“Soot, ready the gun crew and load and run out the guns!Beat to quarters!”Cadan barked, sending his pirates scattering to their tasks.The fleet had the weather gauge, which did not bode well for Cadan’s success.Still, if he could cripple the first ship’s guns, he might be able to tack a weather and outrun the others.
“Wait!”Gabrielle laid a hand on his arm, and before he could stop her, she grabbed the scope and held it to her eye, expertly focusing on their incoming foes.
“’Tis no enemy!”she cried with glee.“’Tis my Father!”
Cadan stared at her, aghast.“And justwhois your father?”
She bit her lip as wind tossed her golden curls behind her.“I suppose I should have told you sooner.”She gave him a sheepish look.“Captain Edmund Merrick.”
Pell chuckled.Omphile gasped.
Cadan had no words.In truth, that name spun a web of confusion in his mind.Aye, he knew who Captain Merrick was.There wasn’t a sailor in all the Caribbean who didn’t know that name.But Lady Fox was his daughter?The daughter of an Earl?The daughter of the most famous missionary-pirate ever to sail these seas?He stared at her, baffled.Yet suddenly her knowledge of sailing and ships made sense.
“He’s coming up on our starboard side, bringing his guns to bear, Cap’n!”Olin shouted.
“Guns primed and ready, Cap’n!”Soot added.
Cadan glanced at the men manning the guns, then at the oncoming ships.At their present speed, Cadan could tack to port and loose a broadside, but not before Merrick could do the same.Did he even know his daughter was on board?
He looked at Pell.“What say you?”
“If ’tis Captain Merrick, he means you no harm.He’s a Godly man.”
“Please!”Gabrielle tugged on his arm.
I’ve sent him.
Had God just spoken to him?Yet the peace it brought was unmistakable.
“She gives the signal to reduce sail and lie to, Cap’n!”Barnett yelled.
Cadan rubbed sweat from the back of his neck as he balanced his boots on the heaving deck.What to do?
“Stand down,” he finally ordered Soot.“Lower our flag, Olin!”
“But Cap’n!”
“Do it!”Cadan shouted, then leapt down on the main deck, uttering a string of orders that lowered all sails and brought the ship around.
Now was the test whether he’d heard from God or not.Merrick had a reputation as an expert at sea battles.He’d also been known to sink pirates to the depths.Even worse, what would he do to Cadan when he discovered he had kidnapped his daughter?
???
Gabrielle couldn’t remember a time she’d been this nervous to see her parents.She’d always been such a good, obedient girl.In truth, she’d rather enjoyed watching her brother Alex and her sister Reena suffer punishment after punishment for their rebellious antics as children.Whilst she received naught but her parents’ approval and praise.Heart racing, she watched as theRedemptionluffed alee then came even on theResolute’skeel.Pirates from both ships hitched the two mighty crafts together with grappling hooks and ropes.
Her father had ordered sharpshooters to the tops where they leveled muskets down upon Cadan’s crew should they decide to attack instead of surrender.
Scanning the all-too-familiar deck, she spotted Sloane, then Jackson and Brighton, her father’s trusty crewmen, all armed to the teeth.Where were her parents?She searched the deck of the ship that had been her home for most of her life.There.Dressed in his usual leather breeches stuffed in Hessian boots and a leather jerkin covering a white cambric shirt, her father stormed across the deck, cutlass in hand, pistols and knives stuffed inside his baldric.His intense gaze surveyed theResolute, his blade lowering when he noted they’d laid down their arms.
Cadan stood amidships, hands fisted at his waist, waiting to meet him.Not an ounce of fear was evident in either his expression or stance, though she knew he must be nervous.
Finally, Merrick’s gaze swept to Gabrielle, standing on the quarterdeck.
A lump formed in her throat.Would he be shocked to see her?Would she see joy, love, or condemnation on his face?She deserved condemnation for her actions, for running away with Damien, for not trusting God.
But, instead, he smiled.And in that smile, she saw love, not anger.Longing, not condemnation.Her heart melted.The look of relief that beamed from his face made her want to leap down the stairs and run into his arms.
He gestured behind him and Charlisse, Gabrielle’s mother, emerged from the crowd of pirates, her gaze following her husband’s up to Gabrielle.Squealing, she threw her hands to her mouth and started for the railing, but Merrick held her back.True to form, her mother wore breeches of her own and a leather doublet over a cream-colored shirt.Pistols and a small knife were stuffed in her belt.And though gray streaked the hair at her temples, the rest flowed in blonde curls down her back.Seems they had anticipated a battle, and her mother never shied away from joining her husband.
