Nelly Wearne loved to dance. She enjoyed meeting new people and dancing at Buryan fair. She was the child of Squire Cardew of Boskenna and a villiage girl,  but the squire loved Nelly raised her at his home, she was cared for by Madam Cardew and Betty.

One year, on the evening of Buryan fair, a great storm threatened. The sky was black as slate and thunder could be heard rolling over from the sea.

‘You must stay here tonight, Nelly,’ said Madam Cardew. ‘No use dancing in a storm.’

‘I’ll dance where I like,’ said Nelly, brazenly. 'I’ll dance on the sands if I have to, drenched through with storm rain I will still be laughing. The thunder will be my beat, lightening will bring out the flash in my eyes. Why don’t you come with me, Madam? There is nothing like Buryan fair!’

‘No thank you,’ said Madam crossly.

‘I will dance a reel, storm or no storm, even if I must dance with Old Nick himself.’ Nelly put on her coat and disappeared down the lane in the twilight.

The inn at Church-Town was full despite the storm. There was much merrymaking, music and laughter. Nelly turned down many a suitor. Standing tapping her feet and swishing her hair, Nelly waited for someone special to dance the night away with.

Nelly began to worry she would miss dancing at all on account of being so particular. Her whole being strained to move to the music. Then, standing in the doorway to the Inn, stood a man tousled with sea wind. He wore a Captain’s jacket, his eyes were dark and piercing, and by his side stood a piper. The two seamen entered the inn and the Captain instructed his friend to play. He piped a jig faster and faster. The music filled Nelly with a rush of joy. When the Captain held out his hand for Nelly to dance, she took it eagerly.

A stranger and older Cornish tune had not been heard in the Inn for an age. Nelly discovered that her feet knew just the steps to take and she was enjoying the dance like never before. Everyone joined Nelly and the Captain in their dance. So many dancers moved to the music they spilled out onto the street and danced all the way to the churchyard. The threat of the storm had been forgotten and more and more dancers joined them.

Of a sudden, a huge thunderclap broke overhead and the clouds burst with a cold hard rain; lightening forked the sky and the atmosphere was menacing. Dancers ran in all directions, their feet soaking, hair dripping into their eyes and clothes wet on their backs like they were in a storm at sea.

The church bells were rung to ward off evil spirits and as the first bell rang, the Captain vanished along with Nelly and the Piper.

For a long time afterwards, people would talk about what could have happened to Nelly. Some said the Captain was Old Nick himself. Some, including Squire Cardew, were not so sure. Had the two sailors taken Nelly to a ship and sailed her away or was she gone with the devil? No one could tell.

---

Many years the mystery of Nelly swirled about Buryan Church Town and Boskenna. Folks told the tale of the girl who danced with the devil around many a winter fireside. When Nelly's father, the last Cardew of Boskenna, died, Nelly didn't attend his funeral, she didn't even know he was gone. She was far away.

Now Nelly loved to dance but being a girl of the Cornish Coast, she also loved the sea. She was drawn to its moods and the turn in its shade. Many a day she had clambered down to the beaches to watch waves. Kicking off her socks and shoes, she would laugh as she danced along the lip of the waves, the white foam rising with her movement soaking her dress and spraying her hair and Nelly laughed as she danced in the sea, laughed to know what lay beyond the horizon.

Nelly was an adventurous soul and her love for Captain Black rose within her like a summer tide. She held him tight as he whisked her away to an awaiting ship, the pipes quietly masked by the wind.

Nelly left in a storm to sail the seas, without a flicker of regret. She tied back her long black hair and pulled on a shirt, trousers, and a floppy cap. She would live the life of a sea wife alongside the ship and its crew. And what a crew it was, privateering along the coast and out into the high seas. Before long, Nelly held gold in her hands, a generous treasure glinting in the bright sun till it fell through her fingers onto the deck.

She fixed huge gold hoops in her ears and smiled; Nelly Wearne had fallen on a fortune by running away to sea. She stowed the earrings away in her trunk along with stunning outfits to wear dancing one day; skirts to swish in and shimmering gowns. But why wait? Her life now was all about making the most of things, and when the rain had ceased and the wind died, dance they did, many a night, along a moonlit deck to the pipers’ irresistible tune. And what a life Nelly lead with a Cornish seaman and his crew.

Retold by Anna Chorlton

from Robert Hunt 'Popular Romances of the West of England'