after a few days procrastinating, hit 62k

1 files changed, 30 insertions, 11 deletions

diff --git a/lbh.txt b/lbh.txt
index 7dee526..e1ba50c 100644
--- a/lbh.txt
+++ b/lbh.txt
@@ -2482,7 +2482,7 @@ The road into Charlestown became too rough to lie down in the back of the wagon.
 
 Then McPhail's voice brought her back to the world of the wagon and road. 
 
-"Don't know that I'll be doing this much she heard McPhail muttering as they maneuvered through a particularly jarring set of ruts. 
+"Don't know that I'll be doing this much" she heard McPhail mutter as they maneuvered through a particularly jarring set of ruts. 
 
 "If you don't like the road, and aren't going to come to the island, why do we have to leave?"
 
@@ -2494,33 +2494,52 @@ Then McPhail's voice brought her back to the world of the wagon and road.
 
 This was news to Birdie, but she did not let McPhail know it. Perhaps this was why her father didn't seem overly concerned. If all they were going to do was throw him in jail until he could pay these debts then that wasn't quite so worrying. Edward could certainly buy her father out if all else failed.
 
-"We haven't been stealing your trees. We didn't know they were your trees. I don't even know that they were your trees when we cut them, if we did cut them." She was quite proud of herself for adding the last bit, never admit to anything her father always told her.
+"But we haven't been stealing your trees. We didn't know they were your trees." She frowned. "I don't even know that they were your trees when we cut them, if we did cut them." She was quite proud of herself for adding the last bit, never admit to anything her father always told her.
 
+"I've owned them for longer than you've been alive my dear," said McPhail.
 
+"How come you own them?"
 
+"I own them because I have a piece of paper that says I own them. The king gave them to me."
 
+She thought this over a for minute. "But how did the king come to own them?" 
 
+"My dear girl, he claimed them of course."
 
+"But he forced out the Edisto. And the Kusso. And the Sewee. You overwhelmed them with force and marched them out."
 
+"I did not."
 
-I own them, I have a piece of paper that says I own them because the kind gave them to me.
+"British soldiers and settlers did."
 
-She thought this over a for miniute. "No, you don't. You forced out the Ediston and the tk, and the tk. You overwhelmed them with force and marched them out."
+"Yes. Yes, I suppose that's quite right, we did." He smiled quizzically at her. 
 
-I did not
+"And that's wrong. Every bit as wrong was what you say Papa did."
 
-British soldier did
+"No my child it's not."
 
-"Yes. Yes, I suppose that's quite right, I did." He smiled quizically at her. 
+This was what she'd been waiting for him to say. "If that's not wrong then why is wrong when Capitan Ratham overwhelms one of your ships and takes it from you?"
 
-"And that's wrong. Every bit as wrong was what you say papa did."
+"Woah!" He jerked the reins tight, and the horses nearly reared as the wagon can lurching to a stop. He said nothing, but turned and stared at her for a long time. She felt his eyes memorizing her features the way she had studied the pictures her book. Then he turned around again, shook the reins, and resumed their journey. This was what grownups did when they lost an argument, they pretended as if the whole thing had never happened. McPhail stared off into space and ignored her the remainder of the way into Charlestown.
+ 
+---
 
-"No my child it's not."
+The landscape changed as they neared Charlestown, swampy forest gave way to large rice fields and sugar plantations. Charlestown sat on a peninsula at the confluence of two rivers, nearly five miles upriver from the sea. The first river you came upon from the southern road that Birdie's wagon was slowly lumbering up, met the Ashley river and followed the edge of it to the ferry at the edge of town. The road was better here, Birdie was able to sit up without bracing herself again the sides. It wound through the great sugar plantations where her uncles and cousins once worked in the summer. Birdie felt a now familiar lump in her throat at the thought of them. She squinted in the sun and watched as armies of slaves worked the fields. Men with guns sat idly in the shade of oak trees. They waved to the party of soldiers and wagon as it lumbered past. Birdie just stared back. The slaves in the field looked up and just a quickly looked down again, lest the men in the shade notice them.
+
+Charlestown proper was a small walled city with some 3,000 residents, most recent arrivals come up from the sugar plantation islands of the British Indies. Charlestown was, she'd heard Jack Ratham say, Barbados with none of the fun. Birdie had never been to Barbados, but she did agree Charlestown wasn't much fun. It was a swampy lowlying piece of land chiefly appealing because it was well situated for loading cargo onto ships, which was the chief occupation of nearly everyone living in the city. The shoreline was muddy estuary, against which were stacked houses unlike any other Birdie had ever seen. They were high ceilinged structions with large windows and expansive balconies on the second story. They were capped with orange, tiled roofs. 
+
+Aside from the road Birdie was on, which led out to Edisto, Charlestown was entirely isolated. A city stranded on a narrow spit of muddy sand in the middle of a marsh. The only communication it had with the rest of the world was through the sea. To the north was North Carolina, largely in control of Blackbeard, Samual Bellamy, and other pirate bands. To the south was hostile Spanish Florida. Charlestown had no one to turn to in the event of attack, it was essentially, just like a West Indian slave island stranded on the coast of English America. 
+
+Worse for Charlestown, the entrance from the sea was blocked by a long sandbar that necessitated a pilot and was rather simple to attack. All you really had to do was sail up and wait, everything in the harbor was trapped. Birdie climbed down from the wagon and stretched her legs as the ferry brought them across the river into the city proper. She scanned the marsh for sails. There was one headed out to sea, but there was no sign of a blockade. As they rattled down the dusty streets toward the jailhouse though she saw the HMS Victory. If it was sitting here in the harbor, odds were it had never caught Delos. That meant her father's plan was unfolding as it should and everything was going to be okay. She glanced over at her father, he was watching her, he knew that she had noticed. The corner of his mouth smiled ever so slightly and he nodded to her before turning back to watch the street in front of him.
+
+The entire town turned out to watch the soldiers ride in, and especially to see who was riding in the middle of them, clearly a prisoner. Charlestown was a divided city. The majority of its residents were African slaves. After that the small percentage of business men fell into two groups, those that made their money off the backs of the slaves and those that made their money off the people who stole the first groups cargos. There were in essence, those who would benefit from the presence of the British, and those who would not. The one you had to watch out for her father had told here, were the men who made money both ways. They were the dangerous ones not to be trusted.
+
+Bridie watched The faces watching her from doorways. She saw a mixture of expressions. Some clearly uneasy at the sight of the soldiers, uneasy at the sight of her father in chains. Others seemed pleased to see both. And every now and then she noticed men whose expression was inscrutable. Men who seemed neither uneasy, nor pleased. Men who were trying to sense which way the wind was blowing. Men who could only sail where the wind blew them. Men who were dangerous.
 
-This was what she'd been waiting for him to say. "Then why is wrong when Capitan Ratham overwhelms one of your ships and takes it from you?"
 
-"Woah!" He jerked the reins tight, and the horses nearly reared as the wagon can lurching to a stop. He said nothing, but turned and stared at her for a long time. She felt his eyes memorizing her features the way she had studied the pictures her book. Then he turned around again, shook the reins, and resumed their journey, McPhail staring off into space and ignoring her the remainder of the way into Charlestown.
+there were hundreds of miles of creeks, inlets, and islands on the North Carolina coast to hide among, places with entrances too shallow or convoluted for a large warship to follow them. For a novice pirate with a powerful vessel, the Carolinas provided a perfect sandbox in which to learn the trade.
 
+### Lulu and Henri at sea.
 
 ### following your path campfire talk