Read Online Haunted Harbours by Steve Vernon - Free Book Online Page B

tides, Glooscap scattered his grandmother’s jewelry bag on the shores of Parrsboro, thus creating its abundance of natural wealth.
    In John Parr’s time, the waters of Nova Scotia were home to scores of ruthless pirates and privateers. One such pirate, a Sicilian by the name of Dionaldo, was making a fine living pirating the boats that passed by.
    Mention pirates and people will picture sashes, cutlasses, and golden hoop earrings, men shouting “Yo ho!” and swinging from ropes with knives in their teeth, or one-legged sea captains with gaudy parrots perched on their shoulders. That’s not how it really was. More often than not, a pirate would simply pull up beside your ship, possibly with two or three ships of his own, and point a cannon at your ship’s hull. You would be given the option to surrender, and perhaps become a pirate yourself. If your ship was deemed seaworthy, the pirate would seize it and hoist his own flag, thus increasing his flotilla. Pirating was a business, plain and simple.
    Mary Jane Hawkins sailed with her father on trading missions in his ship, the Red Hawk . Some swore that a woman on board a ship was simply asking for bad luck, but Mary Jane’s father held no such belief. Being both captain and owner of the ship, his word held sway over all the crew’s fears.
    Yet perhaps the crew had been right in this instance.
    The trouble began when Dionaldo’s vessel came aside of the Red Hawk . The captain would not surrender and so he and the crew were massacred. Mary Jane, however, was saved for other purposes. Knowing what her fate would be, she tried to fling her-self overboard, but Dionaldo would have none of that. Had circumstances been different, this tale might have ended a little more abruptly. Possibly Mary Jane might have escaped or drowned her-self. Perhaps Mary Jane might have married Dionaldo and lived as a pirate-captain’s wife.
    At least that was how Dionaldo saw it. You see, Dionaldo was a bit of a romantic. He believed that he could woo this daughter of the sea, and that in time she would certainly fall in love with him. He couldn’t fathom the notion of her holding a grudge simply because he’d killed her father and all of her friends. She was just a girl, after all, and as wayward as the restless sea. He was certain her mood would turn, and she would find her way to his bunk. You’ve got to love an optimist.
    For several months he kept her locked in a ship’s cabin, feeding her scraps and trying to win her over. He would let her walk the deck every evening, leashed with a stout rope tied at his side. He talked to her, telling her the tales of bravado and adventure that he had lived through. He told her of how in the long nights when he’d stood at the wheel, he’d looked up into the northern skies and seen the colour of her eyes. Our Dionaldo was also a bit of a poet, and a charmer to boot.
    â€œI will give you precious gemstones and make you my bride,” he swore.
    Yet Mary Jane could not forget the sight of her dying father. At the earliest chance, she stole a dirk and tried to cut Dionaldo’s throat. He was too quick, though, and took the knife away from her.
    â€œIf you prefer the embrace of the sea to my arms, you shall have your wish,” Dionaldo swore.
    He would have thrown her overboard, but the sudden intervention of a British man-of-war saved Mary Jane from a watery grave. The pirate ship slipped away and found itself off the coast of Parrsboro, then uninhabited. Dionaldo took the girl ashore and accomplished his terrible revenge. He sealed her in a cave filled with raw amethyst and quartz, with a few salted pollack serving as her meagre provisions.
    â€œYou see,” Dionaldo howled. “I swore I would give you gem-stones, and so I have.”
    They sealed up the cave with rocks and covered the rocks with underbrush, and left Mary Jane to her lonely doom. Some say she died, some say she was