by Regina Darcy
“Miss Madison?” Captain Preston murmured, kneeling by her side. “Are you all right?”
Once she was finished coughing, Lucy took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes…thanks to you.” She took Captain Preston’s hand in hers, only to feel quite foolish, and quickly let go. “You are…a very good swimmer.” Even to her own ears it sounded daft, but she couldn’t find the words to express either her gratitude or her admiration.
“And you are very talented at getting yourself into trouble, aren’t you, Miss Madison?” Gabriel Preston turned around, his mouth curling into a smile. Lucy could not return the expression — her mouth was too occupied with chattering violently from the cold. Preston scrutinised her for a moment, shook his head, and then slipped away.
“Well, I cannot argue that point,” Lucy murmured, wringing out her soaked hair.
***
Lucy had lost her blue hair ribbon when she fell overboard. It was probably still swirling into the dark depths of the sea. Now, as she struggled to sleep that night, she discovered that her long locks were causing significant problems. She could not sleep with her hair all tangled about her, like an out-of-control thicket of wild plants. Her thick blond mane was simply everywhere. She needed a way to keep it under control, or she feared that she would go plain mad.
Just when she had given up all hope of getting to sleep, a loud knock sounded on the door of the cabin. Lucy sat up in bed, grabbed one of the captain’s oversized frocks and headed over to answer the door. Standing there, she found the man in question. In one hand, he held a lantern. His other hand was clenched tight.
“Good evening, Captain,” she said. She still wasn’t quite sure about the man intentions. She was certainly grateful that he had saved her, but it had also revelled to her how completely she was ta his mercy in more ways than one. She bit her lower lip as she remember how her last thought had been for him. It meant nothing!
“Thank you again…for saving me.”
“Think nothing of it.”
“Well, how can I help you this evening, sir?”
“Oh, I just made you something, and I wanted to drop it off,” Captain Preston said, pressing a small object into Lucy’s outstretched hand. She held it closer, turning it over and inspecting it in the dim light. It was a small whalebone hairpin carved into a delicate heart shape.
“I…” She stared at him, unsure of what to say. Lucy jabbed the beautiful carving into her messy, tangled hair.
“Thank you. I needed this,” she finally whispered.
“I am very glad that you like it,” he said, winking at her. Then, he turned on his heel and started to leave.
“Wait…” She reached out. “Where are you going?” As soon as the words were out she knew she sounded like a forward wanton. He turned back around, squinting his eyes in confusion. “What I mean to say is…why did you give me your cabin? I feel terrible, taking this comfortable bed from you.” She blushed at the incoherence of her sentences. Unconsciously, she started playing with the whalebone pin in her hair.
Captain Preston smiled at her and shook his head.
“Oh, my dear Miss Madison. Do not worry about me.”
“Would you like to…take a turn in the cabin this evening?” Lucy knew that even proposing such a thing was scandalous, but she felt guilty about occupying the bed, especially now that Captain Preston had saved her.
“No, thank you, Miss Madison. I should prefer to stay out here.”
“Oh..?”
Captain Preston looked over his shoulder, before he leaned in close and whispered. “This ship is not safe.”
Lucy’s blue eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to ask him what on Earth he meant by that. But before she could so much as get a word out, Preston gave a final tip of his hat and closed the cabin door.
All she was left with was his intoxicating scent of wind, sea and pine aftershave. She inhaled deeply.
She would think of his worrisome warning tomorrow.
FOUR
In the days following her unfortunate swim, Lucy found that Preston was stopping by the cabin to check on her more often. His behaviour seemed slightly off somehow. He appeared preoccupied and tense. In addition, he had actually stopped drinking to excess, judging from the fact that she had not seen him intoxicated for days.
Lucy worried about what this change might mean. She hope it had something to do with her, but she seriously doubted it. Around dawn one day, as he stopped by to give her some biscuits for breakfast, she decided to ask him.
“Captain Preston, what did you mean the other day when you said that the ship was not safe?”
“What did I mean? I meant exactly what I said. Ships are no place for a young lady such as yourself to go gallivanting about. Especially a sleepwalking young lady.” He laughed and tugged at a loose curl. “The sea is merciless. She may have let you get away from her when you pitched overboard the other day, but I should hardly think she would be so forgiving the second time around, Miss Madison.”
Lucy frowned. Preston’s tone was confident and relaxed, but there was a spark of worry in his green eyes. There was definitely something that he was not telling her…something about this ship.
“Now, I get to ask you a question,” the Captain said, leaning against the wall and tilting his head at her. “What were you truly running away from? If you will excuse me for saying so, Miss Madison, I simply do not believe your flimsy sleepwalking excuse.”
Lucy fidgeted with her hair, feeling the carved whalebone pin holding it together.
“It is a rather complicated story, and I would rather not say.”
“Running away from a marriage?”
“I…” Lucy gaped at him, flabbergasted. “How on…I mean, no. That was not it.”
“Judging from your reaction, I would say that it was.”
Lucy threw up her hands in surrender. “
Very well, then. How on Earth did you guess that?”
“Well, you are of marrying age. You also have not done much complaining, despite the fact that I have put you to work. That tells me that you are running away from something. I figure you must be escaping some arranged marriage. Perhaps you were hoping to get away from your parents and meet up with some other lad in another part of England. But you picked the wrong ship to stow away on—the one ship that was leaving for a foreign land.”
“You were doing so well up until that last bit of conjecture, Captain Preston.”
“Oh, I was? So you do not have someone you are saving your heart for?” he retorted with a sparkle in his eyes.
“No. I am afraid that the only suitor I have ever had in my life is…not someone I am prepared to spend the rest of my life with.” Especially because, with Armistead, the rest of her life might ultimately amount to a mere year or two.
“I can’t imagine why, Miss Madison.” Preston leaned closer, still staring at her through his spyglass. “You’re a fair enough girl. I would think you would have more than a few young men flocking around you at balls and the like.”
Lucy felt her face grow hot. She scowled at him.
“Captain Preston, you are not a very adept flatterer.”
“That was not flattery, I am afraid. Miss Madison, you are, objectively, quite pretty.” Lucy rolled her eyes, too flustered to find a suitable response.
“If you do not mind my asking, what made this one suitor so unsuitable?”
“He was…is…quite…angry. He has a notoriously bad temper.” Lucy strove to keep her description vague enough to prevent Captain Preston from being able to identify the very merchant for whom he was currently working. “He is said to have hurt quite a few people. But my parents…they mean well. They do not understand. They are so blinded by their desire to save our family from ruin, that they…Well, the only thing that matters to them is that this man is exceedingly rich.”
“That will not do.” Preston shook his head. Lucy could see that his eyes were now filled with concern. “You were right to leave. I am just sorry you ended
up on this ship.”
“Oh, it really isn’t all that bad of a ship.”
“There…” Captain Preston looked about and moved closer. “I must tell you something about the Golden Griffin. I did not want to say anything earlier, as I thought that you might panic.”
“Do I seem that high-strung to you, Captain Preston?”
“Miss Madison, if I might be so bold, the young ladies who stow away on merchant ships usually are.” He gave her a sarcastic smile. “I do not think you are, however,” he added quickly, noticing her glare. “I am concerned about the loyalty of this crew.”
“Loyalty? Whatever do you mean? Are you worried about a mutiny?”
“I have given them no reason to mutiny. Insurrection tends to occur on long voyages, with crewmembers that have been abused by the command of a ship. This Azores expedition will be over before we all know it. Yet I am worried that these men are not honest sailors.”
“Do you mean that you hired a crew of pirates?” Lucy asked with an arched eyebrow.
Preston threw his hands in the air. “I deserve that! The merchant for whom I am working did most of the hiring I am embarrassed to admit. Normally, I would have selected the crew myself. But on this occasion, I confess, I was more than a bit inebriated while on dry land.”
Lucy pursed her lips. The merchant for whom he was working? That meant Armistead.
“This merchant you are working with…what is he like?”
“He is like the devil himself.” Preston glowered. “Mr Armistead dresses like a cultured gentleman but acts like an uncivilised brute.”
Clearly, Preston had no love for Mr Armistead. Still, Lucy was reluctant to say that she was betrothed to the man. She bit her lower lip. Now was not the time to be divulging this secret.
“Why would he employ such…potentially dangerous crewmembers?” Lucy asked. “And what exactly makes you, sir, think that they are pirates?”
“Armistead? I think that he hires men as cheap as possible. And there have been several strange goings-on so far. When I awoke this morning, I found that we have already gone far off course. The crew, of course, claimed that it was just a mistake. But I worry that they are intentionally sailing in the wrong direction.”
“Pray tell, why would they do that? If you will forgive my asking, is there really anything on this ship valuable enough to warrant such a well thought-out and complicated raid? Surely, pirates would prefer to just attack a ship, rather than hire their services out.”
“Traditionally, yes.” Preston’s green eyes took on a faraway look. “But I have heard of other pirates with more sophisticated methods.” Seeing Lucy’s confused expression, he continued. “There is a pirate in these waters. Some believe he is a Barbary corsair…but there are many rumours about the man behind the mask. He sails upon a monstrously large vessel known as The Delight.”
“What do they call him?”
“The Blue Devil. He dresses all in blue — in an almost dandy sort of style. He sails blue colours. He wears an azure cloth mask to conceal his identity.”
Preston’s voice shook with a quiet rage. Lucy noticed that he was gritting his teeth as he spoke of this pirate.
“Have you ever encountered him before, Captain Preston?”
He looked at her for a moment. It was as though he were staring straight through her, lost in some long ago, hazy memory. “Yes.”
“What happened then?”
He slowly turned away from her gaze.
“I only have…had…one brother. James. He was two years older than I. We were inseparable. I am where I am today…partially because of him. He was a Navy officer, you see. He was excelling there, quickly rising through the ranks.” Preston gave her a sad smile. “I am not a terribly disciplined person, you see. I knew that the Navy was not for me. So I started sailing on merchant vessels instead.”
“I see,” Lucy said quietly.
“Two years ago, James’s ship was tasked with catching the Blue Devil. The pirate had already killed scores of sailors on the open sea and stolen loads upon loads of treasure and commodities. Many believed he was an operative of the Barbary Coast, but other than that conjecture, no one knew much about him. Regardless of whom he worked for, he was dangerous, and the Crown wanted him disposed of.” Preston closed his eyes for a moment. “When James and I bid each other farewell in London, he told me a bit about the assignment. I did not think much of it. That was the last time I saw him before…before…the incident. It all happened near these waters.”
“What happened, Captain Preston?”
“I was sailing on a regular voyage to the Azores.” He sighed. “And then, all at once, The Delight was upon us in a flash. It is one of the fastest ships on the sea today, a virtual oceanic fortress, practically brimming with cannons and guns and men. But they did not need any of those weapons. They had placed a number of agents within our crew. Without warning, those men took over and seized control of the ship. We were dead in the water. Then, the pirates boarded.” Captain Preston closed his eyes. “They took me onto The Delight, since I was the captain. The rest of the men — aside from those who were working with that masked fiend — were left on the old ship, which was then sunk.”
“Oh,” Lucy breathed.
“They threw me in the brig. That is where the worst of it happened. I saw my brother James. They had blasted his Navy ship out of the water and captured him. He was badly injured in the fight, but they had just tossed him into the dirty, cramped cell as if he were worthless. I held him as he died in my arms. ‘It’s not what it seems, Preston,’ he said. ‘It’s not what it seems.’ He kept saying that. Then, he stopped talking. He just went quiet. And he was gone.”
“I am so sorry, Captain Preston.” Lucy reached out and touched his hand. “How did you ever manage to escape?”
“Once my brother passed, I managed to escape through a porthole. I swam to the nearest island. Fortunately, there was a small settlement there, and I was able to return to England. But I have never been the same since. I lost my brother, my crew…everything.” He put a hand on Lucy’s shoulder. “We must be vigilant. The Blue Devil knows these waters well. If there is even a slight chance that some of these men are working for him, we must be ready.”
Lucy nodded. Of course, of all the possible ships on which she could have stowed away, she would have to pick the one in danger of attack from a ruthless pirate. Suddenly, a loud voice broke into the quiet of the cabin.
“Captain! Come up and take a look at this!”
Preston held his hand out to Lucy. “Come with me?”
She took his hand and nodded. They were in this together.
FIVE
Lucy stood in the doorway of the cabin as Preston circled the deck a few times, craning his neck and fiddling with his compass.
“What is happening, Captain Preston?” she asked, as he moved about.
“There is a tempest coming, Miss Madison,” Preston said. Above them, the sky had grown dark and angry. Lucy stared out at the turbulent horizon. The water around the Golden Griffin was still quite calm, but in the distance, she could see powerful, rolling waves.
Then, she saw something else. It was something that chilled her to her core. Lucy tugged on Preston’s tattered sleeve.
“There is another ship out there,” she whispered.
“Another ship?” Preston fished his spyglass out of his jacket pocket and took a look. Lucy was alarmed to see his lips press together in a firm, thin line. He slowly handed her the spyglass, which she promptly pointed at the horizon.
“That is not just any other ship.”
Lucy gasped. Through the spyglass, she could see quite clearly the flag flapping from the mast of the other ship. The tattered fabric was a bright azure colour, with the image of a demonic, horned figure emblazoned upon it.
She put down the spyglass and looked into Preston’s green eyes. “The Blue Devil.”
Preston practically flew about the deck, calling his crewmen to action, but t
he sailors barely seemed to be taking his orders seriously. Lucy was beginning to see why he was so suspicious of the whole lot of them. The heavens opened up, releasing a torrent of rain into the sea.
“Everyone, get to their stations!” he yelled. “Pirates off the starboard bow!”
The ginger-haired sailor who had nearly thrown Lucy off the ship on her first day just smiled at him. “We know, Captain Preston. From here on out, it is probably best if you save your energy and sit down a while.”
Lucy saw Captain Preston still.
“Are you refusing a direct order?” he asked in a deadly voice.
“You might say that,” the man smiled, revealing a row of yellow teeth. “Or you might say we are just following orders from a different source.”
At that, Preston whirled around and grabbed Lucy by the hand, pulling her up the stairs to the top deck. The ship’s wheel was there, guarded by a muscled, tattooed sailor.
“Get out of here,” Preston ordered him, pulling his pistol from his waistband. Shrugging, the sailor complied. Preston turned to Lucy. “I am afraid I was right. These men plan to turn us over to the Blue Devil himself.”
“What will we do?” Lucy asked.
Captain Preston turned to her. “Hold onto me.” She obeyed, as he seized the wheel and cranked it violently. The ship immediately shifted to one side and began lurching toward a small island, with a fringe of green jungle and the cresting peak of a mountain looming against the blue sky.
“Are we not getting rather close to that island?” Lucy asked Preston, clinging to his arm. If she let go, she feared she might tumble and fall straight off the ship and into the sea. “Might we beach ourselves by doing this?”
“That is the goal, Miss Madison,” he said, winking at her. She stared back in horror. What sort of plan was that? The Delight was gaining on them quickly. And this so-called sea captain was planning on practically beaching the Golden Griffin? “Please, trust me.”