Dunham

Chapter 5

“Aye, well, ’tis too late to take on women now that we’ve nearly reached the end of our last cruise. More, Yeardley,” Elliott commanded. “About her.”

After Fury had left the Iron Maiden, she had sailed on the Carnivale as Skirrow’s lieutenant and navigator, beheading him after little more than a year under his command. It did not quite make sense to Elliott that she’d hired aboard a slaver, but it was possible she’d simply found the only captain who’d hire a woman. Skirrow would have had to be desperate to hire a woman in Ottoman-infested waters, especially for such a powerful position.

After her mutiny, she had sailed directly for Philadelphia and applied for a letter of marque, legitimizing a lifetime aboard pirate vessels.

“Aye, I know all that,” Elliott said, frustrated when Yeardley finished. “Why did she mutiny Skirrow? He would have been the only thing between her and the Muslims.” Which was, come to think of it, a good reason for her to have quit the Mediterranean altogether.

“No one knows. Her officers keep their mouths shut, and the rest of the crew swear they don’t know. Skirrow was only slightly less cruel than Kitteridge.”

Elliott and his officers knew enough of Skirrow from their Navy days for Elliott to know he’d have mutinied the man far sooner, but since the Siege of Casco Bay, he was not averse to using swift and ruthless preemptive measures against those who might become a problem.

“Anything else? Family? Name? Circumstance?”

“No one knows her family name. When one is required, she signs Calico Jack.”

“Odd, that. Of all the buccaneers in history, why take his name?”

Yeardley shrugged. “Who knows? ’Tis said she’s quite wealthy.”

“I should think so. If she is not after all this time, I’d take her for a fool.” He paused. “Husband? Lover?”

“Possibly Covarrubias.”

Elliott’s mouth tightened. “Do tell.”

“Since she studied, ah, under him at university … ” Elliott curled his lip and Yeardley chuckled. “In fact, she was suffered to undergo a full course and it’s said she is degreed in her own right.”

“In what?”

“Mathematics and music.”

That shocked him.

“Aye, so,” Yeardley said slyly, “’twould seem reasonable to suppose Covarrubias facilitated her education. Perhaps astronomy and mathematics were not all he taught her.”

“Just a supposition?”

“Everything concerning Fury is supposition and speculation. The Hollander probably knows, but they are—”

“Lovers?”

“Possibly. One cannot give credence to any such rumors when ’tis also rumored that you are one of her lovers.”

Elliott barked a laugh. “I am, am I?”

“Aye. After having handled her so familiarly in Oranjestad—”

“She took exception to that.”

“Only because you did not respect her as she is accustomed. We were the only ones in the entire port who did not know who she was.”

“I have no reason to think a woman in a tavern is anything but a whore, much less the captain of a ship.”

“Does it matter? What I witnessed was a lovers’ kiss, not two strangers’. ’Twould seem the rest of the island shared my impression.”