12. RAVISHING ARMADA
Chapter 1
“But what if it’s a trap, Oloff?” Henning Roux sounded concerned. His tall, lithe form was slightly bent forward. The rowers rested on their oars as he gently asked them to cease rowing. The ship’s boat glided silently through the still water of Hout Bay. Only the roar of the breakers on the beach was carried to them by the evening wind from the land.
“I don’t understand your attitude at all, Henning,” Oloff responded. His soft, cultured voice sounded cheerful as he dismissed his friend’s fear, but he too anxiously tried to see the beach through the darkness behind the white fringe of foam. The dim starlight reflected in his blue eyes and cast a faint glimmer on the flaming red hair that was neatly tied back in his neck with a ribbon. His broad shoulders were back, and he stood upright in the stern of the boat with the rudder in his right hand. His left hand rested comfortably on the butt of a pistol in his wide belt where he had pulled back his cloak.
“It’s been a few years since you last saw Te Hoogen, Oloff,” Henning persisted.
“And why would he, in those few years, decide that it is necessary to set a trap for me?” Oloff countered calmly. “He knows that I trust him. He could easily have approached me openly and apprehended me.” He shook his head almost as if he wanted to convince himself too. “Row,” he urged his crew, and at the same time, he steered the boat to the left towards the dark beach below the high peak that enclosed one side of the bay.
“Perhaps he never knew how to get in touch with you, Oloff,” Henning said gloomily. “Now you have asked him to meet you. Maybe he is seizing his chance...”
“Admiral Rynhardt te Hoogen is an honorable man, Henning,” Oloff rebuked his friend almost formally. “He was sent to chase me from the sea back then. It wasn’t very difficult to convince him of my honest intentions at the time. He himself promoted me to captain of the Dutch fleet. Why would he suddenly now?”
“Back then, you were engaged to his sister, Oloff,” Henning interrupted. “Since then, your engagement has been broken, and you haven’t seen her again. Before, she was your advocate.”
“We didn’t part as bitter enemies, Henning. She wasn’t willing to accept my wanderer’s life. For me, it was impossible to stop it at that stage when the urge and the resentment that I harbored against the pirate community was still so much stronger in me than it is now. Then...”
“I know all of that, Oloff.” His friend rested his hand on Oloff’s shoulder. “But you are married today, and feelings could have changed. It’s for your sake that I am concerned.”
“I know that, Henning,” Oloff answered sincerely. “I appreciate it. But I don’t believe that Rynhardt or Anna are so petty that, in the event they did receive news about me, they would change their opinion of me and their trust in me as a result.” He laughed softly, but cheerfully, as if to end this depressing conversation.
“Why are you coming up with all these objections at the eleventh hour? From the beginning, I consulted with you step by step. We agreed that it was a good plan to call on Rynhardt’s help.”
“I know.” Henning sighed. He looked ahead because they already felt the swell of the first breaker under them, and the foam splashes from the white breaker fringes were spiteful in their faces. “I’m wondering now if we shouldn’t have just continued with our plans on our own.”
“You’re nagging like an old woman, Henning!” Oloff exclaimed softly. “The destruction of Deelen Bay is a huge task. With Rynhardt’s help, we will be able to reach our goal so much sooner. And that’s not all. You constantly forget that after the eradication of that nest of robbers, we can once again enter civilized society with clear consciences and settle down somewhere as normal citizens of a peaceful community. Before we can do that, however, we must prove our innocence in the eyes of the world. We need witnesses, Henning, not just one, but hundreds so that they can spread th
