Birds of Prey (46 page)

Before he passed through the gates Aboli raised his great round head and looked up at Hal on the scaffold, high above. For one moment their eyes met. There was no need for either to shout a
message, chancing a cut of the cane from their keepers, and Aboli strode on without looking back.

The auction block was a temporary structure that at other times was used as a gibbet on which the corpses of executed criminals were placed on public view. The four men were lined up on the
platform and Dr Saar mounted the platform with them and addressed the crowd. ‘I have examined all of the four slaves being offered for sale today,’ he stated, lowering his head to peer
over the tops of his wire-framed eye-glasses. ‘I can give the assurance that all of them are in good health. Their eyes and teeth are sound and they are hale in limb and body.’

The crowd was in a festive mood. They clapped at the doctor’s announcement, and gave him an ironical cheer as he climbed down from the block and hurried back towards the castle gates.
Jacobus Hop stepped forward and held up a hand for silence. Then he read from the proclamation of the sale, the crowd jeering and imitating him every time he stuttered. ‘By order of His
Excellency the Governor of this colony of the honourable Dutch East India Company, I am authorized to offer for sale, to the highest bidder, four Negro slaves—’ He broke off and removed
his hat respectfully as the Governor’s open carriage came down the avenue from the residence, passing through the gardens and wheeling out onto the open Parade behind the six glossy greys.
Lord Cumbrae and the Governor’s wife sat side by side on the open leather seats facing forward, and Colonel Schreuder sat opposite them.

The crowd opened to let the carriage come to the foot of the block, where Fredricus, the coloured coachman, called the team to a halt and wound down the hand brake. None of the passengers
dismounted. Katinka lolled elegantly on the leather seat, twirling her parasol, and chatting gaily to the two men.

On the platform Hop was thrown into confusion by the arrival of these exalted visitors, and stood flushing, stammering and blinking in the sunlight until Schreuder called out impatiently,
‘Get on with it, fellow! We didn’t come here to watch you goggle and gape.’

Hop replaced his hat and bowed first at Schreuder then at Katinka. He raised his voice. ‘The first lot is the slave Aboli. He is about thirty years of age and is believed to be a member of
the Qwanda tribe from the east coast of Africa. As you are aware, the Qwanda Negroes are much appreciated as field slaves and herdsmen. He could also be trained into an excellent wagon driver or
coachman.’ He paused to mop his sweaty face and gather his tripping tongue, then he went on, ‘Aboli is said to be a skilled hunter and fisherman. He would bring in a good income to his
owner from any of these occupations.’

‘Mijnheer Hop, are you hiding anything from us?’ Katinka called out, and Hop was once more thrown into disarray by the question. His stammer became so agonized that he could hardly
get the words out.

‘Revered lady, greatly esteemed lady,’ he spread his hands helplessly, ‘I assure you—’

‘Would you offer for sale a bull wearing clothes?’ Katinka demanded. ‘Do you expect us to bid for something that we cannot see?’

As he caught her meaning, Hop’s face cleared and he turned to Aboli. ‘Disrobe!’ he ordered loudly, to bolster his courage while facing this huge wild savage. For a moment Aboli
stared at him unmoving then contemptuously slipped the knot of his loincloth and let it fall to the planks under his feet.

Naked and magnificent, he stared over their heads at the table-topped mountain. There was a hissing intake of breath from the crowd below. One of the women squealed and another giggled
nervously, but none turned away their eyes.

‘Hoots!’ Cumbrae broke the pregnant pause with a chuckle. ‘The buyer will be getting full measure. There is no makeweight in that load of blood-sausage. I’ll start the
bidding at five hundred guilders!’

‘And a hundred more!’ Katinka called out.

The Buzzard glanced at her and spoke softly from the corner of his mouth. ‘I did not know you were intending to bid, madam.’

‘I will have this one at any price, my lord,’ she warned him sweetly, ‘for he amuses me.’

‘I would never stand in the way of a beautiful lady.’ The Buzzard bowed. ‘But you will not bid against me for the other three, will you?’

‘’Tis a bargain, my lord.’ Katinka smiled. ‘This one is mine, and you may have the others.’

Cumbrae folded his arms across his chest and shook his head when Hop looked to him to increase the bid. ‘Too rich a price for my digestion,’ he said, and Hop looked in vain for a
buyer in the rest of the crowd. None was foolhardy enough to go up against the Governor’s wife. Recently they had been given a glimpse of his excellency’s temper in open court.

‘The slave Aboli is sold to Mevrouw van de Velde for the sum of six hundred guilders!’ Hop sang out, and bowed towards the carriage. ‘Do you wish the chains struck off,
Mevrouw?’

Katinka laughed. ‘And have him bolt for the mountains? No, Mijnheer, these soldiers will escort him up to the slave quarters at the residence.’ She glanced across at Schreuder who
gave an order to a detachment of green-jackets waiting under their corporal at the edge of the crowd. They elbowed their way forward, dragged Aboli down from the block and led him away up the
avenue towards the residence.

Katinka watched him go. Then she tapped the Buzzard on the shoulder with one finger. ‘Thank you, my lord.’

‘The next lot is the slave Jiri,’ Hop told them, reading from his notes. ‘He is, as you see, another fine strong specimen—’

‘Five hundred guilders!’ growled the Buzzard, and glared at the other buyers, as if daring them to bid at their peril. But without the Governor’s wife to compete against, the
burghers of the colony were bolder.

‘And one hundred,’ sang out a merchant of the town.

‘And a hundred more!’ called a wagoner in a jacket of leopardskins. The bidding went quickly to fifteen hundred guilders with only the wagoner and the Buzzard in the race.

‘Damn and blast the clod!’ Cumbrae muttered, and turned his head to catch the eye of his boatswain who, with three of his seamen, hovered beside the rear wheel of the carriage. Sam
Bowles nodded and his eyes gleamed. With his men backing him he sidled through the press until he stood close behind the wagoner.

‘Sixteen hundred guilders,’ roared the Buzzard, ‘and be damned to ye!’

The wagoner opened his mouth to push upwards and felt something prick him under the ribs. He glanced down at the knife in Sam Bowles’s gnarled fist, closed his mouth and blanched white as
baleen.

‘The bid is against you, Mijnheer Tromp!’ Hop called to him, but the wagoner scurried away across the Parade back towards the town.

Kimatti and Matesi were both knocked down to the Buzzard for well under a thousand guilders each. The other prospective buyers in the crowd had seen the little drama between Sam and the wagoner
and none showed any further interest in bidding against Cumbrae.

All three slaves were dragged away by Sam Bowles’s shore party towards the beach. When Matesi struggled to escape a shrewd crack over his scalp with a marlinspike quieted him and, with his
mates, he was shoved into the longboat and rowed out to where the
Gull
lay anchored at the edge of the shoals.

‘A successful expedition for both of us, my lord.’ Katinka smiled at the Buzzard. ‘To celebrate our acquisitions, I hope you will be able to dine with us at the residence this
evening.’

‘Nothing would have given me greater pleasure, but alas, madam, I was lingering only for the sale and the chance of picking up a few prime seamen. Now my ship lies ready in the bay, and
the wind and the tide bid me away.’

‘We shall miss you, my lord. Your company has been most diverting. I hope you will call on us and remain a while longer when next you round the Cape of Good Hope.’

‘There is no power on this earth, no storm, ill wind or enemy which could prevent me doing so,’ said Cumbrae and kissed her hand. Cornelius Schreuder glowered: he could not stand to
see another man lay a finger on this woman who had come to rule his existence.

A
s the Buzzard’s feet touched the deck of the
Gull
he shouted to the helm, ‘Geordie, my lad, prepare to weigh anchor and get
under way.’

Then he singled out Sam Bowles. ‘I want the three Negroes on the quarterdeck, and swiftly.’ As they were ranged before him, he looked them over carefully. ‘Does any one of you
three heathen beauties speak God’s own language?’ he asked, and they stared at him blankly. ‘So it’s only your benighted lingo, is it?’ He shook his head sadly.
‘That makes my life much harder.’

‘Begging your pardon,’ Sam Bowles tugged obsequiously at his Monmouth cap, ‘I know them well, all three of them. We was shipmates together, we was. They’re playing you
for a patsy. They all three speak good English.’

Cumbrae grinned at them, with murder in his eyes. ‘You belong to me now, my lovelies, from the tops of your woolly heads to the pink soles of your great flat feet. If you want to keep your
black hides in one piece, you’ll not play games with me again, do you hear me?’ And with a swipe of his huge hairy fist he sent Jiri crashing to the deck. ‘When I talk to you
you’ll answer clear and loud in sweet English words. We’re going back to Elephant Lagoon and, for the sake of your health, you’re going to show me where Captain Franky hid his
treasure. Do you hear me?’

Jiri scrambled back onto his feet. ‘Yes, Captain Lordy, sir! We hear you. You are our father.’

‘I’d rather have lopped off my own spigot with a blunt spade than fathered the likes of one of you with it!’ The Buzzard grinned at them. ‘Now get ye up to the main yard
to clap some canvas on her.’ And he sent Jiri on his way with a flying kick in the backside.

K
atinka sat in sunlight, in a protected corner of the terrace out of the wind, with Cornelius Schreuder beside her. At the serving table Sukeena
poured the wine with her own hands, and carried the two glasses to the luncheon table with its decorations of fruit and flowers from Slow John’s gardens. She placed a tall glass with a spiral
stem in front of Katinka, who reached out and caressed her arm lightly.

‘Have you sent for the new slave?’ she asked with a purr in her voice.

‘Aboli is being bathed and fitted with a uniform, as you ordered, mistress,’ Sukeena answered softly, as if unaware of the other woman’s touch. However, Schreuder had seen it,
and it amused Katinka to watch him frown with jealousy.

She raised her glass to him and smiled over the rim. ‘Shall we drink to a swift voyage for Lord Cumbrae?’

‘Indeed.’ He lifted his glass. ‘A short swift voyage to the bottom of the ocean for him and all his countrymen.’

‘My dear Colonel,’ she smiled, ‘how droll. But softly now, here comes my latest plaything.’

Two green-jackets from the castle escorted Aboli onto the terrace. He was dressed in a pair of tight-fitting black trousers and a white cotton shirt cut full to encompass his broad chest and
massive arms. He stood silently before her.

Katinka switched into English. ‘In future you will bow when you enter my presence and you will address me as mistress, and if you forget I will ask Slow John to remind you. Do you know who
Slow John is?’

‘Yes, mistress,’ Aboli rumbled, without looking at her.

‘Oh, good! I thought you might be tiresome, and that I would have to have you broken and tamed. This makes things easier for both of us.’ She took a sip of the wine, then looked him
over slowly with her head on one side. ‘I bought you on a whim, and I have not decided what I shall do with you. However, Governor Kleinhans is taking his coachman home with him when he
sails. I will need a new coachman.’ She turned to Colonel Schreuder. ‘I have heard these Negroes are good with animals. Is that your experience also, Colonel?’

‘Indeed, Mevrouw. Being animals themselves they seem to have a rapport with all wild and domestic beasts.’ Schreuder nodded, and studied Aboli unhurriedly. ‘He is a fine
physical specimen but, of course, one does not look for intelligence in them. I congratulate you on your purchase.’

‘Later, I may breed him with Sukeena,’ Katinka mused. The slave girl went still, but her back was turned so that they could not see her face. ‘It might be diverting to see how
the black blood mingles with the gold.’

‘A most interesting mixture.’ Schreuder nodded. ‘But are you not worried that he may escape? I saw him fight on the deck of the
Standvastigheid
and he is a truculent
savage. A leg iron might be suitable costume for him, at least until he has been broken in.’

‘I do not think I need go to such pains,’ Katinka said. ‘I was able to observe him at length during my captivity. Like a faithful dog, he is devoted to the pirate Courtney and
even more so to his brat. I believe he would never try to escape while either of them is alive in the castle dungeons. Of course, he will be locked in the slave quarters at night with the others,
but during working hours he will be allowed to move around freely to attend to his duties.’

‘I am sure you know best, Mevrouw. But I for one would never trust such a creature,’ Schreuder warned her.

Katinka turned back to Sukeena. ‘I have arranged with Governor Kleinhans that Fredricus is to teach Aboli his duties as coachman and driver. The
Standvastigheid
will not sail for
another ten days. That should be ample time. See to it immediately.’

Sukeena made the gracious oriental obeisance. ‘As Mistress commands,’ she said, and beckoned for Aboli to follow her.

She walked ahead of him down the pathway to the stables where Fredricus had drawn up the coach and Aboli was reminded of the posture and carriage of the young virgins of his own tribe. As little
girls they were trained by their mothers, carrying the water gourds balanced on their heads. Their backs grew straight and they seemed to glide over the ground, as this girl did.

‘Your brother, Althuda, sends you his heart. He says that you are his tiger orchid still.’