by Paula Quinn
“What the hell fer?” Bonnet sneered.
“That’s what the captain wanted to know,” she told him. “Pierce never got the chance to tell him because news of the schooner reached them first. I told ye already that I believe Sam betrayed the captain. I tell ye I’m correct. Though I have no proof as yet, I ask ye to trust me. If ye decide not to, I’m still going. The captain’s life and the life of my cousin mean too much to me to do nothing. Ye either come with me or wait here. The islanders will help me rescue them.”
She stared him down for a moment or two, determined to set sail without him. “Make up yer mind, pirate. We’re wasting precious time.”
Admiration flashed across his single eye before he raked it over her body, from foot to crown. He looked away when she covered the hilt of her sword, ready to draw it against him. She was the only woman on their ship and she knew that at some point she was going to have to convince them that she could defend herself against any of the men here.
But it would not be today.
“Mr. Bonnet,” she said, “are ye coming or not?”
He scanned his gaze at the others, some for the idea and some against. “Aye, we’re comin’.”
She smiled and turned to Cooper. “Take the helm. Take us toward the Sargasso Sea. Gustaaf, take Charlie with ye and quickly gather any islanders who wish to come with us. We will meet ye on the ship in a quarter hour, sooner if ye can.”
She left Gustaaf and barked out orders to the boatswain, the master-gunner, the striker, and the surgeon before Mr. Bonnet stopped her.
“I’m first mate, deary. I give the orders.”
“Of course,” she repented and then smiled at the shrewd glint in his eye. He saw, with that one eye, better than some men could see with two. He knew he wouldn’t be giving orders for long but he didn’t seem to mind.
Four hours later, Cooper sailed Poseidon’s Adventure toward the Sargasso Sea.
High upon the masts, in the crow’s nest, Trina shielded her eyes from the sun and looked out over the vast ocean for any sign of the schooner that carried away the two men she loved most in the world. The wind snatched away her breath and her heart pounded like a drum.
She was beginning to worry that they’d come the wrong way. Just because Hester saw them sail north didn’t mean they continued on that course for long.
She had to find them. If they had to sail this ship around the world, she wouldn’t give up. Alex had come for her when Captain Henley would have used her for his pleasure and then sold her as a slave. He’d plucked Kyle from the waves and then rushed to save her, not truly knowing if she was after his map or not.
If it was indeed David Pierce who had them, their chances of remaining alive were good. She doubted Pierce would harm Kyle since he knew Kyle’s family, and he most likely wanted the map. To get it, he needed Alex alive. For the most part, Alex and Kyle were safe. Still, it was better to find them before the schooner docked somewhere to possibly meet up with an entire naval fleet, which she was guessing was waiting in the Bahamas.
After another three hours with no sign of them on the horizon, Trina began to pray.
If they were on the right course, the schooner should be coming into view any time now.
The time came a bit sooner than she expected when she spotted a flash of light in the distance. She squinted, trying her hardest to make out any sign of a ship before shouting the visual. At first, she saw nothing but the residue of blinding light. She looked away and focused her vision on the deck far below. When she raised her gaze again, she saw a spot on the horizon.
She leaped from the nest and tangled her hands and feet in the ratlines. She hurried down and stopped midway. “Ship ahead!” she shouted, once, twice, then a third time with her hands cupped around her mouth. Gustaaf heard her and so did Cooper, shifting starboard.
Trina watched, captivated and frozen in terror by the sight of a thirty-foot swell rolling quickly in their direction. There wasn’t enough time to make it back to the nest, where she might find some safety. She was going to have to hold on for her life. She heard Gustaaf scream her name below. She shoved her hands through the net and coiled her arms around the rope while lacing her legs through the line and locking her ankles. The roar of the water was deafening. Or was it the blood rushing to and from her heart? She braced herself. Alex and Kyle awaited her on the other side, damn it.
Her gaze followed the ascent of the wave rising over Alex’s ship. She squeezed her eyes shut and held on for all she was worth.
Poseidon’s Adventure didn’t sink, or even go under. It did, however, ride the colossal wave, tilting the ship, and Trina dangling from it, into an almost vertical angle. If having her weight jerked backward didn’t make her let go, nothing would. She kept her eyes closed and her breath held when thick walls of sea spray drenched her.
Her weight shifted again and she opened her eyes to find the ship on calmer waters once again… and Gustaaf scrambling, soaking wet, up the ratlines.
“I’m fine!” she called down to him. “Go back and get us to them, Gustaaf.” Shockingly enough, the huge Dutchman obliged and left her alone to return to the nest.
The dot on the horizon had grown into the outline of a ship, a schooner to be precise. They were found! Now she could return to her cabin and gather her weapons. Alex and Kyle were found, and Samuel Pierce was going to explain his betrayal and then pay for it.
She made it down to the quarterdeck quickly, thankful that all her practicing was worth disobeying Alex. She would point this out to him after she rescued him.
She sprinted inside Alex’s cabin and reappeared a short while later securing various daggers to her waistband and beneath her bandanna. She ran toward Gustaaf with her quiver strapped to her back. She’d learned to sprint across the deck without stabbing her soles with splinters.
“How long ’til we reach them?”
She still didn’t know how to determine their distance in leagues.
“We don’t know yet if it’s them,” Gustaaf pointed out while he looked through Alex’s spyglass, the one they found strewn behind a thick purple-flowered shrub. “We don’t know if we travel in the correct direction.”
“’Tis them,” she told him, convinced, and letting him hear it. “Tell Mr. Bonnet to stay his course.”
Her friend set his pale deep-set eyes on her. “You were born for this, were you not?”
She nodded and took the spyglass to look through it while he called out to the first mate.
In turn, Mr. Bonnet shouted the order to Cooper at the helm.
Now that she’d found the ship, she needed to consider who it might carry. All she knew was that a huge mongrel had accompanied them. But that had told her much. The man who kidnapped Alex and Kyle was most likely David Pierce. And that meant that she and Kyle had been correct about not trusting Samuel. She stared off into the distance while the salt spray whipped her braid off her shoulders.
“If we discover Mr. Pierce behind this, what do we do, Gustaaf?”
“If Mr. Pierce is behind this,” Alex’s loyal Dutch friend told her, “Alex has likely killed him by now.”
Trina shook her head and cut her gaze to him. “D’ye believe Alex could kill him?”
She didn’t have to draw it out for Gustaaf. The doubt etching his face spoke his true answer. He turned to Cooper and shouted, almost bursting her eardrum.
“Faster then, Coop! Or do I have to go up there and fly this thing myself?”
Cooper hollered back a vile reply, having to do with shoving Gustaaf’s nether parts up into his belly with the tip of his foot.
Trina blocked out their shouts and leaned forward into the forceful gale. She prayed her men were alive and asked for help in rescuing them. Could she board Pierce’s ship? Could she fly on lines over the waves and land with death at the end of her sword?
Aye. She could.
She could do it for Alex and Kyle.
She was a pirate.
Chapter Thirty-One
Alex dreamed of sunshine skipping lazily over the glistening coral dunes, of bright green iguanas feasting on mangos, and of the ocean spraying him with her refreshment.
The spray smelled foul.
Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked into a nest of blond fur. The beast’s cold, wet nose bumped him in the mouth as it turned its massive head and set its dark eyes on Alex.
Alex tried to push the beast away but remembered quickly enough, when he tried to move, that he was bound to a chair.
He cursed when the hound lapped its long tongue across his face.
“Risa! Down!”
Alex watched the mongrel retreat and sit at the left heel of a man who didn’t resemble Sam in the least. This one was green around the edges. “Captain Pierce,” he said, trusting what Kyle had told him the night they were captured.
“Captain Kidd.”
“Where is Kyle MacGregor? Did ya harm anyone on the island?”
“No one even saw us, Alex,” Sam spoke at his brother’s right.
Alex didn’t acknowledge him. “Where’s Kyle?” he asked the captain again.
“He is safe,” the captain assured him, then turned to Sam. “Bring Kyle to us, please, Sam.” When Sam left, his brother returned his attention to Alex. “The MacGregors are friends, especially Edmund, Kyle’s brother. I’m not fool enough to harm the lad. You also should use caution with the daughter of Connor Grant. His battle skills are still spoken of in the queen’s army.”
“Leave her out of this,” Alex warned. There wasn’t much he could do… yet. He almost had one hand free behind him. He needed a little more time.
“So then, it’s true.” David Pierce clutched his belly and went pale for a moment when the ship lurched upward. “You do care for her.”
“Captain,” Alex cut him off and brought him back to why Alex was here on his ship. “Did ya take me prisoner to discuss Captain Grant’s daughter?”
Not letting himself be overcome by the sea, Pierce pulled himself together and set his bemused gaze on him. “No, I did not. And you are not my prisoner. I will set you free if you give your word not to do anything foolish. I promised my brother I wouldn’t hurt you.”
Alex spread his lips wide and his hands over his shoulders. He was free.
Pierce ceased smiling and drew his pistol.
“I’ve no intention on hurtin’ ya.” Alex kept his palms up, then slowly bent to untie his ankles. “It wouldn’t take me long to overpower ya though. Ya’re sick as a dog. Let me leave and take MacGregor with me and we’ll ferget we ever met.”
He kept his eyes on the captain, praying he didn’t shoot.
“Then you will leave with the wrong map, Captain Kidd, and I promised your father that I would personally make certain that didn’t happen.”
The door opened and Sam entered with Kyle. Alex looked the lad over for any sign of mistreatment and breathed easier when he found none.
“Untie him,” Alex ordered them, seeing Kyle’s arms tied behind him.
“He nearly broke my jaw,” Sam said, rolling his jaw to test it again. “I’d rather not.”
“Kyle,” Alex turned to him. “When ya’re freed, don’t take hand to them again. Not unless I say so.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Kyle answered without hesitation.
“Untie him,” Alex ordered again. “If ya want me to listen to what ya wish to tell me, untie him.”
With a sigh and a quick glance at his brother, Sam obeyed.
Free, Kyle stepped to Alex’s side. “Do they have Trina?”
“Nay, I don’t believe so.”
“We couldn’t find her actually,” Captain Pierce told them. “I would prefer to bring you and Miss Grant home when our meeting here is done, Kyle.”
“What ye prefer means nothing to me,” Kyle replied.
Alex stepped forward, ending their conversation. “What is this about the wrong map and Sam’s mad ravins’ that me father was some kind of friend to ya, an English captain?”
“Let us begin at the beginning, shall we?” Pierce gathered up three more chairs, the same kind that Alex had been tied to, and invited all to sit.
Within minutes, Pierce’s hellhound, Risa, crawled up into Kyle’s lap as if it were the size of a kitten. It was as if the beast remembered Kyle and had missed him. The Highlander didn’t seem to mind and scratched her neck.
“When I left England,” Pierce began, stopping to swallow and rub his belly, “plans to have ships search you out and follow you were under way.”
“Why?” Alex asked. “Do they believe the Quedagh Merchant is worth such effort?”
“They do,” Pierce answered.
But how did they know what was aboard the stolen ship? There had been no naval men aboard his father’s first ship, the Adventure Galley, or even afterward, when William Kidd renamed his treasure Adventure Prize. How did his enemies know the value of the treasure?
“How did they know I’d come into possession of the map?”
“Hendrik Andersen.”
“Of course.” Kyle looked up at him from Risa’s fur. “If ’twasn’t Sam who led the navy to ye, it had to be Andersen. The rest of yer men are loyal to ye.”
Alex looked at him. This lad had proven himself right about people time and again. If he believed the men were loyal, then it was likely that they were. Alex almost smiled.
“Next question,” he put to Pierce. “The MacGregors gave me the map ya claim is the wrong one. Are ya tellin’ me they deceived me, as well?”
Kyle shook his head. “Nae, they had no part in this.”
Pierce agreed. “They didn’t know anything about the map save to give it to you after Mr. Andersen validated your identity.”
“Why would me father let them give me a fake map?”
“He had no choice. Andersen was part of his crew and your father’s friend. He knew about the Quedagh Merchant and the value of it. He knew your father fashioned a map and was going to leave it with the MacGregors for safekeeping. Your father used a fake map to distract him from the real one.”
A clever plan, Alex mulled. But was any of this true? He still had many questions. “Why didn’t Andersen already know the whereabouts of the prize if he was part of me father’s crew?”
“Because your father hired a separate crew to sail the ship to its hidden destination.”
“Wise,” Kyle said and caught Alex’s eye. He nodded his head as if trying to tell Alex this tale might indeed be true.
“Andersen found me in New York,” Alex continued. He needed more if he was going to believe it. “He had a personal letter from me father.”
“All part of the plan to expose the traitor after your father was dead, and to keep you alive.”
“Me father did all this to keep me alive?”
“Of course. As your father, why wouldn’t he?”
Alex shook his head. He didn’t know. He didn’t know if he should believe any of it.
“How do ya know all this?”
The Englishman opened his mouth and then covered it with his hand. He fought the sickness and held it in check.
“Ya haven’t been sailin’ long then,” Alex surmised.
“Only six or so months now,” the captain admitted.
Taking pity on him, Alex reached into his pocket and pinched his fingers around the cure to Pierce’s malady.
“What is it?” Sam’s brother eyed the tuft of herb he offered.
“An island remedy fer what ails ya.”
“Why did ye not give that to me instead of piercing my ear?” Kyle asked him.
Alex glanced at him, then at his earring. “Ya’re a pirate. He’s not.”
Satisfied, Kyle sat back in his chair while Pierce accepted the offering.
“Hold it under yar tongue.”
They waited while Pierce followed Alex’s instruction and tucked the herb under his tongue. After he swallowed a few times, his color returned.
“Thank you,” he said, and then smiled with genuine reli
ef.
Alex nodded. “Now tell me how ya know so much?”
“Your father told me while he was in prison,” Pierce told him. “We were friends. I sailed with him for two years aboard Adventure Galley, before my service to the throne. We remained friends until he left this earth. While he was on trial, I was allowed into his cell to question him. During my visits, he told me about Andersen and the true map.”
Alex wished he was telling the truth. It would mean that his father had a friend by his side before he died. It would also mean that Sam hadn’t betrayed him. But just because he wanted it to be true didn’t mean that it was.
“And ya are the only man on the earth who knows its true whereabouts?”
“I am,” Pierce admitted.
This was getting harder and harder to take seriously. “Ya expect me to believe that me father trusted an English naval officer with the map he gave his life fer? Ya think me a fool?”
“That remains to be seen,” Pierce said reaching for something in his waistcoat. “I expected you to be somewhat like him. He was a hard man and there were very few he trusted.”
“And, of course, ya were one of them?”
Pierce ignored his mocking grin and handed him the folded parchment he’d removed from his pocket. “One of two, just like this map. You were the other.”
The cabin remained quiet while Alex looked at him, trying to see through any veneer. Finally, he unfolded the parchment and held it to the lantern.
“The real map to the Quedagh Merchant,” Pierce told him while his eyes searched over it.
“Madagascar?” Alex looked up. “Ya’re tellin’ me the Quedagh Merchant is in Madagascar?” He didn’t really care what the captain replied. Why was he listening to an English soldier and his traitorous brother anyway? They probably hoped Alex would fall for this clever tale and hand over his “fake” map for the authentic one. He almost laughed. But he was tired of listening. He was getting the hell off this boat.
“If ya had the real map all this time, why didn’t ya give it to me sooner?”