The Least Likely Bride

by Jane Feather

  A ladderlike staircase was at the far end of the corridor. Sunshine puddled onto the floor at the foot of the steps, pouring from an open hatchway where Olivia could see a wedge of blue sky and the corner of a white sail.

  She scrambled up the steps and emerged blinking onto the sun-soaked deck under the vivid blue brightness of the morning. The decking was smooth and warm beneath her bare soles, and the wind caught her makeshift gown, pressing it to her body one minute, sending it billowing like a tent the next.

  Olivia looked around at the orderly bustle of men laughing and singing as they handled blocks and tackle, shinnied into the rigging, spliced rope. No one seemed to notice her as she stood at the head of the companionway, wondering where to go.

  Then she heard a familiar voice calling out an order, and she looked behind her to see the master of the ship on the high quarterdeck, standing behind the helmsman at the wheel.

  The golden head was thrown back as he looked up at the sails, feet apart, legs braced on the moving deck, hands clasped behind his back, eyes narrowed against the sun. His tones were calm and unhurried, but his posture, his expression, were both taut and alert.

  Olivia hesitated for a moment, then made her way to the ladder leading to the quarterdeck. She climbed slowly, needing to catch her breath at every step, but despite slightly shaky legs she felt as free and light as one of the seagulls wheeling and diving overhead.

  “Well, what a resourceful creature you’ve turned out to be,” Anthony observed as she stepped onto the dazzling white decking. His eyes crinkled, a smile gleamed as he took in her costume.

  “Do you mind?” Olivia grabbed the rail as a gust of wind filled the big mainsail and the ship heeled sharply.

  “Not in the least. It’s an ingenious use of a garment for which I myself have no use at all,” he responded with a careless gesture.

  Abruptly Olivia wondered where he’d been sleeping while she’d been occupying his bed. A slight flush warmed her cheeks and she turned her studied attention to the landscape.

  “You don’t mind my coming up here?” She shaded her eyes to look out across the expanse of water, welcoming the breeze that cooled her cheeks.

  He shook his head. “Not if you feel strong enough. But don’t forget that you’ve spent three days on your back.”

  “I feel perfectly strong,” Olivia asserted, reflecting that it was not entirely true.

  Anthony didn’t believe her; she was still far too wan for robust health, and he knew better than anyone how much essence of feverfew, wormwood, and poppy juice he’d poured down her resistant throat in the last few days.

  “I only look so pale and limp because I’ve just left my bed,” Olivia said, reading his shrewdly assessing gaze correctly. “I need to bathe and wash my hair. I feel grubby.”

  He nodded with a little accepting shrug. “That can be arranged later. We might even be able to find you some fresh water.”

  “Hot water?” she asked eagerly.

  “That might present more of a problem. But if you speak really nicely to Adam, it could be forthcoming.”

  “Galleon on the port bow,” a voice sang out from way above Olivia’s head. She looked up into the rigging and made out a tiny figure standing on a ledge way at the top of the mizzenmast.

  “Ah, good!” the master of Wind Dancer said with obvious satisfaction. “Now we’ll wear ship, Jethro.”

  “Aye, sir.” The helmsman began to turn the wheel.

  Anthony kept his eyes on the mainsail now, whistling softly between his teeth, then he said crisply, “Olivia, hold the rail, we’re ready to go about.”

  “Go about where?” Olivia looked puzzled. Where was there to go?

  He only laughed. “I forgot you’re a landlubber. Just hold the rail as the great boom swings over.”

  Olivia did as he said, and clung tightly to the railing as he called a series of incomprehensible orders that took men swarming into the rigging, loosening shrouds as the frigate swung into the wind. The massive boom hung in the air for a moment, the mainsail empty of wind, then as the helmsman put the wheel hard over, the wind caught the sail and the boom swung to starboard with a thump. The sails filled once more and Wind Dancer skipped along on her new tack.

  Now Olivia could see that the painted ship she’d noticed from the cabin was much closer, sailing straight towards them, it seemed.

  She waited until everything had settled down again and the ship’s master was once more serenely looking up at the sails, hands still clasped at his back.

  “What is that?” She pointed to the painted ship.

  “Ah, now that is the Doña Elena.” He looked down at her and his eyes were alight with pure mischief. “We’ve been waiting for her to venture forth from her cozy harbor for several days.”

  “Why … why have you been waiting for her?”

  “Because I am going to catch her.” He took a telescoped spyglass from the pocket of his britches, opened it, and examined the painted ship. “Have you ever seen a Spanish galleon before?”

  Olivia shook her head.

  “Here, take a look.” He handed her the glass.

  Olivia put it to her eye and the garish vessel sprang into her vision. “Why are you going to c-catch her?” She flushed with annoyance at the slight stammer. “I wish I c-could stop that!” C was the hardest consonant for her, and despite all her best efforts she still sometimes stumbled. “It’s only when I’m excited or upset or cross,” she added disconsolately.

  Anthony said cheerfully, “I find it appealing.”

  Olivia looked astounded. “You do?”

  He laughed down at her. “Yes, I do. Now, guess why I want to catch the galleon. I told you I live off the sea, remember?”

  Olivia slowly lowered the glass. She looked at him in dawning comprehension. This was certainly no gentleman. “That’s piracy.”

  “Yes, indeed it is.” Now unsmiling, Anthony regarded her. He knew the kind of response he wanted from her. But would she give it to him? During the days he’d tended her through the fevered concussion, he thought that he had recognized in Olivia the flicker of true individuality that was the bedrock of his own personality.

  But did she have the courage to blow that independent spark into full flame? Would she throw background and caution to the wind and give in to adventure?

  It seemed important to him to find out. He waited, watching her face.

  Olivia frowned at him, speculation in her dark eyes. “But … but it’s dangerous.”

  “Therein lies the appeal.”

  “Does it?” Olivia wondered, the murmur little more than a softly spoken reflection of her own thoughts. Was danger appealing? A little tremor lifted the fine hairs on her nape, and she glanced quickly up at the pirate. He smiled slowly at her and she found herself returning the conspiratorial smile.

  She looked again through the glass. The galleon seemed much bigger than Wind Dancer, its four great sails billowing. And now she could see banks of oars along the side, rhythmically sweeping the sea. “She’s going very fast,” she said consideringly, pursing her lips. “Is she faster than your ship? C-can you c-calculate her speed?”

  The little stumble of excitement had given Anthony his answer, and he hid a smile of satisfaction.

  “She’s more cumbersome than Wind Dancer. She responds much more slowly to the helm. Of course, under full sail and with the slaves at full sweep, she could outrun us.”

  “Slaves?”

  “Galley slaves. You see the oars?”

  Olivia nodded, still looking through the glass.

  “You’ll smell them soon enough.” His mouth curled in disgust and the amusement vanished from his eye. “They’re kept permanently chained to the oars. They hose them down periodically.”

  “How barbarous!” Olivia’s voice quivered with indignation. “Shall you set them free when you’ve taken the ship?”

  Anthony laughed silently. “You have no doubts that we’ll succeed in this little venture, then?”

/>   Olivia looked up at him again, her eyes agleam. “No, indeed not. I assume you’ve planned every move with the greatest c-care. You will have taken into account things like wind and tide and the speed of the oars. Things of that nature.”

  “Yes, of course,” he agreed gravely. “All things of that nature have been accounted for.”

  “I would like to know how to make such calculations,” she said thoughtfully. “Mathematics is a favorite subject of mine.”

  “More so than Greek philosophy?”

  Olivia gave the matter some thought. “Sometimes I prefer one, and sometimes the other. It depends if a particular aspect captures my interest.”

  “I can see how that would be.” He looked out over the rail, the secret amusement in his eyes deepening.

  “What of the galleon’s c-cargo?” Olivia asked, dismissing scholarship for the moment. “Is it very rich, do you know?”

  “Very,” he agreed as solemnly as before. “I select my catches with some care. She’s carrying gold doubloons and silks from the Indies. I feel sure I can put them to better use than can her Spanish masters.”

  “And will you set free the slaves?” she pressed.

  “If you wish it.”

  “I do.” Olivia nodded vigorously. “That seems to me an object much to be desired.”

  “Then we will augment piracy with a little philanthropy,” Anthony stated. He turned to the helmsman at the wheel behind him. “Jethro, I think it’s time we took her wind.”

  The man licked a finger and held it up to the wind. “Oh, aye, sir. Come up on the starboard bow, then, shall us?”

  “That’s my idea.” Anthony took the wheel from the helmsman.

  “What is it that you’re going to do?” Olivia came to stand beside him.

  “You see the direction of the wind. It’s coming from her right, from the starboard side. If we come up alongside her on that side, we’ll steal her wind and her sails will flatten. She’ll have only the oars to keep her under way. And while she’s helpless, we shall board her.”

  “That sounds like a good plan,” Olivia said consideringly. “Do you have guns?”

  “A battery on either side. But we’ll get really close before we run ’em out. The more confused they are about our intentions, the better.” He glanced up at the sun and said with a curve of his mouth, “Perfect timing, though I say it myself.” He made a minute adjustment to the wheel.

  “What do you mean? How’s it perfect timing?”

  “The Spaniards enjoy their midday meal,” he replied, and his smile took a cynical twist. “A heavy dinner where the wine flows free invites a long siesta. We’ll catch them with their bellies full and their heads muddled.”

  Olivia abruptly realized that she was famished. “Do you not eat at midday on Wind Dancer?” she asked involuntarily.

  “Oh, are you hungry?” He glanced down at her. “I forgot you’ve had nothing solid to eat for three days. We will dine in style when the engagement is over. The cookstoves are out at present.”

  They were gaining on the galleon now, and Olivia became aware of a different atmosphere on Wind Dancer. The men in the waist of the ship were no longer laughing and singing. They were moving silently into positions against the rails, standing shoulder to shoulder, tense and purposeful. And now Olivia could see the line of guns and the gun ports that for the moment remained closed.

  As they came closer to the galleon, she saw how the other ship’s sails began to flap. “Oh, yes, you are stealing her wind!” she cried softly.

  Then a voice hailed them across the narrowing stretch of water. A stout man in flounced petticoat britches, his coat smothered in gold braid and silver buttons, had emerged from the companionway onto the galleon’s poop deck. Olivia couldn’t understand the language but the tone was unmistakable. The Spanish captain was livid as his sails flapped uselessly. He waved a soiled table napkin as if it might do the work of his empty sails as he bellowed through a megaphone.

  And then Olivia smelled it. A vile cesspit stench that reminded her of rotting meat and the unmentionable filth of the kennel. She covered her mouth, choking, her hunger vanished.

  Anthony pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her, advising grimly, “Cover your mouth and nose.”

  The frigate was almost alongside the galleon, and Anthony called, “Starboard guns … nets … let’s waste no time, gentlemen.”

  And things happened very fast. There was a great rattling as the guns rolled forward into the ports, and boarding nets flew through the air, grappling irons hooking onto the side of the galleon.

  The Spaniard was screaming and hopping from foot to foot on the poop deck. Olivia could now hear the violent creaking of the oars under frantic arms, the vile crack of a whip, the ugly groans and cries as scarred backs were lacerated anew. Men on the galleon raced to throw off the boarding nets, but even as they did so, the pirate’s men were swarming across the now narrow gap.

  “Starboard guns … fire!”

  The deck beneath Olivia’s feet shook under the booming cannonade, and she would have lost her footing had Anthony not thrown out an arm and clasped her tightly against him as he swung the wheel, bringing Wind Dancer impossibly close to the galleon. So close it seemed she must ram the other ship. The sound of splintering wood filled the hot summer air as the frigate’s guns tore into the galleon’s side.

  Olivia looked up at him and he laughed down at her and she realized she was not frightened, only filled with a wild elation.

  Then Jethro, the helmsman, appeared as if on command and took the helm, and Anthony drew his sword. With a swift movement, he bent and took Olivia’s chin on the palm of his hand and kissed her mouth. “Piracy seems to suit Lord Granville’s daughter.”

  Before she could answer, he was gone, swinging himself over the rail, across the stretched netting, to leap into the midst of the thronged Spaniards on the opposite deck.

  Olivia, wonderingly, touched her mouth where he’d kissed her. A man had never kissed her on the lips before. She clasped her arms around her body with a little shiver. But it was of excitement, not fear. She looked at Jethro and saw that his countenance was utterly calm, utterly confident. He swung the frigate’s head into the wind so that her sails emptied and she came to a stop, bobbing gently alongside the Spanish vessel.

  Olivia looked into the anarchic maelstrom on the galleon’s deck and saw Anthony’s bright head. It seemed to be everywhere, and his sword flashed like the archangel’s blade at the gates of the Garden of Eden.

  “Will it be all right?” The question spoke itself.

  “Aye, never you fear, lady. The master’s never lost a fight yet.” Jethro spoke with stolid calm.

  And in truth it seemed that the chaos was dying down, the shouts and screams fading, no longer competing with the squalling gulls. Anthony leaped onto the galleon’s poop deck where the Spanish captain and three other grandees in braided coats and high plumed hats had materialized.

  Olivia watched as the pirate swept his victims a flourishing bow, his sword cutting a swath through the air. She caught herself throwing a calculating glance over the side at the bridge of netting. It had looked easy enough, although the water seemed a long way down.

  What in the world was she thinking? But reason seemed to have abandoned her. Mad though it was, Lord Granville’s daughter wasn’t going to miss out on any aspect of this adventure. Olivia chuckled to herself as, with a little unconscious toss of her head, she gathered the folds of her makeshift gown into her hands, lifting it well clear of her bare feet. She swung over the rail.

  “You can do it in three steps. But expect it to move beneath you.”

  At the pirate’s cool tones calling to her from the opposite deck, Olivia looked up. There was both challenge and invitation in his steady gaze. She nodded, biting her lip with concentration, released the rail, and sprang forward. The netting bridge bounced beneath her and she gave a cry, half alarm, half exhilaration, and then she’d reached the galleon
in safety, the wind whipping her hair from beneath the blue scarf. She tumbled over the rail to the deck and climbed up to the poop deck.

  “Gentlemen, may I present the Lady Olivia.” Anthony introduced her with another bow and a flourish of his sword. “She will take your swords, if you’d be good enough to disarm yourselves.” He smiled politely. “A simple precaution, but one I’m sure you’ll understand.”

  “This is piracy!” spat the captain in thick accents.

  “Precisely,” Anthony agreed. “Piracy on the high seas. Your swords, gentlemen, if you please.”

  “I will not dishonor myself to a common pirate!” one of the other three spluttered. “I will die on my sword rather than surrender it to a thief.”

  “Then pray do so, sir. It is one of your three options.” The smile that flickered over his lips was one of polite indifference. “You may surrender your swords to Lady Olivia; you may die upon them if you so wish; or I will remove your swordbelts myself. And your britches with them.” His sword flashed suddenly, its point coming to rest against the captain’s considerable paunch.

  The man jumped back with a squawk. The sword followed. Three quick cuts and the captain’s swordbelt clattered to the deck.

  “If you would be so kind, Lady Olivia,” Anthony murmured. His sword point danced as deftly as a needle, and the buttons on the man’s britches flew to the four winds. He grabbed at his britches as they began to slide, and stood helplessly, glowering, swearing.

  The other three stared in loathing and fear at their smiling tormentor.

  Olivia picked up the captain’s heavy sword and placed it carefully on the deck some distance from its owner.

  Anthony raised an eyebrow at his remaining victims, and his sword point leaped forward jauntily. A second sword fell to the deck; a second man stood helplessly clutching his britches lest they fall to his ankles.

  Olivia picked up the fallen sword and put it with the other. Laughter bubbled within her but she tried to emulate Anthony’s cool composure. He stood now leaning against the rail, his sword point resting between his feet as he regarded the two remaining Spaniards.