Ill Wind and Dead Reckoning: Caribbean Pirate Adventure (Valkyrie) Read Online Free Page A

sends his apologies for not meeting you in person, there was an important matter that needed his attention.’
    ‘Hmpf!’ Mr van Ecken did not seem pleased. ‘May I present Mistress Berryngton? This is Rensink, Brisingamen’s overseer,’ he introduced. ‘Erik should be here his wife to greet,’ he continued.
    I stayed silent – I’d already learned it was the best tactic where Jan van Ecken was concerned.
    We climbed aboard the carriage; van Ecken sitting up front with Rensink, who took the reins of the single horse. Klara and I sat behind and the chests were lifted up into the bed of the cart. We left with no farewells to the sailors who’d brought us here.
    *
    We were soon surrounded by jungle and I gazed about me at every shade of green imaginable and every description of bloom: red spikes, soft yellows, blues, pinks and more. The air was flooded with scent and filled with noise, and the heat made me feel faint – it could not have been more different from Massachusetts Bay.
    After half an hour the trees thinned out and we drove through sugarcane fields. I noticed something to one side, and peered closer, then turned to Klara to ask about it. Her head was turned and she refused to look or answer. I turned back, fascinated, until the shape of it started to make sense. A cage – just large enough to hold a man – and suspended from one of the larger trees. We drew level and I gasped when I saw the base was littered with bones.
    ‘The slaves may have the strength of beasts, but they also have the minds of beasts.’ Van Ecken had turned in his seat to address me. ‘They need sometimes reminding who their masters are.’
    I stared at him in shock, unable to find any words, and he turned to face forward again.
    ‘Here we are – Brisingamen,’ he said a few moments later and with obvious pride. I craned my neck to see past him and Rensink to catch my first glimpse of my new home.
    It was very large: two storeys painted gold, with a steep roof and a short, squat tower at either end. A broad veranda ran the length of the front and overlooked a large lawn. It made Father’s cottage in Massachusetts Bay look like a shack. I smiled, although I couldn’t quite shake the image of that cage from my mind.

Chapter 7
     
     
    I followed Mr van Ecken through the largest of the seven arches framing the veranda into a large entrance hall in the centre of the house. Dominated by a grand staircase straight ahead and with the walls painted white so as not to clash with the black-and-white tiled floor, it was an ostentatious display of the van Eckens’ wealth. I could see only two doors, one to the left, the other to my right, and I jumped when two men dressed in indigo livery with gold braiding appeared out of the shadows behind the staircase.
    ‘Hans, Hendrik, get the chests from the carriage,’ van Ecken ordered. They both nodded once and gave us a wide berth as they walked outside. I smiled as they passed me, but neither met my eyes.
    I glanced at Klara, but she also kept her eyes to the floor.
    ‘In here,’ van Ecken said, marching to the left-hand door and opening it. I walked through into a large, airy drawing room. Decorated in gold-flock wallpaper, it had three large settees and a number of small carved tables.
    A large oil painting of a formidable-looking woman dressed in black dominated the walls, and she looked across the room towards the veranda and outside. I crossed to the veranda doors and looked out at the large expanse of garden in front of the house, and wondered what there would be to do here.
    Raised voices disturbed my thoughts, but I couldn’t understand what was being said. I watched two men leave the house; they looked quite similar in that they both had broad shoulders and bowed legs; just like the sailors on the ship. They also wore the same clothes – linen shirts and short, baggy breeches, but these two had added all sorts of finery to the basic outfit. Good quality leather boots on their