She needed to get away from the house. She needed a man stuffing her full with his want, but now the menservants would be chary of her, Comfort realized. Damn her ladyship! What difference is it to her that the men were swiving me? I wasn’t hurting nobody. Ohh, it’s all right if her, with her belly, gets serviced, but not poor me. Well, I’ll fix her soon enough, the bitch!
“Mistress Fortune.” Prosper, one of the bondmen, was speaking.
Fortune looked up from the chair before the house where she and Rois were sewing infant garments. “Yes, Prosper, what is it?”
“ ’Tis Comfort, yer ladyship. She’s going off into the woods again. We saw her from the fields.”
Fortune jumped up. “That damned girl! She’ll get lost again.”
“Nay, yer ladyship,” the bondman said. “Comfort knows the woods hereabouts better than any. Every bit as good as the Indians.”
“Does she?” This was rather interesting news. Was it possible that Comfort had deliberately pretended to be lost the day they arrived? “Show me where she is,” Fortune said. “Rois, go and tell Kieran I have gone after the troublesome bitch, and that tomorrow she goes into St. Mary’s to the stocks, and for a whipping.”
“She’ll come back, m’lady,” Rois said. “Don’t go after the wench.”
“She’s deliberately disobeyed me, and in front of the others,” Fortune said. “If I do not fetch her back myself, I shall lose control of my household.” Turning, Fortune followed the bondman.
He led her to the edge of the tobacco fields, pointing out the path that Comfort had taken. “I’ll go with you, mistress,” he said.
“Nay,” Fortune replied. “She will not have gotten far, and I want to bring her back myself. Cut me that switch, Prosper.”
He obeyed, handing it to her with a small grin.
Stepping into the woods Fortune followed the barely visible path. About her the leaves were brilliant with their late October color. They fell silently around her, and yet the path seemed clear enough for a distance. Ahead of her she could hear Comfort singing a little ditty, and recognized the tune as “The Miller of Dee.” Fortune increased her pace, but she could not seem to catch up with the serving girl. Then she suddenly realized that she hadn’t heard Comfort’s voice in the past few minutes. Where had the damned girl gotten to? Fortune wondered.
Comfort could hear someone following her. Was it one of the men? she thought excitedly. She hid herself in the brush long enough to discover her pursuer. Seeing Fortune picking her way through the undergrowth Comfort felt a surge of disappointment. Then an idea struck her. She began to sing again, leading her fine ladyship on deeper and deeper into the forest. She crossed a small stream, and hid herself again, watching as Fortune forded the small watercourse, and continued onward. With a smile of triumph Comfort turned back. Her rival had chosen her own fate. She would soon discover herself lost, and she would not be able to find her way back out of the forest. But I will be there for the master, Comfort considered, smiling to herself as she walked out of the woods, and across the fields to the house.
Fortune suddenly realized she couldn’t hear Comfort’s voice anymore. She also could not hear the sound of footsteps padding ahead of her. She stopped. All around her the forest was thick with trees and other growth. I have to go back, Fortune thought to herself. She turned about, and attempted to retrace her footsteps, but while the path had seemed so obvious going into the woods, it was not as definite now that she needed to find her way out. Ahead she heard the sound of water. The stream she had crossed! But as she came upon it she wasn’t certain it was the same stream. The one she had crossed was silent-running. This one sang and chattered as it tumbled over its streambed of rocks.
Panic began to set in.
I’m lost!
she thought, frightened. Fortune stood stock-still. She was suddenly afraid to move in any direction lest she become even more lost. I haven’t been walking that long. I can’t be
that
far from home. But which direction do I take? Oh, God! I don’t know! She began to cry. She was lost in this New World forest, and no one was ever going to find her. Aine would be orphaned, and the son she was certain she carried in her womb now would die with her. Crumpling to the soft floor of the forest she wept herself into sleep.
“Touched-by-Fire, awaken,” she heard a deep voice calling her.
Fortune awoke, and scrambling to her feet found herself face to face with a tall, elderly Indian. She gasped.
“Do not be afraid, Touched-by-Fire. I am Many Moons, the medicine man of the Wicocomoco.”
“You speak English?” Fortune was amazed.
He smiled a small smile at her. “Your medicine woman, Glass Eyes, taught me, as I have taught her our tongue.”
Glass Eyes?
Of course! Happeth Jones with her spectacles! “I am lost, Many Moons. I followed a disobedient servant into the forest, and became lost. Can you guide me back to my home?”
He nodded. “It is the girl with the corn-colored hair you followed? She is a very bad person, Touched-by-Fire. She has brought sickness to several of our young men who were tempted by her. She let them use her as a man will use a woman. Then they became sick.”
“Her name is Comfort, although she is anything but,” Fortune said, walking by the medicine man’s side. “My husband is going to send her away. She claims to be afraid of your people. I am sorry she has brought illness to your men. Perhaps Mistress Jones, Glass Eyes, can help you. I am grateful that you found me, Many Moons. I do not think I could have found my way out of the forest without your help.” Fortune could see the trees thinning, and past them the tobacco fields. The sun was close to setting. She had obviously been in the forest most of the day. She was very lucky, she realized.
“Fortune! Fortune!”
Her name was being called. “I’m here,” she cried back, and then she exited the woods, running into Kieran’s open arms.
“I thought I had lost you,” he said, kissing her hungrily.
“You almost did, but thanks to Many Moons—” She turned. “He’s gone! Oh, Kieran, I wanted you to thank him, too. The Wicocomoco medicine man who is Mistress Jones’s friend found me, and led me out of the forest. Do you know what the Indians call her? Glass Eyes!”
“Why did you go into the forest?” he asked her as they turned to walk back to the house.
“I scolded the servants this morning for their behavior, and then I told Comfort she was not to leave the house without my permission,” Fortune said. “Of course she did, deliberately disobeying me. Prosper saw her crossing the fields into the woods. He came to tell me. I followed the wench, but she must have discovered I was coming after her. She disappeared, and I couldn’t see or hear her. Then I realized I was lost. I wandered about a bit, gave in to a bout of vapors, and then Many Moons found me,” Fortune concluded breathlessly. “I’m starving, Kieran!”
“Mrs. Hawkins will have dinner ready soon. Rois came and told me you had gone into the forest. By the time I learned where you had gone, you had vanished. I skirted the edge of the woods all afternoon calling you. We were just about to send to the Indian village, and ask for their help. What the hell was Comfort doing in the forest?”
“She knows it well, I have learned. She is also not one bit afraid of the Indians despite her claim. She’s been lying with several young bucks, and has infected them with some sort of disease,” Fortune told her husband. “Did Rois say I wanted her sent to St. Mary’s tomorrow?”
He nodded “I’ve shackled her, and put her in the buttery,” he told his wife as they entered the house.
“Ohh, m’lady, thank heavens yer back!” Rois cried as she ran to greet her mistress.
“It’s all right now, Rois,” Fortune assured her serving woman, “and tomorrow we dispose of Comfort Rogers.”
“Good riddance!” Rois said bluntly.
In the early morning the weeping Comfort was brought from the buttery, and put into the wagon. Kevin would go with his master to St. Mary’s Town. As the vehicle moved off from the house, however, Comfort shrieked irrationally, “He’s taking me away, you bitch! We’re going to be together, and yer going to be left alone! I knew he wanted me. I knew he loved me, and not you!”
“Bitch!” Rois muttered.
“I feel sorry for her,” Fortune replied. “Not so much that I want her about, but I still have pity for her.”
In the evening when the men returned, and they were all, servant and master, settled about the trestle in the keeping room, Kieran Devers explained that they had all had a narrow escape. He and Kevin had reached St. Mary’s in good time. He had brought the bondwoman before the governor, requesting that she be put in the stocks and whipped for her misbehavior. He was prepared to afterward give her into the keeping of Captain O’Flaherty, to be returned to England.
Comfort was forced screaming into the stocks in the public square, her blouse ripped down its back, and then given ten lashes for her immoral and lewd behavior, as well as her disobedience to her master and mistress. She would remain the day in the stocks, going aboard the ship in late afternoon before the evening tide. Kieran and Kevin having seen the bondwoman properly punished went about the business of seeing the hogsheads of tobacco loaded aboard the
Cardiff Rose
. Then they went to see Aaron Kira, pleased to learn he had been accepted in St. Mary’s, and his money-lending establishment was thriving.
“What do I do with the wench when we get back to England?” Ualtar O’Flaherty asked his cousin’s husband when the cargo had been finally loaded, and the three men sat in the captain’s cabin eating a meal.
“Give her the purse I gave you, and send her on her way. She doesn’t dare go back to her old haunts lest she be caught, and rearrested. She’s only served two years of her bond, but we can’t sell her bond to anyone, her reputation is so foul. I don’t want her around my family. She lured Fortune into the forest, and then left her there, lost. My wife was rescued by one of our Indian allies. Frankly I wouldn’t care if you threw her overboard in midocean, Ualtar. It’s no more than she deserves, the conniving bitch. Keep her shackled, and under lock and key lest you find her spreading her legs for your crew, and have a mutiny on your hands. She’s a wicked bit of goods.”
There was a knock on the cabin door, and it opened to reveal the cabin boy. “Gentleman to see Master Devers, sir,” he said, and stepped aside to allow the man with him to enter the cabin.
“I am Kieran Devers,” and he arose, holding out his hand.
“Anthony Sharpe, Master Devers. You have in your possession a bondwoman named Comfort Rogers?”
“I do, but not for long,” Kieran replied.
“I have a warrant for her arrest, sir. She is an impostor, a convicted felon who was due to hang for murder. She switched places with a dead woman in Newgate who was to be transported. No one would have known but that she angered another woman who was also about to be transported. Lay with her man, the bold wench did. Quite a randy lass, I am told,” Anthony Sharpe said with a small grin.
“I purchased her bond over two years ago,” Kieran said. “Why has it taken so long for her to be claimed by the government?”
“The woman she angered could get no one to listen to her until she got here to the New World. She came later on a different vessel. This woman’s master heard the story, believed his bondwoman, and notified the authorities. Then word was sent back to London. A small reward was offered amongst the felons in Newgate, for many of the same people there for debt were still there, for any information as to what had happened to Comfort Rogers. Money do be an excellent restorative of memory, sir. We learned that Comfort Rogers had died, and her identity had been taken by one Jane Gale.”
“What did this woman do?” Kieran asked.
“Killed her mistress, she did. Was convinced that her master was mad in love with her, and killed the wife to get at him,” came the reply.
“Was he? Did he lead the girl on?” Kieran inquired.
“Nay, sir, ’twas all in the lass’s head,” Anthony Sharpe said.
“My God, Kieran, you are fortunate she did not kill your wife,” Ualtar O’Flaherty said, and then turning to Master Sharpe explained what had happened to his cousin only the day before.
“Aye, sir, your lady is indeed a lucky lass,” was the observation.
“The wench is in the stocks,” Kieran said. “We were just going to fetch her now.” He did not say that he had been planning to return Comfort Rogers, or Jane Gale, or whatever her name was, back to England simply to be rid of her. “What will you do with her?”
“Take her back to England,” was the answer. “I’ll have to find a ship that will have room for me, and my prisoner.”
“I will be leaving tonight with the tide, and I have room for you,” Captain O’Flaherty said quickly. “Yer passage will be a free one, Master Sharpe, for my cousin, who is distantly related to the king, would expect me to aid his royal authorities. I’ll send some men to fetch the wench from the stocks.”
“We’ll go with them,” Kieran said. “I would, however, like to see your warrant before I leave the ship, Master Sharpe.”
“Of course, sir,” came the response, and reaching into his doublet he drew forth the parchment, handing it to Kieran.