It was an utterly tense moment. The four pirates were armed, had come just inside the door, and all four pistols were pointed directly at Timothy’s chest.
Drew was afraid this was one of those times that his first mate wasn’t going to back down. He could feel his tension, and his anger, that he hadn’t accomplished what he’d set out to do. And it wouldn’t be the first time the big man had plowed through unrealistic odds. He was probably too angry to even notice the damn pistols and was going to get himself killed.
Gabrielle suddenly shot out of the bed, her body wrapped in a blanket, and placed herself directly between the two groups. And she was bristling with anger herself.
“I’ve bloody well had enough excitement for the day, gentlemen,” she snarled. “So you’re all going to rethink this situation and realize that sleep is much more appealing right now than spilling blood.”
Drew let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. But it didn’t sit well with him to suddenly be feeling gratitude to the lady. He had to admit, though, that had been quick thinking on her part, to realize that Timothy wouldn’t try to get through her to get at her men. The big man had no trouble cracking a dozen male heads together, but he’d never harm a woman. She’d been in a sound sleep, but apparently had no trouble waking alert and ready to make instant judgments like that.
“Damned women pirates,” Timothy mumbled in a subdued tone. Drew knew then that the danger was over.
“I have had just about enough of you, Mr. Sawyer,” Gabby remarked. “Do you really have so little care for your personage that you’d ask to be shot?”
“Is that what I was doing?” Timothy said with an abashed look. “My apologies.”
She tsked in disgust, but glanced behind her to tell her men, “Take him back—”
“To where,chérie?” Richard cut in. “There is a hole next to the door of the cabin he was in.”
“He broke through the bloody wall?” Gabby asked incredulously. And then she sighed as she looked back at Timothy. She even gave him a disappointed look. “You, sir, are an outrageous nuisance. What am I going to do with you?”
Drew was incredulous to hear Timothy say, shamefaced, “I won’t cause anymore trouble, miss.”
Drew groaned. Scolded by a pretty woman and the man was a complete pushover!
But Gabby wasn’t done. “I’ll have your word on it.”
This time Timothy just stared at her. Perhaps he was debating whether he would have to keep his word if he gave it to a pirate.
But Gabby was too annoyed to allow Timothy much time to think it over. His prolonged silence prompted her to comment, “I’ll take that as a no,” and she marched over to the table by the bed to pick up Drew’s pistol.
Since the woman had fooled him once, trying to pretend she wasn’t a pirate when he knew now that she was, Drew really had no idea what she was capable of. For all he knew, she just might shoot Timothy to keep him from being a further “nuisance,” as she’d called him.
So he hissed at his friend, “Answer her, damn it!”
She heard him but didn’t remark on that, nor did her annoyed expression change. She merely pointed out, “A standoff isn’t going to let any of us get back to our beds. Will you at least give your word that there will be no further trouble tonight so we can all get some sleep?”
“That I can do.”
Gabrielle mulled that over for a few moments. Frankly, she looked too exasperated to agree to only half of what she’d asked for. And Drew hated to admit it, but she looked much too fetching standing there clutching his woolen blanket around her, with her long dark hair disheveled and falling around her shoulders. But then her expression changed. She nodded. And it took Drew only a moment to guess that she’d just remembered what her young friend had told her earlier, that there were two shackles in the hold. Drew was wearing one now, but there was one left for Timothy.
Blast it! The wench wasn’t happy with one man in chains, she had to shackle two!
Chapter 28
TIMOTHYSAWYER MIGHT HAVE WALKED BACK TO HIS CABINof his own accord, but Gabrielle didn’t trust him to keep his word, not even a little. A man as big as he was was nothing but trouble, in her mind—very dangerous trouble, and she wasn’t taking any more chances with him.
She, Richard, and Bixley succeeded in shackling Timothy to the sturdiest wall in his cabin. The big man accepted his fate with surprising docility, perhaps because Gabrielle distracted him by satisfying his curiosity about her father’s life as a pirate, answering question after question.
Before stepping back out of his cabin, she even told him, “Thank you for keeping your word and not causing any more trouble.” He merely shrugged his wide shoulders.
It was done. And the ship was still in her control. It had been close, though.
She headed back to the captain’s cabin. The night watch was doubled. Ohr had already seen to that. They weren’t taking any more chances. And she’d been gone long enough getting Sawyer taken care of that she could hope Drew was now sleeping, or, if not, that he’d be quiet so she could.
No such luck.
He waited until she’d crawled back in his bed. He even let her get comfortable, rearranging the pillow a few times, smoothing out the blanket she was lying on top of. But the moment she sighed in contentment—it was a very comfortable bed—his voice drifted over to her.
