Part 16 (1/2)
She turned sharply at the sound of marching feet behind her to see a score of sailors bringing the condemned men to the makes.h.i.+ft gallows. The prisoners were blocked from her view by their uniformed guards, but some sixth sense froze her in place. An instant later she was thanking G.o.d that she had stopped. On a rickety platform, hastily erected beneath an overhanging spar,hands tied roughly behind them and blindfolds covering their eyes, stood the five parties who were soon to be hanged. Third from the left was Jon. And ablackhooded executioner was placing a noose around his brown neck.
Eleven.
”Stop!”Cathy wanted to scream, but the words wouldn't come. She could only open and shut her mouth soundlessly,Like a fish out of water, her throat closed up with pure terror. Her limbs seemed frozen to the deck, refusing to carry her across to where Jon stood with that horrible rope around his neck. Oh, G.o.d, this was worse than any nightmare! They were just moments away from hanging him, and she could neither speak nor move!
A hand caught at her arm, squeezing familiarly, and Cathy suddenly recovered the use of her limbs and whirled viciously on her a.s.sailant. The vituperations quivering on the tip of her tongue died a quick death as she stared up into the grim, tired, but suddenly vastly relieved face of her father.
”Cathy!” He made the words sound like a prayer. ”Cathy, child, I thought you were dead. . . .”
”Papa!”Cathy cried on a note of thanksgiving. ”Oh, papa, thank G.o.d! You have to stop them from hanging that man!” She pointed to Jon. The sailors about them turned at her desperate plea, their faces curious. Cathy didn't care. She was beyond feeling embarra.s.sed, or thinking of the proprieties. Jon was the only matter worth considering.
When her father just stared at the blindfolded man, making no move to go to his rescue, Cathy shook his arm frantically.
”Papa, hurry!Oh, G.o.d, please hurry!”
”Is that the man who abducted you?” Sir Thomas asked viciously, his eyes never leaving the man on the gallows.
”Yes! Papa, stop them!”
”Let them hang him! Hanging's too good for the dog! I'd like to draw and quarter him! I want him to suffer as he's made you suffer!b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” Sir Thomas flashed a hateful look to where Jon stood, too far away to hear Cathy, pale and quiet as he nodded in answer to the earnest questions of a priest. As Cathy and her father watched, one horrified and the other gloating, the priest made a sign of the cross over him and moved on to the next man, where he started to repeat the ritual.
”Papa, you have to stop them! He's the father of my child!”
'What?” Sir Thomas cried, his voice cracking with pain and outrage.
”I'm going to have his baby! Oh, papa, I don't want my baby's father to hang! Please stop them!Hurry!”
Sir Thomas stared at Cathy for a full minute while she thought she would go mad. The priest granted absolution to the last of the five and stepped back. The drum roll that preceded all executions began.
”Papa, please!” Cathy begged urgently, clutching at her father's arm. It was too late now for her to appeal to the captain of the ”Lady Chester.” If her father would not relent, what was there left to do?
Sir Thomas's eyes moved from her pleading face tothe man on the gallows and back again, his lips compressed in a straighthne . ”Papa.. . . !”
”Halt!” His deep, authoritative voice rang out.”Iwant that man, third from the left, brought to me for questioning! Cut him down!”
The executioner hesitated with his hand just above the lever that would send the five men swinging into eternity, and looked to the officer in charge for confirmation of the brusque order. The officer identified Sir Thomas with a glance,then nodded curtly at the black-hooded man. With a shrug that clearly renounced all responsibility for what he was about to do, the executionerHfted the noose from Jon's neck. Cathy felt a lump rise in her throat as she saw the broad shoulders, which had been held rigidly erect in antic.i.p.ation of the coming ordeal, slump a little. Two of the armed sailors dragged Jon down from the makes.h.i.+ft gallows and led him roughly away, still bound and blindfolded. Cathy turned to Sir Thomas anxiously.
”Where are they taking him?”
”To the brig, I imagine, untilIsend for him. He'll be quite safe.” The bitter mockery in her father's voice made Cathy wince.
”Papa,Ican explain. . .” she faltered uncertainly, wanting to ease the hurt anger in his eyes. He grimaced, catching her arm.
”I'm sure you can, daughter, but.i.think you had better do it in private. We seem to have attracted quite an audience as it is.”
He glanced scathingly around at the grinning crowd of men who were listening unabashedly to their exchange. Cathy saw the lecherous looks being cast over her, and realized, sickeningly, that by her own words she had branded herself wh.o.r.e. An unmarried woman who was with child, no matter what the circ.u.mstances were, could be nothing else according to the morals of the time. She held her head high as she moved with her father to the stairway that led below, but could not control the crimson flood that rose to stain her cheeks. Behind her the execution went on. She flinched at a hoa.r.s.e scream that resounded across the deck; it was followed by the sharp cracking sound of necks snapping. Cathy shuddered, her hand tightening convulsively on her father's arm, bile rising in her throat and threatening to choke her. Despite the irretrievable ruin of her reputation, she could not repine over what she had done.Better for her to be spat upon forever than for Jon to lose his Life. But the shame wasn't hers alone to bear. There was her father. . . .
”Papa . . .” she began in a small voice.
”Hush,” he bade her gently, pus.h.i.+ng her before him down the stairwell. 'You can tell me all about it when we're in my cabin.”
Sir Thomas, as an extremely rich and influential man, had been given the best cabin on the s.h.i.+p. As he allowed Cathy to precede him inside she was taken aback a little at its luxury. Compared to Jon's neat butspartan accommodation on the ”Margarita,” this cabin was positively opulent, almost embarra.s.singly so. Her eyes flickered as she considered what Jon's reaction would be to such elaborate comfort. He would sneer, she knew, at the plush carpet and velvet drapes, the fine furniture and crystal ornaments, just as he had once sneered at her expensive clothes. Cathy looked at the ornate room with his eyes, and feltfaindy uncomfortable.
”Now, child,Iwant you to tell me everything that happened,” her father directed, his eyes grim as he directed her into a chair and took the one opposite her.
Cathy swallowed, blushed, and obeyed to the best of her ability, leaving out only the most intimate parts of her relations.h.i.+p with Jon. She emphasized that he had been kind to her, seeing that she was adequately fed and sheltered and protected from all harm. Describing how he had risked his life to save hers in Cadiz, her eyes glowed lovingly, although she was unaware of it. Sir Thomas, however, took full note of her expression, and his own eyes narrowed. She told about Jon's terrible wounding, and how she had nursed him, and her father's eyes narrowed even more. Cathy became suddenly aware of his quietly rising anger, and broke off. He was silent for a long moment, staring blankly at the opposite wall. She fidgeted finally, and he looked at her.
”Are you sure-that you're with child,Imean?” Sir Thomas asked in a carefully neutral voice.
Cathy felt the hot, betraying color flood her cheeks again. In her present condition, she could be nothing but a liability to the father who had always been so proud of her. Sir ThomasAldley's daughter with child by a pirate. . . . Cathy could almost hear the malicious talk. It would destroy her father as well as herself.
”Yes, Papa.I'm sure,” she managed, not quite able to meet his eyes.
Sir Thoma.s.sawr her shame and his heart quickened with protective love for her. She was, after all, his daughter, and what had happened to her was not her fault. Fierce hatred rose in him for the man who had been vicious enough to visit such degradation on a seventeen-year-old virgin, a well brought up young lady. He thought of his own role in saving that man from a well-deserved death, and his eyes glittered. But he had just granted the pirate a temporary reprieve, he promised himself. For now, his daughter's happiness and good name had to be his first concern.But later. . . .
”My child, you have no reason to look so distressed,”
Sir Thomas said soothingly, catching her small hand in his and patting it. ”Your condition came about through no fault of yours, I know. The child you carry was conceived through a brutal act for which you cannot be held accountable. We must now take steps to safeguard your reputation. It was unfortunate that you had to blurt out the news within hearing of every sailor on the s.h.i.+p, but I believe that we can remedy that mistake. Now, Cathy. . . .”
Cathy was feeling a resurgence of nausea. Plainly, in glossing over the intimate details of her a.s.sociation with Jon she had misled her father. For Jon's sake, he had to know the truth, no matter how much it might pain him.
”Papa,” she ventured hesitantly, her eyes on their clasped hands. ”Papa, it wasn't rape, you know.”
”What did you say?” Sir Thomas exploded after a stunned instant.
”Jon-Jon didn't really have to force me, Papa,” Cathy whispered, feeling more humiliated than she had before in her life. ”I-I was willing.”
”My G.o.d, do you know what you're saying?” Sir Thomas leaped to his feet in agitation, glaring angrily down at his daughter. Cathy looked up at him, going almost as white as her dress.
'”Yes, Papa.”Her voice was low, but her eyes met his steadily. Sir Thomas's florid face got even redder. Cathy bit her lower lip, but refused to drop her eyes.
”The b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”Sir Thomas breathed finally. ”I'm glad I stopped them from hanging him! He's going to pay . . .”
The ugly light in her father's normally placid blue eyes alarmed Cathy. She stood up too,then swayed as a spasm of giddiness. .h.i.t her. Sir Thomas reached out a hand to catch her, and Cathy clung to him, her eyes wide and frightened.
”Papa,Ilove him.”
She looked like death, and Sir Thomas couldn't bring himself to berate her further. Even if the b.a.s.t.a.r.d hadn't actually forced her, he thought furiously, an experienced man would have little trouble seducing an innocent young girl. What he had done was no better than rape. Cathy must be made to see that. She couldn't be allowed to continue thinking that she was actually in love with such a man!
”Daughter, this man is considerably older than you, is he not?” he began gently. He realized that condemning her affection for the pirate out-of-hand would only serve to alienate her.