The Fourth’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. His eyes crossed and he collapsed forward onto his face, breaking his nose on Suzanne’s knee on the way down. He bounced off and lay on his back, blood streaming from his nose. There was utter silence as the blood slowed and stopped.
Suzanne looked at him for a moment. Then she looked up at the Captain. “I am aware that striking a ship’s officer is an act of mutiny, but I would point out I am not a member of your crew, rather an innocent girl who had been kidnapped. A crime for which you will be held responsible, as Captain, in any court in the land.” This last she snapped like a lash.
The Captain realised the truth of this, and went red in anger, not at Suzanne but at his Fourth Officer towards whom he glared. Suzanne noted this and continued, her quick mind racing ahead, searching for the best options.
“I understand you are unable to return me to shore, so I am clearly here for the duration, at neither your, nor my, pleasure. So we must make the best of it. You are short of an officer, so I am prepared to take the position. You will find me a damn good officer - I am extremely well educated and will learn navigation rapidly. I think I have also demonstrated that I can act quickly and effectively to diffuse any problems with the crew, and I can also make myself popular without sleeping with them.” She gave a grin. “Besides, I am sure none could afford me. What’s my rate of pay?”
Captain Larroche stared at her for a moment. The silence spilled, but the whole ships crew was watching, more appearing by the second.
“Way to go, girl!” Sara called. “He deserved it for that trick.”
Suddenly all the girls were clapping, a few of the men too. Most, like Pat, were still in shock - Pat had not closed his mouth since he saw her.
“Hey Cap’n!” Sara called, “we need a female officer; there are enough girls in the crew.”
Suzanne winked at Sara, did a miniscule double take, and looked up at the Captain.
“Well,” he said, “That’s not so easy. We still have a Fourth, though you may have disabled him and -”
“He’s dead,” Suzanne said without emotion. She nodded to Pat and Sara, the nearest crew, “Check him and then chuck the offal over the side.” She glanced up at the Captain. “I know how to fight, Captain, and I just meant to make him ugly but a nose break like that will sometimes drive splinters of bone into the brain.”
Pat and Sara went to the Fourth and after a brief touch to the neck, Pat nodded to Sara, happy to let her talk. She looked up at the Captain. “He is dead, sir.” She looked appraisingly at Suzanne who was looking as innocent as an angel. Pat grabbed his feet and started to drag him towards the side.
“Belay that,” snapped the Captain. “Take the body to the infirmary, have it wrapped in cloth and weighted. We’ll bury him tonight - we don’t want sharks following the ship.” He looked at Suzanne, but she was ahead of him.
“Aye aye, sir!” She looked at Pat. “You heard the Captain. Get on with it, lively now. I will go and change into more suitable attire, sir. You,” she said to Sara, “get me a bucket of sea water to wash this damn paint off. I’ll be in the Fourth’s cabin.” And she went back into the cabin way. Sara grinned and went to fill a bucket.
Captain Larroche, left open mouthed as he was trying to find something to say, shut it abruptly, turned from the deck, went back to where Brian was standing, and looked at him. Brian spoke in a low undertone.
“Well, I think that solves a huge problem, sir, and I also think she will be a damn sight better officer than many we could have recruited - certainly better than him.”
“I am not happy about setting a precedent of being able to kill my officers for promotion - would think you would be worried about that too. We are not a damn pirate ship.”
“Don’t worry about it, sir. That’s a very, very clever girl. See how quick she worked out what was going on and what her options were? I’ll have her report to you when she comes back and you can tell her the rate of pay, and then send her to me for her duties. She’ll make a damn fine officer, much better than Reilly. Everyone understood what happened and Reilly wasn’t popular.”
The Captain looked at him bleakly for a moment, then turned away, and spoke to Lieutenant Mactravis.
“Lieutenant, please ensure you have your most far-sighted men up top, as high as they can get in the rigging. They will find small stands near the top of each mast. Once we are out of sight of land, we are at the most risk from Spakka longships, which sail parallel to the shore looking for our merchant ships. I plan to drive straight through them and off to the south east; they should not be able to touch us, but I don’t want to get too close.”
“Sir!” said Mactravis laconically, completely unworried by the recent events. “Can I take a couple of your topsailsmen to explain any tricks for far seeing at sea?”
Captain Larroche nodded and went to his cabin. He felt like a drink.
Sara knocked on the door and opened it at the call, lugging in the bucket of seawater.
“Shut the door,” said Suzanne, and as soon as it was closed, “What the devil are you doing on this ship, Princess? In disguise too?”
Sara was taken aback. “How did you recognise me?”
Suzanne smiled. “I am often at court with clients - one of my accomplishments is make-up, acting and role play, as they wouldn’t want anyone to know who I am. I’ve been introduced to you in several different disguises.”
“Damn,” said Sara, “you were Lady Dunmuir, weren’t you?”
“Yup, that was a fun evening. You had such a pretty dress. Now, does anyone else on board know who you are?
“No, don’t think so. Funnily enough, Pat’s brother - Pat is the boy who took the body away - recognised me when he was saying farewell to Pat, but didn’t tell anyone. I selected the Captain of Pathfinders and his men, but they don’t know me, except for the Sergeant. He won’t tell anyone. It needs to stay that way, Suzanne.”
“Politics?” Suzanne arched a delicate, chiselled eyebrow. “Don’t tell me, let me guess. Not a love affair, I’m sure. Your father is furious with you for doing so well in the blade competition? And you are avoiding his wrath? No? Didn’t think so, he would be proud of you, thinks too much of you.”
“How do you know that? You haven’t....”
“Your father and I have.... history. I loved your mother. She was very special to me.”
Sara’s eyes narrowed. Suzanne’s eyes were suspiciously bright and damp. She was trying to equate the country’s leading courtesan, who had ‘history’ with her father, with a girl who had known her mother and loved her.
“I never understood how you received an invitation to the Autumn Ball. Father wouldn’t say a word. I was very suspicious.”
“Your father is a dear but I let him down badly, long ago. The Church hates me, once I had too much influence. If they knew we saw each other they would make political trouble for him.”
“Saw each other? Political? Just who are you, Suzanne, and why don’t I know?”
“I’m just a girl from Galicia who ran into trouble with royalty. Not your father, a Galician bastard. The reason you know nothing about me is I operate a sizeable chunk of your spy network for Luce.”
Sara sat down on the bed with a thump and stared at her. Suzanne smiled and went on.
“So, it must have been Rotherstone. The bastard. What did he do?”
“He, he, he set a priest on me, a magician. Persuaded all the guards who saw me that I was an assassin.”
“Hmmph. That would have been Bessin. He’s a hypnotist rather than a magician, not much difference really. Damn good. That’s bad news. No wonder you’re in hiding. This is a good place for you in that case. Does Luce know you are here?”
“No, we had several alternatives laid out and she knows this is one of them, but she doesn’t know which one I chose.”
Suzanne had stripped off her dress while she talked and was now rinsing the make up off her face. She wound her hair into a rope, tied off the end with a little chain with weights on. Sara stared at it.
“Makes a good weapon, unexpected too.” She winked again. “Right, while we are on the ship, I shall report directly to you rather than through Luce. What’s your name and rank on the ship?”
“Ah, Sara, I’m a topsailsman but my fighting position is archer on the poop.”
“OK Sara, I shall ask for you as my personal assistant when you are not on duty. That way we can discuss matters with no interference. I doubt that I can be your boss, though, in the fighting, as I am not much good as an archer. My bouncers get in the way.”
She smiled, grabbed a long cloth and started winding it around her chest to keep her breasts under control. She rifled through the Fourth’s clothes, selecting a uniform with a surprisingly good fit.
“Hmmph. Needs a bit of needlework, I’ll do it later, this will do for now. Pass me that belt. Right, how do I look? Ready to face the music?”
“You look fine, more like an officer than Reilly did. Not sure whether to call you sir or mother!”
“Make it Fourth. Give me a hat and let’s see what the Captain has decided.”
“Come in,” said Captain Larroche heavily, knowing damn well who was at the door. He raised his eyebrows, though, when Sara started to followed Suzanne into the room.
“If you please, Sara, I wish to speak to Suzanne alone,” he said icily. Sara jumped and retreated, not having thought it through and wanting to support Suzanne.
The Captain stared at her for a moment. Damn, with the paint washed off she looked like a competent, efficient officer, nothing like the strumpet he expected.
“Madam, we have a mutual problem here. We both equally regret your presence but I cannot afford to either turn back to return you to shore or to provide you with a boat even if you could sail it. We are under a very real threat from Spakka pirates until we are well away from shore, which have never allowed a Harrhein ship to sail away.”
Suzanne regarded him levelly, nodding once.
“Nevertheless, you have murdered an officer of this ship and there needs to be a trial.”
“The death was an accident. I intended to flatten his nose, that’s all. Well, maybe I wanted to cripple his love life as well.” Suzanne bristled with suppressed anger. “I’ve been kidnapped, sir! In any court on the mainland, any presiding lord would find the man guilty and sentence him to death. It may have been by covert means rather than violence, but it was still kidnap and I have no hope of returning home to my life, business and loved ones until the end of this voyage. Further, it is going to damage my business, tarnish my reputation, and worry my loved ones. Captain, I am sure that I don’t need to remind you that you are responsible for the actions of your officers, particularly in port, and with Reilly’s demise it is you who will be in court if we don’t sort this out to the satisfaction of all concerned.”
“Are you threatening me, madam?” Captain Larroche’s voice dropped low.
“Not at all, sir, but as a good officer I am making sure you are in possession of all the facts before you make a decision.”
Unmollified, the Captain glared at her a moment longer. She did not quail.
“And have you considered how we present this to the crew? How are they going to react to this manner of promotion? You realise that this is how it is done on pirate ships? We have to draw a line. You must be punished, not rewarded, or every rank on the ship is at risk.”
Suzanne responded equably. “I have no idea about pirates or how your crew will react. But as for punishment, fine me. Fine me a month’s wages or something. Reduced, of course, because I was not a crew member at the time.”
“Oh, get out. Leave an old man to brood on the devils of mischance that have led him into your hands. Suzanne, you are Fourth Officer probationary, report to the First Mate for instruction. Tell him that I want the entire crew assembled on deck for me to address within half an hour. I need to finish this unsavoury business so we can clear the coast and out of reach of Spakka pirates.”
Captain Larroche looked down on his crew. Every member arrayed on the deck in front of the poop, except for the helmsman and the First Mate. Brian was standing just to his rear. Suzanne was in the front row, now wearing the hat with insignia of rank.
“I am sure you are all aware of the events of this afternoon, but I shall repeat them for to ensure you know what happened.
“Fourth Officer Desmond Reilly, who was not due on watch till this evening, smuggled a lady on board ship and concealed her in his cabin. The lady was not aware that we were departing and on discovering the deception became very angry. Being a skilled close quarter fighter, she proceeded to strike Fourth Officer Reilly twice. The second strike broke his nose, and a piece of bone entered his brain and killed him.”
He sighed, and looked at the crew who were watching him entranced, all eyes fixed on him.
“I have conducted an inquest and come to the following conclusions.
“Fourth Officer Desmond Reilly was guilty of kidnap for sexual purposes. This is a serious charge which carries a capital sentence in the courts.”
There was a buzz through the crew at this, and he waited for it to die away.
“Further, this action by a member of the crew incriminated all aboard this ship, and as such would have merited beaching at the nearest port and forfeit of his shares in the cargo and profits.”