An Officer but No Gentleman

by M. Donice Byrd

  It had been three years and Charlie still could not get used to the sounds and smells of battle. They had captured sixteen French and English vessels in those three years and had barely reaped any rewards. It was taking years for the Admiralty Courts to determine if a seizure was legitimate and then sell the ship and its cargo. The crew was especially weary of waiting for their money. It had become a burden for Jaxon to pay the crew out of his pocket with no income coming in, so he was forced to borrow money from Charlie. Lately, Jaxon had begun questioning whether he wanted to continue privateering. His bloodlust for the man who had keelhauled him had faded, and it just was not as important to him.

  Despite knowing it was coming, the cannonade made Charlie jump. They were up against a British warship. It brought back all the memories of the day her father was killed.

  “Charlie!” Benjy shouted from his position next to one of the cannons. “Do you recognize her?”

  Charlie almost asked who before she realized he meant the ship. Was she the same ship? Charlie had been so concerned with running the Arcadia three years ago, she had not taken much time to put to memory the details of the warship that attacked them and killed her father. But she looked more intently at her now. She took the spyglass from Jaxon to get a closer look at the men aboard the warship. She focused in on the quarterdeck. As if she willed it, the man she trained the telescope on, turned toward The Dragon’s Lair. It was him; the man who boarded her ship, only he bore the uniform of captain now as he shouted orders at his crew.

  Charlie scanned the deck and found Hugh McNamara tamping a load of gun powder into a cannon. She ran for the boatswain’s locker. A minute later, she emerged with a large megaphone.

  “Hugh McNamara!” she shouted at the other ship. “Stop firing at us. We’ve come to rescue you.”

  Hugh turned and shielded his eyes from the sun as he searched for the person shouting his name in the midst of a battle.

  “It’s me, Charlie Bl—Charlie Sinclair.” Charlie waved one arm wildly to draw his attention to her.

  A moment later, Hugh wrested a torch from his crewmate and threw it in the ocean. Within minutes, the crew of the warship was in chaos as they fought each other for control of their ship.

  Jaxon gave orders to close the gap between the ships. As soon as they were close enough, the boarding party swung from the yardarms of The Dragon’s Lair to the warship; no small feat considering the size difference between the ships.

  Charlie saw the hated captain draw his musketoon and fire into the air and knowing the next shot could be fired at the man who began the melee, Charlie dropped the megaphone and grabbed a rope as it swung back to their ship.

  “No!” Jaxon shouted as he realized his wife intended to join the boarding party.

  Morty heard the panic in Jaxon’s cry and immediately began to look for Charlie. She swung across to the other ship and she had miscalculated the length of rope needed. Barely able to reach the bottom of the railing Charlie’s hold on the other ship was precarious.

  “She can’t swim,” Morty shouted to Jaxon.

  Charlie let go of the rope as she struggled to keep her grip and to find footing. She hung by her arms and slowly began pulling herself up until she could get her foot onto the rails’ opening. That was all it took. In seconds, she hefted herself over the rail and onto the deck.

  She never boarded an enemy ship before and working her way past the fighting men to the quarterdeck proved difficult. She knew Jaxon would be furious with her, but she felt a burning hatred in the pit of her stomach compelling her toward the man she blamed for her father’s death. She ran up the companionway two steps at a time until she was face to face with the man who had impressed her shipmates. He looked up from reloading his gun when Charlie kicked it out of his hands. Suddenly, she found herself in hand to hand combat with him. His strength was no defense against her speed and technique. She ended his resistance with one last kick to the face that knocked him to the deck.

  “Do you remember me?” she shouted at him. “Do you remember me? You killed my father and told me I was all mouth and no trousers!”

  The Englishman looked at her face for the first time and nodded. His breath came in pants. “You promised to kill the captain and me if we took you.”

  Charlie smiled. He did remember her. “Well, who has no trousers now?”

  “You were just a boy. I had no interest in having a boy who still needed his mama to wipe his arse.”

  Charlie’s lips curled into a sneer and she laughed. “How does it feel to know a woman just swabbed the deck with your Limey arse?”

  She carefully watched the expression on the man’s face as what she said penetrated his brain.

  “Charlie!” Jax pushed a man out of the way in his quest to reach her and Morty barreled through a crush of British sailors a few paces behind him. “Thank God, you’re all right. I thought we had an agreement about fighting.” He pulled her into his embrace even as he chastised her.

  The fighting died down all over the ship. The Dragon’s Lair had triumphed with the assistance of the men shanghaied from other ship.

  “I’m sorry, Jax. I couldn’t help myself. These are the bastards who attacked us.”

  Jaxon sighed and shook his head. “Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said holding her away from him so he could look her in the eyes.

  Charlie trembled as she realized what she had done. She hadn’t even brought a weapon with her other than the knife at her waist. “I’m sorry. I promise, I won’t do it again.”

  Suddenly she pulled free. “Dr. Kirk! Where’s Brody Kirk?” she asked the British captain jabbing him with the toe of her boot.

  He grunted his distain. “Below, I suppose.”

  “No, Charlie. Go back to our ship. Morty and I will find all of your missing crew and bring them to you. Be patient. There are things that need to be done before your reunion.”

  Charlie knew he was right. They needed to secure their prisoners before anything else. The ship would have to be searched to make sure all of the crew was accounted for before her crewmembers could be singled out and taken aboard The Dragon’s Lair. In all likelihood, her crew members were probably not the only shanghaied sailors serving on the ship.

  Charlie then remembered her own duties needed to be taken care of. She was still surgeon’s mate and needed to make sure no one needed medical assistance.

  She scanned the deck looking at both familiar and unfamiliar faces for anyone seriously injured. The Limeys had not put up much resistance so most of the injuries appeared minor, mostly bruises and a pair of bloody noses.

  “Go on,” Jax said. “We’ll send over anyone hurt. And you’ll have your reunion within the hour. If there’s no one injured go ahead and take the bridge and get us tied off yard to yard.”

  “Aye-aye, Captain.”

  Charlie found a line, climbed the railing and swung easily over to the smaller Baltimore clipper.

  “Anyone hurt?” Charlie yelled as her feet hit the deck. When no one answered, she began barking orders to heave-to and tie off to the other ship.

  Jaxon gave the same orders on the warship. Men scurried up the masts and began furling the sails while others dropped the anchors. Grappling hooks and ropes began being thrown from ship to ship tying the vessels to each other. Once secured, planks stretched from ship to ship to make getting from one ship to the other easier.

  Hugh McNamara was the first of her crew to cross the plank. Morty grinned widely behind him.

  “Charlie! I canna tell ye how good it is to see ye, lass,” he said wrapping his arms around her in a bone jarring embrace.

  “You knew?”

  “Aye, I knew fer almost the whole time I twas on the Arcadia.”

  “But you never said anything.”

  “And be put off the ship? Nae, twas too entertaining to be watching ye, Miss Sinclair.”

  “It’s not Sinclair anymore.”

  “Did ye and Morty…?”

  Both Charli
e and Morty answered simultaneously.

  “No!”

  “We’re both married, but not to each other,” Charlie said.

  “I’m married to a little fire-headed seamstress. We’ve got a baby boy and another baby on the way,” Morty said proudly.

  Charlie began looking for Jaxon to introduce them and saw him coming across the plank with Brody Kirk.

  “Dr. Kirk!”

  Charlie ran to him and hugged him tightly. It took Brody Kirk all of five seconds before he returned the embrace. A physical show of affection was something they would have never done three years earlier, but it was obvious to him that although Charlie still dress in a men’s breeches she no longer pretended to be one.

  “I have been so worried about you,” Charlie said pulling away and looking into his kind face. The last three years had aged him. He face appeared thin and his disheveled hair had turned white.

  “And I’ve been worried about you.”

  Charlie then noticed the two other men. She shook their hands. They had been on Byron’s watch and she didn’t know either well. “I’m glad to see you’ve made it through your ordeal.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Sinclair,” Robert said.

  “Actually it’s Mrs. Bloodworthy now. We’ve been married almost three years,” Jaxon said.

  “You’re a girl?”

  “Aye, since the day I was born,” Charlie said with an impish grin. “Vinnie, can you show Robert and Claude to the fo’c’sle and find them empty hammocks.”

  The men looked around the ship as if they were trying to get their bearings as Vinnie led them to the belly of the ship.

  “Jax, permission for Morty and me to go below and catch up with Dr. Kirk and Hugh?”

  “Granted.”

  “You’re coming too aren’t you? I want them to meet you.”

  Jax smiled. “Aye. Mr. Gander, take the bridge. I’ll be below if I’m needed.”

  Charlie led the way to the dining galley. It was the only room large enough to accommodate them comfortable.

  The doctor was the first to ask about the Arcadia. Charlie thought about leading the story by telling him how Byron had stolen it within hours of them being shanghaied, but didn’t want him to worried. There was plenty of time to tell them everything.

  “My brother-in-law captains her now. I’ve sent them to Asia for spices and silk. It’s been about a year and a half since they’ve been home, so I should think they’ll be home again in the next six months.”

  Over the next hours, Charlie and Morty filled them in on their lives over the past three year. Then the reminiscing began.

  “Do ye remember that last night ashore?” Hugh asked.

  “Don’t remind me,” Morty said.

  “Please, Hugh, some things are best not spoken of,” Charlie protested.

  “Remember you’d brought that wench aboard and I helped you take her ashore.”

  “Hugh, no!” All signs of humor were absent from her tone.

  Jaxon saw the expressions on both Morty’s and Charlie’s faces. Red-faced, Morty cast his eyes down at the table. Charlie’s eyes darted nervously from McNamara to Jaxon.

  “…And we could hear Morty from out in the hallway,” Hugh continued.

  “My wife has asked you nicely not to tell that story. I’m not going to be so nice.”

  Jaxon gave him a look that could wilt flowers and turned his face where lamp light hit his scar.

  “Tis too good of a story not ta tell.”

  “Indeed? By what I’ve gathered, this is when Morty found out Charlie was a woman. I can only imagine this will only serve to embarrass them and anger me. It has taken me a long time to make peace with their friendship and I don’t want to start all over again. I may not be as forgiving as she has been—especially of your part in it.”

  Hugh held his hands up and waved them back and forth. “I had only a wee part in it.”

  “You knew and rather than tell Morty, you allowed him to expose her in a way they both regret.”

  “Ah, mon, it wasna like that. He wouldna have believed me and she wouldna have admitted it.”

  Dr. Kirk’s mind was working to make sense of what he was hearing. “Was Morty responsible for your injury? I still feel sick when I think of your back.”

  Jaxon would have like to have commiserated that feeling, but to do so he would have to admit to seeing Charlie’s bare back before it had healed. The circumstances of how he found out Charlie’s secret were shameful to him and an embarrassment to her. He would never say anything that would cause her discomfiture, and by George, he’d be damned if he’d sit by and listen while someone else did.

  “No, it happened in a brawl like I told you. Only I didn’t tell you that there wasn’t just one of them.”

  “Good heavens, Charlie. I hope you don’t do that anymore.”

  Charlie had the good grace to blush. “Not normally –today was the exception. I spotted that man and just saw red.”

  Jaxon covered her hand with his. “You scared ten years off my life today, baby.”

  “Mine, too,” Morty said and bumped his shoulder into hers. It was a display of affection that Jax never seemed to object to.

  40

  Replete from love making, Jaxon pulled Charlie tightly into his embrace. Her back lay flush against his chest and he languidly ran his hands over her naked taut body. He kissed the nape of her neck as his hands stilled upon her abdomen.

  “I think it’s time for some changes,” he said softly and ran his tongue along the edge of her ear.

  Charlie moaned softly at the sensation. “What kind of changes?” she asked sleepily.

  “I’m ready to put away my Letter of Marque. I want to have the ship refitted for another vocation. How do you feel about that?”

  “Relieved.”

  Jaxon, kissing her shoulder, stopped. Her answer surprised him. She had never given any indication she was not happy privateering. “If that’s how you feel, why didn’t you say something before?” Charlie had lived her life doing what she was told without complaint. He didn’t want that for her. Jax wanted her to feel free to express her opinions, but even after three years of marriage, he still sometimes had to draw them out of her.

  “I knew who and what you were when we got married. It didn’t seem right to try to change you.” Charlie placed her hands on top of his.

  “I was thinking we might even keep this the Dragon’s Lair, but commission another ship, one with enough room for the baby and maybe another half dozen more.” He smiled at her sharp intake of breath. “I’m tired of waiting for you to tell me. These quarters are too small to hide your little secrets. You’ve got to be at least three months along.”

  “Almost four,” she admitted. “I didn’t want you to take me home and leave me there alone.”

  He knew why she hadn’t said anything. It tipped his decision to quit privateering.

  “Are you excited to finally become a parent?”

  “More than you can imagine. What about you?”

  Charlie was slow to answer. “I’m nervous mostly. I’m worried that I won’t be a good mother.”

  Jaxon lifted up on one elbow so he could see her face. “Care for the children the way you care for your patients. Show them the patience you showed Morty when you were teaching him his knots. Love them like you love silk stockings.”

  “You make it sound easy.”

  “Easier than teaching Morty to tie knots, I bet.” Jaxon smiled. “If you can run a ship you can easily run a household full of children and servants.”

  Jaxon splayed his hand and caressed the slight swell of her womb. “Do you know what this baby is? He will be the walking, talking proof of our extraordinary love. Our children will be an amazing legacy of the love we share.”

  COMING SOON

  FOR THE LOVE OF PETE

  NO UNSPOKEN PROMISES

  Blake Warner, with his dark unruly hair and vivid blue eyes, has the heart of every young socialite in Civil War Chicago, aflutt
er. But he has been nicknamed “Blake the Rake” because of his aversion to marriage and his reputation of breaking off all courtships if a woman expressed her affection for him. To combat his boredom with life, Blake works with the Union Intelligence Service as a less than successful spy. He has been asked to messenger a communiqué to Minnesota where the Dakota Sioux are increasingly violating the treaties.

  When Blake meets a fiery little hellion, he is fascinated by her spunk and sense of humor. He finds himself attracted to the diminutive spitfire who is completely opposite of the cultured women he usually courts. A misunderstanding leads him to believe her husband has gone to war, so it’s not as if by sleeping with her he’d be breaking the cardinal rule of rogues—never take a young woman’s innocence. He made sure she understood, he was offering no unspoken promises before he took her to bed.

  Meredith Vande Linde knew she would die a spinster in her small Minnesota town after a scandal tarnished her reputation. So what harm could there be in letting Blake think she was married and allowing the handsome stranger to take her innocence. He would leave the next day and no one would know.

  It never occurred to either of them, they might get caught, until it happened.

  Meredith should have known when Blake vomited on the preacher’s shoes, he felt something worse than nerves. She had no idea his past held dark secrets he’d never revealed to anyone.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  M. Donice Byrd lives in a small town near Lubbock, Texas. She has been married to her husband William for 28 years. They have one daughter, Bailey, two grandsons, Rhys and Ethan.