He had no response to that. He could not even summon the courage to look me in the eye.
“Take me back to my cell,” he growled at the gaoler.
That was the last time I set eyes on Jack Rackham. He was trialled and executed along with the rest of the crew the very next day. I heard later that his hanged body was put on display in a gibbet cage at Deadman’s Cay outside Port Royal, to serve as a deterrent against a life of piracy.
Well, every dog deserves a cage.
***
Mary and I spent several weeks together in that cold, dark cell. There was no natural light and the walls were mouldy and damp, but we made the best of it for a time; talking and singing to each other. We knew that sooner or later it would be plain as day that neither of us was quick with child.
Before long, Mary began to get sick.
“Annie,” Mary whispered, light and delicate as a feather against my throat.
“Yes, my love?”
I held her feverish brow to my chest and stroked my fingertips through her wet hair.
“Promise me…you’ll get out. Your father…or James…will come for you. Promise me…you’ll do whatever it takes…to escape.”
“I’m not leaving you. I’m never leaving you.”
She shifted between my legs and the scrape of her boots rang around the cell. She tipped her head just enough to look at me. In a face contorted with pain, her blue eyes were still a calm pool of strength in the darkness, as they always had been for me.
“I’ll be leaving you soon enough, Annie. There’s nowt we can do about that.”
“No,” I said, fiercely. “You’ll be fine. You’ll pull through and we’ll both get out.”
Her eyes crinkled like water boatmen’s tracks. She dipped her head back onto my chest and we stayed that way for a while. Then she took a deep, rattling breath and sang our song, weakly, almost imperceptibly:
Annie and me, Annie and me, born of the sea, always will be.
Annie and me of the sea.
After that, she was lost in her fever for three more days. No one came to help. I held her desperately close, willing her to return, waiting to hear her voice again, to feel her strength, her warmth, hoping for a miracle that never came.
13
My name, in those days, was Anne Bonny.
These days, I go by the name Annie Read.
Some days, I dream of my life as a pirate. I wake looking out to sea; sometimes in bed, sometimes tucked into my rocker with a tweed blanket, and feel that old familiar excitement still fizzing in my belly. I remember those days from long ago with a strange mixture of pride and regret.
Some days I wake with no memory of dreams at all, simply grateful for the life I have been able to live out in Charles Town, surrounded by family.
Every now and then, I dream of Mary.
These dreams bring the sweetest ache to my fragile, elderly body. When I wake in these precious moments, I try to hold on to that fleeting feeling of pleasure-pain, that sharp prick of desire, that brief, transcendent moment before the crushing grief arrives, when my body awakens remembering what my mind cannot; still suffused with the memory of her warmth, her voice, her mouth, her love.
Thank You!
Thank you so much for reading my novella. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving an honest, fair review on your preferred site, or recommend it to some friends. It really helps – one short review or a good recommendation via word-of-mouth makes a massive difference to independent authors like me.
If you like my style, you can read more about me or sign up for new releases, giveaways, and other news at www.kate-castle.com. My debut full-length novel, Girl Island, is being published soon.
I am also on most social media platforms @katecastlebooks. Get in touch – I would be absolutely delighted to hear from you!
You can turn over a few pages here, too, for a little bit more about me and my writing.
Thank you, again.
Kate x
Are You Ready for More?
Look out for Girl Island, Kate’s debut full-length novel, coming in Autumn 2021:
‘Mean Girls meets Lord of the Flies…I loved it.’
‘Fans of The Hunger Games will love this book.’
Six teenaged girls survive a plane crash on an uninhabited island. Removed from civilised society, can they overcome class divide, prejudice and toxic femininity to pull together and survive?
Or will they descend into savagery?
About the Author
Kate Castle has a degree in English Literature and lives with her husband and three children in Essex, England.
Kate’s books fall into the New Adult and Young Adult romance and adventure categories. She is passionate about representing young queer females in mainstream literature and writes about strong, independent, fluid young women – the kind of characters she wished she could have read more about growing up.
She is a proud representative and vocal champion of bisexual fiction (affectionately coined by Kate as ‘BiFi’) as an up-and-coming genre and continues to write in this exciting and original domain.
Read more about Kate and sign up to her mailing list at www.kate-castle.com.
Follow Kate on social media @katecastlebooks.
Author’s Note & Acknowledgements
Although a work of fiction, Born of the Sea is based on the (unbelievably!) true story of trailblazing pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read and was developed through my lifelong fascination with pirates and these two buccaneers in particular. These were two women way ahead of their time – I have always wanted to tell their story. During my research, I came across many sources which report that Anne and Mary were most likely lovers. This very real possibility,
