He was fine, waving Andy away when she tried to help him up. He stayed on his back, propped himself up on his elbows and watched me. He doesn’t look so pleased to see me now! Rather, he looked scared and bewildered. Whatever. I had a good friend to check on. I turned my back on him and made my way to Valkyrie’s infirmary.
The extent of my anger had shocked me; I was storming. How dare he turn up and mock me after the way he’d behaved? How dare he take so long to come and find me?
The anger I had for Erik came flooding back and, for a moment, Leo and Erik once more became one: a man I’d trusted who’d betrayed that trust. I was angry with Leo for behaving like Erik and angry with him for leaving me—even though I’d sailed away from him. I was even angry at the hands who’d been injured, and especially at the ones who had died—they’d also let me down and left me. I was especially angry with Klara, and all thoughts of Leo flew from me as I realized how badly she’d been hurt.
They’d taken her to my cabin and she lay face down on my cot while Bess bent over her, removing lead musket balls from her back with a pair of forceps from the physick chest. Klara had fainted from the pain long ago. It was a mercy.
“How bad?” I asked, all thoughts of Leo gone as I looked at the bloody pulp that was Klara’s back.
“It could be worse, but not much,” Bess replied. “She’s taken almost a dozen balls, and I don’t know if I can get them all out. It’ll be a miracle if none of the wounds rot. She’ll have to battle fever to live, that I am sure of.”
I nodded my understanding, knelt in the blood next to the cot and stroked Klara’s hair as Bess pulled another ball out of her flesh. Klara moaned then sank back into oblivion. I bowed my head, resting it on my arm.
“We were supposed to escape—to be safe! I wanted her to be free and I’ve killed her,” I moaned.
“She was free, Captain. She was on this deck of her own free will. She chose to be here and face sea and gun. You know as well as I do that if you’d stayed on Sayba, the Hollander would have killed her eventually. You too, and made every day a living hell until he did.
“You’ve not failed her, Captain,” she added.
“No?” I didn’t agree.
Klara was the only person in the world I trusted, the only person I knew for sure would be there for me, as I would be for her. The only one I loved, and I did love her, of course I did. She was my one true friend, my sister. She shared my secrets, my deepest shames.
Now I had to prepare for her death, knowing she was dying because I’d put her on this boat and into that battle. I had brought her to this life, and her death was on my head, her blood on my hands.
“Captain!” Greenwoode appeared at the door. “You’re needed on deck.”
“What is it?”
“They need to know what to do with the Freyjamen. And we’re still jammed tight.”
I groaned, kissed Klara’s ruined face and rose. I turned to tell Bess to do everything she could but realized they’d be wasted words. She would do nothing less. I gripped her shoulder instead, then headed topside to face the other problems needing my attention.
PART FIVE
Chapter 85
LEO
I was too late to do anything to help. I could only watch, helpless and useless, convinced I’d found Gabriella only to see her die. How could I have let Hornigold get away from me at Sayba? Twice? Now I’d have to pay for my failures. Or rather, Gabriella and the Valkyries would. It would be my punishment, my reckoning, to watch.
She at least put up a good fight and used Valkyrie’s advantages well, tacking and jibing around Freyja, who kept her course and fired continuously. Then they came together, and my heart sank. It was a brave move, but even if Gabriella did by some miracle win this fight, she’d just lost her own vessel and her prize.
I looked up at Freedom’s sails. “Haul those mainsheets!” I shouted. “Blackman, what’s wrong with your eyes? Don’t let me see any more sails ashiver!”
I knew I wasn’t being fair. We were sailing close-hauled, and a little more weatherly than Freedom’s square sails could reasonably cope with. The sails were bound to shiver on this course, no matter how hard the men sweated the sheets and braces, which were already chock-a-block.
I turned my attention back to the two pirate vessels and the thickening pall of gun smoke drifting toward us like a hellish sea mist. The noise of the guns sounded like the barking of Hell’s hounds. Getting closer.
Closer. Still only able to watch. Helpless.
The smoke cleared to silence. The battle was over, but whose battle was it? Who lived? Was I sailing toward friends in need or mortal enemies?
Closer.
*
There! There she is! Is that really her? But she’s so big! Then I realized, and my breath caught in my heart. She’s carrying my child!
“Loose sail.
“Helm to leeward.
“Stand by to fend off.”
I guided Freedom to lay the tangle of hull and rigging alongside, and neatly avoided Freyja’s mast hanging over her larboard quarter. That would need to be cut away before it could damage Freedom’s hull.
Laughing at the cheering and celebrating crew, I boarded and headed amidships where Gabriella waited for me. My heart swelled with pride, and I couldn’t wait to take her into my arms and tell her what a magnificent woman she was.
Just look at her! High on her bowsprit, overlooking her victory—a victory she’ll soon be famous for across the Caribbees. She’s humbled the mighty Hornigold! And with a child in her belly! What a child that will be!
Moments later, I lay on my back in the wreckage of her victory, looking up at her. I realized it wasn’t going to be that simple.
She turned and left me there, staring up at the unicorn pawing the gray air above me. If the boats shifted, those hooves could well stove in my head. I realized I’d been so set on finding Gabriella; I hadn’t put any thought into how I would win her back. What did I say to her? Why?
Jayde, Valkyrie’s bo’sun, was organizing Valkyries and Freedom Fighters alike in cutting away Freyja’s fallen mast. There was splintered wood and tangled rigging everywhere, and Valkyrie’s figurehead and shattered bowsprit loomed over it all—the conqueror of Hornigold.
Against a background of flogging sails, creaking wood, and water splashing against the wooden hulls came the moans of the injured, complaints of the vanquished, and orders of the captain. No, not the captain, the quartermaster. Gabriella was nowhere to be seen. Carmen was directing the victory dance around her short-stemmed pipe. Where’s Gabriella? She should be directing these decks, not leaving the work to the Dane.
*
The felled mast had gone, left to drift downwind and sink—a little bit of carnage cast off—but I noticed the huddle of men and women didn’t disperse. Valkyrie’s longboat was pulled up alongside, presumably after being put off full of plunder and supplies until the fight was over, and Valkyries were gathered around something on the deck.
“What are you doing?”
“Annika was shot out of the rigging,” Jayde replied, her arm bandaged and in a sling. “Gaunt and Davys found her, but they were too late, she’s dead.”
I left them to it.
“Who’s that?” I asked Carrie. She was sewing another body into a shroud of sailcloth.
“Butler.”
I nodded. A pity.
*
I looked up at the sky again as rain started to fall. I was drenched in seconds—a welcome respite from the heat for the moment, it would soon seem worse. I had to find Gabriella, and headed starboard to climb up onto Valkyrie’s decks, but Gaunt stopped me.
“Leave her, Cap. It’s Klara, I don’t think she’ll make it, thee’ll only make things worse than they already are if thee goes now. The lass’ll come round, she’s not lost if thee plays it right, I’d swear to it.”
I hoped he was right. I looked after her again, then the news about Klara sank in. I rubbed my jaw and understood why she’d
reacted that way. Maybe she had enough to cope with for the moment. I shook Gaunt’s hand. “Gracias, Robert. It’s good to see you again, old friend. What do you make of the damage? I’m surprised you let her do it.”
“Not much choice, Cap, I were in the longboat. Most of us seem to have lived through it, though. I were glad to see thy sails, I don’t mind telling thee. Give me half an hour to have a good look below, then I’ll tells thee what needs to be done. But I reckon we’ll be lucky to save ’em both.”
“Pity. It’d be something to have Freyja sailing under my flag. Or Valkyrie’s.” I corrected myself hastily. “Very well, I’ll let you get on with your work. Maybe I’ll pay our old friends a visit.” I shook his hand again, then headed forward to gloat over the Freyjamen huddled in the rain.
Chapter 86
Carmen had taken no chances. She had the thirty surviving Freyjamen shackled and roped together by the half dozen so no one would be looking for escape overboard, and they were guarded by eight men and women. I noticed she had commandeered some of my own men to help, and smiled in spite of myself. I looked over the huddle, enjoying the embarrassed look on Sharpe’s face and the sullen look on Cheval and the others. He had wasted no time joining his old enemy against me. I was not surprised.
“What will you do with them?” I asked Carmen, wanting to tease the Freyjamen whose fate now rested with my women.
“Turn them out in the longboat, most likely, and get their ugly mugs off our decks,” Carmen snapped back, obviously not too pleased at my presence.
“Really? Is that what Gabriella ordered?”
She glared at me. “I’m sure she will.”
I was surprised. “You’d send them off knowing where you are and how badly damaged? The state you’re in, they could launch an attack from a longboat! And they’d have had a chance at success too, if Freedom weren’t alongside.”
She glared at me again. “An attack? What with? We wouldn’t put them off with any weapons aboard!”
“No of course not, but if they’re picked up by another privateer, or even if they aren’t, they’d soon take any ship careless enough to offer them aid, and they’d head straight back. And where’s their ship’s boat? He’ll have put one off just as we do, and they’ll be armed. No, you’d do better keeping hold of them and marooning them where they can’t cause you any more trouble. Besides, you may need extra hands to get the boats ashore.”
Another glare, then she stomped off to the maindeck, shouting instructions to Valkyries as she went.
“Clear that canvas!
“You, start work on the outer jib, I want Valkyrie shipshape again, even if she has mated with Freyja!
“Gather those weapons off this deck—I want them on Valkyrie!
“Jayde, get a lookout posted up every mast still standing, I want to know if any more sail approaches!”
I hadn’t expected a welcome from Carmen, but this was a bit over the top. Had I foiled some design of hers? Did she want Freyja? Or Valkyrie? Or maybe it was just the after effect of battle. I resolved to keep a close eye on her, but she could wait.
I walked over to where Hornigold’s bloody corpse lay unattended on the deck and stared at the man—one of the men—I’d hated for so long. I felt nothing. No joy, no pain, no relief. His death had changed nothing. Mamá and Magdalena were still dead. Hornigold had joined Tarr in Hell. Blake was still to join them; van Ecken too. I turned away and smiled when I saw Gabriella climb, with difficulty, down to Freya’s deck. I followed, and walked toward the mainhatch.
“What do you suggest we do with Freyja?”
I looked at her—her tone wasn’t friendly, but she was talking to me—a definite improvement—although the question was most likely a test.
“Keep her,” I replied. “Having her in our fleet would be the talk of the Carib Sea and do our reputations no end of good.”
“Our fleet? Our reputations?” Her voice was cold. “Valkyrie took her. Freedom didn’t have a hand in it.”
I was tempted to point out that she’d most likely lose both Valkyrie and Freyja without Freedom to help her ashore, but thought better of it, this was not the time. “You’re quite right,” I said, instead.
“So who’d sail her?” Gabriella mused.
“She has a crew. They can be forced if necessary, but I don’t think so. They don’t really care who they sail under as long as they win enough coin. Their letter of marque is no more than convenience to most.”
“What, even Sharpe? You’d sail with him after . . . after Magdalena?”
I shrugged. “It’s all passed. It doesn’t matter anymore.” Gabriella and the child were all that were important to me now, and I’d even put up with Sharpe on my decks if that would prove it to her.
“You don’t think he’d cause too much trouble?” The smile, if it had been there at all, was gone.
“No, if I read him right, he doesn’t bother about who he sails with as long as he has a plentiful supply of rum, and coin enough to wager at the dice, but time will tell.” I paused. “Gabriella,” I said, serious again, and reached out to stroke her face.
Was she softening? Maybe, then her face tightened and she pulled away. “Not now,” she said, “I need to think about Valkyrie.”
We’d gone through Freyja’s mainhatch and had reached Gaunt for our first look below decks. Gabriella went pale as she took a good look at the damage she had wrought. Frazer, Blackman, Carrie and Jayde didn’t look much happier.
“Mr. Gaunt, report if you will,” she said, her voice strained.
Chapter 87
“Right then, lass,” Gaunt said. “For a start, they’re both taking on water, though they ain’t in danger of foundering just yet—I’ve put teams on the pumps and they’ll need relieving every hour.
“We’ve two options. Either split them at sea and make the best of it, or tow them ashore and do the job proper. Me biggest concern is what happens if a blow hits. Even if we get Valkyrie separated at sea and patched, her bow’s weak and her forward strakes need replacing. Hell, her stem might even be cracked and then there’ll be no salving her; but even if stem’s sound, I don’t think she’ll stand up to heavy seas, especially wi’ that bowsprit, and we’ll lose Freyja o’course.
“The only other thing to do is for Freedom to tow them ashore as they are, then I have a chance at salving both of them. They’ll be awkward to tow and if we do get a blow, we risk losing them both.”
“At least it isn’t hurricane season, and we’ll plot a course carefully and head for the nearest safe island or cay,” I said. “I don’t think we should worry overmuch. Would you have a chance at salving Freyja if we split them at sea?”
“Nay,” Gaunt replied. “Does thee see how Freyja’s laid over? If we warped Valkyrie out of her, she’d flatten out again and sea’d flood in. We’d have no chance at patching her and she’d go down for sure. It’s up to Gabriella; we’ve a better chance of salving Valkyrie if we warp her out now, but we’d lose Freyja for sure and could end up losing both anyway.”
“I want Valkyrie free and floating. I don’t care what happens to Freyja, she’s already beaten,” Gabriella replied.
“Yes, but think what it would tell the rest of the Caribbees if you had command of Hornigold’s boat,” I reasoned. “Reputation counts for a lot in our trade, and more ships would call for quarter without a shot being fired. She’s well known and we would be too. You would be.”
“I agree with Leo,” Carmen said, surprising me. “We’ll take more prizes with less risk with three vessels.”
So at least she included Freedom—that had to be a good sign.
“Aye,” agreed Jayde.
“Frazer? Blackman?” I asked.
“Aye, salve them both,” Frazer said and Blackman nodded.
“Oh, very well,” Gabriella snapped. “But if we lose Valkyrie there’ll be the devil to pay—and you’ll be the one to do it, Leo. We’ll try to salve them both, but if needs be, we warp Valkyrie free at sea and cast Fre
yja loose.”
“Agreed,” I said, and the others nodded.
“Right then, Mr. Gaunt.” Gabriella sighed. “What needs doing to keep Freykarie afloat?”
He smiled at the name, then said, “I want to patch Valkyrie up as well as I can to give her the best chance. Both boats will want lightening too to keep them high in the water.”
“Very well, we can get on with that. Is there room on Freedom for our plunder and stores, Leo?”
“Sí, no problem, we’ll stow as much as we can, anything else will have to go overboard.”
“No, the ballast can go overboard. Guns and spare rigging will go in its place.”
That was a good idea. The boats still needed some weight to keep them stable and stop them rolling, especially as we wouldn’t be able to rig them. We’d only have to worry about reballasting if we managed to salvage both vessels.
“But I’m warning you, Leo, if Freedom sails off with our gold, I won’t rest until I take it back.”
“Don’t worry, querida, I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“Captain!” Jayde called down the hatch. “Bess is calling for you, it’s Klara.”
I went after Gabriella and gave her a leg up to Valkyrie’s deck—she wasn’t quite so agile now—then climbed up to follow her, but she stopped me.
“Stay here Leo, I don’t need you.”
“I know, querida, but I’m coming with you anyway.”
She looked at me for a moment and decided not to argue. She nodded and hurried toward the cabin.
“Frazer, Carmen, will you check the charts and find us a likely island while we wait for a fair wind?” I called down through the unrelenting rain.
“Aye, Captain.” He nodded from the hatch whilst Carmen glowered, and I hurried after Gabriella.
Chapter 88
GABRIELLA
The Valkyrie Series: The First Fleet - (Books 1-3) Look Sharpe!, Ill Wind & Dead Reckoning: Caribbean Pirate Adventure Page 52