Picking up his backstaff, he positioned it toward the sun, making adjustments, then gave Pell the order to veer one point to starboard.“Inform me at once should the lookout spot sails behind us again.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“I’ll be in my cabin.”Marching to the companionway, he dropped below, fully intending to go to his cabin for a much-needed drink.
But he could not shake the woman from his mind.Perhaps he should castigate her for her flirtatious behavior with Soot.He’d have none of her dalliances aboard his ship.Perhaps he should let her know that no matter how many of his men she lured in with her beauty and charm, he still intended to use her and her babe as bait.
A little cruelty would, no doubt, solve his temporary infatuation.
Not waiting to knock, he burst through the door of her cabin.
To find the lady sitting on her cot with Matthew at her breast.
Instantly, the harsh words he’d intended to speak froze on his tongue.In truth, everything within him froze at the tender sight of a mother nursing her babe.
Though a portion of the lady’s breast was exposed, Cadan found his body did not react at all.Nay, instead, his heart melted in places long since hardened.
Until she looked up in horror and the innocent vision of Madonna and child transformed into a dragon and its whelp.“How dare you!”
While still holding the babe with one arm, she grabbed a nearby chamber pot and tossed it at him.
He ducked, but not before whatever was inside the pot splattered all over his shirt.
Chapter 17
Well, Captain, you certainly smell better than the last time I saw you.”Gabrielle took the captain’s extended hand while offering him a sarcastic grin.Light from a nearly full moon showered them in silver, giving her a good view of his face.
Instead of his usual growl or insulting retort, he returned her smile, his gaze lowering to her chest.“I find ’twas worth the sight, my lady.”
“Cad!”she snapped back, tugging from his grip in order to slap him.It had been two days since he’d barged in and seen her nursing Matthew.Two days and she’d not seen or heard from him.She’d assumed he was furiously plotting her demise for soaking him with the contents of her chamber pot.Apparently, however, like most men, he had only one thing on his mind.
She continued to pull her hand from his, but he refused to release her.A good thing, that, for she would have most likely fallen over the bulwarks into the water below instead of into the cockboat that awaited her.
Wind blasted over her, pulling strands of hair from her pins and showering her with the fishy scent of Bath Bay.Across the dark moonlit water, lanterns blinked among taverns, shops, and warehouses that lined the small city of Charlestown, Nevis.
She glanced behind her to see Omphile, a bundled Matthew safely tucked into a sling flung across her chest.Why the Captain had insisted they bring the babe could only mean one thing.He intended to use him to trap Allard.
“Release me at once,” she ordered with a huff.Yet his grip was firm, not harsh or painful, but warm and strong.
He gazed at her with an intensity in his hazel eyes she’d not seen before.Whether he plotted to kill her or kiss her again, she could not tell, though both impulses could be seen in his brooding gaze.And that unnerved her most of all.
Finally, he aided her over the bulwarks and down onto the rope ladder to Pell’s open arms below.
Omphile descended after her.“Hope you knows what your doin’, Captain,” she said as she passed him, which only caused further tightness in Gabrielle’s belly.Wobbling in the unsteady boat, Gabrielle finally settled on the thwarts.The mulatto sat beside her and squeezed her hand as more men jumped into the craft, Durwin and Smity, among them.
The captain gave orders for Moses and the remaining pirates on board theResoluteto guard the ship with their lives before he leapt into the cockboat and commanded his men to shove off.
The slap of oars hit the water, stirring up swirling foam as each lurch of the boat brought her and Matthew closer to whatever doom awaited them.Perhaps she deserved her fate, but not her innocent child.She reached over and stroked the soft skin of his cheek and whispered a prayer.“Lord, allow no harm to come to him, I beg you.Not for my sake, but for his.”
Omphile smiled and squeezed her hand tighter as if to say,it will be all right.
To her left, the cannons of Fort Charles could barely be made out in the milky moonlight, making Gabrielle wonder why a pirate would venture here.Yet, she supposed many of them held privateering papers due to the war with France, thus granting them leniency.
As they neared the town, the rattle of carriages, sounds of voices, laughter, and the twang of an off-key harpsichord drifted on the wind.How many port towns like this had she ventured into with her father and mother, witnessing about the love of Jesus and feeding the poor?Too many to count.Though they were often shunned, those memories brought a smile to her face.She’d had a purpose then.She was doing good in the world.And her parents were proud of her.
This time, she’d not be feeding the poor nor spreading the Gospel.This time, she and her son would be bait to lure in an evil, loathsome pirate.She looked at Cadan as he faced the port, his jaw tight with purpose, dark hair blowing in the wind.
All because of one man’s greed for revenge.
