“Traître!”Traitor.The pirate yelled at the woman. “Merdaille!”Scum.She yelled at the rest of her crew.
“You should have treated them better, madame,” Emmaus yelled back.
“C’est fini!” Cheverley cried, voice breaking with fury. “Tu n’es rien!”
The pirate whipped around to look back and her grip on the rope faltered.
And then came a loud boom and the crew was engulfed in a cloud of smoke.
Impossible to tell which one had fired the fatal shot, but with a desperate, guttural cry, the pirate fell. The darkened circle spread outward from her body as her blood pooled in the salt water.
The pirate was no more.
Felled by her own crew.
He couldn’t imagine a more fitting end.
The sailors of Pensteague took to the water and Penelope fell to her knees by his side.
“Penelope! Pen! Are you hit?”
“No,” she cried working the knots out of his binds. “I can’t breathe,” she freed him, but—”
“What if she’d shot you?”
“I told you—I won’t lose you again.”
He caught her by her waist with his elbow and then drew her close. Winding his fingers into her hair he claimed her lips in a searing kiss.
He touched his forehead to hers. “Thank you.”
“You aren’t alone, Chev.” She gripped his face. “For as long as I am alive, you will never be alone.”
He held her close, fingers tight against the back of her neck, breathing the night air as one. He closed his eyes, pressed his lips to Penelope’s hair and sighed.
~~~
Penelope cast her leg over the side of the pig-skin lined hammock, pushed off from the wall, and then snuggled up against her husband’s chest as, together, they swung.
“Is this what it feels like in a ship?”
“A little,” Chev replied.
She kissed him beneath his chin. His skin tasted of salt water...or tears. Or maybe both.
She could not describe the terror she’d felt when she realized Madame LaVoie was the pirate who’d kept Chev captive. However, it hadn’t been she who had alerted Madame LaVoie to his presence. She’d known he was there and had only been waiting for the right time to signal her ship.
According to her former first mate—now aligned with Emmaus—MadameLaVoie had come close once before. She’d convinced Anthony to set the trap in the same place Anthony had set one for Piers. Anthony had believed the trap was for Thaddeus.
Penelope and Cheverley had settled both Thaddeus and Thomas at Pensteague for the night before taking refuge inside Emmaus’s cabin. Thomas, who was not a villain, but a man who’d truly believed LaVoie had proof Cheverley was a traitor and was desperately trying to protect Thaddeus.
“I wish you would have allowed me to take you home to Pensteague, too.”
“No,” he replied. “Not until tomorrow, when everyone will know the truth. I want to publicly claim you, Thaddeus, and my home in a way that leaves no doubt.”
“And then a deputy lieutenant will arrest Anthony?”
“Yes,” he replied. “That is all arranged.”
