"You are probably right about that,” he said. “But what I am also is a strong back and willing worker. I think I just proved that.”
Oh, he had a hundred times over during the storm.
“And if you don’t want me on one of the work crews,” he continued, “then what I am as well is an army captain, and a damn good soldier. And if I understood your orders, Captain Peri, you have two big problems facing you right now. The first is to repair yer ship and get her back underway again. That will take experienced seamen, which as you noted, I am not. And the second one is the real possibility of an attack while we are adrift. And for that, you will need experienced fighting men. There I can help as I am a seasoned soldier, I can assure you, I am more than qualified for any roll or job you need manned."
Peggy relaxed her stand. He was, of course, quite correct. He would be more hindrance then use in trying to repair the damage to her ship. But he was more than qualified to man one of the gun crews.
“Very well,” she replied and tried to smile at him. But the day had been too turbulent to muster even a slight one.
He nodded then silently turned and opened the door to leave. She quickly called out to him. "Report to Mr. Thibeau, Captain Stoughton. Advise him, on my orders, you are to be assigned to one of the gun crews."
"Aye, aye, Captain," he replied and then closed the door behind him.
Peggy sagged as the strength drained from her body. She longed to curl up beside Joc as she had as a very young child and just hold him throughout the night. But she knew she could not give into the weakness. She never had. The idea of disappointing either Eddie or Joc had always driven her to excel at whatever task they had set for her. And she would not fail at this one. Avenging Eddie’s murder was her responsibility. And she simply could not fail.
It was not the way he had wanted to gain the confidence of the crew and their captain. But the storm had done in a matter of minutes what he had thought would be impossible. Especially, in the time he had before they reached Tripoli.
And although there was still some who were wary around him, most of the crew were no longer glaring at him. Even Thibeau had stopped scowling when Luc was around. And his three friends, Luther Shann, Dixon Pegg, and Grey Bird had also stopped taunting Luc. That, he knew, might change once they were back underway. But for the last two days they had all worked to jury-rig the mainmast.
A sense of impending doom hung over the ship. Everyone on board understood the danger of being dead in the water. Particularly, in pirate-infested waters.
When Luc had asked how dangerous it was, Peggy had reminded him that they had fifty thousand pounds in gold in their hold. And keeping a secret like that was hard to do. Especially, when half of Tripoli probably knew about the kidnapping and ransom demand.
Time was running out. Luc could feel it. So could the crew. He could sense it in the air. And he could see it on the faces of the ship's crew, her officers, and most of all, in the eyes of their captain.
Chapter 18
On the third morning after the storm, luck ran out for the Coral Sea and her crew. Two nights of little sleep and two days of backbreaking work had finally paid off. A collective sigh of relief washed over the ship as the order to get underway was given. And into the mix of jubilation came the call they all had been dreading.
"Sails astern!"
Every soul froze. Every heartbeat drummed a call to battle.
Luc and every sailor on board glanced to the foremast and the man in the jury-rigged crow's nest, and then they followed the direction of his spyglass to the stern of the ship. Those that could not see the man simply turned toward the stern and waited with everyone else for the telltale signs of the approaching ship.
Out of the corner of his eye, Luc saw the captain come onto the quarterdeck and glance up towards the lookout.
"Her colors, Mr. Mason?" the Captain called up to the lookout.
Everyone held their breath in suspended anxiety as they awaited the ship to come close enough for her flag to be seen. He instinctively knew that the approaching ship was not friendly. They all did. But they just needed confirmation before going to their action stations.
"She's not flying her colors, Captain," rang out from above.
Luc glanced up at the new crow's nest just in time to see the lookout lower his spyglass to look at the captain. "She's a ketch, captain."
He was unfamiliar with the term or what the lookout was telling the captain. From the sound of his voice and the look on his face, he could deduce that it wasn't good. Turning, he glanced at his tutor, "Mr. Morton?"
"A ketch is a type of ship, Captain Stoughton. One used by many of the Barbary pirates. She's fast and highly maneuverable in all kinds of seas. They aren't as heavily armed as the Coral Sea. And under normal circumstances, coming across one wouldn't be a problem. But with the temporary mainmast we’re slower than normal and unable to maneuver as we usually can."
Luc glanced in the direction the ship was coming from. He was unfamiliar with naval warfare, so he turned back to his teacher for an explanation of the forthcoming battle.
"She'll come up behind us, leeward, and then cut across our stern. Once she is abeam of us, she'll target our rudder and try to disable our steerin’. Then she'll give our guns a wide berth and try to get in front of us. If they do, they'll cut across our bow and target our fore-mast. Once we're without a rudder or sheets, we'll be dead in the water and easy pickin’s for the likes of them. Leastwise," Edgar paused for effect, "that's what I figure she'll do."
There was no mistaking the scorn in the man's voice. Luc raised an eyebrow and waited for the man to continue. He was not disappointed.
"The captain, the old Captain Peri that be, had a little surprise built into the aft of the Coral Sea."
"Oh?" Luc asked.
"It's a tactic the Coral Sea used on more than one occasion in our heyday. Captain Peri-"
Luc heard the change in the man's tone of voice and saw his brief glance at the quarterdeck and the current Captain Peri.
The man continued unabated, "-didn't want to be caught unaware by a tactic that he had used so often. So he mounted two cannons on the poop deck, and two more in the Captain’s cabin."
Luc heard the pride in the man's voice. The old man fairly crowed as he went on. "Thirty-two pounders. Which’ll be an unpleasant surprise to anyone aiming to attack us from astern.
"General quarters, Mr. Jenkins," she yelled as Edgar continued his explanation.
"You can't see them’s that is up on the poop deck because the wily old Captain Peri had’m hidden under them crates up there. And the ones in the captain’s cabin, they’s hidden behind breakaway windows, so they can be brought into action at a moment's notice."
Luc squinted at the man. “Edgar, I was in the captain’s cabin. . .”
“Didn’t see them, did ye boee?” Edgar finished for him. “Did ye happen to notice the cabinets aft of the cabin? The ones under the windows.”
He shook his head. The night he had been in Peggy’s cabin, he hadn’t been interested in the décor of the room, only in the naked woman in the bed.
Edgar chortled then said, “It ain’t real. Peri didn’t want anyone knowin’ they was there if’n they were to come a lookin’ around.”
As an experienced soldier, Luc appreciated the tactical advantage of hidden artillery.
"She's closing fast, Captain," the lookout yelled down.
Looking out to sea, he saw the top of the smaller ship's mast just coming into view over the horizon. Glancing around he quickly noted that none of the other sailors had paused in their preparation for the forthcoming battle to watch the ship's approach.
"This ain't new to them, Cap. Most of these ‘ere men have survived more battles than a body has a right to. They're good men, they are. They know what they're about."
There was some comfort in knowing he would be going into his first sea battle with an experienced crew. It had always helped to know the men that he fought with
had already experienced the horrors of war. New or inexperienced men sometimes faltered during the heat of their first battle.
But suddenly the entire crew froze in their preparations.
"Ship off the bow! And closing fast!"
The new warning had even caught the wiry Edgar off guard. All of them whirled around to see another ship closing on them from the front at an even faster rate.
"Another ketch, Captain," the lookout finished.
From the look on Edgar’s face he could tell this was also not an unknown tactic either. "Edgar?" he asked.
"Not unusual, Cap. But as I said, we're not as maneuverable as we would like."
Turning around, he watched Peggy as she watched the horizon in front of them. "How close is she?" she yelled up to the lookout.
"Ten minutes, Captain. Maybe less."
Luc turned back to Edgar. "We’d usually hold until they’s jist in range of our 32’s, then we’d turn sharp and give ’em what for with a broadside. But without enough wind in our sheets we'll flounder if we try to turn."
Looking seaward, he searched for the ship coming at them from the front. He then turned and watched their captain as she too glanced from the bow to the aft of the ship.
"I don't suppose you have another surprise forward as well, do you?" Luc asked as he eyed the cannon beside him.
"Not one that’s likely to put a stop to them that’s a comin’," Edgar seethed.
Glancing around them, he saw the anxious looks on the faces of the other sailors. Swinging around, he fixed his eyes on the lady standing defiantly on the quarterdeck. Luc awaited her orders like everyone else.
"Those greedy bastards wants what in our ‘old real bad."
Luc agreed. But now was not the time to contemplate the why's of the situation but to act to prevent its success. Accordingly, he decided on a tactic he had been forced to use while serving with his brother and the grenadiers.
"Mr. Morton, cut the canon loose from its moorings. And be quick about it," Luc ordered, nodding his head at the canon in front of them.
"Are you crazy, Captain?"
"Aye, Mr. Morton. Quite possibly. But it's a tactic I used successfully against the French durin’ the war, and I figure if it worked then, then it ought to work now as well."
"Captain, these ‘ere are thirty-two pounders," Edgar said as he reached for the battle ax. "And they weigh more than a thousand pounds each," he added as he raised the ax over his head. "And you’s a figurin’ on hoisting them up to the fo’c’sle?" Edgar finished as he brought the ax down and severed the cannon's moorings.
"That's about it, Mr. Morton," Luc confirmed and then turned around and yelled for men on the port side of the ship to do the same thing to one of the cannons on that side.
Edgar looked up at him and gave him a gap-tooth grin as he dropped the ax. "You’re bloody crazy, Captain Stoughton. And I'm right proud to have had a chance to sail with you."
While the men freed the two cannons, he looked up at the poop deck and their captain. She watched the cannons being freed on either side of the ship and then fixed her gaze on him. She gave him a nod and a half smile before turning around and concentrating on the ship bearing down on them from the rear.
Eight men on each cannon hoisted the two guns between them with the rams and powder shoes. Fortunately, the Coral Sea's fo’c’sle was only five feet above the main gun deck. And in short time they had the two cannons hoisted and positioned at the bow of the ship.
"She's starting her turn," the lookout yelled down at them.
Luc glanced up to now see the smaller ship in plain sight just off the port bow. And from what Luc could tell, the ship was indeed turning to run with the wind. In a few more minutes the ship would be abeam of them.
"Lash 'em to the deck, boee’s," Edgar yelled as more men hurriedly began loading both of the cannons.
"To your stations, men," Luc ordered the other sailors. He turned and looked up to the foremast and the lookout above. "Mason, get your arse down here. Before those pirates blow you out of that rigging."
"She's windward, Captain, and about to cut across our bow," the lookout yelled just before beginning his hurried descent.
Luc quickly acknowledged the lookout's warning and glanced at the gun crew to his left. He didn't know the men's names, and therefore, simply asked if there were ready.
"Aye, aye, Captain!" They yelled back.
"Mr. Morton?" He asked his own gun crew.
"Primed and ready," Edgar yelled back just as the smaller ship opened fire on them.
Cannonballs whizzed over their heads and an echoing of shattering wood filled the air behind them.
"Fire as she bears," Edgar called out to the other gun crew.
Luc held his breath as the smaller ship cut in front of them. Suddenly the order to fire came from the other gun crew and a moment later Edgar echoed the order and their canon also roared to life.
Unbelievably, the first gun crew's shot ripped through the smaller ship’s mainmast, cleaving it in two. Edgar’s shot was even more devastating. It struck the smaller ship's quarterdeck, killing her helmsmen and pulverizing the helm. Suddenly deprived of steerage and wind, the smaller ship floundered as she came abreast of the Coral Sea.
Edgar jumped down to the gun deck and paced the crippled ship as the Coral Sea sailed past them. "Fire as she bears, boees," he called out to the gun crews.
In morbid fascination, Luc watched as gun crew after gun crew, in turn, fired into the doomed ship with deadly effect. At one point, one of the Coral Sea's shots struck the smaller vessel near its water line and moments later a devastating explosion shook the already-crippled vessel.
For several moments Luc watched as men scrambled over the side of the sinking ship. When it reached the far end of the Coral Sea, his eyes swung up to where Peggy was standing.
He was too far away and the roar of the cannons still reverberated in his ears to hear her give the order to fire on the ship approaching from astern. Luc was transfixed.
The lady's hand rose into the air, her cutlass firmly held aloft. And she waited. Then suddenly fire and smoke spewed from the smaller ship as it opened fire on the lady and her ship. And without flinching or hesitation, and with the courage as great as the Duke of Wellington's, she brought her cutlass down and their own guns roared to life.
Chapter 19
This was not a visit Peggy was looking forward to. She knew she had been grossly unfair to Luc. But she had seen the change in attitude toward him after the sea battle. At first she had been grateful. But then she realized her own walls were beginning to fall about the man.
Her feelings toward him weren’t just a physical attraction any longer. That she had been fairly sure she could handle. But these new feelings were too raw. And too much like the ones she had felt for Gustav until he showed his true colors.
So she had done the only thing she knew to do, she locked Luc in his cabin and posted guards on his door while she worked through her changing feelings for the man. She needed to talk to Joc or Eddie about Stoughton. But Eddie was dead, and Joc was still unconscious. Although, talking to Joc about her growing attraction to the Englishman was probably not a good idea.
Thankfully, Joc had finally come to during the night. And fortunately, his mind had not been affected by the blow. So Peggy had spent the morning filling him in on the storm, the damage to their ship, and the following sea battle. She had then told him about Luc’s part in saving him and their ship during the fight.
“What aren’t ye tellin’ me, Peggy?” Joc asked when she got through.
Peggy hesitated and looked away. Despite her constant reminders that she was now a full-grown woman, and could do what she wanted where men were concerned, she knew what Joc would think when she admitted to locking up Luc.
“I confined Captain Stoughton in his cabin for the time being,” she said, then raised her chin and dared him to question her.
“Pourquoi?” he asked in a quiet and bland voice.
Instead of questioning her, he just looked at her in that way that had always unnerved her. As if he could see into her mind and heart.
“Très bien,” he finally said and nodded. He then closed his eyes and laid his head back on the pillow. “Then I suggest you go talk to yer Captain Stoughton, and tell him why ye have locked him in his room, my darling daughter. If ye still want his help to free yer père.”
Twenty minutes later, she was standing outside Luc’s door. She took a deep breath and put her hand on the latch. Opening the door unleashed the enraged fury of the man inside. His anger unsettling Peggy more than it should have. And she hesitated as he bore down on her. The pounding in her chest thudded out of control and stole Peggy's breath away as he pinned her against the bulkhead with his hard body and held her arms over her head.
"Why?" he demanded.
Her wrist stung from his grip. But the torrent of feelings radiated down her arm and pooled between her legs and was more unsettling. The retort she had been about to utter lodged behind her teeth and melted into nothingness as his warm breath mingled with hers.
He was going to kiss her. She sighed as she acknowledged that she wanted that kiss. Her knees turned to jelly and she leaned into him and their lips met. A kiss that had been inevitable from the moment she had read his war record.
Since seeing him outside his brother’s townhouse, she had fantasied about this moment. She discounted the first stolen kiss as inconsequential. It had been completely one-sided. A stolen kiss by an English rake and nothing more. Or at least, nearly nothing. But this one was different. For it was a shared kiss. A kiss of unbridled passion between two people.
Her need for him roared to life as a beast she no longer had any hope of controlling. Nor did she want to. He relaxed his hold on her wrist, and Peggy took advantage of the change. She pushed him backward, and he gave in without breaking the kiss. She then twisted them around until she had him pinned against the wall, her hands now holding his over his head.
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