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The demonstration Woodes Rogers had made with the execution Charles Vane failed deter Anne Bonny from her decision to convince her husband that they should turn to piracy, but she nevertheless acknowledged that it would be too risky for them to engage in piracy anywhere in the Caribbean. She knew that many of the pirates originally operating out of Nassau who did not accept King George’s amnesty had sailed south of the Spanish Main to continue their trade, and after several days of inquiry she learned where most of them had gone. There was plentiful trade between Africa, Europe and the Portuguese colony of Brazil whose shipping channels, when compared to the Spanish, English and French routes further north, were relatively unprotected. The destination she had decided on was Colonia del Sacramento, a Portuguese settlement located close to the border with the Spanish colonies. This was a town which served as a base for many pirates, and with the abundance of merchants there who traded freely with both the Spanish and the Portuguese, it was the ideal place for fencing booty since customs inspections were very loosely adhered to and official stamps were easily purchased from obliging officials.
Anne had convinced herself that, having had time to think about her strong negative reaction to his becoming a government informant, James would have also reached the conclusion that piracy was the only practical way forward. She was eagerly awaiting his return from Harbour Island and excitedly rushed home from the Queens Arms on the evening of his scheduled return. After months of listening to the wondrous stories of the free life at sea from the sailors in the tavern, she was anxious for James to sail away with her into what she perceived to be the perfect life.
James was already home when Anne arrived. It was dusk and he was casually leaning back in a chair and looking out of the window but jumped up from his relaxation as soon as she came in and ran to her with an ebullient, “I’ve so missed you, Anne.”
The warming embraces were such that when James took her hand to lead her she expected him to take her to the bed, but instead they went to the kitchen table. “What do you think of that?” He announced proudly, the outspread fingers of his right hand pointing to a row of neatly piled up coins. Some of them were gold.
“There’s five guineas and twenty crowns there,” He said, happily watching as Anne brushed the back of her fingers against the piles of coins to spread them out across the table. This was the equivalent of a year’s wages for her from the tavern, and more than twice what James could have hoped to have netted from even the most successful cargo run.
Anne’s mouth contorted in delight and she stared wide-eyed at James. “So you started at the pirate life without me then, eh?” She said, playfully throwing her arms around his neck and planting an open mouthed kiss squarely on the lips that he was just opening to respond with. Her mind had been so obsessed with the two of them engaging in her romantic vision of piracy that it never occurred to her that this money might have come from anywhere else. The beautiful illusion was fleeting, however. As James slowly pushed back and she looked up into his eyes she immediately knew that something was amiss. And then his, “Don’t be silly, Anne,” came as a demeaning slap in the face. Her face lost expression and she grabbed the side of the table with her right hand to steady herself.
“I mean,” James tried to soften his wife with a weak smile. “Didn’t we already flog that horse to death the last time we discussed it?”
Anne folded her arms and remained rigidly silent. Her glare demanded explanation.
“It’s not what you think,” he told her. “While we were unloading our cargo on Harbour Island I took the opportunity to wander around and saw that some of the other ships were moving barrels directly into the warehouses without clearing customs inspection first. I was curious about how this could be, so I asked around and found out that one man had made a market in the rum and molasses trade there. All that came onto the island went directly through his warehouses, and he had some sort of a mutual arrangement with the inspectors.”
“You mean, he was paying them off?”
“Right.”
“So? King George rakes the colonists pretty hard with taxes. It seems to me that we should be applauding some creative avoidance on this man’s part.”
“No! It’s not right. This man, Richard Thompson, then goes ahead and ships the rum up to Charleston where it sells at an unfair profit at prices that compete with honest men.”
“What is it that you telling me?”
“I’m telling you that Governor Rogers was very pleased to learn about this smuggling operation, and he gave me this money as a reward. Look at it. Think about all the things we can do with that sort of money.”
“So,” Anne bared her teeth and snarled. “You slimy piece of filth. After everything I said to you, you just went ahead and became a government snitch anyway.” She spun her outstretched arm across the table and scattered the money across the room. “There! That’s what I think.”
“Damnit, Anne. You’ve had days to get over that stupid blow up of yours. I you that this was inevitable. I figured by now you’d have grown up a bit and could see some common sense. Whatever happened to your agreeing to think about it while I was gone?”
“You were supposed to think about it too, you bastard! Telling me that you wanted to ‘make me happy’ were just words to shut me up, weren’t they?” She shook her head so hard that her teeth rattled. “You’re a liar and a bastard.”
“You hold your tongue right there.” James voice was suddenly booming, drowning hers out. “In case you’re forgetting, I’m the husband in this relationship. Now, since I’m the one who’s going to be earning the money, then I’ll be the one to decide just how it’s going to be earned. And now that I’m finally able to properly provide for us, you’ll no longer have to work. So a little gratitude on your part might be in order. Starting right now it’s high time for you to sit back, shut up with this anti-government nonsense and start behaving like a proper wife.”
“Oh, so now it’s a ‘wife’ you want, is it? Someone to sit back and do what she’s told? We’ll you’re definitely talking to the wrong girl about that. I meant it when I told you that if you went ahead with this then I’d divorce you.”
“On what grounds?” James smirked annoyingly. “For being a good citizen, perhaps? For working on the side of law and order to help convict criminals?”
“What about bad faith and being a liar?”
“Sorry. The only grounds a wife can divorce a husband on are infidelity.” He shrugged. “And you know I’ve always been faithful to you.”
“What if I took up with another man, then?” She was panting through clenched teeth. “Would that be enough ‘grounds’ for you?”
“It would be grounds for having you flogged,” he said with an annoying smirk. “We’re subject to English law here, so divorcing is really only an option for a man.”
“Then why don’t you just divorce me? I assure you that I can make your life a living hell if you don’t.”
“Look, Anne.” James flopped the palms of his hands open. “Let’s calm down a bit and we can talk this through.”
“What’s there to talk about, you sniveling coward? You’ve make your position pretty clear to me.”
“Well, for one thing, you’d better keep out of the Queens Arms here on out. Just about everyone associated with that place is under suspicion. Governor Rogers told me that himself.”
“Suspicion for what?” He forced a harsh laugh. “Having a drink?”
“Don’t you be coy with me, you hussy. You know for a fact that it’s a hotbed of pirate and Jacobite sympathizing down there, and ever since Jack Rackham returned to Nassau and stirred it up even more the tensions have been starting to bubble over. The governor’s got extra eyes watching the docks,” he pointed two fingers at his own eyes, “In case it looks like anyone’s fitting for anything other than a cargo run. The hammer’s going to fall hard on anyone as soon as they make a move. Like I’ve said before, that life is over. Right now, it’s high time for you to stop with all this foolishness and start to see reason, Anne. Just sit back, smile, accept the fact that you’re stuck with me, and you’ll eventually learn to appreciate all that I’m doing for you.”
Anne grabbed a carving knife from the counter and swung around with it pointing towards him. “Stuck?” She screamed. “How about you getting stuck?” She jabbed the knife in his direction. “How about if I stick you with this?”
James raised the flats of his palms to her and backed up as she advanced towards him with the knife. “I wouldn’t need a divorce any more if I’d just stab you with this now, would I?” Anne’s mouth remained locked open in a crazed smile and her wide green eyes bore down on him. “I can solve this problem right away by making myself a widow.”
“Look, Anne.” James, clearly flustered, started backing towards the door. “I think I’d better leave you alone for a bit so you can settle down.” He reached behind his back, fumbling for the handle. “Yes?”
“Yes.” Anne held the knife triumphantly in front of her face as if she were brandishing a sword. “You go away. Maybe stay on your boat. For if I see hide or hair of you any more tonight, I swear that I’ll be killing you.”
Anne remained frozen in that pose for a full minute after James had closed the door behind him until she was sure that he wasn’t going to come back through it. She then tossed the knife onto the table and her body deflated into a chair. Now alone, she finally yielded to the uncontrollable wails and tears that she had been so desperately holding at bay. Nobody, especially her despicable husband, was going to see her weak and fragile.
Anne must have cried herself to sleep because the next thing she was aware of was being slumped over the table and the room was pitch dark. She lit a candle and looked up at the clock. It was 11pm. “What happens now?” She whispered to herself. She meant everything she had said to James, but he was right in that there really was no way out for her, and his expectation that she would eventually come around to his thinking was quite sound. “No,” she shouted to the empty room, pushed herself to her feet with both hands against the table top and shook her head free of thoughts of acquiescing. She would take a walk down to the tavern. She needed to talk to Mary.
“What’s wrong, Anne?” Mary gasped as Anne Bonny, sullen faced and with her hair uncharacteristically unkempt, approached her at the bar.
“May I speak with you?” Anne’s tone was almost a demand, but her resolute voice soon cracked as she quickly looked around and fell into a pleading, “Please?”
“Of course,” Mary replied. “Let’s go to my office. Come on now.”
Anne scurried quickly towards the office, refusing to make eye contact with anyone along the way, and Mary closed the door behind them. “You look absolutely awful, Anne. What’s happened?”
Mary listened without interruption while Anne recalled what had transpired with James, smiled when Anne told about the knife incident, then reached out and took Anne’s hands in hers. “Tell me,” She asked. “What do you think should be done with this information you’ve given me?”
“Well, first thing is to get a warning out to this Richard Thompson in Harbour Island fast, before the governor can send his troops there.”
“I agree.” Mary pointed the fingers of her right hand towards the ceiling, preempting Anne’s question. “Don’t worry, it will be taken care of right away.” She smiled. “And no-one is going to fault you for any of your husband’s actions,” She added reassuringly. “But the big question remaining is what do you want to do now with yourself?”
“What can I do?” Was the first thought that popped into Anne’s mind, but she then realized that Mary was underscoring what she had always tried to instill in others, that a person always has control over their own life. All they have to do is to step up and take it. Anne suddenly smiled knowingly and shook that ridiculously desperate thought out of her head. “It is all up to me, isn’t it?” She said brightly.
“Yes, it is entirely up to you, Anne.”
“Then I’m going to leave him.”
“Good. And?”
“I need to leave Nassau as well. I’ll have to find a new life somewhere else.”
“Splendid. And you’ll stay with us until you figure out what that might be. It’ll be much better for you at our place than going back to your house again.”
“I’d like that. Thank you so much.”
Mary stood up. “You can stay in here until closing if you like, but if you’re feeling better why not go have a drink and relax with the others in the tavern?”
“You know, I like that idea.” Anne responded. A thought, possibly even a plan, was already taking shape in her head. She walked back into the bar and, to her delight, she noticed Chris Condent sitting alone at a table. He broke into a delighted smile when he saw her walking boldly towards him. “Well, hello there Anne,” He said. “I didn’t know that you worked nights?”
“I don’t,” Anne smiled back at him. “I’m not working at all right now.”
“Then what brings you in here?” Chris pulled a chair out and beckoned to it.
“I’m here to take my pleasure.” Anne snuggled down into the chair. “So, what would you say about buying a girl a drink, Chris?”
