That was precisely what Anne was afraid of. “There must be something I can do,” Anne said.
“Unfortunately not. I’m going to do my best to get your friend out of there. But it will take time.”
“Time?” Anne mumbled to herself. She had waited weeks aboard the horrendous Providence to be with Teach. See him again. Hold him again. Make sure he was okay. And now that he was so close, it seemed he was farther away than ever. “How much time?” she dared ask.
Alastair stayed silent, and Anne knew she got her answer.
CHAPTER 13
Teach
“Move over,” John muttered, his words unnaturally loud in the small, dark cell. The rats scurrying along the corridor stopped at the sound of his voice. Most of the crew was asleep, their deep snores reverberating off the walls.
“There’s no place for me to go,” Jack Thurston grumbled. “Cozy up to the captain if you need more space.”
“I’d rather he didn’t.” Drenched in sweat, Teach felt as if he’d entered the bowels of hell. No light penetrated the gloom and Teach couldn’t see the hand he held in front of his face.
Unaware of how many hours had passed since his conversation with the governor, it already felt like an eternity. Pushed tight against the cell bars, with John pressed to his side, Teach attempted to sit up, knowing sleep would be impossible. The stuffy air combined with the stench of unwashed bodies made the space unbearable. He should have simply agreed to captain Webb’s ship, but the request had caught him off guard. Nassau was full of sailors and sea captains. Why would the governor insist on Teach’s help? It didn’t make sense.
Shifting, Teach leaned against the bars, trying to give John more room. “I’m sorry about this,” Teach said.
“Don’t blame yourself, Captain. I’ve been in places much worse than this,” Jack said.
John gave a disbelieving snort. “When and where?”
“I was locked up in Madeira once. The place was crawling with all kinds of vermin. Maggots ate the flesh right off the soles of one man’s feet, clear down to the bone.”
“What a load of poppycock. When were you in Madeira?”
“It weren’t more than three summers ago, when you were still plucking up the courage to talk to the lasses. But no jail can hold me.”
“This one seems to be doing a fairly good job of it.” John’s smug words dissolved into a pained grunt. “You throw another elbow in my back and there won’t be enough of you for the maggots to feed on.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“Enough. Both of you,” Teach said, running a weary hand over his face. His eyes were scratchy and dry and he was sorely in need of a drink, but as long as his two friends argued, rest eluded him. Jack was only five years older than John, but he often acted like it was ten.
For a moment, the three of them sat silently in the dark, listening to the deep breathing of their fellow sailors. Rats scurried in the darkness, and Teach closed his eyes as something brushed by his boot. He kicked out and was rewarded by the sound of an angry squeak as the rat scurried away.
John jumped. “If I ever see Peter again . . .”
“You’ll have to wait your turn,” Jack muttered. “As soon as I get out of here, I’m going to hunt him down.”
“And just how do you intend to get out? Last time I looked, there were at least ten guards between us and freedom.”
Teach interrupted them before they could quarrel further. “Webb’s coming for me in the morning. I’ll get you out.”
“We shouldn’t even be here. Webb needs to go after the ships that attacked us,” John said, his voice rising. “Find those bastards and you’ll find the real criminals.”
“Right,” Jack chimed in. “If Webb was really doing his job, these cells would be filled with pirates, not us. We all know the islands are full of ’em.”
“I said I’ll get you out of here,” Teach said, wishing he could go back in time. Would he have stood up to Murrell? Yes. He would never regret that decision. But it still didn’t erase the guilt he felt at their current dilemma. “Now try to sleep. I don’t want you to wake the others. Let them have their peace.”
Neither John nor Jack responded. Teach closed his eyes, grateful that the majority of the crew already slept. Every one of them had remained loyal to Teach and refused to corroborate Peter’s story of mutiny, and for that Teach would always be grateful.
The men ranged in age from twelve to forty, and most of them came from coastal towns in England. Young Matthew had narrowly escaped the press-gang on a naval ship. He’d met twenty-two-year-old Lawrence outside a tavern in Whitby and together they’d made their way to Bristol, one of the busiest ports in England, searching for work. Thirty-year-old Hugh had promised to send everything he earned home to his wife and their three children. Walter was the oldest of the group and didn’t have anyone left in the world, and so he’d given some of his pay to Hugh.
Each seaman on board the Deliverance had a history of hardship and suffering. On long voyages, the comfort and safety of everyone depended entirely on the character of the crew, and although Richard Drummond had made a colossal mistake by choosing Murrell as captain, Teach had nothing but praise for the other seamen his father had hired.
John’s loud snore cut into Teach’s thoughts and Teach smiled, grateful to have his friend by his side.
“Jack?” Teach whispered.
“Yes?”
“How did you get out of Madeira?”
Jack cleared his throat. “If I tell you, you have to swear not to tell a single soul. I’ve never told anyone, for fear of it getting back to my ma. I promised her I’d make something of myself. I don’t want to be just a sailor like my pa and my older brother. I promised her I’d make captain one day.”
“I swear I won’t tell a soul,” Teach said, his curiosity piqued by the earnestness in Jack’s voice.
“Before I joined the Deliverance, I crewed on a pirate ship. I was only with them for a few months when the Spanish navy caught us off the coast of Madeira. Our captain managed to escape and left us to die. Have you ever been in a Spanish prison, Captain?”
“No.”
“You never want to be, trust me. They did things to us there . . .” Jack’s voice was hard. “Sometimes I can still hear the other men screaming.”
Teach didn’t know how to respond. At that moment, Jack sounded far older than his twenty-three years. Teach doubted he could say anything that would erase Jack’s memories, and so he kept silent.
“I finally told them where they could find the pirate. He’d been stealing from them for years, and I took them right to him and all of the gold he’d hidden. His life for mine. I think that was a fair trade, don’t you?”
“Aye, I do.”
“I would never do that to you. I would never betray you. You’re a good leader and the men trust you.”