“We are under attack,” Katherine cried, turning to face Juliet, who was sitting motionless, as white as death, upon her bunk.
“Who?” Juliet croaked. “Who would attack this ship?”
Katherine’s dazed mind began to function. Juliet was a rich heiress, and she herself was the earl of Desmond’s daughter. Oh, God. Pirates infested the waters of the Channel, as well as those off of France, Spain, and both England and Ireland. Preying upon any cargo of value, even if it be human. “Oh, God, have mercy,” Katherine whispered.
Juliet slid to her feet and ran to the porthole. “Katherine?”
Katherine could not speak. And then from the deck above she could hear men shouting in panic, and the word they shouted was “Pirates!”
“There is nothing to see!” Juliet cried, peering over Katherine’s shoulder.
Then another explosion made the girls cling to one another as the ship bucked like a wild horse. They tumbled to the floor together, rolling across it. Men were shrieking, and something huge and hard crashed against the deck just above them. The ship groaned as if alive and in great pain. Muskets were firing now, and Katherine could smell the acrid powder. She prayed it was the crew firing, defending the ship from the marauders. Then she realized that a man was shouting, “Fire aft! Fire aft!” and soon the cry was taken up by some dozen others.
Katherine and Juliet gripped each other, both pale with fright. “What are we going to do?” Juliet whispered.
Katherine tried to think through her thick, cloying fear. “We must stay below. With the door barred.” Images of the dirty, savage pirates descending in a vicious horde upon them assailed her. She felt faint.
“But—what if the ship goes down? We will drown! What if it is sinking even now!”
Katherine realized then that, no matter what happened, they were in the gravest jeopardy. If the ship sank, and they remained below, they would die. If they went above, looking for Sir William and the others, they might very well die as men were undoubtedly dying even now. And if the ship were captured…Katherine did not want to think about it. She must not think about it, or she would lose her very fragile control, and give in to mindless terror. She must be calm.
“We are not sinking,” Katherine said as normally as possible. “If we were, we would hear the men screaming in terror.”
“Yes, you are right,” Juliet said. Her fingernails were digging into Katherine’s wrist even through the sleeve of her nightclothes. “And the ship has righted itself.”
Katherine climbed to her feet, legs apart, and braced for any sudden lurching. “We will stay below here,” Katherine decided as Juliet also rose. “Until something happens to make us think the ship is sinking. Then we will go up. Together. Not before.”
Juliet nodded, speechless, gripping Katherine’s hand.
Katherine inhaled, forcing herself to appear calm. Then she turned to the porthole and froze. A ship had appeared in her line of vision, a big black galleon, its huge white sails billowing, black guns and cannon glistening in the sunlight. It was racing toward them. Nothing she had ever seen had appeared more threatening, more lethal. Even as Katherine watched, it came closer and closer still.
Juliet saw the pirate ship, too, and she whimpered.
The two girls stood at the porthole, unable to move, stiff with terror, vainly trying to fight panic, listening to the explosions tearing apart their ship, explosions which were coming with increasing frequency. The vessel had begun to list again badly to starboard. Chaos seemed toreign on the deck above. The battle seemed to go on forever. Time stood still.
And then, abruptly, the cannons stopped.
Katherine and Juliet were gripping one another’s hands so tightly that they were locked together. The two girls’ eyes met. Suddenly they disengaged their numb fingers. “Is it over?” Juliet whispered.
Katherine did not know—but then the sound of musket fire began in frenzied earnest. And shouts, raised and triumphant. And their ship lurched hard, as if pushed. And suddenly swords clanged, again and again, viciously.
“They have boarded,” Katherine cried, now mindless with fear. “They have boarded us!”
Juliet sobbed once, her hand against her mouth.
Katherine swallowed hard. “Juliet—you know what will happen to us.”
Tears filled Juliet’s eyes. “But afterward…we will be ransomed.”
“Will you want to live without your virtue?”
Juliet inhaled. “I don’t know. Katherine, I am only fifteen. I do know that I don’t want to die.”
Katherine knew she did not want to die either, but she had heard stories, and she imagined that, a few hours from now, both she and Juliet would wish themselves dead. “We have no weapons,” she said with surprising calm, closing her eyes briefly.
“We cannot fight pirates,” Juliet responded.
“Not to fight them,” Katherine said, regarding her friend. “But to end our own lives.”
