Raising her hand, she wiped her cheeks as the sound of musket shots rapped against her mind, jarring her awake.Struggling to rise, she sat, cradling her belly, breath heaving as another explosion rocked her cell.Prisoners, awakened from their slumber, rattled the iron bars of their cages, cussing and shouting.
Blinking, she tried to see what was happening, but darkness hung heavy in the fetid prison.Had she died and gone to hell?That place of eternal torment of which her parents often spoke?If so, a fitting end.But her child?Heart hammering, she wrapped arms around her extended belly and leaned forward as if she could somehow save her babe from the demons surrounding her.
A shriek split the night, the cry of death.She’d heard it before.Someone had just died, run through with a blade perhaps.Footsteps thundered.Light burst on the scene, and in marched a band of men, cutlasses drawn.Two of them carried torches.
The man in front, who must be the leader, peered into the cells across from hers.Lazy-eyed Smity uttered a yelp of joy.“Knew ye’d come, Cap’n!”
Further down, Durwin shouted with glee.“Took ye long enough!”
The leader’s deep voice responded in a jovial tone.“Been a little busy.”He slipped out of sight as one of the men behind him unlocked the cell doors with a set of jangling keys he’d no doubt stolen from a guard.The torches passed by Gabrielle, leaving her in darkness once again.She shrank into the shadows.Best to remain unseen, unnoticed.Quiet.Yet her heart pounded so loudly against her ribs, she was sure they would hear.
More shouts of joy rumbled through the stone walls as more demons were set free.Yet not all were released.Pleadings and beggings from left-behind prisoners were soon followed by obscenities and the damming of the captain’s soul, along with the mother who bore him.
The torches reappeared.The leader orcaptainhalted before Gabrielle’s cell, his back to her, ordering his men to hurry.He was tall in stature, broad in shoulders, and his dark hair was tied back cavalier style.
Gabrielle held her breath and prayed for him to take no note of her.
The freed prisoners darted past him until only Durwin and Smity remained.
“That all of them?”he asked.
“Aye, ‘cept ole Willard,” Durwin drew his thumbnail across his neck.“Jist two days past.”
The captain cursed.
“Escaped prisoners!”a shout railed from outside.Pistol shots rang through the air.
“We’d best go,” the captain said.
“Ye may want to take ’er.”Smity gestured toward Gabrielle.
Her breath caught in her throat.Foolishly, she glanced around her cell, seeking a place to hide.But of course there was none.
The captain swerved to face her.Durwin held up his torch.
Penetrating eyes speared her from a handsome, well-chiseled face.
“She carries Allard’s brat.”
The captain’s eyes narrowed into spikes of hatred as they lowered to her belly.“Bring her,” was all he said before he marched away.
Chapter 2
It was a fate worse than death, even death by a noose.A fate Gabrielle ne’er thought to face again in her short, calamity-stricken life.Yet here she was being dragged through the dark, misty streets of Nassau to God-only-knew-where.Though Gabrielle had a good idea.And the thought churned nausea in her belly.Pirates.Of course, it had to be pirates.Behind them, gunshots echoed through the night, along with shouts and heavy footfalls, accompanied by the eerie twang of an off-key violin emanating from a tavern up ahead.
The man they called captain led the way, cutlass drawn, issuing orders right and left.“Hurry!”he shouted, and the men on either side of Gabrielle squeezed her arms tighter and dashed after him.
Fast.Too fast!Pain throbbed across her belly with each jolt.She tugged, trying to free her hands in an effort to support her babe, but the men only tightened their grips.She couldn’t breathe.Her swollen ankles ached.Her heart did flips in her chest.Would her baby die?He kicked as if to say,I’m still here, but it was a hard kick, one that nearly knocked the air from her lungs.
Oh, God, please.Please don’t let my baby die.Tears blurred her vision and spilled down her cheeks.
Her legs gave out.She fell limp in the pirates’ grips.
“Cap’n,” one of them shouted.“Leave the wench ’ere.She can’t keep up.”
“Then carry her,” the captain returned with authority.
Grunts and curses flooded her ears as one man shoved his shoulder under her left arm and the other under her right, and together they lifted her from the ground.The odor of sweat, gun smoke, and the sea assailed her.
