And now this revenge, this loathing oozing from Smity, disgusted him with its darkness.’Twas like an evil spirit had been unleashed on the ship, pouring an inky film of despair and hatred over the deck.
“Lock him up below,” Cadan ordered two of his men, sorrow weighing down his own heart.Anger too, aye, but also sorrow.
Grabbing Smity, Rawlins and Barnett dragged him off, curses trailing in his wake.
Moses crawled over the railing and handed the box to Cadan.Placing it gently atop a barrel, he opened it.Little Matthew was sound asleep, oblivious to the dangerous world around him, a vision of purity and innocence among so much evil.
He couldn’t help but smile.
“Scope.”He held out his hand to Pell, who gave him the spyglass.Then marching to the railing, he pressed it to his eye and swept it in theNightblood’s last location.The ship was gone.Moving the spyglass to his left, he spotted her mountains of snowy canvas spread to the morning breeze, heading out to sea.
“Scads!”Gently picking up the box, he took the ladder in two leaps and marched across the quarterdeck, Pell close behind him.
“Olin!”His shout brought the man’s gaze up to him.“You are promoted to bosun.”
The man’s thin brows shot up as excitement sped across his wrinkled face.“Aye, Cap’n!”
“Stand by to raise all sail!”Cadan shouted.
Parading across the main deck like a peacock, Olin began braying commands that sent topmen into the ratlines to unfurl sail.
Moses appeared beside Cadan, one meaty hand rubbing the brand on his neck beneath his scarf.“What did he want wit’ Omphile?”
Cadan noted the rare fear in his carpenter’s eyes.“To aid the lady with the babe.Now, go tend the injured.”He wanted to apologize, to do his best to ease Moses’ fears, but to do so would show weakness, something he could not afford at the moment.
“Let go the halyard, sheets, and braces,” Cadan shouted.“Make all!”
“Where to, Captain?”Pell asked.
“Follow Allard!”
Wailing emerged from the wooden chest still in his arms, and Cadan spun about and headed below.
A vision of a blonde beauty with turquoise eyes circled in his mind, fear clenching his gut for what she must be enduring.Yet…she had trusted him with her son.
The thought both warmed and terrified him.
???
The ship bucked like a wild stallion.Matthew let out another ear-piercing wail.Amazing how such a tiny thing could scream louder than a storm.With the babe tightly in his arms, Cadan rocked him back and forth as he paced across his cabin.
The sea crashed against the hull, pounding the stern like a mighty leviathan desperate to enact tribute from all who dared cross these waters.Wind howled, joining young Matthew.Thunder rumbled, shaking the timbers as footsteps pounded the deck above and harried shouts flung through the air.
Aye, he should be with his men, not down here nursing an infant.Not that he had anything to give the poor child.Moses had crushed sodden bread into a soupy paste and dribbled it into Matthew’s mouth nigh an hour ago.The child had gobbled it up and finally settled into a peaceful sleep in a bed Cadan had made in his teakwood chest.Hence, he’d left him and gone above.
That’s when the storm rose.Black clouds tumbled across the eastern sky quicker than a cannon blast.And before theResolutecould flee for safety, the waves leapt and foamed like a boiling cauldron while the wind pelted them with stinging rain.
Cadan had been through many such storms.They often left as quickly as they came.Hence, he had stood on the quarterdeck, shouting orders to his crew to lower all sail, raise storm staysails, and secure the guns.
Olin took over the position as bosun with more efficiency than Cadan would have thought from the elder pirate, and soon theResoluterode out the storm as best she could, scudding before the wind.
The ship pitched over a mighty wave and swept down into the trough, angry squalls sweeping back over the deck.Wind struck Cadan, pushing him back as he balanced on the heaving timbers.His pirates scrambled over the main deck below, lashed to masts, lest they get swept overboard.Thunder growled.Lightning flashed, casting everything in silver before gray swallowed up the light again.
’Twas not the worst storm Cadan had endured, and it was soon coming to an end, for he could see a hint of blue sky in the distance.
Nay, the worst thing about the tempest?They had lost Allard.
When things began to settle, Cadan’s thoughts had drifted to young Matthew, and he hoped the infant was doing well down below.He should entrust the babe’s care to one of his crew.He was the captain!Trouble was, he didn’t trust any of them, save Pell, and he needed the quartermaster on the tiller.
