“No doubt, and no helping it. But charged with protecting the English ladies, I feel fairly certain that our guards would more willingly die defending them than protecting me.”
“Far more willing,” drawled Tromp,
“While you are around,” smiled Walbeeck, “I shall never lose my soul to the sin of Pride. You are my guardian angel.”
Tromp grunted as he felt the sunlight grow quick and warm on the side of his face. “A more improbable guardian angel there has never been.”
“And yet here you sit, wearing a halo!” Walbeeck grinned, gesturing to the sun behind Tromp. “Now, have you decided to stop serving coffee on this sorry hull of yours?”
“Not yet,” said Tromp, who almost smiled.
Two hours later, the coronet pealed again. Tromp frowned at Walbeeck’s sudden and serious glance at the rum.
“Just one swallow. For perseverance in the face of immovable objects and irremediable ignorance.”
“Jan, don’t reinforce our enemies’ characterization of us.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“You know perfectly well what I mean. Our resolve in battle is too often linked to our bolting shots of gin just before. ‘Dutch courage,’ they call it.”
“Well, I could use a little of that courage right about now . . .”
The dreaded knock on the door was gentle enough but felt like a death knell to Tromp. “Enter,” he said, trying to keep the sigh out of his voice. He flattered himself to imagine that he had succeeded.
The group that entered was not quite as ominously monolithic as he had feared. There were friendly faces among those crowding into the Amelia’s suddenly claustrophobic great cabin. Servatius Carpentiere and “Phipps” Serooskereken had been part of the Politieke Raad at Recife, and early converts to the exigency-driven agricultural changes that they had brought to St. Eustatia. But Jehan de Bruyne, also a member of that body, had been diametrically opposed from the start, and remained so, now drawing support from original Oranjestad settlers Jan Haet and Hans Musen, whose expectations of quick wealth had been dashed by the arrival of Tromp’s ships and slavery injunctions.
Respectful nods notwithstanding, Musen was quick to confirm both the purpose and tenor of this visit by the determinative civil bodies of the St. Eustatia colony. “Admiral Tromp, we are sorry to disturb you on this busy day—”
—not half as sorry as I am—
“—but we have just learned that you will be setting sail soon. Today, it is rumored.”
Tromp shrugged. “There are always rumors. Please continue.”
Musen looked annoyed. “Very well. Since no one seems to know, or is willing to say, when you might return, we must make an appeal now, relevant to upcoming matters of commercial importance.”
Tromp had had cannon aimed at him with less certainty of fell purpose. “Yes?”
“Admiral, you have forbidden the acquisition of new slaves with which to work the plantations here on St. Eustatia—”
“—which we still protest!” Jan Haet put in archly.
“—but we presume that this would not apply to any farms established on land that is not Dutch-owned.”
Tromp resisted the urge to grind his molars. And damn me for a fool that I did not see this coming. “Mr. Musen, allow me to prevent you from spending time here profitlessly. The rules that apply on St. Eustatia apply equally to any plantations you may put in place on St. Christopher’s.”
“But that is English land!” shouted Jan Haet.
“But under our dominion while we lease it!” retorted Phipps Serooskereken.
“Immaterial,” countered Musen coolly. “The terms of use permitted on the tracts around Sandy Point were made quite explicitly by Lord Warner: use of slaves is expressly permitted.”
Jan van Walbeeck smiled broadly, and perhaps a bit wickedly. “Then perhaps you are preparing to swear loyalty to Thomas Warner?”
The various combatants started at him.
“Because, logically, that is what you must intend.”
Jan Haet, as ardent a Dutch nationalist as he was a slaveholder, rose up to his full height of 5’5”. “I intend no such thing, and you know it, Jan van Walbeeck!”
“Do I? Here is what I know. Fact: Lord Warner may no longer be a lord at all. England has renounced claim to the land he holds and upon which his title is based. Fact: your actions are not constrained by what he permits, but by what this regional authority allows you to do, as a Dutchman, in this place and time. And you have been forbidden from acquiring more slaves. So unless you wish to renounce your citizenship in the United Provinces, what Thomas Warner permits you to do is secondary to what your government permits. And fact: swearing allegiance to Warner makes you men without a country and therefore invalidates you from working the leased land at Sandy Point, since that agreement exists solely between the representatives of the United Provinces and Thomas Warner.” Jan Walbeeck smiled. “But of course, you can always become citizens of Thomas Warner’s nation. If he ever declares one, that is.”