off, and Kate was sparkling herself at a dinner party full of French wines and imported salt beef, crystal that signified better fortunes in the insurance company her father had so carefully built up, and she talked with pride about the ‘case’ she had been given at the Governor’s Office. Her jaw tightened a little against her enthusiasm, contract law and a heavy dose of copying legal documents all that it entailed really but nonetheless she held her head up. Independent means..well if she didn’t eat that was.

She was well into a forth glass of wine before the rather large bearded man at the end of the table commanded the attention of all of them
“A little bird tells me that Captain Barnet has captured that so called Terror of the Caribbean- Calico Jack- off the coast of Negril, he is to be tried and hanged naturally, but imagine Barnet’s surprise to find two women aboard, and vixens they were too, Anne Bonny and Mary Read their names so I understand. I would say a toast is in order, it seems at last we are getting the better of these blaggards. I am confident that our business will go from strength to strength- the age of the pirate is finished gentlemen”
Kate’s forkful stopped halfway to her mouth, the clang of her knife onto the white porcelain a little more dramatic than she had intended.
“Women are being tried for piracy?”

Her father’s attempts to paper over the cracks fast appearing around the oh so gentile table failed miserably and Kate was pressing for ever more information
“They defended the ship? While the men were drunk below deck? And what is to become of them?” Kate’s interest in this man’s knowledge puffing him up so that he delved for ever more details in his efforts to keep her attention, he numbered amongst his friends, he said in a low voice, the Commodore and he had it on good authority therefore that it was the firm intention of the Governor that these pirates would swing, women or not.

She listened to his outrage and horror at the sort of women who would take to the seas with a ship load of pirates, a worse insult to womanhood he could not imagine, indeed their crimes against property seemed to be of less import, but despite her urge to stick her fork into his hand, she smiled and nodded and let him create a different world in her mind.

The next few days she spent pressing anyone she could find for details of this trial, snippets about these women and their stories, and she had no doubt most of it was stories, even their birth places seemed to be the subject of argument, never mind how they concealed their identity, some stories suggesting that it was only the victims of their pirating that were unaware of their sex, others that Anne had herself fallen for Mary, anyhow what had Kate’s heart beating was they were there at all, they had jumped ship at least metaphorically.

Her constant haranguing of her father about the justice of it all finally had him at last exasperated and putting down his paper
“Kate dear, the latest is that since they are both pleading with their bellies..there is some doubt that they will be hanged though if you were to ask the Governor Lawes he would almost certainly say that delivering us of four instead of two of their sort is something of an advantage, he is of a mind to let them swing and argue the niceties of the law afterwards.”
He knew he had made a mistake by confiding that little piece of information even before he finished saying it, the set of her jaw made him quite literally kick himself.

Finding legal precedents on the hanging of pregnant women was not easy, in fact and she admitted defeat several times before she finally shut the piles of books that the library offered as possible sources of salvation. There was no case history, just references and suggestions and nothing to pin the speech she had already written in her head to. One last one, which promised little, detailed the setting up of Newgate Prison in London, where it seemed prisoners would wait on Death Row for the somewhat fickle hangman’s noose. And there she found it. The Bloody Code, she read, allowed pardons for the clergy, literary men, good reputation or character of the defendant, Kate skipped through those- their worth obviously being negligible in this case, through pages and pages eventually leading to an account of women gathered together in a ward with the sole purpose of finding men to impregnate them in the certain knowledge that this would at least stay their execution if not give them full pardon. Alright so it wasn’t perfect- it wasn’t Rex vs. some unfortunate, that ended in a cut and dried ruling, but it was, she thought, enough. She banged the table with some force, gathered her shawl and the document and ran to where she knew the Governor would be taking tea on the balcony of the residence.

Governor Lawes’ secretary, a weasly man, was less than enthralled at her insistence, something’s evidently the British held dear, if not justice then at least afternoon tea and it took some doing before she was finally standing in front of the Governor, that kind of look in his eye that was about a vague recollection that he might know her and a question in his mind about shouldn’t she really be seeing his wife.

“Sir, I have come to discuss the case of Anne Bonny and Mary Read.”
Well that made him put his cake down, an amused frown across his forehead.

“Have you indeed? And what may I ask is your interest in such matters?”
What followed could have gone better, the rising volume of their, well, ‘discussion’ was perhaps the wrong word, but in any case, it was beginning to attract an audience in the gardens below
“Pickwick, escort this..I stumble over the word ‘Lady’.. from my chambers and send for her father” He was red in the face now and standing somewhat threateningly over her, more of a bellow than a point of view “you have no idea what devastation these pirates have done to our trade..”

Kate stood, pulling herself up to her fullest, funny how once you were there, faced with whatever it was, you just could stand tall, and she cast her eyes around the room behind, the opulence and the consumption seeping through every crush of velvet and sparkle of crystal

Her voice was loud and true “I would dare to suggest Sir that you have nevertheless prospered beyond compare and I mean to warn you that should these women hang, a letter will arrive forthwith on a desk at the London Times informing their readers that Governor Lawes did indeed know full well that these women were bearing children when he sent them to their deaths. And what’s more, this has absolutely nothing whatever to do with my father, you clearly have some way to go in your grasp of modern thinking. Good Day to you.”
With something of a flourish she turned on her heels and brushed past those that were gathered at the door.

The next few days were difficult to say the least. Her father wearing that tested beyond belief look and her mother retiring to her rooms. Needless to say the Governors Office decided it had no need for another law clerk at this time. What the maid said though was something more heartening..
“Miss Kate, you’re right one and no mistake..and I am not sure if I should be telling you this but well the whole town’s talking about you, what you said and all. The pirates do us a service here Miss, well those of us that can’t afford to have the best linens and such shipped from England. What they steals they sell, and at half the price too..so well we’ve no argument with them” Sarah lowered her eyes..
“And I heard the pirates were toasting your health down the tavern this past week, on account of it all, there’s even a shanty..but pardon me I couldn’t repeat it..”

Kate’s eyes widened “pirates come into Port Royal?”
Sarah took in her face for a few seconds, funny how much these folk didn’t know of what really happened under their noses

“Well of course Miss Kate, this isn’t all about gold and jewels, treasure maps and that, it is about buying and selling and having something to eat”

Kate took a few days to think about that, days in which her determination simply grew until finally she caught Sarah by the hand as she tucked the sheets to a constricting tightness around the mattress
“Will you take me Sarah- to this tavern of which you spoke? I want to see for myself”
It took even a few more days to convince Sarah that whatever happened she would not lose her job in what was known as one of the more generous households and that she more importantly would not be held responsible for the whims of her mistress.

But at last the night came, Sarah almost unable to stop herself helping Kate into what were clothes more befitting a woman visiting a tavern, rough cotton scratching against legs more used to finer fibres and they stole out into the street. What Kate felt was alive..a deep breath of free air and a flutter in her belly.

Nothing could quite have prepared her; she literally had never imagined anything like it. Blurred lines between men and women that were all physical and nothing about etiquette, noise and dark, fights that erupted and then were resolved in life long friendships or disappeared outside into who knows where and alcohol that burned her throat. Every space she moved into she was jostled by people that saw no issue with being so close you could smell them and meant nothing by it, half of her drink spilling on the floor before she learned how to hold it. Sarah had a young man at her side and Kate relinquished her servitude with a nod, there was no place for that here.

And then she heard his name, a belly laugh that you never heard at a dinner party, where closed down chuckles were swallowed in hands and handkerchiefs for fear of exposing emotions that were not seen as appropriate.
“Captain Sparrow-it were all his doing, he kissed the woman so they say- turned her, that’s why she spoke up for Anne and Mary..that bastard Lawes, he was planning to see them swing, with child or not”
And Kate spun round her heart pounding as much from hearing his name as a rising outrage mixed with pride she had contained
“He did nothing of the sort…I will have you know, I make my own decisions”

Well that stopped the conversations, and Kate gritted her teeth, perhaps this wasn’t the place to admit to being who she was after all.

But this was interesting, Kate watched human nature exposed on the faces in front of her- just more, it seemed pirates were about more. There were knowing looks from some of the women mixed with jealousy from others, quick witted plans for blackmail and kidnap mixed with genuine appreciation. She wasn’t quite sure where the balance lay, and while the scales still settled she found herself speaking out of turn again, seemed it was the night for it

“So who amoungst you will take me to Captain Jack Sparrow? So I might put him right on the circumstances of my actions”

She could hear Sarah’s whispered pleas in her ear, and various propositions which she would rather not think through, she was sure she could pay her way by some other means, but it seemed everyone had the best, the quickest and the most luxurious boat by which she might be transported to the Black Pearl.

“The Black Pearl” she whispered to herself.

The hubbub was growing around her while she felt the words in her mouth, a hand on her arm and the fights that were almost inevitable closed behind her, the sudden dark of an alley waking her mind up.
“You should be more careful Missy, liable as to get your throat cut as end up on the Pearl. But if you want to go, I will take you, just to repay the debt mind. After that the slate is clean and your fate will be your own.”

Kate squinted a little, trying to get a look at the face under the soft leather folds of her hat, a face that seemed determined not to be looked at and a voice that most certainly didn’t match
“And who might you be?”

“Anna Maria..and you would be well advised to lose that tone of voice ..I sail with Captain Sparrow, and he has heard word of you.. I leave on the morning tide out of Port Royal- this will be the only time I will make the offer- look for the single masted sloop with a red wood hull called ‘El Deslizador del Satén”
Anna Maria was very near to Kate now, her words quiet but no less strong for it

“You will be part of the crew not a feted guest, we have no need of ladies in finery, and the port authorities are always on the look out for anything out of the ordinary- so dress the part. And one last thing. Don’t make me regret this- you can sail can’t you?”