1632 Snippets

1637 No Peace Beyond The Line - Snippet 38 Chapter 20 Oranjestad, St. Eustatia Eddie turned, discovered the source of the tongue-in-cheek comments: Joost Banckert. The vice admiral had finally made his way up the dock to them, but the man who'd been walking with him earlier was still on the dock, haggling with a ship's master over an untapped tun of wine. "I have a similar reaction to Jan's 'careful planning,' Joost," Tromp said mildly. "Welcome home." "Good to be here," Banckert replied, glancing over their heads at Oranjestad's roofs....

1637 No Peace Beyond The Line - Snippet 37 Eddie almost snapped his fingers: the Secret Service! That's what O'Rourke's attentive hover looked like. Eddie paused, reflected. Of course, maybe it looks like that because that's exactly what it is. But that wasn't the way bodyguards typically worked in this day and age. They came as a large group, often in formation, and with bright uniforms that sent a clear message to all who saw: "get too close, and you'll get run through." But maybe it was different with Hugh. After all, even though he was...

1637 No Peace Beyond The Line - Snippet 36 Chapter 19 Oranjestad, St. Eustatia  Cornelis Jol began stumping along rapidly on his peg leg when he caught sight of the three of them in the far shadows of the Fort Oranjestad's seaward wall. He waved to two others behind him, who had become ensnared in the growing tumult of trade and acquaintance-making in the street. "Keep up, you malingerers!" he shouted over his shoulder. "I've a wooden leg and I move twice as fast as you do!" He grinned at van Walbeeck, clapped a hand down on Tromp's...

1637 No Peace Beyond The Line - Snippet 35 "Ah, Maarten Tromp, you are delighting in his torment of me," van Walbeeck lamented histrionically. "Soldiers, particularly jongeren like this Cantrell fellow, have little appreciation of the trials and tribulations that an administrator must endure to produce such a grand spectacle." He waved a hand at the ship-crowded harbor. "Why, there must be well over one-hundred ships, out there!" "Only if you count the boats from St. Kitts," Eddie needled, barely able to repress a smile. "I do count them!"...

1637 No Peace Beyond The Line - Snippet 34 That still-fresh structure was currently swarmed by those same lighters, but they were now off-loading the last general cargos of the prizes Tromp's fleet had taken off Dominica. Although still referred to by some as the New World Dunkirk, the seamen who'd been there had, with the sardonic wit of their tribe, shortened it to the Battle of Dominikirk. Which, although pooh-poohed by officers and gentlefolk alike as undignified, was rapidly becoming the engagement's de facto label. Because, hell, it...

1637 No Peace Beyond The Line - Snippet 33 PART II June-July, 1636 From his saw-pit of mouth, from his charnel of maw Herman Melville, "The Maldive Shark" Chapter 18 Oranjestad, St. Eustatia Eddie Cantrell closed the door softly behind him, padded to the stairs, took the first few steps down before sitting and pulling his boots on. Land boots, which you'd think would be more comfortable, but weren't. Probably because -- as had been his unvoiced observation since his teens -- there was usually an inverse relationship between utility and...

1637 No Peace Beyond The Line - Snippet 32 Hugh shook his head. "But I cannot stand to gain by that blood, either, Hyarima. How may I invite my people to live in this place, knowing the houses in which they dwell, the fields in which they work, were made ready for them by being washed with the blood of women and children? It may not have been my hand that did the work, but I cannot knowingly gain from your vengeance without becoming party to it." Hyarima frowned, but Hugh had the distinct impression it was not prompted by his rejection of the...

1637 No Peace Beyond The Line - Snippet 31 Chapter 17 Just outside San José de Oruña, Trinidad  "I am O'Donnell," replied Hugh, "and I do speak Spanish, as does my second-in-command, Aodh O'Rourke. We thank you for honoring us with an invitation to speak to you in your war-camp." Hyarima acknowledged the thanks, looked around at his warriors, who seemed to be more surprised than ever. "You do us honor to come. The Dutchmen have spoken of you. They said you were a war captain and leader of your people. They also told us that you are, as...