Once Upon a Pirate: Sixteen Swashbuckling Historical Romances

by Merry Farmer

  “Lower our flag slowly,” Thomas called out, trying to meet each man’s eye. To let them know he stood by each and every one of them. “And set aside your weapons, lads. All of them.”

  Dress askew, Rose flew up the steps stopping short when she spied the ship heading their way. Her eyes rounded. She looked from the navy ship to him and shook her head, panicked. “What are you doing, Thomas?” She kept shaking her head. “You need to turn around and flee. Right now! If not, you will be…”

  The terror in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. She truly would stand by him no matter what. But that was not why he had come all this way. That would not be her ultimate fate if he had anything to say about it.

  She crossed her arms over her chest at the chill in the air and peered off their port side, still shaking her head in confusion. “This makes no sense.” Her gaze returned to him. “We should be traveling south. Back to—”

  “This,” he said softly and took her hand. He gestured that his men raise the white flag.

  Her eyes widened all the more, and she whispered, “You truly are surrendering.”

  “Yes, I am surrendering one way of life,” he said, “for another.”

  “I do not understand,” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes.

  “You will soon, my love.” He kissed her forehead and told her to return to his cabin. “If you’ve a need to eavesdrop at the door, I will not fault you.”

  “You know I will.” She cupped his cheek and kissed him, fear and worry in her eyes, along with new strength and resolve. “I will stand by you, Thomas…I am not going anywhere.”

  “I know,” he murmured, glad to hear her say it. To see the truth of it in her eyes. To know that she would stand by him to the end. Even if that end were hanging from a noose.

  What she did not know, likely because she had been caught in the maelstrom of preparing to travel, was that on five September seventeen, seventeen, King George I of Great Britain issued the “Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates.” This granted full pardon of all crimes to pirates who surrendered themselves to any governor in the colonies within the next year.

  He nodded to Phillip and Charles as the ship drew closer.

  The Pardon would apply just as readily to a sea vessel, governor present or not. Just so long as they gave the Royal Navy something they wanted in return, he suspected. He eyed his ship, one he dearly loved and nodded at his crew in reassurance. This was the step forward they had chosen the moment they put this plan into motion.

  He leapt onto the bridge and roared that they requested a Royal Pardon on behalf of King George I and prayed the chips fell where he hoped.

  As it happened, his King and country came through in the end, and they did.

  “You cannot be serious?” Rose said a short time later, peering out the window at the navy ship following them. “They simply forgave you for all your crimes? They gave you and your crew full clemency?”

  “By King’s order,” he murmured, very much enjoying her dress minus its undergarments. More so, he liked her in his arms as he leaned against his desk. “That is no small thing.”

  “No,” she agreed softly. Her eyes met his. “But it does sound like a tremendously risky thing.” She shook her head. “What will you do now? Your men?”

  “Start a new life,” he said simply.

  Yet she knew nothing was so simple and called him on it. More pointedly, she rolled back the clock and focused on all her questions from before. “Everything you did yesterday was in preparation for this, wasn't it?” She cocked her head in question. “You knew what you intended to do?”

  “Yes,” he confirmed.

  “But why?”

  “Because it was for the best.” He caressed her soft thigh, eager to be inside her again. To hear her throaty groans and cries of pleasure. “Times are changing quickly, Rose. Surely you know that.” He shook his head. “The Royal Navy has been after pirates more and more, and my way of life is becoming harder by the day.” He shrugged. “So when the proclamation was announced, I took notice.”

  “Clearly.” She referred to his comment about being exhausted in general. “Based on what you said in your holding you did more than take notice though, didn't you? You have grown tired of this life.”

  “I have.” He cupped her cheek. “When we learned about what was going to happen to you and your sister, we had to take action.” He paused and considered. “But it was more than that…before that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have been ready to leave this life for some time,” he said. “All of us on this ship have. So when Luke and I told them and his crew what we intended, everyone agreed to be part of the fight to save you. Part of facing the inevitable…” He looked out the window. “A new life.”

  “What does that mean?” she whispered. Her eyes drifted as his hands wandered over her shoulders and skimmed her small waist. “What does a new life mean for you, Thomas?”

  “It means this.” He set the scroll the British captain had given him on the desk. “Freedom from…freedom.”

  She eyed it for a moment then him, still mulling things over. “If you knew of our plight, why not attack our ship before it ever made it south?”

  “Because you were already Blackbeard's,” he reminded. “Had we attacked your ship and fled north, you and your sister would never have been safe any more than the rest of us. Not with Blackbeard’s long reach. It was best to follow pirate code as much as we could.”

  “So for the same reason you carried the imitation brooch,” she murmured. “Ensuring Big Devil would not follow either.”

  “Yes.” He caressed her soft cheek. “Anything to ensure your safety.”

  She considered that for a moment before she responded. “Something has been weighing on my mind…something I have to ask.”

  When he looked at her in question, she continued. “Did you know of my situation in Yorktown after John died? That I stayed on with his family, rather than return to my uncle? It was unorthodox, but times were especially troubling at the plantation, and they were kind enough to let me stay. When Uncle fled, we had no choice but to go with him.”

  “I knew,” he murmured. “Or I would have come sooner, Rose.”

  “Would you have?” Cautious hope lit her eyes. “Truly?” She swallowed hard. “Or are you just saying that to soothe my heart? Because I know you misunderstood mine and John's marriage. That it hurt you.” Her voice grew emotional. “Truth told, I've a romantic side that likes to think you would have come for me. Yet a logical side that would have loathed it. Because it would have meant your certain death for piracy.”

  He understood the dreamer in her but also understood how her uncle's cruelty in her youth shaped her. How the need to escape and be safe had become an inherent part of her nature. Not only that, but he had given ample thought to this and only ever came to one conclusion.

  Never more serious, he cupped her cheeks and made sure her eyes stayed with his. “Even if it meant losing you to my foul nature, I would have come for you, Rose.” He shook his head. “And I would not have been caught because that would have just put you back in your uncle's lecherous hands.”

  “It would have indeed,” she whispered, her eyes misty. “You truly are my hero in every sense of the word. You always have been.”

  If that were the case, he would have murdered her uncle long ago, but that was irrelevant now. What mattered was this moment. Her. Them. He brushed his lips across hers, then kissed her with everything he felt. What had come before, what literally followed in their wake, and what lay ahead.

  The start of something new…perhaps.

  He knew he should explain his intentions to her, but all he wanted to do was feel her, love her, so he propped her on his desk, shoved her dress up, freed himself and thrust deep.

  “Thomas,” she gasped, her head falling back.

  “Hmm?” He trailed his lips down her soft skin, hiked her legs higher and rolled his hips, eliciting a t
hroaty groan from her.

  “We should,” she began, then gasped when he thrust deeper, harder.

  He kissed every surface he could find then laid her back on his desk and kept thrusting. Taking. Needing. All she could give him. Now and possibly far into the future.

  “Where are we going,” she whimpered, her voice strangled with pleasure as he rode her. She arched her back, her eyes half-mast, her words moaned. “What is next?”

  “We are next.” He thrust until she began shaking and trembling. Until her eyes rolled back in her head. Entrenched in the feel of her sheath clamping down on him, he braced his hands on either side of her, thrust one last time and roared with release.

  Then finally, as they struggled to catch their breath, he murmured in her ear words he hoped she longed to hear. “We are going home.”

  Chapter 12

  “We could do it,” she argued, determined to make Thomas see things her way. “There are plenty of opportunities in other colonies.” She nodded. “Plymouth is prospering. We could go there and start anew in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.” Her eyes met his, hopeful. “You and I, Hannah, and even Luke could do well there. We could start a new life.”

  She knew she was dreaming, but that didn’t stop her from continuing to do so. Not for a moment. Not when everything she wanted was so close…if but in a dream.

  “This is not a story in one of your books, Rose.” He shook his head. “Life in the north is not easy. Winters are hard, summers are fleeting.”

  “But there is plenty of work,” she countered. “Commerce is flourishing. You could boat-build, or take to fishing or whaling. Or perhaps try your hand at timber and fur trading.” She fanned her face in the oppressive August heat. “And a fleeting summer would not be such a bad thing.” Fresh hope lit her eyes. “The four of us could marry, just pretend, of course, sail to Plymouth and start a new life.”

  “Pretend to marry?” he had replied, amused. “Me and you then?”

  “Yes.” She blushed and didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Why not?”

  He responded, but she could no longer hear him as he faded. So she called out again and again for him to come back. More than that, she called out what she would have said then had he only asked. “Yes, I will marry you, Thomas.” She shook her head and repeated the silly saying that had become theirs. “From the moment we met until the day we die.”

  “No need for all that, darling,” his deep voice murmured from far off until it was right there.

  Until she opened her eyes to his.

  She blinked, unsure what had happened at first until everything came rushing back. Thomas gave up piracy. A navy ship sailed alongside. What he had done to her on his desk despite all that.

  Then things got a little hazy.

  “When did we move to the bed?” she murmured.

  “Quite a while ago.” A rather arrogant smile curled his mouth. “You were very drowsy in your satisfaction.”

  How could she not be when he made her feel like that?

  “I had another question,” she said softly.

  “Of course you did.” He traced the pad of his thumb along her jawline. “You would not be my Rose otherwise.”

  She momentarily drifted, caught by the tenderness in his gaze before she recalled what she wanted to ask. “What happens if and when Big Devil discovers you deceived him with that brooch?”

  “He will not.”

  “He might.”

  “If he does, we will never catch wind of it,” he assured. “Nobody will.”

  It took a moment for her to understand before it finally dawned. “Pride, then?”

  “Very much so.” He chuckled. “Pirates take their reputations very seriously. To have others discover he was duped would be most criminal. Besides, our ample holdings and very real treasure should keep him well satisfied.”

  “You are quite sure, then?”

  “Quite sure.”

  Relaxing, she slipped back under the soothing lull of his touch, drifted into a near dream state, dwelling once more on his murmured words. What he had asked her. Had that been a dream, though? It seemed so real.

  She had to know.

  “Did you…just ask me to marry you?”

  His brows perked. “Marry you?”

  “Yes, marry me.”

  “When?

  She was fully aware now. “Was that a proposal then?”

  “I meant when did you think I asked you to marry me.”

  “Just now. When I was waking.”

  “Then, no.” A twinkle lit his eyes. “Had you hoped I did?”

  She nearly said no but stopped. Because that would be a lie.

  “I don't know,” she murmured, not ready to be so honest. Or was she? Maybe just a few more casually murmured words to see how he responded. “How could I hope such all things considered?”

  The fact of the matter was she knew what she wanted. What she hoped for. Something he seemed to want too based on what he’d said. “Oh, my!” She widened her eyes when she recalled precisely what he’d whispered in her ear in the heat of the moment on his desk. “What do you mean we are going home?”

  “Dress and join me,” he said softly, amusement in his gaze, no doubt at her delayed response. “Then we will talk of…you and me.”

  Confused but curious she dressed and followed him on deck where he put a cloak around her shoulders to warm her against the chill. The navy ship sailed alongside them, and everyone seemed content enough. Along with a new bite to the air, the coastline’s trees and vegetation had once again changed.

  She looked at Thomas. “Where are we?”

  “Where you always wanted to go, Rose.” Seagulls cried overhead. “Though a means to escape then, you are going home now.” He pointed at the rocky shore ahead. “That is Plymouth Rock over there.” His eyes met hers. “We are here, love, even if it came many years later. Even if we had to live so much life in between to find our way back.” His eyes flickered from the shore to her. “We are in Plymouth Harbor. We have reached the Massachusetts Bay Colony…we finally made it.”

  She glanced nervously from the navy ship to the shore. “But you are a pirate.”

  “I was a pirate.” He held out the scroll, reminding her. “Now I am exempt by King and country and a merchant free to plight my trade.”

  “Are you absolutely sure?” Baffled, she looked from the scroll to him. “Your men as well?”

  “Free to do the same…with our thanks of course.”

  “Our thanks?”

  “The eventual arrival of the brooch,” he revealed. “It will see us all very well off.”

  “A brooch I had no idea was worth so much.” She shook her head, confused and worried anew. “What about my sister? Where's Hannah?”

  “She is safe.” He grinned. “The signal was left a ways back. She is with my brother, and you will see her soon enough.”

  “What signal?”

  “A yellow ribbon tied around a tree,” he revealed. “Rest assured your sister is most well.”

  “Is Luke…” She looked left and right, not sure how loudly she should speak. “Do they know he defected too?”

  “Yes.” He kept grinning. “Luke has given the signal that he has all the treasure and then some. That means the brooch too. Everything worked out precisely how we planned, and we are…”

  When he trailed off, she looked at him in question. “What are we, Thomas?”

  “You tell me.” He cupped her cheeks and finally asked what she had longed to hear. “Will you marry me, Rose? Will you become my wife?”

  “In the midst of all this?” she murmured. “Not knowing…”

  “Do you not know everything you need to?” he said softly. “Your sister is safe, and we are granted the King’s Pardon to start a new life…at last.” He looked at her with his heart in his eyes. “Is that not enough?”

  It was everything she had been hoping for since her need to escape her uncle, then their first kiss. Then again when he proposed before he
went off to war.

  “I would like nothing more, Thomas.”

  So it was that they married and Thomas’s ship was confiscated by the navy in payment for the Royal Pardon that should have come at no cost. Blackbeard and pirates of his ilk continued to roam the high seas, but most saw their end, including Blackbeard himself, the following year in the swift hands of justice. As far as they knew, Big Devil never discovered he had been duped, but then like Thomas said, he likely would not have admitted it anyway.

  Against the odds, thanks to a well-laid plan and an underwhelming brooch, Thomas and Rose had at last found their happy ending. An ending that was very much a bright new beginning for generations to come.

  Interested in what happened to Luke and Hannah? Ride the wild seas and dark undercurrents of their lusty, indecent adventure in Taken by Sin. Available exclusively in Pirates, Plunder & Passion boxed set.

  About Sky Purington

  Bestselling author Sky Purington married her hero, has an amazing son who inspires her daily, and two husky shepherd mixes that keep her on her toes. Her stories run scorching hot, teeming with protective alpha heroes and strong-minded heroines. Passionate for variety, Sky’s vivid imagination spans several romance genres including historical, time travel, paranormal, and fantasy.

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  An Imperfect Scoundrel

  by Alyssa Drake

  Chapter 1

  “I feel like we’ve abandoned them.” Alana flung her hands in the air, nearly hitting the top of the coach, her stomach twisting into knots.

  She’d told Mr. Thomas Reid that very afternoon, she was sailing for America. He seemed unsurprised by her announcement, and a small part of her suspected he approved of Aidan’s insistence on sending her as far away from Franklin Morris as possible.