"I'll not deny that I was near scared to death last night by that hideous fellow's designs upon me; yet all the same I incline to think that being raped is nothing near so terrible an experience as it is painted."
"Clarissa!" exclaimed Amanda in a shocked voice. "How can you speak with such immodesty? And before Roger, too."
Georgina gave a weary tight-lipped travesty of a smile, then observed cynically to Amanda, "Is it not a little late, m'dear, to suppose that Roger has any illusions left about the nature of women. Nothing she can say is likely to make him think better or worse of the sex. Besides, as rape is the only subject upon which any of us have brought ourselves to utter this morning, surely it is better that we should discuss it rather than continue to sit here in dreary silence." Then, turning to Clarissa, she added: "Now child, let us hear the reason for this belief of yours."
"'Tis based upon what a friend of mine once told me at the young ladies' Academy which I attended," Clarissa replied. "She was of French descent and her grandmother had the misfortune to be caught by the Prussians during the Seven Years' War. It so chanced that my friend was playing one day near a summer-house in which her mother and grandmother were talking of that campaign. She distinctly remembers having heard her mother say, 'I cannot think, Mamma, how you survived that brutal assault. The first attentions of a husband are bad enough, but to be raped by a total stranger would drive most women into a mad-house.' At that time my friend did not understand what was meant by the word rape, but when she learned it she recalled this conversation and her grandmother's reply."
Clarissa's cheeks suddenly coloured up, and casting down her eyes she hesitated before going on, until Georgina asked: "Well, what did the grandmother say?"
In a small voice, still looking down, Clarissa answered: "She said: 'My dear, you should realize that there is nothing unnatural about rape, and that until historical times it was normally every female's first experience of physical love. Therefore, providing she can save her face by appearing to have had no alternative but to submit, any sensible woman will shut her eyes, lie back and endeavour to imagine herself the bride of a cave-man lover.'"
Tie story so amused Georgina that she was momentarily taken out of herself and cried with a laugh: "Damme, the old woman was right!"
Roger laughed too, while casting a speculative glance at Clarissa. He wondered if nervous preoccupations with the subject had caused her to blurt out the story, or if she had told it with the deliberate intent of lessening the other women's dread of the role that capture would force upon them in a few days' time. At that moment she lifted her eyes and they met his. There was no trace of hysteria in them; so he decided that his latter assumption had been correct, and in silent admiration he marvelled that so young a woman should show so much courage.
Now that Clarissa had broken the ice they talked for a while of the previous night, freely confessing the fears and emotions they had experienced, but by an unspoken agreement all speculations about their grim future remained barred.
They had been sitting round the table for the best part of an hour when the hunch-backed Indian came in. Walking across to Jenny, he tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the door, obviously indicating that she was wanted outside. At first she violently shook her head, from fear of what might happen to her if she left the others; but the hunch-back then enunciated a word that was recognizable as 'Bloggs' and kept on saying it. Somewhat reassured by the agreement of the rest that 'Bloggs' really was the word he kept on saying, she followed him out into the passage.
She was absent for about twenty minutes, and when she returned the excitement in her face told them at once that some new development had occurred. Resuming her place at the table, she said in a low voice:
"Bloggs says that we must not count upon it, but that he has the wish to save us if that be possible."
Muted exclamations of relief and hope greeted her announcement, and she went on: "He says that another mutiny would not be possible, because he and his friends are still, in a sense, on probation. They have been allowed to keep their pikes or cutlasses, but were deprived of their fire-arms. Thus the pirates, having pistols and muskets, could soon overcome them."
"What, then, does he suggest?" Roger asked eagerly.
"He feels that if the pirates be skillfully approached it should prove possible to detach them from their loyalty to the French nobleman who is their master. But before he makes any move at all, he requires an honourable understanding with yourself about the future."
"Honourable!" muttered Amanda in disgust. "And he a mutineer and a murderer! How can one treat honourably with such?"
"It was to him we owe it that worse did not befall last night," Georgina said quickly.
"Indirectly, perhaps, but no more," Amanda retorted. "He intervened only because he has taken a fancy to that brazen-faced mulatto woman, and flew into one of his great rages on seeing her mishandled. Had he not killed Captain Cummins in the first place and brought the ship-to by abandoning her wheel, Circe might well have escaped. It was his treachery which has brought us to our present pass; and I'd wager this is some scheme he has hatched to get us into his own hands. I would not trust him an inch."
"I think, Madame, you take too black a view of him," Jenny remarked. "Not that I would excuse his crimes; but he seems to me a man whose acts are dictated by two warring natures, so is not altogether responsible for the evil that he does. At least I can vouch for it that just now he referred with deep sensibility to the kindness shown him after his flogging; and spoke most earnestly of his desire to aid us."
Roger nodded. "I judge you right, Jenny. In any case, even if he is playing for his own ends, I cannot think we are likely to fare worse in his hands than those of this Vicomte de Senlac. Seeing our situation, it would be the height of folly not to clutch at any straw; so I will willingly hear what he has to say. Did he give you any idea of his proposals?"
"No, Sir. He said only that it would be dangerous for him to show special interest in the prisoners, but that he would be coming down to his dinner later than the others; and that if you would send the ladies and myself to our cabins, so that he should find you here alone, he should take that as meaning that you are agreeable to treat with him."
For the moment there was no more to be said on the subject; so they whiled away the afternoon as best they could, until at four o'clock the hunch-back came in to set fresh food upon the table, and, shortly afterwards, Pedro and Lucette arrived to make their main meal of the day.
The Carib, as they had already noticed, was far from being a loquacious man, and he hardly opened his mouth except to cram food into it Lucette, on the other hand, had plenty to say for herself, and after she had satisfied her first hunger she began to question the prisoners on a score of subjects, ranging from their ages and places of birth to the style of hats now being worn in London. In less than twenty minutes Pedro was replete and belched his way out; but Lucette sat on, munching some candied fruits that had been found among the stores, and when Bloggs arrived on the scene she still showed no signs of leaving.