Charles led me down into the great cabin and across it to just aft of the privy closet. There, he rotated a piece of moulding and pulled open two broad doors to reveal a copper-lined box. Then he knelt and leaned down into it, lifting a piece of brass resembling a mushroom and saying as he showed it to me, "This plugs the drain."

He replaced it, then when he turned a spigot, water flowed out the end of a pipe and into the bath. "This will have been well-warmed by the sun the past few days. Feel." He took my hand and placed it in the stream.

"Oh, my. How wonderfully ingenious. Is this your invention?"

"Only the blacked hogshead up top and the pipe leading down from it. The bath and its drain were built with the ship."

Charles unbuttoned and peeled my sodden shirt from me, then he stared at what he had exposed, nodding in silence for a while before he spoke, "As if sitting on a shelf for display. I had wondered how maidens steady these, yet retain their prominence."

He ran his fingers lightly across the curved tops while his thumbs caressed my nubbins, sending a thrill through my body.

I hummed a sigh and another, then I said, "Mistress Duncan had explained enhancing to me, so I thought to try it. Laced in this manner, it lifts and holds steady, rather than compressing."

"So, this is what lies beneath a maiden's bodice, giving them such intriguing shapes."

"Or possibly similar devices to push them up." I shrugged. "I missed that entire part of being informed. All parts, it seems." I unlaced the vest while Charles untied my cincture and lowered my breeches to my ankles, then he knelt to lift each foot and remove my shoes and stockings.

As I stepped into the bath, I said, "Please, do join me. There is plenty of room for us both here."

"As much as that entices me, I expect to be called again to the deck. But I will remain to assist until then, if you wish."

A while later, as he soaped my back, I asked, "How did you know she was Santiago?"

"Two of the rescued sailors were in the heads, and they recognised her tall sterncastle. They reported their thoughts, and this fast made its way to us. I sent for your father, and he agreed that it might be her."

"Might be her? Sounds as if he was not convinced."

"The design is Spanish, and there are others like her in these waters; this part of Hispaniola remains theirs. But that Santiago's return was due, and that she flew English colours, added suspicion, so we loaded and primed the starboard guns, ball odd and shot even."

"Starboard only? What if you needed the port?"

"We had the wind, so we could keep her to starboard as we closed. Beating to windward, she was hampered in her choices, and it would have been foolhardy for her to attack us."

"But still not convinced she was Santiago."

"No, so we closed to hail her in passing, all the while remaining prepared. As we neared, we noted she was high in the water with a series of green beards up to a fathom above her waterline, showing she had been loaded in stages and recently unloaded."

I nodded. "Unloaded in Port Royal, as Father had said they do."

"Indeed. Though it was not until we approached hailing distance, that those aboard Santiago were recognised through the glasses, and I sent a warning to the gundeck."

"For shot, rather than ball, to not destroy."

"Exactly! I saw her as a ship for your father."

"For Father? Why not for Zeelandia's crew?"

"I have no letter of marque, so my unprovoked attack on her would be questioned before the justices by the survivors. We must let the attack and capture be on his letter, as well as the bounties for the pirates."

Charles finished soaping me, then with handfuls of warm water from the pipe, he rinsed. While he patted me dry with one of the new bath sheets, the voice pipe whistle sounded. Rather than replying to it, he went directly up the steps.

When I had finished drying, I wrung the water from my rain-soaked clothes, allowing it to fall into the bath. A better place to do the laundering. But on sunny days, that it may dry. What will I do with these?

While I pondered, seven bells pealed. Thinking that James would soon arrive to lay the table for our breakfast and find me unclad, I hastened into the night cabin and pulled on my clean breeches and shirt to cover. Restrain later.

As I fetched the bundle of twine from the privy, I wondered why I continued keeping it there with no need now for tow rags. Then with an end tied to a hinge on the bath door, I stretched the line across to a candle sconce and secured it. My wrung clothes and the bath sheet draped to dry, I returned to my seat by the windows to resume fashioning a skirt.

I gathered and stitched small folds along one edge of the cloth, reducing the four-foot width by half, and I had not long begun attaching a waistband to cover it when rattling behind me caught my attention. I turned to see a stout line hauling a thick hawser up past the windows, and I rose to better see the activity in the longboat below. Preparing to take the prize in tow. Another piece from Father's stories lay before me, illustrated and vivid.

After running his tales through my mind for a long while, I turned the chair and moved it close to the windows, wanting to keep an eye on the activity while I continued stitching.

He again has a ship. And a crew – if they are willing. But what choice have they? No money, nor anything else. They must return to the sea.

And Father, as well. He has nothing but an empty house ashore. Nobody left to excite with his tales.

My thoughts turned to Charles and all the stories he has to share with our children. And I now have many, as well. And forest and meadows and streams and seaside to explore with them.

I had nearly completed the waistband when the bell pealed, and I realised I had been dreaming again. Eight bells, and James has not yet brought breakfast.

Of course not; the crew is far too busy. Routine delayed until they are finished.

Then focusing out through the windows, I saw we were again underway, now with Santiago in tow. I shook my head, wondering what else I had missed.

I was not long back at my sewing when Charles descended the steps.  I rose to assist him out of his wet clothes, then nodding toward the bath, I said, "Come, allow me to warm and refresh you."

"James will soon arrive with our breakfasts."

"Oh, how wonderful! I can feed you while you bathe, and you can tell me more about our forest and meadows on Manhattan Island."

Camille is delighted you shared her voyage,
and she thanks you for reading, voting and commenting.

The sequel, Zeelandia – Port Royal, is now complete,
and you will find information about it on the next page.