The Pirate's Heart

by Bethany M. Sefchick

  Richard wanted Katherine. He was being all but forced to marry Lizzy to further his political and social ambitions. Everyone knew it. So wouldn’t it be better for everyone involved if Katherine returned to England and left Richard and his new bride in peace here on Barbados? She would have to leave her sugar plantation in the hands of others, but as it stood, she really wasn’t much involved in its running now. She never had been, really, and likely wouldn’t even know how, even though she was confident that she could learn.

  Would she be able to adapt to England’s more restrictive ways? Wearing panniers beneath her gowns, dressing in so many layers that she would be all but lost beneath the mounds of confining fabric? Would she deal well with the loss of her freedom, for she was under no illusion that the sorts of activities she engaged in now would be forbidden to her there?

  Well, she had adapted once, though that was under the guidance of her rather permissive parents who would have done anything to keep her away from Daniel. Katherine had no idea how Uncle Charles would view her aptitude for activities such as target shooting, mock sword fighting, dagger throwing, and sailing. Likely not well, if she had to guess, as they were hardly lady-like activities.

  Not that it mattered in the end. Daniel would still not be there and until Katherine found a way to get over this silly infatuation with a dead man – a dead man she had been thinking about rather a lot as of late – it didn’t matter where she lived. So why not return to England and its restrictive ways? She might not like the rules but she had lived under them before. This time would be no different.

  Katherine would do what was necessary to survive and it was becoming clear that she could not survive here, at least not as well as she had before. She had also replayed the conversation with Lord Wilds from last evening over and over in her mind many times. He meant to have her for his own and she truly believed that a little thing like marriage to Lizzy would not stand in his way. How he would accomplish his goals, she had no idea, but she had no doubt that he would try or see her thoroughly ruined in the process.

  “I truly have been thinking about departing Barbados,” Katherine admitted slowly, not quite certain a confession to her cousin was the right thing to do just now. What if word got back to Lord Wilds? Would he try to stop her from leaving? She hoped not, but she wasn’t convinced he wouldn’t try. “Uncle Charles has invited me to return to England so that I might seek a husband there. One better suited to my temperament. I meant to speak with your father about the matter, but hadn’t made up my mind whether or not to accept. Uncle Charles feels that I might be more successful in London this time.”

  “More pitied, don’t you mean?” Lizzy snapped, showing an ugly side of her personality that was thankfully not in evidence very often. “At six and twenty, you are hardly a fresh young thing any longer!”

  Katherine wanted to point out that in London, Lizzy herself would not be considered in the first bloom of youth any longer either, but once more, she refrained. “I would trust that Uncle Charles would not guide me astray. He is an earl of some influence, after all.”

  Lizzy narrowed her eyes. “You are old, Katherine. I’d not wanted to say it before now, but there it is. You are past your prime. Your allure now lies only in your dowry and that wretched sugar plantation of yours. Why else do you think Richard lusts after you? It is not for your feminine charms, I can assure you. Not when he has me!”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way.” Her cousin’s words stung, but Katherine reminded herself that it was nothing more than jealousy. “Perhaps it is best that I begin making plans to depart, then.”

  “Perhaps it is.” Lizzy started to turn before pausing. “I shall see you at home. And this little discussion will not be mentioned to Father, will it?” There was an implicit threat in her words.

  “Most assuredly not,” Katherine sniffed, more than a little affronted. She had no wish to be beaten for insolence. Once had been enough and that time, too, had been when she had foolishly risen to take her cousin’s bait. “This shall remain between us. Though he will need to know I plan to leave rather than simply vanish from Barbados. I cannot do otherwise without scandal falling upon all of you.”

  From the sour expression on Lizzy’s face, it was clear that she wished Katherine simply could disappear without repercussions. However, that was not the way their society worked and if Katherine simply vanished, the entire Templeton household would bear the brunt of the shame – including Lizzy herself.

  “As it must be, I suppose.” She sighed. “As an aside, I will be at the Mountbatten affair this evening. As will Richard. I would suggest you not be.” Then she was gone, stalking off across the rocky shore back toward her family’s grand estate.

  Her family’s. Not Katherine’s.

  Thought this spat with her cousin was nothing new, today’s ugliness had simply driven home the point that Katherine did not belong here. She likely didn’t belong in London either, but that was a world she might be able to navigate better. After all, each of Uncle Charles’ four daughters was already wed, each to wealthy and titled peers. There would not be any competition for suitors. Should that even be what she wished for herself in time.

  “Where do I belong?” Katherine whispered to herself as the afternoon winds began to pick up. “Where is my home?”

  On a gust of wind, she could have sworn that she heard the words “with me” tease her ears. Those two words, so tantalizing, had sounded deep and manly, but with a teasing note in the tone. Just like Daniel’s voice had been. Or would have been, had he lived.

  Lud, perhaps there was something wrong with her. Normal people did not hear the voices of ghosts on the wind.

  But surely that was a trick of her mind. First, she could have sworn she smelled a ghost last night. Now she was certain she heard one. She really was going daft for she was certain ghosts neither smelled nor spoke, if they even existed at all – which they didn’t. She needed to leave Barbados and put the ghost of Daniel Montgomery behind her once and for all. It was this island that was causing her head to become muddled. Here where they had spent so many years together. Where she had fallen in love with him. That was all.

  There was no such thing as ghosts.

  Turning so that she, too, might return to her uncle’s house, a flash of red caught Katherine’s eye and she turned back, looking over toward the rocky outcropping that marked the end of this section of beach. It wasn’t unusual for the people here to use natural rock formations as boundaries between estates and plantations. It was, however, unusual for someone to be on the rocks unless they were extremely sure of their footing or utter fools. The rocks were sharp and jagged and many a careless young man had bled to death or been washed out to sea after slipping and falling there.

  But no. Katherine looked again. And then once more. Still, there was nothing hiding amongst the rocks. No red. No movement. Nothing.

  Her confrontation with Richard last night coupled with the growing presence of Daniel’s memory in her own mind had her rattled. That was all. She was seeing potential harm around every rock and palm tree because her mind was uneasy. It was only natural.

  Bending down, Katherine removed her slippers and moved down to the water’s edge, allowing the tide to lap gently at her toes. This would be one thing she would miss, the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. No body of water in England could compare. The water there was dark. Cold and frigid. Not warm and welcoming like the water here.

  So she would bask in the warmth of the sea now, while she could. Bask in the memory of her past and allow it to fill her mind with joy before she tucked those same memories away for good.

  In fact, she just might remain here all day, as she really did prefer the warmth of the West Indies to the chill of England. Why not enjoy this tropical lushness while she could? Katherine wasn’t wanted at the Mountbatten estate that evening. Oh, she had no doubt that both Lord and Lady Mountbatten would welcome her and that an invitation had already been issued in her name. After all, she was
one of the most sought-after guests on the entire island, what with her fortune and her unwed state. And the couple did have an unwed rakehell for a son. But Lizzy didn’t want her there and Lord Wilds likely wanted her there a bit too much.

  So perhaps she would simply stay here by the ocean and wait until it was too late to properly dress in time to go to the party. Yes, that was what she would do. It was not a great plan, but it was something of one and would have to suffice.

  Katherine was so intent on finding a way to avoid the Mountbatten affair that she did not hear the sound of bare feet on sand sneaking up behind her or the soft swish of cloth drenched in a cloyingly sweet smell as it came down over nose. And by the time she did note that something was amiss? It was too late.

  The captain was waiting to catch Katherine when she fell. He had known she would go down hard and fast, but that couldn’t be helped. If he had any hope of getting her back to his ship, The Darkness, before she awoke, he knew he would have to administer a rather large dose of the drug on the cloth and pray she did not suffer ill effects in the meantime.

  As the captain laid Katherine down gently on the sand, he made certain to check her breathing first. It was shallow, but steady, just as the medicine man on the Chinese junk they had encountered several months ago had promised. The captain knew enough about modern western-style medicine to get by, but he was decidedly lacking in the eastern medical arts. He had been leery of knocking her out in this fashion, but he hadn’t had much choice.

  His original plan had been to bribe a member of Lord Templeton’s staff to slip the drug into Katherine’s tea sometime over the coming week. Once she succumbed to its effects, the captain and two members of his crew would remove her from the house under the dark of night and hopefully be long gone from here before anyone was the wiser.

  Admittedly, kidnapping Katherine here on this deserted stretch of beach was much easier, but knocking her out had been much more difficult, not to mention far riskier. After all, there was no tea here. And placing the drug on a cloth for her to inhale was chancy at best, as administering too much through the nose could be fatal.

  Still, given what the captain had overheard that morning, he could not take the chance and wait any longer. If he was going to take Katherine away from this cursed place, he needed to act today. Now. Before the Mountbatten gathering this evening. For there was a handsomely paid group of pirates waiting just off the southern tip of Barbados to grab her once night fell and the entire island was busy becoming fox on the local lord’s drink. Either on her way to the affair or at it. Likely not caring who stood in the way of their goals, unfortunately. If Katherine fell into their hands? There was no telling what fate might befall her. Or if he would ever see her again.

  The captain could not allow that to happen. Not when he was so close to his goal of having her for his own.

  He also had no wish for innocent people to die as the other pirates pursued their quarry.

  For the most part, pirates lived by a fairly honorable code. Or at least most of them did in this day and age, all of them aware that the end of piracy as a way of life was likely soon at hand if it wasn’t there already. The world was changing. They either had to change with it – which meant becoming legitimate merchants – or hanging on to the last of their days, their lives unchanged. For those who picked the latter as their lot in life, most of them lived by a code of decency which included not despoiling something or someone that another had paid for. Or killing the innocent.

  But the two pirate captains waiting just off-shore for nightfall were not exactly the honorable sort, one more so than the other. Neither would care that another had paid a pretty penny for this woman’s life or that others might be hurt in the process of taking her. They would kill and plunder before taking what they desired from this woman and perhaps, just perhaps mind you, deliver her to the buyer as promised. Mostly unharmed. Or possibly not.

  The captain could not allow that fate to befall Katherine or those who cared for her – for so very many reasons.

  Thankfully, his network of informants and spies was second to none, so he had been notified the moment the two unmarked ships had dropped anchor just off the southern coast of Barbados, well hidden from those who watched over the port of Bridgetown. That bit of news had spurred him into action immediately.

  The captain had been working on a plan to snatch Katherine when the two cousins had rather helpfully decided to go for a stroll along the deserted stretch of beach. The initial plan had been to knock out both women, though the cousin with much less of the drug so that she would awaken within an hour or so. When the shrieking chit had departed as the women reached the far, rocky end of the beach, that had been another stroke of good luck, but one that the captain would not hesitate to use to his advantage.

  Now, Katherine was alone. She was also obviously distracted, making it that much easier for him to sneak up behind her and administer the drug. Thank God for small favors, he supposed.

  “Is she out, Captain?” He turned to see both his trusted first mate and the ship’s cook, a rather burly man who was the strongest amongst his crew, approaching from the direction of the rocky outcropping.

  The three of them had been hiding there, waiting for the perfect opportunity to snatch her. However, it had been the captain himself that had administered the drug. He would have it no other way. In truth, he didn’t trust anyone else with a mission this delicate or this important. Not even these two men who had been with him for years.

  “She is.” Reaching down, the captain hefted Katherine into his arms, shrugging off the other men’s offers of assistance. “Davis, bring the boat around to the edge of the rocks. I want to be underway immediately.” He was thankful that the other man took the direction without complaint.

  “Still breathing?” That came from Ramsey, the ship’s cook.

  The captain nodded. “She is. The portions of the drug you prepared for the cloth were, I think, exactly right.”

  The bigger man shrugged. “S’wot I do, Cap’n. No different than other cookin.”

  “Still, I appreciate your efforts. This could have gone wrong otherwise.”

  Ramsey helped the captain adjust Katherine in his arms before they continued down the beach toward the rocks where their small boat awaited. “She must be worth more than gold, what for all the trouble you went through to snatch her. And what with the others likely going to give chase once they figure out you’re the one who took her.”

  The captain knew all of that of course. Taking Katherine was risky, not just to his own health but to that of his crew as well. Even with all of the precautions he had put in place before he attempted this kidnapping.

  He had a letter of marque from the English king, the same man who just happened to be the sovereign of his own homeland. He was also on good terms with most of the pirates that sailed the West Indies and into the southern parts of America. Most. But not all.

  He was also on friendly terms with the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. Not the French, however, which was something of a problem, as one of the pirates waiting for nightfall, Boucher, was a disgraced French nobleman who just happened to be carrying a very large grudge against The Darkness and her captain. After all, The Darkness had once been Boucher’s flagship, three versions of it ago, anyway.

  However, for Lady Katherine Sedgewick, the captain would risk it all, everything including his life and the lives of his crew.

  “She is worth a price beyond compare, Ramsey,” the captain sighed as he waded out into the sea as the smaller boat approached. “One day, I will tell you why.”

  The other man helped him place the unconscious Katherine in the boat while Davis held the small craft steady. “I think I already know why, Cap’n,” the cook replied easily. “As plain as the nose on your face, really.”

  Which was precisely what the captain was afraid of, actually. That sooner rather than later, his crew would discover why he had risked all of their lives to kidnap this one lone woman, one he
had no intention of turning over the person who had offered a grand reward for her abduction.

  Oh, the crew would be paid. In fact, they would be paid more than they could ever hope for once they had agreed to undertake this mission with him. The captain had made certain enough of that, even if he should die during this particular mission. But he would keep Katherine with him. For there was no way that Lord Richard Wilds would lay so much as a single finger on her. Not now and not ever. Over his dead body, actually.

  “A face which she shall not see,” the captain finally replied, doing his best to keep this task all business. He had Katherine in his possession, yes, but they were far from safe. He would do well to remember that. Thinking of her, of giving up his life for her, would do him no good if they all died due to his lapse in attention to detail.

  Reaching down, the captain pulled a length of cloth from the bottom of the boat. He positioned it so the pre-cut holes were over his eyes and then secured the red, silken length around his head so that it hid his hair and most of his facial features.

  “I don’t understand why you wear that, Captain.” That came from Davis who had already begun to row the boat back out to sea, grunting toward Ramsey when the other man did not pick up his oar quickly enough. “We’ve all seen your face.”

  “First, it is part of the mystique,” the captain reminded his first mate. “Second, you have all seen my face, but most others have not. Including her. I like to keep a little mystery going about myself. Strike more fear into people’s hearts? All of that? Or have you forgotten?”

  Davis shook his head and rolled his eyes. “No, Captain. Just seems a little silly. That’s all.”

  “Be that as it may, it’s my preference.” It was also a necessity, especially for the moment. The last thing the captain wanted was for Katherine to catch a glimpse of his bare face. That would never do. At least not yet. “Now let us row on. I want to be setting sail for Tortuga as soon as possible. Well before Boucher even learns that we are here. Or rather were here. We will use the western departure route, of course, as they will expect that we will likely flee to the east.”