Page 1 of A Fire in Their Hearts
M EN CRY OUT FOR LOVED ones, but there are no mothers, sisters or sweethearts to reply, only the creaking and cracking of huge oak planks as the doomed ship breaks up.
They beg for the Lord’s mercy, but the hungry sea screams louder and it will have all our souls before this night is over, for while Captain Teddico and his crew rowed to the safety of the shore, we were kept locked in the hold – left to die.
Two hundred and fifty-seven of us are crammed together with our filth and fear while the Crown of London , driven onto rocks off the coast of Orkney, is battered by a storm that will soon reduce everything to broken pieces of wood, canvas and bodies.
Despite the desperate efforts of those heaving against the hatch, it remains fast.
And so the end of our long, hard fight has come to this, when we began with such hope and certainty. We who have been falsely accused, beaten, starved, tortured, forced to watch friends and family executed .?.?. all for daring to claim a freedom that is every Scotsman’s right.
Amongst the madness and mayhem, I clutch to my chest my darling wife Violet, disguised as a man so that we would not be separated – now about to die for her love.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whisper, wishing desperately there was a way I could go back, undo what’s done and save her from a watery grave.
Somehow she hears me above the howls of misery and despair, or perhaps it’s simply that she knows what’s in my heart. Her instincts were always so astute you could rely upon them even if they contradicted what your own eyes told you. I loosen my grip as Violet pulls back to look at me.
‘Samuel, I would rather die than continue alone. I have no regrets.’
The few remaining lanterns that have not smashed on the floor swing wildly from their hooks, briefly illuminating the terrified faces around us before they are plunged back into darkness and making what is seen, then unseen, even more frightening.
‘Better that we end this very night than be banished to a strange land.’ She speaks so calmly, with such conviction and certainty; not at all as if she is standing on the edge of life itself.
‘We’ve kept true to what is right, and for all his wealth and power the king is merely a man who’ll eventually die and be replaced by another.
Never doubt that others will continue our fight.
We might not see it, but the time will come when Scotsmen don’t have such hate in their hearts that they murder countrymen on sight for carrying a Bible. ’
The ship lurches and we’re pushed painfully by the crush of bodies, only staying upright because there is no space to fall down.
‘Violet, if you get the chance, you must swim for the shore,’ I beg her.
‘Not without you.’
‘Please! I’ll try to keep us together—’
As if suddenly picked up by some giant, the vessel shifts upon the rocks, then a grating noise so loud it feels as though it is inside my head is followed immediately by icy water rushing into the hold.
Within seconds, it is up to my waist. Men scream as we’re engulfed by the sea, then moments later Violet is wrenched from my arms as we’re sucked violently out of the broken hull – into the waiting blackness.