“Bring her to the earl.”
There was a scuffle behind him, even as he landed a blow to Butcher’s gut.
“But I want to try her out first,” one man said plaintively.
“Hanley’s orders were?—”
“Yes, I know, damn it.”
There was a muffled shout before one of the men cried out in pain.
“The harridanbitme!”
“Take ’er blade.”
There was more of a scuffle, and every nerve in Percy’s body cried out for him to abandon Butcher and go to help Heather. But Butcher was more dangerous.
“Pick up ’er feet.”
“But she’s kicking! Christ, but she fights like a hellcat!”
The pistol clattered to the ground, and Percy slammed his forehead into the big man’s nose. Butcher laughed, his blood-soaked teeth glinting in the lantern light, before a meaty fist slammed into Percy’s jaw.
Blinding pain shot through his head, forcing him to blink away the blurriness.
The scuffling behind him began to fade, and his throat constricted.Heather. He couldn’t let them leave with her.
In a quick succession of blows, he landed one to Butcher’s throat, the injured side of his face, and his cods. But aside from soft grunts, the man showed no sign of injury.
“Ye forget, boy,” Butcher sneered, “t’was I wot taught ye ’ow t’ fight.”
Fuck.
Percy went for the man’s eyes, but Butcher side-stepped and jabbed Percy in the ribs. The wind left his lungs in a wheeze before Butcher leaned back and landed a flat-footed kick right to Percy’s chest.
Pain lanced through him. And another blow knocked him flat on his back.Air. It was all he could think about. Not the pain, not the hot ooze of blood seeping from his head and tickling his scalp and arm. Butair. He couldn’t breathe.
Rapid throbbing pulsed throughout his body and fluttered with his erratic heartbeat. This was it. Heather had been taken, and he was going to die. He’d failed.
Butcher’s grating laughter found its way past the rushing in his ears, just long enough for him to register the boot approaching his face. His world went dark.
If they had beenbrave enough and sought her out one at a time, Heather was certain that she could have defeated the earl’s ruffian footmen and lent her aid to Percy. Instead, she’d watched as he fought for his life against Butcher, and Lord knew how that had gone.
Would Butcher keep Percy alive, or would he plan some sort of…torture? It was not to be borne.
She ought to have told Percy how she felt about him when she’d had the chance. She ought to haverealizedhow she felt about him, for pity’s sake! But now it was too late.
He mightn’t have returned her feelings, but while that would be painful, it hardly signified. She detested the thought of his going on with his life and not knowing how deeply she had come to love him.
Now, she sat in a chair at the table in theAmerica’s wardroom with her wrists and ankles bound together, waiting for whatever punishment Hanley had planned for her. At least her hiding place for the documents had been successful, for one of Hanley’s men had already conducted a cursory search of her person and missed them entirely.
Footfalls and shouts echoed about the frigate as they sailed away from theGolfoMexicano, and Heather strained her eyes and ears, focusing beyond the doors.
The room, while almost entirely shrouded in darkness, was markedly similar to that of theSapphire. A long, dark table stretched along the centre of the space, flanked by walls of white doors to the officers’ cabins. It carried the scent of the sea and unwashed bodies, and the familiarity of it brought the threatening prickle of tears to her eyes. It reminded her of Percy.
One of the wardroom’s doors swung open to admit two footmen and the earl, his spine slightly curved, his diaphanous skin pinkened—no doubt by the anger she saw flashing in his blue eyes—and his jaw clenched. In his hand, he carried a dangerously swinging oil lantern, and Heather’s stomach dipped nauseatingly.
“I see that I gave you far too much leniency, Calluna.” He set down the lantern and sat heavily in the chair at the table’s head, his repulsed gaze sweeping her from head to booted foot. “Weshall have to remedy that immediately. Just look at your hideous attire. It’s entirely unbecoming.”
