I: Ladies and Gentlemen

The colours of the egg turned from a reddish pink to a greenish purple as the Caribbean sun hit its surface.
‘Pray make sure it stays warm’, Laurence ordered Emily Roland and Peter Dyer as he walked past, overseeing his crew unloading some of the cargo from Temeraire’s harness unto the landing plateau on the hillside.
They had parted from the ship a few hours ago and had flown the last miles to the island of Tortola, biggest of the British Virgin Islands, where they had to report to the Army Headquarters. Their journey up to now had been a long one, and Laurence was glad the end was near; from here on, all they had to do was accompany the egg to Bermuda, deliver it to the Prince, and go home.
But first, there was work to be done.
‘Put the crates over there if you will, mister Riggs’, he said to his lieutenant as he walked by to join John Granby; Riggs ordered the hands to do as he was told while Temeraire lay down on the hot stones and closed his eyes.
‘So far, so good’, Laurence said as he relaxed a little, looking over the calm, glistering sea in front of him. The past few months had been a chain of unfortunate events as they had travelled to the inlands of Peru to retrieve the egg. They had only barely survived, and Laurence couldn’t help but being still on edge. ‘We best be on our way’, he told Grandy; it would take a while to reach town, since they had to walk in order not to disturb the townsfolk with the presence of a dragon. Laurence was just about to say goodbye to Temeraire when a scrawny boy with hair like straw appeared on the landing plateau. He was dressed in a blue uniform that looked very peculiar on him, probably due to the fact it was two sizes too small.
‘Milord!’, he said loud and formally as he made a bow before Laurence. ‘May I present to you Lady Katherine de Wit, daughter of the acclaimed Dutch diplomat Theodoor de Wit.’
He made a very excessive gesture towards the path leading up to the plateau, where at that moment a blonde girl appeared. She was followed by a giant of a man with skin as black as coffee, who Laurence guessed was her slave.
As soon as she stepped on the platform the crew started whispering excitingly among themselves. Laurence could feel Granby tense beside him, and he too straightened his jacket as subtle as he could manage. Not only had they not seen a woman in a month, Theodoor de Wit was one of the most prominent members of Tortola-society.
She smiled shyly at the men and looked in clear wonder at Temeraire, who was by now half-asleep in the warm morning sun, before she walked up to Laurence, made a polite bow and said softly: ‘Milord’, in greeting.
Laurence was for a moment not sure what to say to the well-dressed young woman in front of him; her white tight-fitting dress unintentionally made him well aware of his own worn clothes, but he quickly steadied himself and bowed.
‘Welcome milady. Captain William Laurence, of Temeraire, and first lieutenant John Granby.’ Granby nervously made a bow. ‘To what do we owe this pleasure?’
‘The pleasure is all mine, I assure you’, Lady De Wit said in a sweet voice. ‘We saw you arrive and since papa is out of town, we ourselves went on our way to greet you immediately. Welcome to Tortola.’ She again made a bow, and Laurence and Granby again returned the gesture.
A silence fell upon them, but when Laurence noticed the girl could not take her eyes off Temeraire, he realised what she was really here for.
‘Would you like to meet him?’, he asked and her expression brightened at once.
‘I would love to’, she exclaimed and Laurence couldn’t help but smile at her childlike enthusiasm.
He offered her his arm as they walked over to Temeraire, closely followed by the slave and the boy; he felt her tense when they stopped before the dragon.
‘There is nothing to worry about in the least, I assure you’, he said softly and she smiled a little embarrassed, as if she had not wanted him to notice her fret.
‘Pray allow me to introduce to you my companion, Temeraire.’ Laurence said his name slightly louder, which worked; Temeraire opened one eye and, when he spotted the young lady on the arm of his captain, opened the other too and tilted his head towards them.
Before Laurence could tell him to behave, or even to reassure Lady De Wit, the young woman next to him surprised them both; she made a charming bow towards Temeraire and said as bravely as she could: ‘Temeraire, it is truly a pleasure to meet you. My name is Katherine de Wit and I came here especially to see you.’
That flattery worked like a charm; Temeraire sat up and fluttered his ruff a little for her to admire. ‘It is nice to meet you too’, he answered politely. ‘You live on this island?’
‘Yes, I do’, Lady De Wit answered in high spirits, still clearly excited by the encounter. ‘I live here with my father. Are you going to be stationed at Gorda?’, she asked, referring to the dragon covert at the island of Gorda, to the east.
‘We are only here to report to the Army Headquarters, milady’, Laurence jumped in. He could not risk Temeraire giving away too much information; the fact that they were on their way to deliver a dragon egg of unknown breed to Prince Adolphus himself could better be kept a secret for as long as possible.
‘I see’, Lady De Wit said, and a witty smile appeared on her face. ‘A secret mission, how exciting.’
‘Yes, well…’, Laurence murmured a little uneasy. Even though she was quite young, no older than twenty by Laurence’s judgement, she was obviously bright enough to see through his diversion.
‘It is all right, captain’, Lady De Wit said with a warm smile as she sat down in a chair offered to her by one of the hands, accepting a cup of tea. ‘I understand completely; my father is never allowed to talk about his work either. Did you really carry all that load?’, she asked Temeraire, thereby cunningly moving past the subject. A diplomat’s daughter indeed, Laurence thought as he too sat down, and realised she had probably been taught the art of conversation ever since she was a child.
‘Oh, that’s nothing’, Temeraire said proudly, looking in the direction of the cargo laid out on the plateau.
‘Even with that entire load plus our whole crew aboard, Temeraire can still fly at great speed’, Laurence added a little proudly himself.
‘Unbelievable’, Lady De Wit sighed as she brought her cup of tea to her mouth, holding her little finger neatly raised in the air. ‘I assume you have to secure the cargo a great deal, in order for it to survive the flight’, she added after a moment.
This Temeraire took as a personal matter, for he straightened himself and said in a slightly offended voice: ‘I can assure you that I am perfectly capable of delivering my cargo without the slightest of damage. Milady’, he added quickly when he saw Laurence’s firm look. She, however, was the one that apologized.
‘Pray forgive me, Temeraire’, she said and looked up to him friendly. ‘I did not mean to offend you in the least. It is just hard to imagine how a dragon as strong and mighty as you can also be so precise and delicate.’
Laurence tried to hide a smile when Temeraire was immediately pleased by this remark.
‘Well, I am very precise and delicate indeed’, the dragon went on proudly. ‘Look: even the egg is quite safe with me.’
Laurence, who had been about to take a sip of his tea, stopped mid-way; the cup hanging frozen in front of his mouth as he closed his eyes. He should have seen that coming…
‘Egg?’ Lady De Wit asked as her face lit up. ‘You do not honestly mean to say you have a dragon egg with you?’
‘A special delivery ordered by His Majesty himself’, Laurence admitted now the secret was out.
They walked over to Roland and Dyer, who had wrapped the egg in cloths. Laurence carefully removed them, exposing the egg, and Lady De Wit kneeled down in front of it. She lovingly laid her hand upon the smooth, currently red-pink, surface.
‘Milady,’ Laurence began softly as he kneeled beside her, ‘since this is a very special delivery as you might well imagine, I would like to keep this piece of cargo a secret for as long as possible.’ He looked her in the eyes and she looked back, smiling.
‘Captain, pray do not worry. I will not tell a soul. It will be our little secret’, she added and smiled brightly.
‘Bear! Bear!’, the boy with the hair like straw suddenly yelled. Both Laurence and Katherine raised and turned around to face him; he was standing a little ways off and had opened one of the crates, right under the surprised noses of the crew. ‘They have weapons here!’, he added to the slave apparently named Bear standing by.
‘Pray keep your hands off!’ Laurence called and took a step forward, but neither Bear nor the boy seemed to listen.
‘What the – ’, Laurence started, but he never had a change to finish; with great force someone kicked him at the back of his right leg. He lost his balance and before his knees had properly hit the hard stones below him, an arm enclosed around his throat from behind and he felt the cold barrel of a pistol press against the back of his head.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you’, she said, teasingly, and Laurence unwillingly got his hand away from the pistol that hung from his belt.
‘Get back’, Katherine de Wit said to Granby, and when he – out of sheer disbelieve, judged by the look on his face – did not respond immediately, she tightened her grip around Laurence’s throat and pressed down the pistol harder.
‘Laurence!’, Temeraire exclaimed in a panicked manner.
‘Get back, dragon!’, Katherine yelled as she turned to face Temeraire, positioning Laurence between herself and the beast; to his concern, Laurence could not hear a shred of fear in her voice, which had changed from sweet and friendly to stern and unyielding.
‘I said get back’, she repeated and slowly started to tighten her grip around Laurence’s neck even further.
‘Just do what she says, Temeraire’, Granby said firmly as he recovered his senses and gestured the rest of the crew back to give them room. Unwillingly Temeraire took a step back, but when he wanted to pull the egg backwards with him, Katherine stopped him.
‘Leave that there’, she commanded and yelled: ‘Flint, get that egg.’
The scrawny boy with the hair like straw trotted forward eagerly. ‘One wrong move, dragon, and I splatter your captain’s brains all over the pavement. Got it?’, she added defying, knowing Temeraire could do nothing but obey.
The boy Flint moved forward bravely, and snatched the egg away from Temeraire’s frustrated growls. He even had the nerve to eye the dragon a moment, which made Temeraire bare his teeth and clutch the ground with his claws, making an unpleasant scraping sound.
‘Stop acting like a hero, Flint, or I’ll make you pay for it tenfold’, Katherine said when she noticed, and the boy immediately hurried back to Bear, who had pulled out his own gun and was standing near the path leading down to the road.
Again Katherine aimed her words at Temeraire. ‘If I see so much as a dot on the horizon, he is a dead man. Is that clear?’
Temeraire growled deeply, but when Katherine again tightened her grip around Laurence’s throat, thereby making him cling his hands to her strangling arm, he nodded.
‘Same goes for you’, she added to Granby, who looked as if he could kill her with his bare hands at any moment. But after a moment he too nodded slowly, and Katherine loosened her grip on Laurence.
‘One wrong move,’ she whispered softly in his ear, ‘and we’re having omelette for supper.’
With that remark, she forced him on his feet, clinging to the back of his collar tightly with one hand and holding her pistol with the other, pushing him in the direction of the path.
For a brief moment Laurence thought of overpowering her; she was smaller than him and certainly less strong, and it would only take a moment of confusion to create an opportunity for Temeraire. Then he saw the boy Flint, standing next to Bear, with a pistol pressed against the smooth surface of the almost hatching egg.
And with that, his fate was sealed.
They walked downhill to the road, where a carriage was waiting for them. A devious looking man was already holding the door open. Lawrence was forced in, followed by Katherine, Flint and the egg and Bear and as soon as the door closed behind them they set off in the opposite direction of town.
It was hot inside, and no one spoke. Bear peered back through the window while Katherine pointed her pistol casually at Laurence, who sat next to her. Laurence looked tight lipped in front of him at Flint, who was holding the egg. When the boy noticed Laurence was watching him, he made sure Laurence saw the gun in his hand and then smiled broadly.
His teeth were yellow and Laurence looked away.
After a while the carriage stopped and Katherine ordered Laurence to get out after Bear. The sun shone brightly and it took Laurence a moment to realise where they were; then he heard the ocean en saw the beach in front of them.
A boat with a couple of men waiting in front of it was tied there and, a little ways behind, a decent sized vessel lay anchored. Laurence looked at Katherine, who stood next to him overseeing the men loading the egg and themselves into the boat.
‘That is a nice ship you have got there, Katherine’, he said disdainful, only now fully understanding the scale of her plans.
‘Well, thank you, Laurence!’, she said excessively cheerful, ignoring the bitter tone in his voice completely. ‘Now stop calling me Katherine and get in that boat.’