Dennis Wheatley - The wanton princess

The steward wilted and produced a long key from his jacket pocket. Taking it, Roger snarled at him, 'Get back to your galley.' Then he turned to the Lieutenant. 'I am about to relieve you of your prisoner. Should you make am attempt to stop me I shall report the matter personally tc Monsieur Decres, the Minister of Marine, and see to it that you are court martialled with your Captain for having aided him in an illegal act. You will now return to your quarter­deck.'

Still surly, but cowed, the steward shuffled back into his pantry. The Lieutenant, white to the gills, saluted then turned on his heel. Roger quickly inserted the key in the lock and opened the door. Georgina was standing near one end of a large table which occupied the centre of the big stateroom. She now had on a cloak and hood and was holding a big straw basket into which she had hurriedly crammed her belongings.

As Roger stepped through the doorway into the stateroom, Georgina, her great dark eyes shining with delight, started to run towards him. With a swift gesture he checked her, and put a finger to his lips enjoining silence. Then he bowed and asked:

'Madame, parlez-vous francais?'

She nodded, and he went on in French, 'It has come to the knowledge of the authorities that you are being held here ugainst your will. I have been sent to take you ashore. Permit me to relieve you of your basket.' He was playing this little comedy for the benefit of the steward, who he felt sure was listening behind the half-open galley door. And as he stepped up to Georgina to take the basket, he added in a whisper, "Until we are alone it is better that we should pretend to be strangers.' Then he stood aside for her to precede him from the cabin.

On the quarter deck the Lieutenant was standing, still sweating at the thought of having to face his Captain's wrath; but he made no move to stop them and saluted as they stepped up on to the gangway.

The moment Roger could see over the ship's side he received a most unpleasant shock. His excitement at freeing Georgina had caused him momentarily to forget about the Lieutenant's having told him that Captain Fournier was expected back on board at any time. And there was the Cap­tain just stepping out of his gig on to the platform below.

Quickly handing Georgina back her basket, he put her behind him and started down the steps. At the same moment the Captain glanced up. On seeing Georgina his mouth fell open in surprise. Then his face became black with anger and he bellowed at Roger:

'Who the devil are you? What's the meaning of this?'

Roger smiled at him and replied, 'I should have thought you could sec for yourself. I am about to take this lady ashore.'

'You'll do nothing of the kind.’

'Indeed I shall. And you will attempt to stop me at your peril.’

Fournier was a tall, bronze-faced man of about forty, his good looks now marred by an ugly scowl. He had run up a dozen steps of the gangway and Roger had quietly walked down about the same number; so they were now within a few feet of one another.

'Who are you?' demanded the. Captain. 'By what right are you in my ship?'

'My name is Galahad,' Roger grinned down at him. 'And I am about my normal business of rescuing damsels in distress.'

'Damn your insolence! I'll teach you manners before you are much older. Get back on deck this instant.'

'Manners? Oh come, Captain. Where are yours? Had you any you would not keep a lady waiting, but descend to the platform so that she could pass? '

Infuriated by this baiting. Foumer put his hand to his sword. Roger had been expecting that so was ready for it, but he had no intention of exchanging thrusts, for should either of them seriously wound the other he would have little hope of getting away with Georgia If be got the worst of the encounter that would be that, [f the Captain did it was certain that his men would prevent them from leaving the ship until some, senior officer could be brought on the scene.

Instead he waited another moment until both Fournier's hands were engaged, the right gripping the hilt of the sword and the left grasping the scabbard. Then, grabbing with one hand the rope that ran alongside the gangway he went down one step and, with the other, gave the Captain a terrific box on his right car.

The blow sent Fournier reeling sideways. Roger followed it up with a swift kick that landed on the unfortunate man's right shoulder. His whole weight was thrown upon the rope, it gave outward, his feet slid from the step and he hurtled downward to land with a loud splash in the sea.

The Spaniards in Roger's boat had no love for their French masters and gave vent to loud oles of approval. The French sailors in the gig apparently had little affection for their Captain, as they had difficulty in hiding their grins at his discomfiture while putting off to rescue him before he was swept away by the tide. Georgina held her sides and roared with laughter.

Two minutes later Roger had her in his boat and the Spaniards were pulling lustily for the harbour. Eager as they were to question one another during the trip ashore, Georgina obeyed Roger's injunction to treat him as a stranger; so they could do no more than steal furtive eager glances at one another in the semi-darkness. It was not until they reached harbour and he had paid off the boatman that Roger could ask her:

'How in Heaven's name did you come to be here at Cadiz and in that ship?'

'I came in her from the Indies,' she replied quickly. 'She was one of Admiral Villeneuve's fleet.'

'Well, I'll be damned!' he exclaimed. 'And I was in another; at least from Madeira. To think we sailed in com­pany and did not know it. You must then have been at the battle off Finisterre?'

‘I was, and scared out of my wits.'

'But how came you to be in a French frigate?'

'The ship in which I left Jamaica eighteen months ago was attacked by buccaneers and...'

'I know it. I saw you in a vision and you were nearly drowning.'

She pressed his arm, 'Dearest Roger. It was you then who saved me. Had I not had the sense to free myself of my skirt and petticoats before the boat I was in went down I would certainly have drowned. Even so I was nearly exhausted and the shore still distant. I recall thinking of you. Then new strength seemed to enter into me. I reached the beach of a desert island and was marooned there many months.'

'I know that, too. I went in search of you and found the place.'

'Oh, Roger, Roger. I might have known you would if you believed me to be still alive. But you came too late.'

‘I did not get there till May 12th of this year; but I knew it for certain to be the island you had been on, for I found your pearls and have ever since worn them beneath my shirt.' Suddenly he halted and began to laugh.

Turning her face up to his she said gently, 'I see nothing humorous in that. It does but show that you treasured the memory of me.'

'Nay, not that,' he strove to control his laughter. 'On the island I came upon two skeletons. One, tall and with fair hair still on its skull, I had no doubt was that of my Lord Rockhurst, with whom you travelled out. The other was short and had black hair. I believed it to be you, and was so overcome with grief that my men took me from the place. When I returned I found they had buried both. Had they not done so I'd have taken that black hair, plaited it and would be wearing it now instead of your pearls.'

Georgina then burst out laughing too. 'My dear! My dear! Just to think of you going about Europe for years to come treasuring a hank of hair you believed to be mine when it was really that of a half-caste seaman.' After a moment she went on, 'His name was Jose’ With Rockhurst and myself he was the only survivor from our boat. The poor Skiffingtons and the other men in it were all drowned.'