“I’ll admit to frightening her a bit.”Which was his intention at the end.“But the woman’s tongue is as deadly as a sea serpent.”He reached for a bottle on the table.
Pell grabbed it first, corked it, and set it back on the sideboard along with the other bottles not yet empty.“You’ve had enough.”
“Take a care, Pell.I am your captain, and I’ll not be ordered about.”
He faced Cadan, one cynical brow raised and sunlight glinting off that blasted cross of his.“Then act like one.”
Cadan studied him, this man who had once called him out to swords, but who had become his good friend.There was a wisdom about him, a rational calmness Cadan envied.He’d suffered nearly as much at the hands of an unscrupulous man as Cadan had, yet he let justice lie dormant.“Why do you not wish revenge on those who killed your wife and son?”’Twas a question he’d asked the man before, the answer to which Cadan desperately needed to know, but Pell always gave a shrug and changed the subject.
Agony etched across every inch of his face, betraying his usual calm demeanor.The man could be in no less pain than Cadan.
“What good would it do?”he finally said.“What’s done is done.”He circled the table and headed for the door.“I’ll send some men to clean this up and have Omphile bring you some tea and something for your head.”
Cadan nodded, devoid of the energy to argue.“Very well.I shall be on deck shortly.”
Pell left, shutting the door a bit too loudly, and Cadan leaned over, head in his hands if only to lessen the throbbing.
Zada slithered out from under his bed and crawled onto his boot.He reached to pick him up, but he took one look at Cadan and scampered away.
Traitor.No doubt the lizard was angry at him for his treatment of Lady Fox.Perhaps he was right.He would seek her out today and assure her that no harm would come to her whilst on his ship.She did, after all, put a blanket on him.
His heart suddenly tightened.She could have killed him!In his benumbed condition, she had every opportunity to bash his head in with a boarding ax.Why hadn’t she?
???
Gabrielle was getting married!’Twas the most wonderful day of her life!The sun shone brightly from an azure sky, sprinkling glitter atop the foamy crests of wavelets in the bay.Her parents had erected a canopy of white sail cloth on the main deck of theRedemptionas the ship swayed and rocked at anchor in Kingston Harbour.
Tropical flowers were festooned over the canopy and spread across the deck, mixing their sweet scent with the salty breeze.Her family had ne’er looked so good.Charlisse, her mother, dressed in a blue silk dress with belled sleeves veiled in gossamer lace, smiled at her.Her father, Captain Edmund Merrick, cut a fine figure in his suit of black camlet, richly embellished with gold braid.Alexander her brother, his wife, Juliana, and their four-year-old son Caleb stood beneath the quarterdeck.Reena, her sister held hands with her husband Frederick across the main deck, and Juliana’s brother, Rowan, assisted his wife Morgan in comforting a crying one year old Rose.All dressed in their finest, all smiling joyfully at her.
To her left stood her father’s loyal crew, Jackson and Sloane among them, grinning like cats who’d just feasted on a platter of ship mice.And up on the quarterdeck, two pirates played a happy tune upon their fiddles.
Facing the port railing that overlooked the growing town of Kingston, the preacher stood beneath the canopy, smiling her way.She could hardly stop the leap of her heart.She’d waited all her life for this moment!More than anything she wanted to marry a Godly, wonderful man who would cherish her forever.And she’d finally found him.Now she could start the family she’d always wanted—at least a dozen children, some her own and others, orphans she hoped to rescue.
Unlike her sister Reena, who was an adventurous risk-taker, and her wild pirate brother Alex, so strong and brave, Gabrielle had always been the shy, well-behaved daughter who stayed home with her mother and father and had no desire for frightening exploits upon the sea.She’d been the good daughter, the one who followed all the rules, who loved God and had never strayed from her faith.Nay, her only dream was to be a wife and mother.A somewhat docile and uninteresting dream compared to her siblings, but her parents had told her it was the noblest pursuit of all.
So, when she met Jonas, the physician aboard her brother’s shipRansom,and he took a fancy to her, she knew she’d found the right man.Godly, honorable, kind, and absolutely devoted to her.Their engagement was longer than she would have liked, but finally the day had come.
Her gaze scanned the docks reaching out upon the crystalline turquoise waters.Jonas had spent the night in town, hence, any minute now, he should be rowing out to theRedemption.Any minute now…
Gabrielle gasped for air.Pain spun through her belly.Heart thumping wildly, she sprung from her pillow, striking her head on the bulkhead.Ouch!
Sweeping her legs over the edge of the cot, she moaned, unavoidable tears filling her eyes and spilling past her lashes down her cheeks.The same dream.Over and over.Why must she continually be reminded of that day?
Jonas had never arrived.No sign of him was found after several weeks of searching.Finally, two months passed when her father learned from a pirate at a tap room that Jonas had run off with another woman.
Ah, the humiliation!The shame.Left at the altar.Was she not even worthy of a good husband?Why had God allowed this to happen to her?When she’d spent her entire life serving Him, devoted to spreading the Gospel and saving others?This was her reward.The mockery of friends and family, the shame of being unwanted…unworthy.
That’s when she had stopped praying.
More tears came, and she released them in full force.Now look at her, unmarried, carrying an illegitimate child, and a prisoner tossed from one ruthless pirate to another.God had surely abandoned her.What good did it do to serve a God like that?
Another throbbing pain pulsed through her belly, and she bent over with a moan.She’d been having these spasms all night.In truth they’d stolen much of her sleep, save for the last few moments when her nightmare had returned.She hoped they’d dissipate, but they’d only gotten worse.
A knock startled her, and she wiped her eyes.“Come in.”
’Twas the quartermaster, Pell.He stared at her for a moment, then entered and shut the door.
Her pulse sped.Was she to suffer another attack?
