Chapter 4 The Deliverance — The Fortunes of Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
Lady Court's yearnings for society from the great world, which were at the root of a good deal of the wretchedness of that household, received some satisfaction on the morrow, when the Mary of Modena reached the island of Nevis--that vast green mountain rising from the sea--and came to cast anchor in Charlestown Bay.
Mr Court, all a quivering eagerness to go ashore, was in the very act of ordering Jacob, the steward, to take up his portmantles, when Captain Blood sauntered into the cabin.
'That will be for tomorrow perhaps,' said he.
'Tomorrow?' Mr Court stared at him. 'But this is Nevis, isn't it?'
'To be sure. This is Nevis. But before we set you ashore there's the trifling matter of the price of your passage.'
'Oh! That!' Mr Court was contemptuous. 'Didn't I say you might make it what you please?'
'You did. And, faith, I may be taking you at your word.'
Mr Court did not like the Captain's smile. He interpreted it in his own fashion.
'If you mean to be--ah--extortionate. . .'
'Och, not extortionate at all. Most reasonable, to be sure. Sit down, sir, whilst I explain.'
'Explain? Explain what?'
'Sit down, sir.' Blood's tone and manner were compelling. Bewildered, Mr Court sat down.
'It's this way,' said Captain Blood, and sat down also, on the stern locker, with his back to the open window, the sunshine, the glittering sea and the hawkers' boats that with fruit and vegetables and fowls came crowding about the ship. 'It's this way: For the moment I'll trouble you to be considering yourself, in a manner of speaking, a hostage, Mr Court. A hostage for a very good friend of mine, who at this moment is a slave in the hands of your cousin, Sir James. You've told us how highly Sir James esteems and loves you; so there's no cause for uneasiness at all. In short, sir: my friend's freedom is the price I'll be asking Sir James for your passage. That's all.'
'All?' There was fury in Mr Court's tone, in his prominent eyes. 'This is an outrage!'
'I'll not be depriving you of the comfort of calling it that.'
Mr Court set an obvious restraint upon his feelings. 'And supposing that Sir James should refuse?'
'Och, why will you be vexing your soul by supposing anything so unpleasant? The one certain thing at present is that if Sir James consents you'll be landed at once on Nevis.'
'I am asking you, sir, what will happen if he doesn't.'
Captain Blood smiled amiably. 'I'm an orderly man, and so I like to take one thing at a time. Speculation's mostly a waste of thought. We'll leave that until it happens, for the excellent reason that it may never happen at all.'
Mr Court came to his feet in exasperation.
'But this . . . this is monstrous. Od rot me, sir, you'll do me this violence at your peril.'
'I am Captain Blood,' he was answered, 'so you'll not be supposing that a little peril more or less will daunt me.'
The announcement released some fresh emotions in Mr Court. His eyes threatened to drop from his flushed, angry face.
'You are Captain Blood! Captain Blood! That damned pirate! You may be but, may I perish, I care nothing who you are. . .'
'Why should you now? All I'm asking of you is that you'll step into your cabin. Of course I shall have to place a guard at the door, but there'll be no other restraints, and your comforts shall not suffer.'
'Do you suppose I'll submit to this?'
'I can put you in irons if you prefer it,' said Captain Blood suavely.
Mr Court, having furiously considered him, decided that he would not prefer it.
Captain Blood was rowed ashore, and took his way to the Deputy-Governor's house on the water-front: a fine white house with green slatted sun-blinds set back in a fair garden where azaleas flamed and all was fragrance of orange and pimento.
He found access to Sir James an easy matter. To a person of his obvious distinction, in his becoming coat of dark-blue camlett, his plumed hat and his long sword slung from a gold-embroidered baldrick, colonial doors were readily opened. He announced himself as Captain Peter, which was scarcely false, and he left it to be supposed that his rank was naval and to be understood that the ship in which he now sailed was his own property. His business in Nevis, the most important slave-market of the West Indies, he declared to be the acquisition of a lad of whom he might make a cabin boy. He had been informed that Sir James, himself, did a little slave-dealing, but even if this information were not correct, he had the presumption to hope that he might deserve Sir James' assistance in his quest.
His person was so elegantly engaging, his manner, perfectly blending deference with dignity, so winning, that Sir James professed himself entirely at Captain Peter's service. Just now there were no slaves available, but at any moment a cargo of blacks from the Coast of Guinea should be arriving, and if Captain Peter were not pressed for a day or two there was no doubt that his need would be supplied. Meanwhile, of course, Captain Peter would stay to dine.
And to dine Captain Peter stayed, meeting Lady Court, whom he impressed so favourably that before dinner was over the invitation extended by her husband had been materially enlarged by her.
Meanwhile, considering the ostensible object of Captain Peter's visit to Nevis, it was natural that the conversation should turn to slaves, and to a comparison of the service to be obtained from them with that afforded by European servants. Sir James, by opining that the white man was so superior as to render any comparison ridiculous, opened the way for the Captain's searching probe.
'And yet all the white men out here as a result of the Monmouth rebellion are being wasted in the plantations. It is odd that no one should ever have thought of employing any of them in some other capacity.'
'They are fit for nothing else,' said her ladyship. 'You can't make ordinary servants of such mutinous material. I know because I tried.'
'Ah! Your ladyship tried. Now that is interesting. But you'll not be telling me that the wretches you so rescued from the plantations were so indifferent to this good fortune as not to give good service?'
Sir James interposed. 'My wife's experience is more limited than her assertion might lead you to suppose. She judges from a single trial.'
She acknowledged the hostile criticism by a disdainful glance, and the Captain came gallantly to her support.
'Ab uno omnes, you know, Sir James. That is often true.' He turned to the lady, who met him smiling. 'What was this single trial? What manner of man was it who proved so lacking in grace?'
'One of those rebels-convict shipped to the plantations. We found him in Barbados, and I bought him to make a groom of him. But he was so little grateful, so little sensible of that betterment of his fortunes that in the end I sent him back to work at sugar-cane.'
The Captain's grave nod approved her. 'Faith, he was rightly served. And what became of him?'
'Just that. He's repenting his bad manners on Sir James' plantation here. A surly, mutinous dog.'
Again Sir James spoke, sadly: 'The poor wretch was a gentleman once, like so many of his misguided fellow-rebels. It was a poor mercy not to have hanged them.'
On that he changed the subject, and Captain Blood having obtained the information that he sought was content to allow him to do so.
But whatever the matter of which they talked, the lady's rare young beauty, combined with a sweet, ingenuous charm of manner, which seemed to bring a twist to the lip of Sir James as he watched her, commanded from their visitor the attentive regard which no man of any gallantry could have withheld. She rewarded him by insisting that whilst he waited in Charlestown he should take up his quarters in their house. She would admit of no refusal. She vowed that all the favour would be of the Captain's bestowing. Too rarely did a distinguished visitor from across the ocean come to relieve the monotony of their life on Nevis.
As a further inducement, she enlarged upon the beauties of this island. She must be the Captain's guide to its scented groves, its luxuriant plantations, its crystal streams, so that he should realize what an earthly Paradise was this which her husband had so often heard her denounce a desolate Hell.
Sir James, without illusions, covering his contempt of her light arts with a mask of grave urbanity, confirmed her invitation, whereupon she announced that she would give orders at once to have a room prepared and the Captain must send aboard for what he needed.
Captain Blood accepted this hospitality in graceful terms and without reluctance. Whilst so much may not have been absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of his purpose in Nevis, yet there could be no doubt that residence in the household of Sir James Court might very materially assist him.