Corsair (10 page)

Luce took his chair at the head of the table and put down some papers he had been carrying. His tiny eyes flickered round the table and he hunched forward as if about to make a speech. “I expect you wonder why I have called this meeting of the council,” he said.

“Well, I don’t,” O’Leary said flatly. “It’s a damned nuisance. I’ve enough work to do, with the buccaneers just back in port. They all want cordage and things. Wish I wasn’t a member of this council,” he growled. “All talk and no do, unless it’s debating brothels.”

“Yes, quite,” Sir Harold said uncomfortably, “but I expect most of you have seen that a frigate’s arrived from England. It brought me instructions–”

“Well, I’m damned,” O’Leary interrupted sarcastically. “I thought she was laden with lace for the ladies and sweetmeats for the children.”

“Yes, quite,” Sir Harold repeated, unable to deal with O’Leary. “No, well, instructions for me, from the Committee for Foreign Plantations.”

“So now you reopen the brothels, eh?” O’Leary inquired.

Luce could not think of an answer and ended up by appearing to ignore him, his sallow face flushing as though he had just been slapped a couple of times.

“When I read the instructions, I knew it was my duty to call the legislative council,” he said pompously.

“Bravo,” said Thomas. “Can we go home now until the next frigate arrives?”

“Ah, Sir Thomas,” Luce said, shaking a finger, “you must not tease the governor, you know!”

It was said lightly and helplessly, but Thomas growled: “We’ve no one else to tease.”

Luce tapped the papers in front of him. “As I was saying, I have instructions from the Committee for Foreign Plantations: important instructions.”

Ned saw another opportunity to throw Luce off his stride.

“Tell us, Sir Harold, if they are instructions to you, why are we sitting here? Obviously they don’t concern us. They’re instructions to you. Secret, too, I’ve no doubt.”

Sir Harold looked like a man whose aces had all been trumped. “Well, no,” he said lamely. “I called this council because the instructions concern the future of the island, particularly the men of business.”

“Ah, then you’ll excuse us,” Ned said. “We are not involved with business. At least, only as customers.”

“No, please stay, Mr Yorke. This does concern you.”

“But you said ‘business’,” Ned said, as though Sir Harold had just insulted him.

“Please, if you’ll just listen,” Luce said almost desperately. “If only you’d listen, you’ll see how you’re affected.”

“You haven’t said anything yet,” Thomas said, his deep voice filling the room. “You keep on saying you have instructions from that damned Committee for Foreign Plantations, and as far as we’re concerned we certainly didn’t think that frigate was just cruising, calling in for a few casks of rumbullion to take back to England.”

“I haven’t had a chance,” Sir Harold wailed. “I have the instructions here in front of me, and I’m trying to explain.”

“These sound the sort of instructions we don’t want to hear about,” O’Leary said warily. “A frigate brought you the news that anyone not actually convicted of murder can be sent out here as a settler. Do the new instructions say now it’s all right for murderers, too?”

“Oh please let me start, gentlemen,” Sir Harold pleaded. He took a deep breath and said hurriedly: “The Spanish either have to permit trade or we force it.”

There was at least half a minute’s dead silence, and then Ned, Thomas, O’Leary and a couple of other men sitting at the table began to roar with laughter, Thomas slapping his hand down on the table as though keeping time.

Luce waited for them to stop laughing and then said lamely: “What’s funny about that?”

Ned looked at him incredulously. “Just pause and think, Your Excellency,” he said. “Just start at the beginning!”

“The beginning? What do you mean?”

“How is Your Excellency going to ask the Dons to permit a trade?”

“Why, send an envoy in a ship, of course!”

“What envoy in what ship and where to?” Ned asked.

“Well, General Heffer can go. I’ll charter a ship.”

Ned shook his head. “That will be a problem. There are none to charter.”

“But surely I can charter one of your ships?”

Ned shook his head regretfully. “Apart from the fact that you regard them all as pirates, it would be tactless for your envoy to arrive at a Spanish port in a ship owned by a former buccaneer.”

“But – well, you’d be sailing under a flag of truce.”

Again Ned shook his head. “I don’t think any former buccaneer would risk sailing into a Spanish port under a flag of truce. But quite apart from that, surely such a decision – to allow trade – would have to be made in Spain. After all, ‘No peace beyond the Line’ has been Spanish policy for more than a hundred years. So the governor of whatever port or city your envoy went to would have to apply to the King of Spain and wait for an answer. Six months,” Ned said, “that’s how long it would take to get an answer – and, anyway, I can tell you the answer now.”

“You can?” Sir Harold said incredulously.

“Of course; any of us can. The answer will be ‘No’.”

“But supposing we force a trade?”

“
Force
a trade?” Ned laughed drily. “With no ships and no Army, you are going to
force
a trade?”

“I shall do the best I can to carry out my instructions,” Sir Harold said stiffly.

Thomas muttered: “The best thing you can do is carry those orders to the window and throw them out.”

“Come now,” the governor said, “I expected more co-operation from the buccaneers.”

“There are no buccaneers,” Ned said. “You called in their commissions.”

“But the buccaneer fleet sailed together the other day and came back yesterday!” Luce protested.

“Oh no,” Ned corrected him. “That was not the buccaneer fleet. That was just a collection of ships that had a job to do, and they all sailed together.”

“But they were buccaneers,” Luce protested.

“Sir Harold,” Ned said sternly, “the buccaneers do not exist. You cancelled their commissions. If they take any action against another ship or country, you will – you’ve already made this quite clear – call them pirates. And none of us,” he said innocently, “would want to be called pirates.”

“Where were your ships going the other day?” Luce asked suspiciously. “You sailed in a hurry.”

“Oh, just fishing,” Ned said airily. “We had plenty of bait.”

“Did you catch any fish?” asked an unbelieving Luce. “I didn’t hear of a lot of fish being on sale in the market.”

“We caught some big ones,” Ned said. “Kept them ourselves.”

“Very well,” Luce said, “let’s get back to our business. You’ve heard the instructions of the Committee for Foreign Plantations, and I must say I expected a more helpful attitude on the part of the council.”

Kinnock, Port Royal’s pawnbroker, tugged his red nose and then twisted his tobacco-stained moustaches. “Helpful attitude?” he repeated scornfully. “The council roared with laughter. What more do you expect?”

“Well, here I am without a ship to use to send an envoy,” Luce said, his voice suddenly querulous.

“You get rid of our ships and your soldiers, and then start talking wildly about ‘forcing’ the Spaniards to do things,” O’Leary said contemptuously. “You’re doing things in the wrong order. Force the Dons to do what you want – if you can – and
then
disband your army and send away your ships. But if you insist on doing things backwards, don’t come whimpering to us!”

“I’m not whimpering,” Sir Harold protested. “But you must admit I have a difficult task.”

“Difficult task?” O’Leary repeated incredulously. “You have an
impossible
task. Can we now turn to ‘other business’?”

“There is no other business,” Luce said. “I have decided what we are going to do and I will send a despatch back to the Privy Council with the frigate, which sails tomorrow.”

“Use the frigate to carry General Heffer to whatever governor you intend to persuade or force,” Ned suggested. “Surely you have the authority to give orders to one of the King’s ships.”

“I don’t think I have,” Sir Harold said nervously. “Anyway, sending an envoy in one of the King’s ships might be regarded by the Spanish as provocation.”

“Well, you
are
in a pickle,” Ned said sympathetically. “General Heffer would never make it in a canoe or a fishing boat, and that’s all you’ll find in Port Royal.”

Luce picked up his papers and began to sort through them nervously, and every man in the room except the secretary knew that the governor now realized he was trapped by his own actions: he had cancelled the commissions of the buccaneers, regarding them as pirates; and now, when he needed their co-operation, they were refusing.

What could he tell the Privy Council’s Committee for Foreign Plantations? With the frigate sailing tomorrow, he had to write the despatch tonight. But to say what? Thank you, gentlemen, I have received your orders to ask the Spanish to permit a trade, or to force it, but I can’t send anyone from Port Royal because I do not have a ship, and anyway I could not force a trade as I have neither ships (my fault) nor soldiers (your fault, since you ordered me to pay off and disband the Army)…

The next frigate, Luce decided, would bring out a new governor. Not that a new governor could achieve more than he had done. Or, at least, tried to do.

He gave Ned a despairing look. “Can’t I prevail on you to provide a ship?” he asked.

“Your Excellency,” Ned said patiently, “although I have explained it all several times, you still do not understand what the buccaneers were. I was their elected leader, yes; but I could not order a particular ship to do this or that. I could only lead and hope they all followed. But now they have no commissions signed by the governor, there are no buccaneers, so I have nothing to lead. I have no influence; I command only my own ship, just as Sir Thomas commands his.”

“But won’t you take your own ship?” pleaded Luce, grasping at a straw.

Ned shook his head. “My ship is too well known in all the Spanish ports. If she came in waving a dozen flags of truce, the Spanish would still open fire on her, and I couldn’t blame them. They would suspect a trick.”

Luce sighed. “If General Heffer would take a chance, then I can’t see why you won’t.”

“No one’s asked General Heffer,” Ned pointed out, “but anyway, it’s my decision that counts where my ship is concerned.”

Luce shrugged his shoulders and looked round the table, suddenly seeming to have shrunk. “That concludes this council meeting, gentlemen,” he said.

Thomas went back to the
Griffin
with Ned to collect Diana, who had called on Aurelia. With the sun almost vertically overhead but a slight breeze blowing across the anchorage to keep them cool, they sat on the afterdeck under a small and heavily patched awning.

Aurelia handed them all lemonade, explaining that the last of the limes had already been squeezed and only lemons were left.

“Well, now,” she said to Ned and Thomas, “tell us what happened at the council meeting.”

Ned sighed and then sipped his drink. “I’m not sure whether it was funny or tragic. Sir Harold has received instructions from the Committee for Foreign Plantations to get the Spanish to permit trade–”

“Well, that’s good!” Aurelia exclaimed.

“–or force a trade if they refuse.”

“Oh dear,” Diana said. “With what does he ‘force’ it?”

“Exactly,” Thomas said. “He hasn’t even a ship in which to send an envoy to talk to the Dons; he has neither ships nor soldiers to force anyone to do anything.”

“But you will let him use a ship,” Aurelia said matter-of-factly.

“We won’t,” Ned contradicted grimly. “Not after he cancelled all our commissions. Don’t forget we’re pirates, darling; he doesn’t know that you returned from a piratical raid when you arrived back yesterday. He’d have a fit.”

“Then you ought to have told him all about it,” Aurelia said. “Obviously the attitude of the Spaniards at Riohacha – in that whole province – has a great bearing on how Sir Harold acts.”

Ned made an impatient gesture. “Very well, we know from what we found at Riohacha that the Spanish will never agree to allow trade, and we don’t have a chance of forcing it – how the devil does one
force
somebody to trade? Very well, that being so, what’s it matter that Sir Harold hasn’t a ship to carry an envoy anywhere?”

“All you know,” Aurelia said, “is that in the province of Colombia there can be no trade. But what about Cuba? Or Hispaniola? Puerto Rico? Their governors might allow it.”

“It’s not what governors or viceroys will allow,” Ned said stubbornly. “It’s what Spain says. The Privy Council should have started negotiations in London, through the Spanish ambassador. This is a matter between London and Spain, between kings, not between a fool like Loosely and the governor of somewhere like Puerto Rico.”

“I still think you should help Sir Harold,” Aurelia said.

“So do I,” Diana said. “Old Loosely’s a fool, yes, but he has instructions from the Privy Council and it’s up to him to try to carry them out. Don’t forget it takes six months to get fresh instructions from London – three months for London to hear from Loosely that he can’t do something, and three months for fresh instructions to arrive.”

“And you may get a new governor,” Aurelia said. “If Loosely annoys the Privy Council, they will replace him. Who knows who you might get then? This man is a disaster, but at least you now have him listening to you. A new one might make even bigger mistakes and ignore you.”

Ned sniffed crossly. “So what do you want me to do? Take Heffer on a cruise, asking the Dons politely if we can sell them a few yards of cloth and a gross of needles?”

“Very well, supposing the Dons say no,” Aurelia pointed out, “what have you lost? They say no and you come home. It isn’t as though you’ve lost a battle.”

Ned looked over at Thomas, who grimaced. “The only place we’ve never raided is Santo Domingo, so I suppose we could take old Heffer there for him to talk to its governor. It’s not far to go, and we wouldn’t have to wait long for the governor’s answer, apart from the fact we won’t be recognized.”