by Merry Farmer
“And?” Albert asked.
“Everyone’s out. It’s a good thing most people were in the dining room when the fires started.”
A good thing, or was moving most of the people on the ship to one location what had given William and Polly the ability to set the fires in the first place.
“Carry on.” Albert nodded to Bourne, his sense of hopeless fury growing. He felt like a fool. William must have known what his plan was all along. No wonder he had seemed so nonplussed by the ball preparations. He had likely been making preparations of his own.
“We have to hurry,” Domenica reminded him, dashing on.
They made it to within a few yards of the dining room when Lady Patterson stumbled into the hall. The poor, old woman was pale, and her eyes were round with terror. But at least they’d found her.
“Lady Patterson!” Domenica shouted, running toward the woman.
“Domenica, my dear,” Lady Patterson cried in return, reaching for her.
Before Domenica could embrace her, another explosion sounded, and the ship rocked to one side. Lady Patterson pitched forward, luckily falling into Domenica’s arms, and both women crashed into the wall across from the dining room’s door. Several of the gas lamps shattered, causing flames to lick up the sides of the walls.
Lady Patterson screamed.
“I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” Domenica assured her.
Albert had been thrown sideways as well, but as the boat slowly rocked back to a more reasonable angle, he pushed himself straight. If only the ship had stayed stable. The whole thing was listing far more than it should have. He eyed the burst lamps with alarm and lurched forward to help Domenica with Lady Patterson.
“If you please, my lady, we need to get up to the deck as quickly as possible,” he said.
“My ankle,” Lady Patterson said in a weak voice.
Albert didn’t need to be told twice. He scooped Lady Patterson into his arms like a babe and, with a quick look to make sure Domenica was still in one piece, rushed down the hall for the door.
“There has to be a way to—”
Before Domenica could finish her sentence, the rest of the gas lamps lining the halls went out. Lady Patterson wailed in Albert’s arms, but he couldn’t help but be relieved. Someone or something had cut off the gas running through the walls of his ship. And while that rendered the hall dark, but for the flames burning the walls where other lamps had broken, it meant their chances of being blown to smithereens before making it to the deck had been reduced.
The only bright spot in their flight back up to the deck was that they didn’t encounter anyone else. By the time Albert carried Lady Patterson through the door and out into the cold night air, even the decks were mostly empty. All around the ship, lifeboats were pulling away, paddling toward safety. But the fact that he could see so many of them clearly in the lights of the flames that were swiftly overtaking the ship caused his stomach to sink.
“Here, over here, Captain!” one of his crewmen shouted from several dozen yards toward the bow.
Albert changed direction, running with Domenica just behind him toward where the last few passengers were being helped into a lifeboat. There were still half a dozen more lifeboats that hadn’t been needed, but stood ready, beyond that one.
“Help Lady Patterson,” Albert ordered as they reached the small boat. He piled Lady Patterson into the waiting arms of his crewman, then turned to Domenica. “Get in,” he ordered.
Domenica nodded and climbed over the side of the lifeboat, taking a seat at the edge. Then she reached for him. “Come on. I don’t like the look of that fire.” She nodded toward the stern, which was almost completely ablaze.
Albert glanced between the inferno that his ship had become and Domenica. All traces of panic had left her eyes. Instead, she had blossomed into the strong, confident woman he’d seen boarding the ship just over a week ago. His heart lurched in his chest. She was so beautiful, so powerful, and so good. She had thought of Lady Patterson first rather than running to save herself. He would have been proud to spend the rest of his life with her, making her life his.
But he was the captain of the crumbling, burning wreck of a ship. It was his responsibility to ensure that all lives were saved, and if that meant going down with the ship, well, that was his duty. There was still a chance that people were trapped below decks. And until he was certain every soul under his protection was safe, he couldn’t, in good conscience, leave the Kestrel.
“Capitán!” Domenica shouted, reaching out to him. “Come on!”
“I can’t,” he cried back to her above the din of twisting metal and the roar of flames getting closer.
“What?” she shrieked, incredulous. “The ship is sinking.”
“It’s my duty to ensure that everyone has made it to safety,” he said, knowing she wouldn’t understand. “I have to see to my duty.”
“But you can’t—”
He turned away, knowing that it wouldn’t take much for her to convince him to save himself. She had been brave in her efforts to make sure others were safe, and he would be brave too. Even if it tore him up inside to run away from her and back toward the center of the ship.
CHAPTER 10
“A lbert!” Domenica shouted, more angry than afraid as he rushed away from the lifeboat and back toward the flickering flames engulfing the ship. “Ese loco idiota,” she muttered and scrambled to the side of the lifeboat.
“Miss. Miss, what are you doing?” the crewman who was busy untying the ropes to lower the boat into the ocean called to her as Domenica rolled over the edge of the railing and landed in a pile on the deck. “Miss, the ship will go down any second. You have to come with us.”
“I won’t let him run off to die like a madman!” she shouted back, pushing herself to her feet.
“Miss!” the crewman continued to call.
“Let her go,” Lady Patterson shouted, smacking the crewman’s arm for good measure. “That’s her man she’s going after.”
Domenica was tempted to laugh at her friend’s statement, but there wasn’t time. She gathered her skirts and raced after Albert’s retreating back.
Another explosion deep within the ship caused the whole vessel to tilt to the side. Domenica screamed as she lost her footing. She tumbled to the side, sliding toward the railing at the edge of the deck. For a moment, the ocean seemed to rise up to the horizon, as if it were about to swallow her. She continued to skid across the deck and was only able to stop herself from sliding through the gaps in the rails and into the ocean by flinging her body wide. Her stomach thumped hard into one of the rails, knocking the wind out of her, but somehow she managed to hold on.
“Miss! Are you all right?”
Domenica wasn’t sure she actually heard the distant voice of the crewman who had tried to keep her in the boat moments before. She was too busy grunting as she pushed herself to her hands and knees. She had to catch up to Albert. She had to stop him from doing the stupidest thing he could possibly do.
The ship swayed slowly the other way, but instead of leveling out, it continued to list and roll. Domenica knew nothing about the sea, but she knew that was a bad sign. There couldn’t be much time left. She picked up her skirts once more and ran to the last spot she’d seen Albert. What was he doing? Where was he going? She forced herself to think like he was thinking, to guess what he thought he could accomplish by staying on the ship. He couldn’t have climbed up to the crew decks and the bridge. There was no hope of steering the ship, and in the pitch blackness, there was no way to signal for help. He must have gone looking for passengers who hadn’t made it onto the lifeboats.
Yes, that was exactly the sort of heroic thing her capitán would do. Pride swelled up alongside the fear that threatened to paralyze Domenica. She dashed through the nearest entrance to the first-class cabins.
“Albert!” she shouted. The sound of her voice echoed eerily off the metal walls. “Mi capitán!”
The corridor that ha
d seemed so luxurious and friendly just a few hours before felt like something out of a macabre novel in the dark with the ship tilting dangerously to and fro. The whole thing was stiflingly hot, and when she reached out for the wall to guide herself, it was hot to the touch.
“Albert! This is madness. Come back!”
“I have to make sure everyone is out.”
Domenica nearly collapsed with joy at the sound of Albert’s voice, even though it was tight with alarm. He was still alive, at least. But just as quickly as she felt relief, her anger swelled.
“Everyone is out,” she shouted back into the darkness, squinting to be sure that the dark shape moving at the end of the hall was really him. “They fled to the lifeboats at the beginning of the danger. You don’t have to do this.”
“I do.” The dark shape moved toward her. In the dancing, devilish light of the fires burning against the wall where gas lamps had been, she could finally make out his face. “You shouldn’t be here. Go back at once. This is all my fault.”
“Your fault?” Domenica snapped. He marched toward her as if he would bully her back into the lifeboat if he had to. But instead, she grabbed his arms, both to steady herself and as if she could shake sense into him. “This is Lord William and Polly’s fault, not yours.”
“This is my ship,” Albert argued. He blazed with anger, glancing past her to the door as if debating whether to force her back to the lifeboat. “I should have kept a sharper eye on things. It was my idea to gather everyone in the dining room for a ball so that Lewis would come out of hiding. William took advantage of my stupidity.”
“Your stupidity might just be what saves the lives of everyone on this ship,” Domenica yelled back at him. The roar of the fire and the creak of twisting steel was increasing all around them. “Everyone, even passengers from steerage, were in the higher decks when the fires started.”
“Which is how William was able to start them in the first place.”
Domenica shook her head in frustration. It was not the time to point out that Polly had been the one to set the fires, or that Lord William was busy attempting to rape her in one of the storage cabins.
“You are a good man, Albert. You think of others before you think of yourself. You are a hero. But now you have to save yourself.” She squeezed his arms as if she could force sense into him.
Albert’s shoulders dropped, and he let out a breath. “I’ve failed.”
Fury rose up in Domenica, and without thinking first, she slapped Albert’s face. It wasn’t a hard slap, but he started as though she had punched him with full force, his eyes snapping wide.
“You are a capitán,” she shouted at him. “You are not a god. You are a good man, so you could not know the lengths a bad man would go to for money. I have known bad men my whole life.” Her voice cracked with the strength of her emotion. “They will hurt and destroy anything to get what they want. It wasn’t until I met you that I knew that men could have good hearts. You taught me that. You.”
She stomped her foot, as hot with anger as the corridor was with fire.
“I love you, Albert Tennant. I love you because you are good and selfless, because you care for others more than yourself. I love you because you made me hope again, made me believe that life is not all darkness and struggle. If you want to die with your ship, then that is up to you. But I will die with you. I’ll burn and sink with you, because I refuse to go back to the life I was living before. I refuse to go back to thinking that every man in this world is cold and cruel. I refuse to keep living when the best man I’ve known has died. Do you hear me?”
As if echoing her words, the ship groaned, and another blast sounded. It threw them both against the wall, which was hot enough to make Domenica hiss in pain as her bare shoulder pushed against it. Her anger subsided, and a stronger fear than anything she’d felt before filled her. The ship keeled to one side at its sharpest angle yet.
“Take my hand,” Albert shouted through the heat and the darkness.
Domenica wanted to weep. The strength and command had come back into his voice. She grabbed his hand, and he held it with purpose. He pushed off the sickeningly tilted walls and stumbled down the corridor to the door. A plume of black smoke curled up from one of the stairways leading down, briefly choking them as they marched forward. Domenica caught sight of the glow of flames from the deck just below them as they passed the stairway and hurried on.
They burst out onto the deck in the middle of a scene that could have come straight from hell. Both the bow and the stern of Albert’s precious boat were alight and flickering with flames. The deck rose at a dangerous angle, forcing them to grab hold of whatever they could to help propel themselves to the railing.
“She’s going to capsize,” Albert called to her as he reached the railing and grabbed hold.
“What do we do?” Domenica asked.
She glanced out over the ocean, expecting it to be as black as death. Instead, what she saw looked more like a sky full of stars than an empty pit. All of the lifeboats that had made it away from the ship had lanterns in them. Beyond them, the horizon was dotted with even more lights. Her mouth dropped open. It was land. The line on the horizon was land. And if she wasn’t mistaken, even more star-like lanterns were moving toward them from the shore.
“Captain!” The call came from somewhere very nearby and below. It was the same crewman who had urged her not to leave the lifeboat. He had stayed near the ship in spite of the dangers. “Captain, we’re right here, below.”
Albert leaned over the railing, seeing what Domenica saw. The crewman gestured from a lifeboat only a few yards away. Three other people in the boat held up lanterns. But along with the encouraging site, Domenica watched as the ship’s hull came more and more into view. She had to grip the railing harder and harder to keep from falling back into the ship. It really was rolling over now.
“We’ll have to jump,” Albert said, grabbing Domenica and helping her over the railing. “It’s our only option.”
A shiver that had more to do with the frigid air and the promise of even icier water gripped Domenica, but she climbed. Albert helped her, throwing a leg over the railing himself. The ship creaked and roared and began to capsize faster. There didn’t seem to be anything left that she could do besides, bracing herself against the rolling side of the ship, running a few steps across the tilting hull, and hurling herself into the air.
She hit the water with a splash, sinking under. The sharp contrast between the heat of her body from being inside the ship and the icy water knocked her senseless. It was so shocking that every muscle in her body froze. Terror filled her as she went numb, unable to move or think or breathe or feel. The world was silent and deadly around her.
After what felt like an eternity and a heartbeat later, she was wrenched up. Something or someone had hold of the back of her dress and was pulling. It felt like she was moving through mud, still unable to make her limbs work. Then, suddenly, she was above the water.
She gasped, her lungs taking in air with a painful blast that turned into a violent cough. Her mind could barely comprehend what was happening, but she wasn’t in the water anymore. Voices shouted around her. Someone pulled at her dress. Something else heavy wrapped around her, and she was shoved against another bulky object.
Time ceased to make sense. Only gradually, as the shock wore off and her shaking became so violent that it knocked sense back into her, did Domenica have a sense of what was happening. She’d been pulled into the lifeboat, her sodden skirts had been ripped away, and she’d been wrapped in a blanket. Lady Patterson sat on one side, rubbing her back. And Albert was with her, cocooned in a blanket beside her. The crewmen who had rescued them were rowing with all their might to get away from the fiery hulk of the Kestrel as it sank. Beside her, Albert groaned.
Together, they watched as the fiery wreck grew smaller and smaller, both as their lifeboat pulled away, heading toward land, and as the vessel sank. When at last the last of the wreck disappe
ared between the water and the fire vanished, the world seemed strangely dark and quiet. Across the waves, Domenica began to hear other sounds, women crying, men giving orders, and cries for help. But those cries were answered. The lifeboats rowed toward land, meeting up with other crafts—fishing boats, small merchant ships, and even a pleasure yacht.
The crewmen rowing Domenica and Albert’s boat pulled toward the yacht.
“Ahoy! Ahoy there!” someone called from the vessel.
By Domenica’s side, Albert stirred. “It’s all right,” she assured him, fumbling with the blankets that bound her to get a hand free. She was shaking like a leaf by the time she was able to reach for Albert to comfort him. “We’re saved.”
“Bring your boat alongside and we’ll lift you aboard,” the man in the yacht called.
“I know,” Albert answered Domenica. “We may be better off than you think.” He twisted to face the yacht, then called, “Peter? Is that you?”
“Albert?” came the answering call. “Albert!”
What happened next was a whirlwind to Domenica’s already fractured mind. The lifeboat moved alongside the yacht, and before she could get her bearings, the yacht’s crew was pulling her, Albert, Lady Patterson, and the rest of the crew aboard. And as Domenica struggled to stand on her own two feet on the deck of the yacht, she watched with disbelief as Albert embraced a tall man with snow-white hair as if the two were brothers.
“Thank God,” the white-haired man said as he hugged Albert. “Thank God you’re safe.”
“Thank God you were here to rescue us,” Albert told him.
“There was a dinner party at John St. Aubyn’s house, St. Michael’s Mount. One of the servants spotted the fire and alerted the rest of us. Since many of us had our yachts in his harbor so that we could get home once the tide came in, they were all at the ready.”
“And here I always thought that medieval monstrosity of a stately home was ridiculous,” Lady Patterson commented as one of the yacht’s crew tried to move her toward the cabin. She wasn’t having any of it.