Juliet: A Seafaring Tale of the Early 1700's

Chapter Two: The Trial

The two ladies were sitting amidst a sea of silks and satins when the summons arrived. Ladies' maids bustled about, trying in vain to control the chaos of clothing, almost knocking over the butler as he vied for their attention. "Madam!" he was forced to call sharply. Finally, Lady Diana gave him her attention. "Captain Drake is required by His Majesty's court in less than half an hour."

"Oh dear, I'd better hurry," Juliet remarked, dropping several articles of clothing on the floor as she stood. Several hops over clothing later, she'd gained the door and was hurrying to change into her uniform. Lady Diana met her at the door.

"Goodness! You look rather dashing," admired the lady, "certainly as a lady sea-captain should. I will come too, so we may go straight from the trial to your tailor. If all of his work is of that quality, I should very much like him in my employ as well."

Juliet smiled and held out her hand. "Thank you. I had rather dreaded arriving on my own and we thought it best if my officers remain on board ship to keep an eye on the lads."

"Even your first mate?"

"Especially my first mate! Mr. Smyth is in charge of my business interests while I am away." The carriage was already waiting, so the ladies got in before Juliet continued. "Oh, that reminds me, do you think I shall be more than a few weeks?"

"Most likely a month or better," agreed Lady Diana thoughtfully. "Why do you ask?"

"I promised I'd send word to my first mate should I tarry longer. He'll want to make a short cargo run in the duration in order to keep our crew busy." Juliet paused and seeing that her companion didn't understand why, she added, "it was my intention to keep the crew away from London's alehouses. Especially since press-gangs look for such experienced sailors as my own. Not only that, but I dislike the Sea Sprite to stand idle when there might be a profit to be made, if only a small one."

"You are a shrewd one," nodded Lady Diana. "Do yourself a favor though Dear, and abstain from discussing such things in public. It's not ladylike for you to have such a business-like mind." She winked. "Not that many of us don't have such a mind, you see; merely that it's not acceptable for it to be known."

Juliet began to fret. "Lady Diana, I was raised almost entirely aboard ship. I have never ridden a horse; my painting has never shown promise, even when I was a child. I sew well but cannot embroider though I do speak several languages. Oh, and I've been told by someone who knows that my singing voice rather resembles a dying cat's last gasp."

Lady Diana was laughing far harder than was ladylike. "Oh dear!" she finally gasped. "We shall find you some handwork to do, I suppose. What languages do you speak, Lady Juliet?"

"I speak French, Creole, enough Spanish to haggle over a load of cargo in Puerto Rico and a little bit of Japanese I learned from a crew member once."

"No Italian?"

"I've never sailed in the Mediterranean, so no," apologized Juliet, "and we didn't come across many Italian sailors in the Caribbean."

"Do you play an instrument?" Lady Diana's face was a study in thoughtfulness.

"I play a decent fife and our second mate taught me to read sheet music," Juliet offered uncertainly. "Mother had favored teaching me to play the harpsichord, but Father said we had no room aboard ship for one. He wanted me to learn something useful."

Unsaid went her other talents. Juliet was a fair hand at ship's carpentry, could make as sturdy a barrel as the cooper, was a decent shot with small arms, could navigate by instrument or the stars, dry jerked meat, tan hides for leather, load a cannon with all due speed and even make sea-soap if the need arose. All such skills had saved her life after the pirates' raid, for her skills made her a valuable slave, if nothing else and the pirates were loath to kill her unless absolutely necessary.