While Charles was at the voice pipe, he had also ordered the recall of those ashore, as well as a report on the injured Gerrard. I was surprised when Oliva approached him and said, "Sir, Doctor Stevens is at the door saying you wanted ta talk ta him."

"Please, bring him here."

"Aye, Sir."

Charles rose to greet him as he approached. "I did not expect you, Doc. Only a report."

"There is nothing more I can do for the man –"

"Oh, God!" I blurted.

Doc chuckled. "No, not in that manner, Lady Camille. He presented with a shoulder luxation and a fractured shinbone. The shoulder was easy to reset; he told me it had previously dislocated, and he knew the procedure. The leg is too complex and painful to attend at the moment, and I am awaiting laudanum to have effect before we reduce the fracture."

"Oh!" I shook my head. "Oh, that sounds so much better than I had thought."

Charles nodded. "As well for me." He pointed to the empty chair. "Will you join us?"

"It would be my great pleasure, but later. I must now return to my patient."

"Perhaps for supper this evening, then?"

"I would be honoured, Sir."

"Learn what you can about him, that I know what to do with him."

"It will be slow; his English is as imperfect as is my French. I do know his name is Gerrard and that he was not involved in directing the ship; he spent a great long time cursing them for sailing onto the rocks."

Charles escorted Doc to the door, then after speaking into the voice pipe again, he returned to the chairs and addressed Louis and François, "The shipwright is coming to take you to your quarters and to introduce you to his men."

Louis tilted his head. "What is shipwright, Monsieur?"

"Ashore, they build ships, and at sea, they keep them afloat and properly maintained."

I added, "Think of them as carpenters with extra training and skills, just as you need extra to build houses and to craft furniture."

After the shipwright had escorted the two men away, Olivia approached and said, "Seeing ta the door is not scary like I thought it would be, m'Lady."

"Oh! Why had you thought it would be scary?"

"Cause I – because I didna know what it was about."

I nodded. "Yes, approaching an unfamiliar task can sometimes daunt us."

"Daunt, m'Lady?"

"To intimidate, to make us afraid. To make us turn away from doing."

"Fear a the unknown, like Richard said."

"Exactly!" I paused a moment to ponder. "Of what unknown did he speak?"

"Settling ashore, m'Lady. Alls he knows is working in this here ship and in the one afore."

"But he has done very well here." I tried to assess his age, but with the beard, it was impossible. "What age has he?"

"Almost nineteen. In Febary, he will be."

"Oh, my! So young for the position and respect he has earned. If he can accomplish this in a ship, he can do as well or better ashore."

Olivia nodded. "Like I told him."

"Yes, encouragement helps confidence." I pointed toward the dining table. "Doctor Stevens will join us for supper, and you must inform Cookery Mate, so he knows to prepare for him."

"How do I inform him, m'Lady?"

"Go visit him in the cookery."

"Alone?" She looked down at her dress. "Richard said it ain't safe out there without him to guard me."

"Possibly in the dark. But in daylight, with so many about, none would dare accost you. Particularly if you hasten directly there and directly back."

When Olivia had closed the door behind her, Charles said, "Louis and François likely have skills we can use in repairing the hulks, but we must delay offering to take them aboard as crew."

I tilted my head at this. "Why delay?"

"If we add them to the ship's articles now, they will be due a share of the pirate's plunder, diminishing the amount the others will receive."

"Ah, but they would not be due any of it. The booty was won last week, not when we bring it aboard."

Charles nodded. "Again, your clear thinking, Camille. They would share only from here onwards. The proceeds from the sale of the hulks and the gain from the auction in New York."

"Exactly! And they should see the logic in this and not question." I laughed. "Their only question would be why this wondrous turn of events has befallen them – so fast from being indentured to an evil man to being rewarded for their work."

"Indeed, a far better fate."

"Even to have survived. Only four from the entire ship." I winced. "A hundred or more dead."

"Likely three or four hundred. Such ships stow slaves in the holds as if cargo, and they have neither beds nor hammocks. I have been told that the crowding is such that there is no place for them to all lie down at the same time."

"Surely not."

"Unfortunately, so. This is from three of our crew who had worked in an English slave ship, and I respect their information."

"But the wrecked ship was from France."

"Indeed, but it would be folly to think that such greed-driven cruelty is not copied by the French."

"How horrid. Not only captured and taken from their families, but also treated worse than we do animals. How ever do the ships capture so many?"

"They do not. As it is done in England, they are seized and held in pens or cages to await the next slave ship."

"Oh, dear God! As you said might have happened to me in Barbados. Taken from the streets."

"Yes, but in Barbados, they go directly to new owners with no ship involved. Though, I am told that many now prefer the maroon-coloured people as slaves because the escaped are more easily seen for recapture."

"The ones from Africa that the innkeeper called negurs."

"Indeed, capturing and trading people has become the major enterprise along much of the central African coast. Now, a large portion of the goods which once came here to the colonies are traded there for slaves."

I cringed as my thoughts went to the attitudes Bernard had expressed. "What heartless and soulless men these are to treat others as if animals."

"Indeed. Those who capture them. Those who sell them. Those who transport them. Those who buy them. All men without merit."

"I wonder whether perishing in the shipwreck was for the slaves a better fate than being forever treated as animals."

Charles nodded. "Likely. I was told they are not allowed on deck for fresh air and exercise, nor even to relieve themselves, fearing they would throw themselves into the sea to end their misery."

I blew out a deep breath. "Might we talk about something more pleasant?"