Hanover Square, London — 3rd April 1733

"One moment, if you please." Aldrick raised his finger and turned to tap on the sounding box before opening the small hatch and shouting up to the coachman, "Find a safe place to pause here, Wilson, else we will arrive early." 

After the rattle of wheels on cobblestones had stopped, he returned his attention to Elizabeth and her chaperon. "Yes, you are correct, you do need additional information of him. I have been remiss."

"You have also been remiss with presence. I have not seen you at all these past days. Betrothed then abandoned me it seems." 

"To my great loss." He glanced at the chaperon, then turned his gaze back to Elizabeth. "I will reveal reasons in due course. First, allow me to offer a glimpse at a little-known aspect of the family. My great-grandfather, Bartholomew, the first Baron Montford, had been a privateer comm —" 

"What is a privateer?"  

Aldrick sighed as he nodded. "Yes, I am sorry. Try as I might, my speech remains filled with nautical jargon. Privateers were nobles and gentry, and often, former naval officers who were commissioned by the Crown to prey on the ships of the enemy. Are you familiar with Sir Francis Drake?" 

"I am. He was the first to captain a ship completely around the world, and he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, my namesake."

"Exactly. Drake was also the first great English privateer, capturing vast quantities of gold and silver from Spanish ships and their fortifications ashore." Aldrick again raised his finger. "But, back to Bartholomew. He had been commissioned by the first King Charles to prey on Spanish and French shipping in the Caribbean during the Thirty Years' War."

"I always muddle dates. When was that?"

"It ended in 1648, the year Sir Matthew, my grandfather, was born. He is the second Baron Montford, and he was raised in the great comfort afforded by his father's successes along the Spanish Main. He grew up listening to his father's stories, and he dreamt of gaining a privateer's commission. But by the time he reached the age of wisdom, attitudes had changed, and peace treaties had made privateering illegal."

"I would hope so. Kings commissioning piracy is an odd concept."

"It was not considered piracy, rather an aspect of war. But by the time it was banned, many privateers had turned to outright piracy, preferring to pay corrupt port officials small fees for haven rather than having to give a major portion of their treasure to the Crown."

"Treasure to the Crown?"

"The King had granted the commissions, and in many cases, provided the ships and provisioned and armed them, so a goodly portion of a privateer's treasure fell to the Crown. Depending on Articles of Commission, the officers and crew shared one third to one half for their efforts."

"Much like the share-cropping contracts my father creates."

"Indeed! But what had once been a game among gentlemen had devolved into a violent disruption to settlement and commerce in the colonies. Then increasing concern by the Crown, the Government and the merchants led to the tacit approval of a new breed of privateer, the pirate hunter."

"Like a constabulary."

"Very much. But in this instance, the successful constables used their own ships and provisions, so they were granted most of the wealth found aboard captured pirate vessels and in their havens ashore. In addition, they received a bounty for each pirate they brought to justice." 

Aldrick pulled the curtain aside to again check the clock on Saint George's. "We still have a quarter-hour in hand, so please allow me to continue. The nobility of this concept excited Grandfather, the young Matthew, so citing his extensive experience aboard his father's ships, he gained the Second Officer's berth in Delfe, a forty-eight-gun former ship of the line." 

"Ship of the line?" Elizabeth shook her head. "I have heard it spoken, but I have not understood its meaning."

"These are the ships which form the lines of battle. Opposing naval fleets manoeuvre in columns to bring the greatest weight of broadside fire-power to bear against the enemy."

"What horrid things men have devised to harm each other."

"Or to defend our right to live in peace. But, back to Sir Matthew and Delfe. Frederick Gilbert, the ship's Captain, had been Bartholomew's First Officer in 1667 when he left the ship to purchase a Dutch war prize being offered by —"

"War prize?" She furrowed her brows.

"Captured by the Royal Navy from the enemy. Some prizes were taken in battles or during their aftermaths, some from port raids."

"But the Dutch are not our enemy."

"Ah, but they were at that time and at other times in the past. Often, captured ships were sold to the public by tender or auction, and Delfe was one such. She proved very capable, bringing great success on her first three voyages. Then in —"

Elizabeth cocked her head. "She? Who is she?"

"Ships are traditionally referred to as she or her. But to continue. Upon their return to England in 1675 with two heavily laden prizes, Frederick sold Delfe to Grandfather. After an extensive refit and refreshed crew, the ship brought even greater success in the following years. Then in 1679, on —"

"Surely he had sufficient wealth by that time to stop this and enjoy life." Elizabeth shrugged. "Why did he continue?"

Aldrick chuckled. "To enjoy life. He was still young, twenty-five as I am now, and he loved the adventure of it. He sailed to the Caribbean in late January 1679, planning on having a dozen or more weeks to plunder the known hideaways and find new ones before the storms of summer. They arrived well in advance of the Vernal Equinox, and —"

"The vernal what?"

"The Vernal Equinox. A celestial event which marks the beginning of spring. The day when the earth's tilt places the sun directly above the Equator. The middle of June, they were homeward-bound escorting two seized ships, all three of them deeply-laden with gold, silver, rum and sugar. Then on their way through Windward Passage, they were hit by a violent storm which blew them onto a lee shore."

"Leigh shore? I was not aware we also owned land down there."

Aldrick chuckled. "No, this is spelt L-E-E, unlike your family name. Alee or to leeward is downwind or with the wind. Among the greatest dangers of navigation is having the ship blown toward land with her sails incapable of moving her upwind to seaward and to safety."

"This is all so new to me. I have never seen the sea, nor have I thought much about it. Will you lose patience with my ignorance?"

"I find your innocence endearing and your inquisitiveness refreshing." He took Elizabeth's hand from her lap and lifted it to his lips. "And your beauty invigorating."

As Elizabeth leaned toward Aldrick, Mistress Hodgins shifted on the seat opposite, noisily clearing her throat. Aldrick looked up and smiled at the chaperon, then still holding Elizabeth's hand, he used his other to tap on the sounding box and open the hatch. "Continue, Wilson. But at a walk now, not a canter."

While the coach rolled onward, Aldrick caressed Elizabeth's hand as he spoke above the clatter and the creaking, relating what his grandfather had told him about being blown by the storm through the night and the following day before wrecking onto the rocks and reefs in a group of small islands. "Only eighteen of his men made it ashore."

"What about the other two ships?"

"All three wrecked."

"And how many survived on them?"

"Only three. Twenty-two including him from the total of ninety-four who had been aboard the three ships."

Elizabeth raised a hand to her mouth, shaking her head. "Seventy-two dead. Such a dangerous life. Surely you have had your fill of it and will not again go to sea."

Aldrick shrugged, remaining silent, and Elizabeth's grimace grew with each passing moment.

After a long pause, she continued, "How were they saved?"

"They repaired a pinnace and a longboat, salvaged what provisions they could and headed under sail and oar back to Port Royal in Jamaica. Five hundred miles in open boats on the open seas."

"And they left the treasure there."

"They loaded some gold into the boats, but only a few hundred pounds, not wanting to risk the seaworthiness."

Elizabeth opened her mouth in a silent gasp before being able to speak. "A few hundred pounds of gold is an immense fortune. Was there much left?" 

"Grandfather estimates about twenty-five tonnes of gold and half as much of silver. Some of it in coin, but mainly large bars."

Her eyes widened. "When did he go back to retrieve it?"

"Each of the following three years, then every few years after that. A total of seventeen voyages, but on none have we been able to find the islands. It is as if the sea had swallowed them up."

"So, this is where your voyages have taken you?"

"It is. After Father reached the age, he went on many with Grandfather; then I joined them the year I turned twelve."

"Surely you have all given up on ever finding the treasure. So much time has passed."

"It will be fifty-four years in June. The rum and the sugar will have long since spoiled, but not the gold and silver."

Elizabeth nodded as she contorted her face, her expression sagging into sadness. "I sense you are going again."

Aldrick pointed to the large leather satchel and the roll of paper at his feet. "I am compelled to by what I have found."