1030. Chapter 1030

After Much Ado About Murder

Part Three

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: The game's afoot. Follow your spirit and upon this fanfic, cry," God for Istria, England and Lady Katherine." Rating: K Time: Immediately following After Much Ado About Murder, Part Two.

"Thank you, Sir Richard, Lady Katherine." Alexis bowed to the couple.

"Have you found anything useful from your scribe?" Kate asked.

"Mostly it's just confirmation of what we already knew, about Vaughn's financial dealings and who he's bribed. But I did find out that his great enemy in Rome is a Cardinal Benedetto. Benedetto is quite wealthy, but he comes from the great aristocracy of Rome. His wealth is honestly come by. At least as honestly as any great wealth is come by. Apparently, he doesn't let his vows of poverty, chastity and obedience bother him very much. I've talked to Lord Pietro and Duke Rodrigo about him. Lord Pietro is sending an emissary to him to try to arrange an alliance."

"Anything else?" Castle asked.

Alexis smiled. "Come see my new gonnes." She took Castle's hand and pulled him towards the foundry. Kate quickly grabbed his other hand, being not quite sure how far she trusted Alexis with her husband.

Alexis led them into the foundry where there sat a stubby bronze gonne on a bulky wooden platform.

"Look, Sir Richard and Lady Katherine. Isn't it beautiful? We have two types being built. This one shoots a thirty-five pound ball which moves rather slowly. The other, which is being mounted now throws a twelve-pound ball that moves very fast. I want to take them out on a ship tomorrow and try them out? Can we? Will you ask Peter? I've tried to talk to him but he's obsessed with his Greek fire. Please?" By this time, Alexis was hanging onto Castle's arm and pushing her boobs into his chest.

Lady Kate gently pulled Alexis off of her husband, then began speaking to the workers in the foundry, in Italian. Castle had learned the language from Kate, but the conversation was too technical for him to follow. Finally, Kate nodded and spoke to Alexis.

"I'll have Rick talk to Peter at once."

"Where did you learn about foundries?" Sir Richard asked his wife.

"From the books in my father's library."

"How many have you read."

"All of them." Kate waited a beat and added. "Plus, Father Angelo, the librarian for the former Bishop of Pola lent me some books."

It took a day to mount the gonnes in a galley, but the day after that, Peter, the Castles and Alexis took a galley out with both of the gonnes mounted in the bow, firing straight ahead.

"How does the galley handle, Peter?" Castle asked.

"She's a bit down by the bow due to the weight, but we can move the ballast further astern to compensate. We'll be fine."

"What are we using for a target?" Kate asked.

Peter pointed to an old galley being towed out of the harbor. "The Espiritu Sancti is an old ship that's been run ashore too many times. The keel is all bent and she's hogging." Seeing that they didn't understand that term, he continued. "Hogging is when the keel sags inn the middle. Improper loading of cargo can cause that, or when a wave lifts the bow and stern up so that…"

"In other words that ship is useless." Kate said.

"Exactly, My Lady." Peter smiled. "Except to us today."

The Espiritu Sancti was anchored and the small crew left in the ship's boats. Alexis and her crew, all women, loaded the thirty-five pounder. Alexis raised the gonne a bit, then put a slow match to the touchhole. There was a blast, a flash of light and a cloud of smoke and when it cleared, the other ship was still there.

"What happened? "Alexis cried.

None of the women had any idea. The other ship appeared to be fine.

"Ahoy the deck." Shouted a man from the very top of their mast. "Yon rock sailed over the ship like a bird. Aim lower I thinks."

Alexis reloaded and aimed again. There was another blast, a pall of smoke and this time they could see wood fly from the banks of oars.

"A hit!" Alexis cried. "We hit her." She turned to her crew at once. "Load the second gonne. We'll see how a twelve-pound ball does."

Alexis had a bit more experience in aiming now and the second gun hit its mark on the first shot.

"We should examine the other ship and see what kind of damage has been done." Kate cried as Alexis began reloading.

"Yes!" Cried the young redhead happily. "Let's see the damage."

Once alongside the Espiritu Sancti they could see that several rower's benches had been demolished. The smaller round had done even better.

"Come look! Come look." Alexis cried gleefully." The second gonne fired its ball through the ship. Look! If we'd have hit her at the waterline, she'd be sinking." Alexis turned and ran to Rick and Kate. "I need to determine the best range for my gonnes. We need to fire more."

Although Peter was anxious to return to his Greek fire experiments, he could see the value of the gonnes and agreed to stay out longer. By the end of the day, the Espiritu Sancti was no more, but Alexis decided she could continue her experiments ashore.

"I think I have some texts on mathematics that may help you, Alexis." Lady Katherine said as they returned to shore. "Can you come by tonight for dinner? We can study afterwards."

"Of course." Alexis replied happily.

Kate smiled at Rick. "Of course, I have texts on mathematics. How could I not?"

Castle just laughed.

Alexis continued her experiments from shore, shooting at a small island just to the south of the main harbor. She also supervised the casting of two more large gonnes.

Peter continued with his experiments with Greek fire. Several days after the experiment with the gonnes at sea, he sent a messenger to Rick and Kate asking them to come to his workshop. As Alexis was there, she went as well.

"Greetings, Sir Richard, Lady Katherine and Lady Alexis. Isn't this a good day for us Istrian Christians?"

"I assume you've done well?" Rick asked.

"I just needed more pressure. Look." Sitting on a bench was the copper clad barrel with the bronze nozzle as before. However, now the barrel was attached to a huge bellows, much larger than any blacksmith would use. "Observe!" Cried Peter.

He strapped the barrel to his back and grabbed a burning brand from an assistant and held it in front of the nozzle. Then two burly assistants began to pump the bellows, putting the liquid in the barrel under pressure. Peter worked a valve and a stream of liquid shot out and turned to flame as soon as it hit the burning brand. The Greek fire shot for over fifty feet.

"I just need a day or two to build a full scale projector and we'll be ready to go."

Luckily, Peter was able to build his projector in one day as they did not have two.

"Sir Richard?" The page asked, coming in just as Rick and Kate were sitting down to breakfast.

"Yes?"

The young man bowed. "Duke Rodrigo sends his compliments. Could you please meet him at the harbor at once? Our scout ship has located the enemy. Their ships are headed this way."

Castle cursed. "Kate, I need to go at once. Can you bring my armor and weapons to the harbor?"

She nodded. "Of course. And I'll bring my own."

"Kate, could you please…."

"No." She said firmly. "My place will always be by your side."

Castle sighed, then leaned over and kissed his wife. "I love you."

"I know. And I love you, too. Now, hurry off."

A groom had a horse waiting for Castle and he sped to the harbor. He found Duke Rodrigo, Lord Pietro, Sir James Walden, Peter and a dozen others gathered around Captain Fredo Andolini, who commanded the scout ship. Andolini was a young man, very full of himself, dressed in the height of fashion in silk hose and a particolored coat. He was, however, extremely brave and daring. Far too brave and daring, many said. The Duke had once said that Andolini would either end up an admiral, or dead at twenty five. As he was but twenty three, no one could tell which would be his fate.

"Richard, there you are. Andolini has news for us. The damned Guelphs are just south of us. Perhaps ten leagues." The Duke called out.

"But moving slowly." Andolini added quickly. "Their cogs use their sails to move. They're too damned big and heavy to be rowed."

"When will they be here?" Castle asked.

Andolini shrugged. "I doubt they'll come straight here. They want to fight us farther out to sea, where there's room to maneuver." Andolini looked around. "We could just keep our navy in the harbor. Wear them out, sailing back and forth outside of Pola.

Everyone looked at the Duke, who shook his head.

"Our only hope is our new weapons. The longer we delay the fight, the more the chance that one of Vaughn's damned spies will discover what we've done and get word to the Guelphs."

They were joined by Alexis. She had obviously come straight from the foundry as she wore a dirty woolen gown and her well known red hair was wrapped in a long length of cloth. Her normally very fair skin was covered in soot and ashes.

"The damned Guelph fleet is here?" She demanded to know.

"Yes." Castle told her. "We'll need to go out and fight them as soon as we can. The longer we wait, the better chance that Vaughn's spies will discover our weapons and warn the Guelphs."

Alexis frowned. "So what if they do? They'll just leave without us having to fight them."

The Duke shook his head. "They won't leave us alone. They'll break up their fleet and go after our merchant ships individually. We don't have enough ships to escort all of our merchant ships. And we need to trade and the taxes those ships pay. We must fight."

Castle turned to Alexis. "How many gonnes do you have now?"

"Two of each kind. But I was working on something based on something I saw in one of Lady Katherine's books. It's a turntable. We'd be able to fire straight ahead as well as to port and starboard. But I'd need several days to get it ready."

"We don't have that kind of time." Castle said. "Duke Rodrigo, we need to arm two galleys with Alexis' gonnes. We'll need some help moving them and setting them up aboard ship."

Rodrigo turned to one of his pages. "See to it. Go with Lady Alexis and do as she says."

As the page was a handsome young man, Alexis smiled at the words, "Do as she says."

"Peter?" The Duke asked. "Is your Greek fire projector ready?"

He smiled. "Indeed it is, Your Grace. It's not perfect, but it will give our enemies quite a surprise."

The Duke turned to Castle. "Sir Richard, you have the soldiers ready for each ship?"

"I have organized a company with archers, some crossbowmen and men at arms for each ship. They know the ships and the captains they'll serve with. I'll be on the Santa Caterina with Lady Alexis."

The Duke looked questioningly at Castle. "And where will Lady Katherine be?"

Castle sighed. "By my side. She insists."

The Duke shook his head and then laughed. "If I had a hundred just like her, I'd take Venice in a day."

Everyone else laughed, although Rick's laugh was forced.

Things did not go as planned. The soldiers and sailors had to be found and dragged from wine shops, ale houses and bordellos. Most needed to be sobered up. Bundles of arrows that had been prepared for each ship turned out to not be where they were supposed to be and had to be found. Each ship needed something done at the very last minute. There was discussion about what kind of armor to wear or whether to wear any at all. Anyone going overboard in armor would quickly sink to the bottom of the sea. Eventually, each man decided what to wear. Alexis' gonnes were mounted easily enough, but it was decided to build a wooden wall in front of the guns, pierced by two ports. This would allow the gonnes to fire, but protect the gonne crews from arrows and crossbow bolts. All of this took time.

"It'll be dusk in two hours, Richard." Peter said as they stood on the dock. "By the time we clear the harbor, it'll be dark. God knows what we'll run into at night. And the moon won't be up until after midnight and it'll be just a sliver."

Castle looked around and noted the state of the ships. "I'll tell the Duke we'll leave tomorrow with the tide."

Castle made sure his troops were aboard their ships with all of the arrows and crossbow bolts they would need and then some, well before dawn. Peter had his sailors and his best oarsmen ready then as well.

Duke Rodrigo stood on the dock and looked up at Peter who would command the little fleet.

"Remember, Peter, we need to keep the nucleus of our fleet intact. Do as much damage to the damned Guelphs as you can, but don't be afraid to run for Pola if things get difficult."

Peter bowed. "I understand, Your Grace." He lowered his voice. "But remember, I pray to Allah and the God of the Christians now. I think perhaps I'll say something to the God of the Jews just to be safe."

The Duke just laughed.