King`s Captain

Proteus was shimmying now, heeling over a few degrees from upright as she paid off from the breeze under the barest amount of sail, making a queasy leeway, not yet under helm control.

'Hoy, where they be takin' us then?' Old Trollop barked, getting to her feet in a huff. 'Dear God, not t'France, surely!'

'No, just a bit across the Great Nore,' Lewrie patiently explained, putting on a sad smile to calm her. 'Recall what that delegate said… about blockading London? They're shifting ships so they have a line right across the Thames approaches. Further apart, d'ye see…'

Further out from each other, he schemed hopefully, where they'd have to guess the range and would have to be quick off the mark to hit Proteus with their first un-organised broadsides, before she got far enough away to show them a clean pair of heels! Far enough that it would take too long for a re-enforcing boarding party to come help their mutineers, should they overpower them? Aha!

'We didn't want no part o' this, Cap'um, sir!' Nancy insisted. 'Kept us aboard, press-ganged! Wasn't our doin'! You could speak up for us, couldn't ye, Cap'um Lewrie?'

'Kept us broke an' poor as them, th' shitten cheats!' one more spoke up sarcastically, one of the more pragmatic variety. 'Here! We could go 'board them new ships, 'long as this'n writes a letter to th' magistrates, tellin' 'em we're innocent. 'Long as we're kept out here, why can't we turn a shillin'r two, I ask ye? We gotta eat!'

'No visiting 'tween ships,' Lewrie pointed out quickly. 'That's one of their rules. Besides… the way I hear it told, the North Sea ships came here to get paid, 'cause they're stone-broke too!'

'Ya mean they're 'skint' too?' Nancy sneered. 'Gawd, I just knew it. E'en with our gowns on, we're just fucked, is all.'

'Wouldn't be th' first time that 'appened, Nancy,' Old Trollop hooted. 'Wi' half our trade 'knee-tremblers' in an alley! Cheap shits, too cheese-parin' t'rent a room, an' all that tar an' splinters from crates'n barrels on me bum, come mornin'…'

No, he didn't particularly wish to picture that-ever!

'Gawd, whatever'll we do then?' Lissome Daughter blubbed, tears streaking her face. 'Hung or transported fer life. Oh, we're jus' whores, not like respectable folk, so they won't care if they string us up by th' dozen! After we done so much fer th' Navy too!'

'You can help me,' Lewrie suggested, 'help me take the ship.'

'Wot?'

'Do something else for the Navy, ladies,' Lewrie muttered covertly, suddenly inspired as he paced out between them. 'You know who the real hard-bitten mutineers are as good as us. You live a rough life… cheats who won't pay first, pimps trying to recruit you, and take all your earnings… others of your sort who'd fight you for the good corners, the better taverns, right? Don't you have to carry some… uhm, 'persuaders,' for your own protection?'

Aye, they allowed-yes, they did. Coshes, leather sacks full of lead balls, Dago or Spanish knives that flipped open, or wickedly sharp shaving razors. Lissome Daughter brought forth a pair of hatpins and rewarded him with a happy nod of understanding. Lewrie rewarded her with a beamish leer and a sly-boots chuckle. Lissome Daughter sprang to her feet and walked right up to him, all smiles.

'Lor', Cap'um Lewrie, sir!' she gushed, throwing her arms about him, going on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek. 'Feller smart'z you, a fine gentleman, I just knew you'd find a way t'save us!'

'Well, thankee, uhm… don't b'lieve I ever caught your name…?' Lewrie blushed, quite happy to return her warm, promising embrace.

'Sally Blue, sir,' she giggled, swaying back and forth as if it was a dance. 'Sally fer me name… an' Blue fer me eyes.'

'Well, uhm… well, pleased to make your acquaintance, Mistress. Sally Blue, rather. Well, uhm…' he flustered, wishing he was alone with her, and the rest shooed out to commit mayhem that instant. She took the hint and flounced quite coquettishly back to her wine glass, with a practiced but fetching gleam in those blue eyes of hers.

'Now give 'im 'is bloody watch'n chain back, Sally,' Mistress Nancy wryly sniggered. 'Gawd! Men's brains…!' They all shrieked.

All Lewrie could do was shrug haplessly as Sally Blue returned his watch to him. He felt like patting himself down, just to see what else her clever fingers had pilfered. The coy little minx!

'So yer sayin'…' Miss Nancy puzzled, after draining off her wine and beckoning Aspinall for a refill. 'With us, you'd have more'n enough t'overpower Bales an' his lot, that right?'

'Assumin' they keep their brains where it seems I keep mine,' Lewrie confessed with a disarming, sheepish grin, 'aye.'

'So do we come over all lovey-dovey an' swoggle 'em, you'd clap 'em in irons an' take your ship back,' the buxom lass conspired. 'Keep some of 'em below… an' busy long 'nough…'

'Exactly, Nancy. To a Tee.' Lewrie smiled.

'Then ya put us ashore, 'cause we ain't gonna stay out here not a minute after,' Nancy declared for them all, turning to see them agree with her, 'not with ev'ry hand turned against us if we stay longer than we have to.'

'We take her back, Nancy,' Lewrie promised. 'I'll see that you all get ashore and back to your own beds. Back to making money. With a letter to Admiral Buckner, praising you for what you did for me, with all your names on it. Why, you might even be called heroines! Get your names in the paper, thanks of the Admiralty, the King…'

That would mean sailing in towards Sheerness. He regretted it, but if that's what he had to do to gain allies…

'Fiddler's Pay,' Old Trollop snorted in derision. 'Thanks an' wine, an' then… get out th' door. Hmmph!'

'Aye, Cap'um Lewrie…' Nancy smirked at him. 'That's all well an' good, but… times is hard, an' money's short. So… what's in it for us?'

Uk-ohl He flinched.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The mutinous ships at the Nore were now arrayed in a single long line, right across the navigable waters of Queen's Channel and Thamesmouth, with a half-mile separation between ships. Proteus hadn't gone very far, and was in fact now directly North of Minster and Cheyney Rock Oyster Ground; and when the ebb ran, she streamed back from her anchor into the Queen's Channel, into deep water, with her stern half facing the inviting escape route into the North Sea. Several smaller warships patrolled the inner and outer face of that barricade to stop and inspect the papers and cargoes of every vessel that tried to sail up or down the great river. So far, McCann's ravings hadn't come true; no provisions from civilian merchantmen had been removed and shared out to those ships short of supplies. Of course, Lewrie was now beginning to understand, just like there were tyrants, and then there were tyrants, there were delegates, and then there were delegates, and McCann didn't speak for them all-thank God.

Proteus began her ship's routine at daybreak, with the hands up to scrub decks and stow bedding. There would be no more drills though; Bales had had enough of those and was leery of any more sail-making.

After the decks were spotlessly sanded and sluiced to pristine white, perhaps as a way to regain the crew's lost enthusiasm for the evolving mutiny, Seaman Bales decreed a day of 'Rope-Yarn' sloth and led them into the requisite morning 'three hearty cheers' before dismissing them for their breakfasts and got back what sounded a bit like proper йlan in their open-throated response.

'Rope-Yahn, sah.' Andrews smiled, ducking back into the cabins. 'Evahbody gon' caulk or idle.'

'Aha,' Lewrie sighed, looking glum. It was perfect, the enforced half-mile separation, the crew restive and gnawing on their worries, and now idled for the day. Plenty of reason for any sharp-eyed watcher to nod off and let his guard down, plenty of time for his new 'vanguard' of prostitutes to insinuate themselves with the diehards and disarm them… one way or another. He looked at Wyman, Winwood, and his midshipmen, who were aft to breakfast