“I knew it. Youbitch!” he hissed.
“I also gave something to you.” She paused, allowing him a moment to feel her gift.
Boom-boom!
The earl’s eyes grew wide, and his skin took on a decidedly green hue. “What have you done to me?”
Heather smirked. “How are you feeling?” She paused, as horror entered his eyes. “I know every herb and plant that can kill you swiftly, or slowly and painfully, and that is undetectable through taste or scent. No one would know how you’d perished.”
“I say…” he quavered, his throat bobbing.
She stepped closer, her blade only a hair’s breadth away from the thin skin of his jaw. “Your acts of high treason will soon be known by all of England, oh Earl of Shite. And if you dare attempt to harm me or mine…you’d best not eat or drink anything ever again.”
“I always knew you were a right b—” His words were cut off as he pulled away and raced toward the bulwark to cast up his accounts into the sea.
Swift relief warmed her. That was the earl taken care of.
“Look-ee who we got ’ere.”
Boom! Boom, boom!
Heather spun to see one of the pirates who’d accosted her on thePandora, his lips pulled back in a sneer and his eyes glazed with triumph.
“You have nothing,” she returned.
“Th’ cap’n wants ’er alive,” another pirate interjected.
Despite the swoop of nerves in her abdomen, Heather entered the ready stance that Percy had taught her.
Crack-crack! Boom!
The first pirate laughed. “She’ll still be alive when I’m done with ’er. Jus’ enough fer th’ cap’n t’ kill ’er in front o’ Percival.”
Breath caught in her throat, and her ears were suddenly flooded with the drumming of her heart.Percy.He’s alive!
Her gaze slid past the two approaching pirates to thePandora, where she could clearly see Butcher in his Redcoat fighting some of the earl’s men. There were others fighting on thePandora’s quarterdeck, and one man with a bandaged head and arm?—
Joy warmed her chest, and she had to resist running through the battle to reach him. Instead, she raised her weapons.
“Oooh,” the first pirate taunted with a sneer. “Think ye can use men’s weapons? Yer outnumbered, wench, an’ there’s no one wot would save ye?—”
She lunged, grazing his ribs with her cutlass as he leapt to the side, then spun, slicing his arm with her dirk. He bellowed and dropped his weapon, holding his arm where she’d cut him.
The second man made for an attack, but he halted abruptly, his face stunned, before he fell to the ground with a cutlass in his back.
And there stood Duncan, his beard windblown and glasses askew.
“I’m righ’ pleased t’ see ye, Heather.” He grinned, before shoving aside a fighting trio. “I need ye t’ know tha’ yer flora arein th’ hull o’ th’Pandora, along with th’ items ye purchased. D’ ye ken?”
A sob ripped from her throat, and she rushed forward to pull the dear man into a hug. “Thank you, Duncan.”
The plan could still work. If the items they’d purchased in San Luis had made it onto the ship, they could still return home. All she needed was Percy.
Boom! Boom-boom! Crack, crack!
“O’ course, lass,” Duncan murmured.
Pulling back, she caught his warm blue gaze. “Be careful.” She squeezed his arm affectionately and darted into the chaos around them.
