♥
“Run out the guns!”Caleb’s voice thundered.His crew, whole again by the mercy of God, sprang to motion like men reborn.“Prime and load!”
TheSentinelheeled into the wind, her sails cracking full like musket fire.Rigging groaned, timbers screamed, and men clung to shrouds as she swung broadside to the nearest French frigate.Spray surged over her bow, cold and sharp as cut glass.
“Fire as your guns bear, Mr.Keg!”
For a heartbeat the world held its breath—the creak of timbers, the snap of canvas, the hiss of waves against the hull as Keg waited, gauging the lift and angle of the shot.
Then came the deafening roar of a broadside unleashed, flame and smoke belching from her gunports as iron shot screamed across the sea.
The acrid tang of powder burned Caleb’s throat.Sweeping the smoke aside, he fixed his gaze upon the enemy.The Frenchman’s foreyards shattered in a spray of splinters, canvas tumbling like torn clouds into the sea.
A cheer ripped through his men.
“Good mark!”Liam whooped, his grin fierce beneath the grime.“We took her wing clean off!”
Caleb steadied himself on the railing, watching the second frigate claw to leeward, struggling against the sudden contrary wind.“We’ve one chance to clear their line.Alden, bring her across the lead ship’s bow.We’ll rake her decks fore to aft!”
Alden grinned.“Aye, Captain.Let’s give the marquis a taste of his own fire.”
“Hands to the braces!”Caleb shouted.“Hard to starboard!Brace up the yards and run her like the devil’s own after us!”
TheSentinelleapt forward, sails billowing white against a sky torn with gun smoke and light.Faith, fierce and living, surged through Caleb’s veins as he gripped the rail.The battle had begun, but this time, he did not fight alone.
Then—
Desi!
He spun, scanning the deck.There, by the starboard rail, hair whipping gold against the wind, eyes fixed upon the damaged frigate.Every line of her shone with courage, wild and radiant as the sea itself.No other woman would stand amid such chaos without flinching.
God help him, he loved her.
And because he did, he knew what must come next.
The mere thought of it sent agonizing pain slicing across his heart.
One glance at the other frigate told him he had but a few moments.He crossed the tilting deck in long strides, heart hammering against his ribs.The look in her eyes—the love, the trust—nearly undid him.For an instant, he faltered.Then he drew the Ring from his pocket, its gold glinting in the battle’s dim light.
“Desi,” he said, his voice hoarse.“I know not what awaits me, but I know the Lord stands with me.If He wills me to live, I shall.”He caught her trembling hand, placed the Ring upon her palm, and closed her fingers around it.
The ship pitched.He steadied her with an arm about her waist.
Her eyes brimmed.“You’re sending me home?”
“Against everything within me, I must.”He pressed her folded hand to his lips.“I love you with all that I am, but I’ll not stand between you and your sister’s life.Go, and save her.”
A tear broke free and traced down her cheek.“But I may never return.”
He brushed a wind-tossed strand of hair from her face.“I know.Yet you take my heart with you, for it shall ever be yours.”He drew her close, his lips finding hers—salt and sorrow and the taste of farewell.
She clung to him, sobbing softly, the wind wrapping them in its furious hymn.
Then the heavens split with cannon fire.The blast tore through smoke and sky alike.
“Hands to the deck!”Alden’s shout rang out.
Caleb flung himself over Desi, shielding her as a shot shrieked past, the deck shuddering beneath them.The acrid sting of powder, the splintering crack of wood, men’s voices raised in prayer and anger—it all blurred around the sound of her breath against his ear.
