Capter 5

On the opposite side of London, where the rich dwelled with their furs and jewels, expensive town homes and priceless carriages, was a tall, graceful soldier. He stood at the end of the great hall in his small but lavishly decorated manor that overlooked the river. Gazing in a massive gold mirror, the man dusted his coat to make sure every bottom was in its place and tucked a stray hair back into the slicked back pony that was military regulation. A powdered wig sat on an end table and the man pick it up and positioned it into place on his head. It was not a fancy wig, yet was not a simple one for the common business man’s dinner soirees. 

After triple checking everything to make sure it was the definition of perfection, the soldier decided to go for a little stroll before his forthcoming award ceremony and celebratory dinner. Pushing open the glass doors to the terrace, he walked out into the grey afternoon air. he made his way down to the nearby docks and for a short while, he stood at the end of one pier, admiring the glistening water and welcoming the salty breeze on his sightly tanned completion. The soldier then turned his red coated back to the water and strode with a long, floating gait to the shipyard next-door. Once he spent a few minutes admiring his future ship in the process of being built, Captain Daelin Prestor guessed it was high time to finish getting ready for the afternoon’s events. Arriving back at the manor, Daelin added the finishing touches to his elaborate uniform�"silver cufflinks embellished with square cut emeralds and a gold filigreed double edged sword. The only thing he had left to do was to climb into his awaiting six horse carriage and be on his way to Kensington. 

*****

Once Graciella and Marie had walked into the tavern, they looked around at the patrons. Loud laughter in the limey lit atmosphere spoke of good yet easily forgotten times. In the far back corner, where Graciella had previously been sitting, was a young man, reading deeply in aged maps by candlelight, sipping on a mug of beer. His rowdy crew, Graciella guessed, were the ones bellowing in laughter at the tables next to him as they drank their well deserved drinks following a year long expedition to the colonies. The young man smiled and carried on with his work, using a compass to measure on the weathered parchment, roughly scribbling down coordinates in the scruffy old journal next to him. 

Graciella pulled Marie up to the bar, who promptly released herself of Graciella’s firm grasp. 

“What were you thinking about mum?” Marie asked as she inspected the mug of rum that had been placed in front of her. Graciella elbowed the girl gently, motioning for her to drink. They had to keep up appearances. 

Across the room, the young man, who’s name was Tobias, looked up at that moment and saw the two newcomers. He was the only one aside from the bartender to take notice of their arrival, but even then he was not bothered. They were likely a maiden and her male companion enjoying a drink away from their employer. Graciella’s eyes quickly adjusted  as she scanned the room seeing drunken sailors, cherry cheeked woman throwing themselves on the men, and Tobias, still engrossed in his maps.

“Well…someone is responsible for this. Did the men even have a fair trial? Likely not. Besides…you british have always been after my spanish gold.” 

Marie coughed on her rum; she was not used to such a hard alcohol. She wiped her mouth and raised an eyebrow, growing more at ease with Graciella.

“Your gold? But you are a pirate? Correct? Would it not be other’s gold?” 

Graciealla burst into laughter at the absurd thought. 

“No! I’m a business woman. I own a shipping company. My mother was also kin to the royal family in Spain, so in a sense, it is MY gold and I want it back.”

“I’m sorry…I did not understand. You are likely right that there was no trial. There very rarely are in these sorts of cases…what do you want to do about it?” 

Graciella thought for a moment, staring into the various candles on the scattered tables. Then, an idea struck her. 

“A disaster. A fire.” 

Marie nodded in agreement, she hated being in London, she was a country girl and longed to be away from the big town. Her eyes wandered the patrons of the tavern and landed on Tobias who had begun to roll up his maps, stuffing them and his journal into his leather satchel. 

The young man sighed, the excitement of being back on dry land was short lived as the overrated town around him, unbeknownst to the tragedy and turmoil it was about to have, continued with the festivities. He glanced up and saw GRaciella looking directly at him as he reached into his jacket pocket to pull out a beautiful glimmering Spanish doubloon. Tobias looked away and flipped the coin onto the table.

Marie cleared her throat.

“How are you going to start it?” She sipped on her rum while Graciella shook her head, throwing back some of her own drink.

“It will be easy mi amiga. I will start it here. This is where it all began in the first place. Now, Marie, you know of course that this will cause a        chain reaction and we will be on the run from now on. No coming back, constantly looking over our shoulders in fear of the shadows that will follow, becoming pirates ourselves. Are you positive that is the life in which you are willing to commit to?”

Tobias chose that moment to look up at the two young women again. He could tell that they were too deep in conversation, much too quite and serious to be in a tavern of this volume. The young man squinted and laid his hands on his weapons�"left hand on his tattered flintlock pistol and right hand on his sword; reassuring himself that they were still in place. Curiously, he continued to watching the females, averting his eyes periodically so he wouldn’t be caught. 

Graciella tossed back the remainder of her mug of rum and hurriedly wiped the back of her shirtsleeve across her mouth, quite unladylike. She smiled at Marie, who was still contemplating the decision presented to her. The young girl finally nodded, an enthusiastic smile breaking onto her face.

“Yes, I’m sure. I loved Robert, he was extremely kindhearted to me�"he took me in with no questions…even whilst I was with child. He never judged me for my past.”

Graciella chose not to address half of that statement at the current time. She would pester the girl later about this pregnancy. 

“So yes. my heart yearns, as yours no doubt does, for vengeance and I do not wish to stop until we are satisfied that we have completed our job.”

Marie noticed that Graciella’s gaze had shifted from her speaking to land on Tobias again. She could see, even in the dim light, that the two were locked in a dead stare. Graciella’s lips spread into a mischievous smile when she saw the man become unsettled. It had been a long time since she had toyed with a fine sailor fellow such as him. Marie reach rout and gingerly patted her companion’s shoulder.

“Might I suggest we go before you start something with him? The last thing we need is to one, draw attention to ourselves; and two, cause this lot of drunken, rowdy sailors into a bar fight. You said you waned to start here? Why do we not go to the palace. I’m sure King Charles had a hand in all of this as well.”

Tobias was the first to break his eyes away. At sea, he was in his element, but not on land. He was just a clumsy, unlikeable nobody who happened to be captain of his own ship; yet when it came to social skills with the opposite sex, he was as lost as a pauper in a palace. He glanced up again quickly to spy Graciella still looking at him. She winked playfully before turning back to Marie.

“I love it. I have never enjoyed the company of kings either. They are too pushy and too obnoxious. I say split up. You may know the London streets better than I, but I can follow my nose back to the salty air that surrounds the bays. If we light up multiple places, then the whole of London will soon be a flame with those beautiful red tongues of fire.”

“I agree! They are very smelly too. One would image they would mask themselves in good smelling sprays. Stop teasing the poor boy. He shouldn’t get involved if he knows what’s good for him. I know his types�"lonely seamen.”

Marie shuffled through a knapsack she had inadvertently swiped from a merchant on their way to the tavern. Out from it she pulled a small flint block and handed it to Graciella. 

“I have a bad habit that Robert was unable to cure me of…but it did come in handy. The merchant won’t miss it.” 

Graciella took the block and slipped it into her pocket before slipping off of the barstool, tossing a few spanish coins to the bartender who smiled politely in thanks. 

“I’m unsure if that was an insult or not Marie. You’d best mind your mouth young miss, I am your captain.” The spaniard whispered teasingly.

“Shall I meet you at the docks then? My ship is the Amor de Cofresi. Not too difficult to miss, it is the galleon docked at the end of the pier. Tell my men that el capitán ha encontrado a su padre, que está muerto. ella está en su camino. They will let you aboard and hide you until we are well away from here.”

Marie nodded, adjusting her shirt, she will have to pick up a jacket along the way. 

“Be careful…please. Try not to get caught Gracie. The bobbies are not friendly, especially to the spanish.”

“Me? Get caught? Are you mad Marie?”

Graciella winked at the child knowing she had the girl’s trust now. She moved away from the girl and strode out the door, not giving a second glance to Tobias, to the other patrons, or to Marie. No one but the two women knew what was about to happen to their beloved city. Marie let the grin that had been wanting to show, spread across her face. She followed Graciella outside and headed in the opposite direction. As she began to run, she swiftly picked up the man in black’s red felt cavalier hat and pulled it down over her eyes, shading them from the sun. The man did not budge, but got up to follow the girl once she was farther from him. As she continued to make her way towards Kensington Palace where King George I had been in the midst of renovating, she also stole a dark forest green coat with silver buttons on the cuffs and down the front. It was slightly big on her, but she would grow into it. Now, all she had to figure out was what to use as tinder.

*****

Daelin arrived at Kensington in a timely fashion�"not too early but not late�" and was escorted down a long, ornately decorated hall. He was politely asked to wait with other captains and one admiral, who stood at a window peering out to the palace grounds. Daelin complied and stealthily made his way to stand next to the admiral. He needed to be as friendly and as proper as he could muster himself to be around these men�"they were his future.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of town, Tobias was staring into nothingness.He as well had not been with a woman in quite some time. After a few seconds of reminiscing about a spat with a young Irish lass in Boston, it registered in his mind that the two woman that had caught his attention, had left the tavern. 

“Oh for the love of�"“ he grabbed his satchel, slung it over his shoulder, and hollered commands to his crew to head back to port, all the while leaping out of his seat, knocking over his chair and running for the door. Tobias froze once he burst out into the sun. He looked to either side of him and spotted a flash of golden hair making it’s way through the swarm of people. He began to push his way through the crowd in attempt to catching up to the mysterious spaniard. He noticed the same man in black moving in the exact direction he was, but figured it was merely coincidence.

After a couple blocks of cobblestoned streets housing various stands of fruits, vegetables, breads, grains, and stone ware, Graciella stopped at a row of townhouses, squished up together as sardines. It was the perfect place to start a fire, the homes would spread faster than the wind. She glanced around her, making sure no one was paying her attention, luckily every peasant was in town from the country and too busy making trade to notice her. Graciella ducked around down an ally way to the back row of houses and slipped behind a woodshed. She pushed some straw into a pile and knelt down beside it, working quickly to start a small fire. As a breeze blew through, it picked up the embers and carried them to the thatched rooftops of the homes, setting them in their progress of burning to ash. Graciella sat back on her heels, watching the flames lick the woodshed’s walls, turning the structure from light brown, to a burnt shade of black. Her nose twitched with the smell of gunpowder. Standing up, pulling her hat down and turning her jacket collar up, Graciella followed her nose to the door of the shed. Her eyes widened when she opened the door and spied not only piles of wood for a stove, but also several bags of gunpowder. Grinning slyly, the woman hurriedly grabbed two of the bags and ripped them open as she dragged them out and scattered the powder all around the yard. She began to cough as the smoke built. Graciella stood back to admire her handiwork when a little boy poked his mop topped head around the corner to the ally. The spaniard heard him gasp at the sight of fire and whirled around. She raised her finger to her lips and motioned for him to keep silent. He must have been terrified for the boy nodded, wide eyed and ducked away. Graciella laughed and let out an “ayyiiiiiIIII!!” the second she saw the powderhouse erupt into bright yellow flames. She saluted her masterpiece then turned and raced down the alley towards the port and her beloved ship.