This is the second post on this blog today. If you are looking for the A to Z blog for the letter G, please scroll down. Thanks.
Well, not enough people followed the health rules and thanks to the variants, we’ve found ourselves under another Stay at Home order. The authorities are working hard to get vaccines into arms, but it’s a slow process, made even slower by a shortage of the precious commodity, and vaccine hesitancy, generally caused by one of two things: fear of needles and refusal to trust science, preferring to believe the ridiculous notions that pop up all over the Internet. Afraid the government will be able to track you? I’ve got news for you. If you own a cellphone, they can track you now. And am I seriously worried someone cares what a 70-year-old woman does?
.So, until those who deny COVID 19 exists, refuse to wear masks and practice social distance, and won’t get vaccinated get on board, it will be one lockdown after another with any kind of normalcy far far away.
So, since you’re stuck inside once more, what do you do? It’s April. It’s warm and dry, but if you live in my part of the world, spring is barely three weeks old. We usually still have snow, so it’s too early to plant anything. I can spend my days writing, but I would much rather sit outside in the afternoon and read.
The interesting thing about The Golden Legacy multiauthor box set from the Author’s Billboard is that the title unites the stories under a common thread. They don’t feature the same characters, not even the same time periods, but they all revolve around a captured and cursed pirate treasure. Used for good, the owners are blessed. Used selfishly or for evil, and it vanishes–not forever but until the next generation where someone will use it for good once more.
My contribution to the anthology is the first story, is Twist of Fate.
Can a cursed treasure unite two lonely outcasts?
Overton Stafford, shunned by his family because of a birthmark on his face, made a life for himself as Second Mate on The Golden Fleece. In a battle with pirates, Overton loses his left arm, ending his career. Knowing he will be a wealthy man makes the pain easier to bear, especially when he discovers he can repay a moral debt and help an old friend. When he meets Anna, Overton realizes he wants more from her than a financial partnership.
Anneliese Van Stubel lost her sight at nine as a result of Smallpox. Now eighteen, a ward of the crown because of the Danish Age of Majority law, she lives in limbo, uncertain what will happen to her. When Overton approaches her with the proposition to help her rebuild the plantation, she’s excited with the idea of returning to her home. But her joy fades when her caregiver makes it plain that he has a different future in mind for her, one that will profit him.
Set in a time when brutality against women and slaves was the norm, Overton seeks to change things as he falls in love with the girl who has lost so much.
Here’s a scene from the story to whet your whistle. Remember, this was not a kind, enlightened time.
Aboard The Golden Fleece,
Caribbean Sea off the coast of Tortola,
Lesser Antilles.
August 2, 1734
“And may the Almighty have mercy upon his soul,” Saul Dern, the ship’s doctor and the closest thing to a clergyman aboard The Golden Fleece, intoned before shutting his Bible.
The sun beat down relentlessly on the deck, burning the forty men and the one woman who stood there, some of them scarcely able to stay on their feet.
Grim faced, the would-be minister turned to Sarah, the captain’s eighteen year old daughter. She nodded. Saul mumbled a few words to the men at his side. Without hesitation, they cut the ropes and tipped Captain Carlson’s body into the sea.
Overton Stafford, Second Mate, mopped his brow on the side of his sling as he watched the cadaver, wrapped in sailcloth and loaded down by cannonballs, slip beneath the waves. There, but for the grace and mercy of God, would he be. The cannon shot that had ended the captain’s life had severely damaged his own left arm. Saul was doing his best to save it, but even to Overton’s inexperienced eye, it didn’t look good. But then, nothing did. Given that the main mast was gone along with the top half of the mizzen mast, the ship limped along, heading for a safe port where repairs could be made. The fact that she was able to move even at this reduced speed was a bloody miracle.
Mistress Sarah, now owner and acting captain of the vessel, had wanted to take her father back to Savannah for a proper Christian funeral. Unfortunately, bodies decomposed quickly in this region, and after four days of blistering heat, the ship moving slower than the algae surrounding it, she’d accepted that doing so wouldn’t be wise. As it was, there were enough sweat-soaked, bloody sailors, festering wounds, and prisoners aboard the vessel to contaminate the air.
The captain hadn’t been the only man to die in the pirate attack. Half the crew had perished, but he was the only one who’d been given the respect and honor of a separate funeral. The crewman who’d lost their lives had been consigned to the waters the day after the battle. The brigands who’d died, including their infamous leader, had been unceremoniously dumped aboard the vessel, the ship then scuttled and sent to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. The dozen injured survivors were shackled below deck, ready to be turned over to the authorities when—and if—they made port. God alone knew how many had managed to escape when it was obvious victory wouldn’t be theirs. Cowards and rats always deserted a sinking ship.
How could this ill-equipped merchant vessel have bested The Dawn, the scourge of the Lesser Antilles? How had they defeated Mad Jack Lessing, one of the most feared pirates in all of the Caribbean? Now, with a portion of her crew and her captain dead, The Golden Fleece shuffled over the green waves, its coffers filled with newly acquired treasure, stolen in the first place from men who themselves had taken it from others. He’d heard one of the prisoners mumbling in Spanish. Tesoro maldito, cursed treasure. Normally, he wasn’t a superstitious man, but what else could explain this strange twist of fate?
Overton shook his pounding head, sweat matting his long, deep brown hair, before trickling down the sides of his face. Cursed or not, David had defeated Goliath. Victory for the ship, but a personal defeat for himself. Fate kicking a broken man while he was down once more.
“Overton, you need to get back to bed,” Saul Dern said, his face creased in concern. “You’ve lost a lot of blood. If you get any weaker, there won’t be much I can do for you.”
“If ye think I’m going to spend what may be me final days amid the stench of yer so-called infirmary, ye’ve another thought coming. If I’m to live through this, then I’ll do it with the Good Lord’s sun on me face.”
Saul shook his clenched fist at him.
“You’re the most stubborn, pig-headed Scotsman I’ve ever met. Have it your way—for now—but sit. You’ll not stand on this deck until you fall and do even more damage to that blasted arm. In an hour or two, you’ll go to your cabin if I have to carry you there myself. Cook is making a fine soup from the fish we caught earlier today. You’ll eat it, or I’ll have O’Hara force feed you, and you know the Irishman would like nothing better than to have you at his mercy. Now, sit, I said, and let me look at that arm.”
Too weak and in more pain than he would’ve believed possible, Overton dropped onto a barrel and let the doctor remove the sling. Gingerly, the man pulled off his shirt sleeve. Every now and then, the heavy cotton caught on the dry blood sticking to it, adding to Overton’s agony. When the arm was freed, the swollen, bloody mass was enough to turn any man’s stomach.
Saul prodded the flesh with his fingers, then shook his head and pursed his lips. Overton had uttered more than a few curses as the doctor had painstakingly removed metal and wood shards, but much of the mast had been coated in boat soup, a mixture of tar and oils meant to preserve the wood, that often caused infection. He’d seen tiny splinters turn septic in a matter of days.
“Life hasn’t been easy for you, but I’m afraid it’s about to get worse. I did my best, but there’s nothing more I can do. The hand’s got to go. Look at it. Even you can smell the putrefaction. The swelling and signs of poison run all the way up your arm. Given the elbow’s been shattered, there’s nothing I can do to restore its mobility. If you want to live—and God alone knows if you do—the arm has to come off. I can leave you the shoulder and bicep if I take it before it worsens. But the choice is yours.”
Overton swallowed the bile rising in his throat. His arm? Give up his arm? Had the Lord not taken enough from him? The love of a mother, a family who cared for him, and now this. A man could replace a lost leg with a wooden one, a lost hand with a hook, but to lose most of the arm? How could such a man serve aboard ship when he wouldn’t be able to do the simplest tasks?
If he did nothing, as Saul had said, he would die. The painfilled part of him suggested the prospect wasn’t without merit, but he wasn’t ready to let that bastard Mad Jack Lessing drag him down to hell along with him. Deep inside, Overton was certain he was meant for better things. Giving up was a coward’s choice. He might be a lot of things, but he wasn’t weak. He’d fought too hard to get where he was to just give up. But to lose the arm…
Before he could answer Saul’s question, the rustle of taffeta announced the new captain’s arrival.
“Mr. Stafford. How’s your arm?” She didn’t wait for an answer and turned to Saul. “Doctor, can you save it?”
“Not and save the man,” Saul admitted.
Hearing it put so bluntly caused the acid in Overton’s stomach to roil.
The captain nodded and turned back to Overton.
“Then we must do what we can to save you, sir, even if we can’t save the arm. A man is more than the sum of his parts.” She sighed. “You must think of the future. I promise you’ll share in the spoils from this victory, a small way to repay you for your loyalty.” She swiped at the tears on her sunburned face. “I’ve lost enough men to my father’s folly and greed, I’ll not lose one more.”
Want to read more?
The Golden Legacy box sets contains five stories by four authors and is available from Amazon for only 99 cents USD or free to read in Kindle Unlimited.
Living the Dream 