Read Pirate Code for Free Online

ladder. The jollyboat was warped to a bollard alongside.
    As she stepped ashore, a surge of power tingled through her; she frowned. She had been feeling most odd this day. Perhaps it was the heavy oppression of the thunder, or the rain?
    “Mistress van Overstratten?” A man, a marine, dressed in the red tunic of the King’s Militia stepped from the shadows, his musket resting on his shoulder. Another man, a double as far as the uniform went, with only his leaner build and squarer face different, treading purposefully behind. The fort might be dilapidated but not the men who manned it.
    “You are Mistress van Overstratten?” the first repeated.
    “You know perfectly well who I am Gabriel Hornsea.” Tiola hauled herself to the jetty. “I birthed your wife’s fifth child last week. How is the boy? Suckling well I trust?”
    Hornsea coughed, embarrassed. “He’s doing fine, Ma’am, I thank you, but I am on duty now and it ain’t fitting fer me t’be talking about me missus an’ the bairns.”
    “No, I can see that.” Tiola dipped a formal curtsey in honour of his rank of corporal. “How may I help you?”
    His embarrassment deepening, chubby face reddening as cherry bright as his uniform, Hornsea lowered his musket and pointed it at her midriff.
    “I have orders to arrest you Ma’am. To escort you to a place of confinement where you shall await the Constable, and then trial by judge and jury.”
    Rue, padding up behind Tiola swore, his hand going to the cutlass at his side, the sound of steel being drawn from its sheath. “Like ‘ell she…”
    Tiola set her hand on his arm. “ Non , I thank you for your concern Rue, but one fool aboard the Sea Witch is already one fool too many. I am safe with Corporal Hornsea.”
    She looked at the two soldiers, Hornsea and his friend, Barnabus Bradford. As different – as similar – as salt and sugar. “I may have assurance of that I assume?”
    Lowering his musket the corporal was genuinely shocked at the suggestion. “Ma’am! You will come to no harm on my watch!”
    If it were not for Tiola, his wife and the bairn too, would not be tucked safe in the creaking wooden bed in the loft of their house half a mile along the shore. House was a grand and fancy name for a cobbled together wooden-built hut, but it was clean, dry, and it was home. Vegetables and fruit grew in the garden, chickens scratched in the dirt and a sow grew fat in her sty. The children were fed and clothed and Hornsea loved his wife, even though her face was not as pretty as once it had been and her breasts sagged from suckling the bairns. All the women of Nassau had benefited from the coming of Mistress Tiola. The men too, for a healthy woman was a happy woman.
    “I apologise for having to arrest you Ma’am, but I have orders.”
    Tiola offered him a genial smile. “I understand. You must do your duty Gabriel, as I assume,” she added as an inspired guess, “it was duty to also arrest Captain Acorne?”
    Grim, Hornsea nodded. That episode had not been pleasant either. No one in Nassau agreed with this Dutchman’s maliciousness. Most men would have called an offender out and dealt with the matter quickly and quietly. Unless, as the whispers said, van Overstratten was a coward who dare not face a man, a pirate, like Jesamiah Acorne.
    Rue’s lips thinned at the news, wondering how Tiola knew but he said nothing, accepting she was often aware of things without being told. He knew nothing of her Craft, but equally, realised she was no ordinary woman.
    She trusted him implicitly, as did Jesamiah, but they could not risk him knowing what she was. Those who knew nothing could tell nothing. Only Jesamiah knew. Only Jesamiah, and he would go to his grave, torn into bloody pieces, not telling.
    Tiola gave Rue a gentle push in the direction of the gig. “Return aboard my friend. I have found our Captain; it seems I am to join him for what is left of the night. In a cell he cannot get into further