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“Never mind what you hold with. She comes with us,” Colin took command. He turned to Heather and said on a hard note, “Up with you, miss. Into the boat.”
She would not comply, so he picked her up on a heavy sigh and lifted her within the skiff. He heard his men grumbling and shouted, “Enough! The woman comes with us onto the sloop and we make enough to keep us for a month. We have the two hundred from the Ravensbury woman, and quite a bit more when we sell her to the Pink Chateau Brothel.”
“Now and then, it ain’t about the money,” a slim seaman complained loudly. “I don’t hold with abducting ladies. She looks no more than a slip of one, too…goes against m’grain.”
He was joined by a chorus of objections.
Heather’s hopes rose and quickly sank when Colin said, “Shut up, the lot of you, and start rowing.”
They grumbled, but row they did.
Bunky sat beside her and called out to his captain, “Colin…can I ungag her? She looks right uncomfortable, she does.”
“Why not? I don’t suppose anyone will hear her out here, but if she makes any trouble…” Colin answered, leaving the implication on the air.
“Bunky,” Heather whispered as soon as the gag was off. “I understand you and the men here are only following orders. If you could find a way to let me escape when we land in France? Just don’t let him give me to a…a…”
“Aye, miss, I know, that is the worst of all this business. We’ll just have to wait and see,” Bunky said. “Now stop yer whispering or he’ll gag ye again, he will.”
As they got closer to the sloop, Heather saw its sails shivering in the wind. Bunky had tied her cloak tightly around herself, as her wrists were still tethered.
Hope was quickly fading. She had actually believed that Godwin would come to her rescue…or that someone along the route would see her and call a halt to her abduction, but those things had not occurred. She was doomed, and suddenly Heather knew this beyond all else. She was being taken away and sold to a brothel. She felt sick.
Colin had not relieved her of the small amount of money her uncle had given her. She had that deep inside her inner dress pocket, but she knew someone yet might do just that if they suspected she had any money. She had no other hiding place.
Everything seemed to happen as though she were walking through a nightmare she could not wake up from.
In quick succession, Heather was taken on board and stowed at the bow of the sloop. The only good thing she could think of was the kind treatment of the various seamen on board. Each one treated her gently, and it was obvious the abduction was just being barely tolerated.
One of the men draped a blanket around her and whispered, “Sorry, miss…that oi am.”
She wasn’t naïve about smugglers. Each one of these men had a hungry family back in Devonshire, waiting on their return, waiting for the money they would receive from their efforts. She understood that in these difficult times, smuggling was just an avenue to survive. She hoped they would not allow her to be sold…yet there was money in that as well. What was she to do?
Bunky had silently and decidedly appointed himself her caregiver and whenever he had a moment from his duties on board, he saw to her comfort, offered her a piece of stale bread, a piece of cheese, and a slice of an apple. She had no doubt he was sharing his own rations with her. He untied her hands at her back and said, “Colin says I can untie yer wrists so ye can eat. He says to tell ye that ye shouldn’t think of jumping overboard, we are too far out for ye to make it back to shore.”
She knew she had to stay strong if she was going to escape, so she ate the bread and cheese and thanked him.
She worked her ankles and was determined to stay limber. She had to maintain her strength, she told herself, strength and an opportunity to escape was all she would need. It was the only hope she still held.
Bunky returned from his job at the rigging and sat beside her a moment. “Lookee…I’ve been thinking, miss, that well…if I could, I would help, and mayhap I can somehow if only…”
She interrupted him, “I know. ‘Tis a job, like the hangman, you are only doing your job.” She knew this was cruel after all the kindness he had displayed towards her.
His face took on a stricken look and even in the dim light, she saw his cheeks darken. “Ye ain’t going to the gallows.”
She interrupted him again, “No. No, far worse…you are allowing your captain to sell me to a place where they will sell my body against my will.” She lowered her head.
“No, miss, ye must let me finish…I don’t mean to let that happen if I can stop it,” Bunky said.
“Bunky, you don’t have any way to stop him. I know that,” Heather said, and sighed.
Heather thought of Godwin, who she would never see again. She thought of her baby. What fate lay ahead? Her heart took in the enormity of what she was about to suffer.
He hung his head and when he looked at her again, he saw the tears fall silently down her cheeks. “Lord love ye, miss…I have never been so miserable…that is the truth.”
She believed him, but would he really be able to help her?
“Ye call no attention to yerself. Ye sit there brave and quiet instead of wailing away. Never mind. France is still hours away and I will think of something.”
