Page 144

“What is it?” Mr Ambrose whispered, scouring the dark waters with his gaze. “What did you see?”

“A ship!”

“Arriving at the harbour?”

“No.Leaving,” I grumbled, staring after the vessel. “What kind of idiot would set sail at this hour?”

“It is of no consequence, Mr Linton. Focus on the matter at hand.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Meaning the attack on the well-fortified harbour over there?”

“Precisely.”

“So, tell me again, what is your plan? Last time you told me, I was too busy cursing to really listen.”

“All right. Listen here. This is what we are going to do…”

***

“I am going to kill him for this,” I growled, tugging at my dress. “Painfully.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Jack glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, snickering, as he walked alongside me through the island harbour. “You make quite the convincing pregnant lady.”

“You…!”

“Aye.” A certain little brat with a far-too-cheeky grin on his face piped up and took hold of my hand. “He’s right,Mum.”

“You just have to put on a few more pounds and actually start acting like a woman,” the adult pirate added smoothly. “Then I might actually believe it.”

I felt one of my eyebrows twitch. “Jack?”

“Aye, Freddie?”

“What do you think would happen if you were to say that kind of thing to an actual woman?”

He gave a short bark of laughter. “Ha! I’d besodead!”

“I’d definitely have my butt spanked,” the little boy added with a shiver.

“Quite.”

Reaching out, Jackal patted my shoulder. “Our luck that you’re as male as they come, right?”

I contemplated for a moment or two what answer to give to that. A fist to the face was definitely among the top ten candidates. But then again, children were present.

You can always shield his innocent eyes with your free hand.

Good one! I was about to do just that, when, when—

“There!” Jackal hissed, alerting me and saving his nose in the process. “The signal!”

Immediately, I searched the dark horizon, and he was right. There, in the distance, at the end of a long stretch of sand that jutted out from the island into the sea, I saw a blinking light, as if from someone repeatedly uncovering and covering a lantern. Once. Twice. A pause. A third time.

That’s the signal all right.

What, you thought I was parading around here in a stolen dress just for fun? No. Mr Ambrose had come up with an actual plan for this mad venture of his. One that required me to put on a dress to the snickers of dozens of pirates. And worse, one that actually was smart, and that I had no logical arguments against.

Although Ireallywanted to argue.