by Howe, Cheryl
Her usual bravado escaped her. This man was a real pirate, and he thought she was a harlot to be purchased.
“Sir, you’ve made a mistake. I’ve been held hostage. I’m trying to find help—”
“Don’t worry, lass. Bertie will help ya.” The pirate grinned, then took a giant step toward her. Felicity scrambled backward, stumbled over the hem of her unlaced dress and fell on her rump in the sand. Bile rose in her throat.
The pirate laughed. “Got you now. You’re a feisty one. I like it when you girls play coy.”
One of the men carrying the launch yelled in their direction. “Hey, Bertie—you pissing a river? Getcher arse back over here and help us.”
When the pirate turned to answer, Felicity scrambled to her feet and ran. Terror made her quick, but not quick enough. An arm yanked her off the ground before she got far.
“Bloody hell. Now I’ll have to share you,” he said near her ear.
His breath smelled of strong spirits, his body of salt and filth. She struggled unsuccessfully to smash an elbow into his stomach. Despite her frantic struggles, he carried her easily to his friends.
The light from the taverns grew brighter on the open beach and his companions stared wide-eyed at her breasts. She looked down. Her worst fears were confirmed. Her gown had shifted in the struggle, exposing pink nipples against mounds of white flesh.
“Christ. Look at those. I want a feel,” said his companion.
The pirate pulled her against him, gripping her bare breast with his other hand. “I found her, so I get her first.”
His erection dug into her bottom. She swallowed hard to keep from vomiting. In desperation, she brought her one booted heel down on his toe.
The man yelped. He loosened his grip but didn’t let her go. “She’s got some life left in her.”
“Yeah, but is she worth a flogging? Captain told us to go back to the ship so Roger and Niles can come ashore,” said a second man. They all carried swords. Their filthy, scarred faces proved they used them often.
Her captor hoisted her back against him. “Captain wouldn’t want me to miss out on a piece like this. Bet he’d want a go himself. I might take her to him and get on his good side.”
“Gives us a reason to swig another ale,” said the man who still leered at her breasts. “I might get a chance with that señorita at the Bloody Boar. She had an itch to mount my bowsprit, I can tell you that,”
All the men except the speaker laughed. Felicity struggled not to listen to their conversation or picture what they intended to do to her. She would die before she let that happen. Her captor lifted her with one arm wrapped painfully around her rib cage and dragged her in the direction of the taverns.
A second man shoved his friend, sending him staggering. “The only thing she had an itch from was the bugger who had her before you.”
Instead of exhausting herself with useless struggles, Felicity remained still in spite of her growing hysteria. Her captor squeezed her to near unconsciousness. She took shallow breaths, willing herself not to panic. The drift of their conversation wasn’t helping her stay calm. She tried to block out their argument over their individual sexual prowess but found the task impossible.
“My bowsprit is bigger than all yours. But we’ll let our little lass be the judge.” Her captor leaned down and bit her lightly on the shoulder. When she jerked away, he laughed and squeezed her tighter.
She blinked back tears. After surviving the last month in the bed of the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean, she’d escaped only to land in the arms of these drunken savages. She doubted her current captor would care, but it was the only idea she had at the moment.
“Have you heard of El Diablo? I was waiting for him when you found me.” Her voice sounded like a strained whisper. She wondered if the men heard her at all.
Her captor stopped abruptly. “That’s the one the British are looking for. You know him?”
She was afraid to hope. “I’ve been on his ship this last month. He’ll be furious when he finds me missing.”
“I don’t want any trouble with the likes of him, Bertie,” said one of his friends.
“Won’t be no trouble, but there might be a big reward.” Her captor shifted her weight onto his hip. “Where can we find him, lass?”
“He’s...” As for as she knew, Drew was in one of the taverns. The idea of revealing any information that might cause his capture constricted her throat.
Her dilemma was solved by an outburst from the sensible one of the four. “Oh, no, Bertie, you’re not getting us in on this one. Let the whore go.”
“You always were a scared one. Run on back to the ship. The rest of us will get the reward and the bastard’s whore to boot. We’ll be famous as El Diablo himself.”
The other two men looked at one another and hesitated. Thankfully, the sensible one wanted to get rid of her as badly as Bertie wanted to keep her.
“You’re drunk And even if you weren’t, what makes you think you got a chance against El Diablo? He’d feed you to the sharks.”
She intended to tell them Drew was an actual cannibal, but the words stuck in her throat when the sensible one tried to yank her from her captor’s arms. Suddenly, she became the object in a tug-of-war.
“Let go of her, you black-hearted bastard, or I’ll knock you senseless,” said Bertie. The other man didn’t heed the warning, and Bertie followed through on his threat. In the erupting fray, Felicity found herself thrust to the ground.
She pushed herself up, spitting out sand. If she was hurt, she didn’t have time to notice. She yanked up her bodice, grabbed the hem of her skirt and ran faster than she imagined possible.
The sailor named Bertie called after her, but she didn’t dare look back. Nothing could stop her flight. A roaring sounded in her ears and she wasn’t sure if it was the rush of wind or the beating of her heart. Sand turned to cobblestone and bit into her bare foot, but she refused to slow down.
The voices grew louder. She feared the pirates were behind her. A group of men loitered in the street, but they looked no better than the men chasing her, so she shoved past them. Someone yelled at her to stop. The voice had a crisp English accent. She stopped so abruptly, she slid forward before she caught her balance.
Instead of a rescuer, she found a white stallion rearing above her. A shove to the ground cut short her scream as the breath was knocked from her lungs. Pain exploded down her side. She struggled to remain conscious. She lost. Darkness enveloped her.
Chapter Seventeen
Drew emerged from the Rapture’s lowest deck in a barely controlled rage. His crew scrambled about the main deck in preparation to set sail, while Solomon stood in the center of the activity, calmly giving orders. Drew forced himself not to shout, but to walk to where Solomon stood without attracting the attention of his men.
Drew motioned Solomon aside. “Don’t let the prisoners leave the ship yet.”
Solomon sent a sailor standing near them on a task before he turned his attention to Drew. “The skiff taking them to shore left shortly after our return. You said you wanted to be out of the harbor within the hour.” Solomon’s gaze narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
Drew forced himself to speak slowly and calmly, though he was sure nothing in his expression hid his anger. “Felicity’s not in my cabin.”
Solomon stiffened, but Drew had the distinct impression his irritation was directed toward him rather than Felicity. “You shouldn’t have left things the way they were between you two. Did you remember to lock her in when we left the ship?”
Drew wanted to lash out at Solomon, but he restrained himself. He unballed his fists and flexed his hands. “Do you think I would take the chance of letting her loose in her present state of mind?”
“Hugh probably let her out to see to Avery. I’ll check there first.”
Drew nodded. “I’ll take over on deck. We’ll move the ship to the other side of the island when the crew return with the launch. We can’t leave New Pro
vidence until I find Felicity.”
Damn Felicity. She’d left them in a dangerously vulnerable position. Pink dawn had already turned to a clear, bright morning, ensuring the Rapture would be easy to spot once someone started to look. Anchoring at the edge of the bay protected them from discovery as long as no one knew El Diablo lingered in the harbor. Once McCulla and his men found an ear to bend, every Redcoat on the island would be looking for his ship. And then there were the other pirates. For the size of the reward his father was offering, many of them would see their own mothers dangle at the end of a noose.
Drew had intended to be under full sail before McCulla stumbled into his first tavern—his most likely destination since Drew had supplied his prisoners with coin to see them safely home. Drew chose to believe his extravagant gesture reflected Ben’s wishes rather than a foolish attempt to redeem himself in Felicity’s eyes. A lot of bloody good it did him now.
He’d wring her pretty white neck in earnest when he found her. The dangers awaiting her if she’d left the ship were too numerous to consider. He paced the deck, checking inside coils of rope and anywhere else that might provide a clever hiding place.
The minute he had met the quiet emptiness of his cabin, a sick sensation in the pit of his stomach told him she was gone. Luckily, overwhelming fury soon followed. Believing Felicity had disobeyed him was easier to accept than… He’d not stopped Solomon in his quest to locate Felicity below deck because Drew wanted his intuition to be wrong. Just as he wanted his other realization to be a misguided, overemotional conclusion brought on by lack of sleep. He was in love with Felicity.
Having never been in love before, he hadn’t recognized the strange and decidedly consuming emotion. But the devouring fear that engulfed him when he discovered her gone showed him the truth. His chest tightened with every breath. Even the risk he put himself in—more importantly, the peril he subjected Solomon, Hugh and the rest of his crew to—could not make him change his course. He would not leave the island without her.
Solomon returned on deck with a tight jaw and a bleary-eyed crewman. The discreet shake of Solomon’s head came as no surprise. “Mr. O’Neil was on watch last night. I thought you might want to question him.”
O’Neil had the body of a man and the freckled face of a boy. He went from looking sleepy to looking nervous. “Did I do something wrong, Captain?”
Drew feared one of his reassuring smiles might turn into a grimace. The best he could do was try not to scowl. “No, not at all.” This pup was no match for Felicity on a mission. “I just need to know if anyone left the ship last night.”
The crewman glanced at Solomon, then back at Drew. “Most everybody left to go to the island except for the cook and Hugh. I thought they all had leave, sir.”
Drew shook his head. “Something else. I’m looking for anything unusual you might have noticed.”
The young sailor studied his feet for a moment, then lifted his gaze. “I heard a splash—like a dolphin jumping through the water. Thought maybe it was begging for a free meal. I looked but didn’t see anything. I only heard it once.”
“Thank you. That’s what I needed.” Drew turned away and stared at the island. The bloody shore had to be at least a mile from the ship. The idea of Felicity reaching land scared him even more than her drowning. The inviting white sand disguised a nest of rapists, cutthroats and thieves.
Drew stepped toward the railing and gripped the sleek wood. He addressed Solomon. “You’ll lead a group of men to shore. I’ll stay onboard and move the Rapture to the other side of the island.”
The quartermaster sighed. “I’m glad to see you’re being sensible about this. I thought you might insist on going—”
“If I were sensible, we would leave her.” Drew squeezed the railing until his hands cramped. “Don’t take any men to New Providence who had direct contact with the prisoners.”
“What should I tell the crewmen I take?”
Drew’s gaze never wavered from the island. “I don’t care. Just find her.”
Solomon moved away to carry out Drew’s orders.
“Wait.” Drew called Solomon back. He didn’t want to think it, much less say it, but he had to know what happened to her. “Search the harbor first. The water is clear enough that you should be able to see the bottom.”
Solomon leaned on the railing, inches from Drew. “Felicity wouldn’t jump only to drown. She knew she could make it.”
That was exactly what Drew feared most. At least drowning would have been quick. Knowing the hell she would endure if she fell into the hands of a real pirate almost made him wish they would find her embraced by the warmth of turquoise water.
***
The longboat carrying Solomon and the search party rounded the jagged rock marking the deserted cove on New Providence’s north side. Drew steadied the spyglass. Felicity wasn’t with them. Solomon still had two more hours of daylight Drew lowered the telescope and wrapped his arms tightly in front of him to steady himself against the blackness threatening to overtake him.
Solomon wouldn’t have returned until nightfall unless he’d found Felicity or her body. Drew lifted the spyglass again. He searched the bottom of the boat.
Hugh tugged on the back of Drew’s shirt. “Did they bring Felicity back?”
The angle of the telescope didn’t allow him to see below the men’s knees. “I don’t know.”
“I want to see,” whined Hugh as he grabbed for the leather tube.
“No. Go below deck.” Drew couldn’t breathe. He’d promised himself he’d never feel this way again. His mother’s death had been beyond endurance. He had been a child alone in the world. A man wasn’t supposed to be consumed by this kind of suffocating grief.
“I need my papa,” Hugh wailed in a dry, sharp imitation of anguish.
Drew closed his eyes and groped for patience for Hugh and strength for himself. Hugh’s tantrum stemmed from his fear for his father and Felicity. Every man on board knew Drew had sent their fellow crewmen to the island to search for a woman. They also were acutely aware of the peril it put them all in. Though the grumbling ceased at his approach, Drew suspected Hugh had heard all the rumors and speculation.
Drew forced himself to deal with the matter at hand instead of succumbing to his spiraling mood. Felicity might not be dead, and Hugh could not remain on deck squalling like a hungry seal.
He bent down and clasped the boy’s small shoulders.
“Do as I asked. I’ll send your father down as soon as he returns. That’s an order.”
Hugh curled his lower lip and puffed out his cheeks, but he did stop making that awful noise. Without warning, he threw his arms around Drew as far as they could reach. “I’m sorry. Did Felicity drown?”
Drew wanted to return Hugh’s embrace. He wanted to hold him and keep him safe forever. Fifty suspicious stares burning into his back stopped him.
He gently peeled Hugh off him, then stood. Drew managed a crooked smile. “Let’s pray she hasn’t.”
Hugh turned with real tears in his eyes and ran below. A loose tackle, banging against the mast in the breeze, counted out the minutes it took the longboat to reach the ship. The crew grew silent. It seemed they held their breath with Drew as the men from the launch climbed on board. Solomon’s bleak expression confirmed Drew’s worst fears.
Solomon paused in front of Drew. “Let’s go below.” He headed in the direction of Drew’s cabin without waiting for a response.
Drew followed in a daze. It took all his strength to keep his features harsh and his stride angry. He was the captain, and if he wanted to stay the captain, he’d better not show his weakness.
When they reached his cabin, Drew closed the door behind him, wishing Solomon had chosen a different location. He had avoided the cabin since he found Felicity missing. Her presence overpowered the room. He couldn’t believe her fierce spirit had been wiped out. He still felt her. She couldn’t be dead.
As if reading his mind, Solomon tossed a b
lack shoe on the table. “We found this in the surf. Do you know if it belonged to Felicity?”
Drew picked up the soggy leather boot. He’d hated her in black. Why hadn’t he thrown the damn boots overboard with the rest of her puritanical garb, or tied Felicity to the bed to keep her from leaving him, or sent her back to Barbados the moment he found her?
“Drew.”
Startled, Drew realized he clutched the wet shoe to his chest. This was worse than his mother’s death. He had been a boy and could have done nothing to mend her broken heart. But Felicity—he had caused her death. Cold fingers of grief reached into his chest and squeezed his heart. It took all his concentration to listen to what Solomon was saying.
“She’s not dead.”
Drew’s blood began to pump again. “Then where is she?”
Solomon reached in the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a folded square of parchment. “Your friend at the Fatted Pig gave me this. Some other men came by asking about El Diablo, and the barmaid figured out who you were. She’s quite impressed.”
Drew took the tattered note and opened it. A blond curl drifted to the floor like a feather. He picked it up, rubbing the hair between his fingers. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh with relief or roar with rage.
“ ‘I have something you want. Come to the Fatted Pig an hour before dawn. Alone and unarmed. Bring enough coin to keep me from gutting your lady or turning you in for the ransom.’ ”
When Drew finished reading the note out loud, he crumpled the missive in his fist. He entwined the lock of hair around his finger and rubbed the pad of his thumb across the silken strand.
Solomon braced his hands on his hips. “You’re not going.”
Drew dropped the crushed ransom note to the floor. He strode to a huge chest and yanked open the lid. A pile of clothes littered the floor before he found what he searched for. He brought the smaller chest to the table in the center of the room and dumped its contents, sending gold and silver coins cascading in a glittering waterfall.