And he had now turned his complete attention on her.
She held her breath as he cast an insulting glance over her, seeming to take in every inch of her somber attire, from her lacy mob cap to the tips of her scuffed kid slippers. Then, to her great shock, he let out a mirthless laugh. “Pillage, thievery, and rape? And who might you be, my brave little woman, to speak to me so?”
Her stomach lurched. Fear made her want to beg his pardon, to protest that she was naught but a fool. But pride overrode that. He hadn’t killed her yet, and perhaps that meant he was amenable to reason. “I am Miss Sara Willis, sir, instructor and protector for these women.”
The wind lifted his raven hair away from his face, exposing the small gold hoop he wore in one ear. With a nonchalant air, he leaned back against the bow. “I see. You intend to protect them from our ‘pillage, thievery, and rape,’ do you?”
When a rumble of laughter erupted from the pirates surrounding them, she colored. “You know quite well I can do no such thing. I have neither a sword nor the strength to wield it.” She couldn’t help adding with a trace of irony in her tone, “Perhaps that’s why I don’t find the situation as amusing as you and your bloodthirsty companions.”
The humor in his face faded abruptly. “Then it should please you to hear, Miss Willis, that my men and I aren’t here for that. Thievery would be useless, since I doubt there’s so much as an ounce of gold or jewels on this ship. As for pillage, that’s an occupation I find pointless and wasteful, don’t you?”
When he paused, a knot of fear formed in her belly. “That only leaves rape, doesn’t it? A ship full of women…a ship full of pirates—”
“We’re not here to commit rape either,” he growled, pushing away from the bow with an unaccountable expression of anger. “What we have to offer your…pupils is anything but that.”
“Offer?”
Striding up to her, he planted his hands on his hips. “Yes, offer. We’re here to offer these women rescue. Freedom.”
He was close enough she could see the color of his eyes, a vivid blue-green that mirrored the tropical sea. It was far too attractive a color for a murderous pirate.
“And you offer this without expecting anything in return,” she remarked coldly.
The merest hint of a smile tipped up the edges of his mouth. “I didn’t say that.”
Her heart plummeted. “Of course not. Pirates aren’t known for their altruism, are they?” She didn’t know what possessed her to speak to him so boldly. Perhaps fear had driven her insane. But if he was going to kill her anyway, she might as well make her death count for something.
“Then what do you want?” she went on. “A few nights of pleasure before you dump them on the coast of Africa to fend for themselves? You want to use them as whores, but pay them in dubious freedom instead of in coin?”
“Nay.” He leveled on her a thunderous scowl. “’Tisn’t whores we want, Miss Willis. ’Tis wives. Wives for me and my men.”
Sara gaped at him. A confused murmur rose up from the women behind her, but all she could do was stare at him, trying to fathom what he was saying. She glanced around at the pirates’ faces, surprised to see the truth of Captain Horn’s words mirrored in their expressions.
“But you’re…you’re pirates! What would you want with wives?”
His expression grew shuttered. “That’s no longer your concern, Miss Willis. We’re taking these women whether you approve or not.” He scoured her with an insultingly impudent gaze. “Don’t worry. We’re not taking you along. The last thing we need is a tight-lipped spinster giving us trouble.”
With that final insult hanging in the air, he ordered a few of his men to take the women and children aboard the Satyr. He commanded the others to confiscate the Chastity’s stores.
She watched in disbelief as the men scurried to do his bidding, and the Chastity’s crew glumly stood by. How could they? This wretched scoundrel was kidnapping an entire shipload of women for his own nefarious purposes, and the crew intended to let him!
“You can’t do this!” she told the pirate captain. “’Tis unconscionable!”
Ignoring her, he turned to Captain Rogers. “I’m leaving you no water and no food. Your only choice is to return to the port at Santiago. From there, I don’t give a damn what you do, as long as you don’t try coming after us. When we sail away, if you so much as attempt to follow, I swear I’ll blow you out of the water.”
When he pivoted and started to brush past her, she caught his arm. “I won’t let you do this!”
He cast her a mocking grin. “As you said before, you can’t stop me.”
The futility of it all enraged her. She’d worked so hard to help these women to a better life, to see that they found the good within themselves. And now he planned to wreck it all in one fell swoop.
Well, if he wouldn’t listen to Miss Sara Willis, then perhaps he’d listen to someone of higher station. “No, but my brother can,” she said, with as haughty a tone as she could muster. “And I’ll make sure he searches you and your men out, if it takes every breath in my body!”
He shrugged off her hand with a laugh. “And who might your brother be that he’d take on a pirate? Some merchant’s son? A clergyman perhaps?”
“The Earl of Blackmore.” She wielded the title like a weapon. “He’ll come after you if I ask him to.”
There was a chorus of groans from the crew and captain of the Chastity, though why they were so dismayed by her revelation now, when it no longer mattered, she couldn’t possibly imagine.
Unfortunately, the pirate captain’s reaction was more alarming. Instead of the fear she had hoped for, a cold light glittered in his eyes as he clutched her arm in a painful grip, then fixed Captain Rogers with a fierce look. “Is this chit telling the truth? Her brother is an English earl?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Petey Hargraves flashing her a dire look of warning, but she ignored it. If revealing her true identity might save the women, then surely she must do it.
Captain Rogers had gone pale as death. “Not that I ever heard, sir. If her brother’s an earl, ’tis news to me.”
“The woman’s crazy,” Petey called out. “Got grand ideas about her position and all. She ain’t no earl’s sister, Cap’n Horn, you can depend on it.”
How dared Petey lie! Didn’t he see how important this was? “I most certainly am the Earl of Blackmore’s sister!” she protested. “I’ve been traveling incognito, to report to the authorities in London about the treatment of convict women aboard these ships!”
Wrenching free of the pirate, she fumbled in the pocket of her apron until she found her journal, which she kept with her at all times. She slipped a fine sheet of vellum from between the pages, then handed it to Captain Horn.
Jordan had insisted that she carry some identification with her in case of emergency. Accordingly, he’d written a letter proclaiming that Miss Sara Willis was his sister and had pressed the Blackmore seal at the bottom. Thankfully, he hadn’t called her his “stepsister.” Jordan had meant her to use the letter if she had difficulty gaining passage home once she reached New South Wales, but this seemed a far better use for it.
The pirate captain scanned the letter, his expression darkening as he read the signature and saw the seal.
“If you insist on taking these women,” she told him in her loftiest tone, “I’ll make sure my brother does all in his power to thwart you. I won’t rest until he sends ships to search the seas for you and your men. I’ll—”
“Enough,” he growled, folding the letter and tucking it into his belt. He cast her a wholly unnerving smile.
“You’ve made your point, Miss Willis…Lady Sara. This changes matters entirely.”
A wave of relief swept over her. Her bluff had worked. He would let the women go and find someone else to torment.
But his next words utterly shattered her assurance. “It seems, my lady, that you’ll be going with us after all.”
; Chapter 5
If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of women, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test: though a different opinion prevails in this country.
—MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
ENGLISH FEMINIST WRITER
A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN
Gideon Horn paced the decks of the Satyr in a fury, trying to blot out the sounds of weeping coming from the hold as he ordered his men to remove the grappling hooks that kept the Chastity moored to the Satyr.
Confound those women and their wailing! Didn’t they know they were lucky to escape the Chastity? He’d been to New South Wales. It was a lawless colony filled with murderers and thieves and no place for a woman, even a woman convict.
As the Satyr edged away from the Chastity, Barnaby approached him, an ironic smile on his lips. “Well, Captain, I’d say that went smoothly.”
“Keep your blasted English humor to yourself, Barnaby. I’m not in the mood for it.”
“The noise the women are making below decks is unsettling the men.”
“They’ve heard women cry before,” Gideon retorted with a shrug. He had to admit, however, that the keening coming from the hold was markedly worse than the sound of a woman crying over the loss of her jewels. He shouted an order to the bosun, then turned back to Barnaby. “Tell the crew to stop up their ears if they have to. We’ve got some hard sailing ahead of us if we’re to be out of sight before the Chastity returns to Santiago and sends a ship after us.”
Barnaby nodded, but didn’t leave his captain’s side. “The trouble is, these aren’t just any women. They’re prospective wives, and the men don’t like it that they’re so upset. It’s not what they expected.”
“It’s not what I expected either, believe me. It’s that blasted Lady Sara. They were quiet until I threw her in the hold with them. I should’ve known she’d stir them up. She’s a troublemaker if I ever saw one.”
“Aye.” Taking out a cheroot, Barnaby lit it and drew deeply on it. “Maybe you should have left her behind. All her threats were pointless. Even if she could have convinced her brother to go in search of a few convict women, he couldn’t have found us. Our island is uncharted and—”
“I didn’t want to take the chance. If we’re to do what we plan, we must have peace. We can’t always be looking over our shoulders for some confounded earl.”
“Bringing her along didn’t prevent that. If anything, it’s made the situation worse. Do you think this earl will let his sister simply disappear without looking for her? Not bloody likely.”
Gideon stared back at the quickly receding Chastity. The fact that Barnaby was right didn’t make the man’s words any easier to stomach. “As you said, who will find us? Besides, the woman would be more of a threat back in England, inciting her brother. Without her around to goad him, he might not bother. If you had a sister like that, would you want her back?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Barnaby let out a puff of smoke, his expression thoughtful. “Are you sure you didn’t have…um…other reasons for bringing her with us?”
With a scowl, Gideon strode to the quarterdeck. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Barnaby followed him. “She’s an earl’s sister, and you have been known to do things simply to tweak the noses of the nobility, captain.”
Gideon remained silent as he climbed up to the quarterdeck and took the helm from the bosun. He couldn’t honestly say what his reasons had been for bringing Miss Willis—Lady Sara—aboard. Except that when she’d thrown her brother’s title at him, he’d seen red.
The British nobility always made him see red. Those mincing fops were a bane on the civilized world. If not for people like the Earl of Blackmore and his sister, there’d be less oppression and heartache, less cruel separation of lovers…
He cursed as the old pain hit him anew. No matter how many times he’d made fools of those blasted dukes, marquesses, and viscounts, no matter how often he’d taken their property and scoffed at their warships, it hadn’t driven out the pain or changed the British system that had destroyed his father and had convinced his mother to do the unthinkable.
His mother. He fingered his jeweled belt buckle. It had once been a brooch, but he’d had it made into a buckle as a constant reminder of his mother’s treachery. Maybe Barnaby was right. Maybe he had brought Lady Sara aboard because he’d wanted to torment her for being nobility.
“If you didn’t bring her aboard because of who she is,” Barnaby added, as if he’d read Gideon’s thoughts, “then perhaps it was because of what she is. I’m sure you noticed she’s a very pretty young woman.”
“She’s one of them,” he spat. “It outweighs everything else.”
When Barnaby laughed, Gideon tightened his fingers on the wheel. Yes, he had noticed Lady Sara’s pleasing figure and winsome face. He’d seen only a bit of her hair, a lock or two peeping out from beneath that prudish cap, but it had been a rich, dark red. He found himself wondering what it would look like blowing loose in a fine tail wind or even wet and streaming down her slender back.
Her stubborn back. Confound it all, he couldn’t be thinking of the chit in those terms, could he? She was a quick-tongued nuisance, for God’s sake. Enticing though she might be, she couldn’t tempt him. He had different requirements for a wife, and she fit none of them. He wanted a sweet-tempered maid who’d give him peace and comfort during the long nights, not a defiant noblewoman who’d plague his days as well as his nights.
“Never mind my reasons for taking her off the Chastity,” he growled at Barnaby. “She’s on board now, and it’s too late to send her back.” When there was a surge of sound below decks, Gideon scowled. “’Tis a shame, too. Those women won’t stop their caterwauling as long as she’s down there stirring them up.”
“She seems to think that if the women make enough noise, you’ll change your mind and return them to the Chastity.”
“Return them to the Chastity, hah! Those women are lucky to be saved from what awaits them in New South Wales, not to mention the journey ahead.”
“Yes, but they don’t know that, do they? And you didn’t tell them much about what we intended.”
Gideon rubbed his stubbled chin. “You’re right. I was in such a hurry to get them aboard without any bloodshed that I didn’t tell them anything except that my men wanted wives.”
He steadied the wheel. Perhaps he ought to set their minds at ease. If he made it clear they weren’t going to be harmed, then they’d be more likely to cooperate. That is, if he could force that Lady Sara to stop riling them. She seemed to have appointed herself their spokeswoman.
A half-smile touched his lips. Their spokeswoman. Might as well go directly to the source of the problem. “Barnaby, go below and bring Lady Sara to my cabin. Then come take the helm.”
“Now?”
“Now. I think it’s time that vexing woman and I had a little discussion.”
Sara stood in the cramped hold, so filled with righteous indignation that she could scarcely contain it. How dare that wretched pirate kidnap them! How dare he carry them all off like this!
“Come now, ladies, I know you can make more noise than that!” Sara cried above the heads of her charges, who were wailing and carrying on as if their children had been torn from their breasts. “We’ll get them to turn this ship around if we have to scream ourselves hoarse!”
“They might murder us instead!” Queenie shouted above the din. She’d been the only one to disapprove of Sara’s plan for annoying the pirates, but she’d been outnumbered by the other women, who’d thought it as good a plan as any. Besides, it had given them something to do instead of lying in the dark waiting to be parceled out to the men like so many provisions.
“If they wanted to murder us, they’d have done so by now!” Sara shouted back. “They said they wanted wives! Let’s show them that we’d make terrible wives, and maybe they’ll let us go!”
The words were leaving h
er mouth as the hatch to the hold opened, and one of the pirates came halfway down the narrow stairs. Instantly he grinned, making her wonder if he’d heard her words.
She motioned to the women to be quiet as she surveyed their new assailant. His elegant attire made him look remarkably different from his companions. Indeed, in England he might have been considered a dandy with his silk stockings, striped waistcoat, and cravat tied in a Bergami knot.
As the women fell silent, he tipped his head toward Sara. “The captain wants a word with you, Lady Sara, if you’d be so good as to come with me.”
Why, the man was English! Amidst all these barbarian colonials, at least there was one Englishman, one man who might have some moral scruples.
Might. He was still a pirate, after all.
At his words, the women had crowded around her as if to protect her. Though the gesture touched her, it hardly made any difference. They couldn’t even keep themselves safe, much less her.
“It’s all right, ladies.” She forced a reassuring smile to her face. “I shall go speak to the captain if he wishes. Who knows, perhaps he has come to his senses.”
The women’s skeptical looks did nothing to lift her spirits. The last thing she wanted was to enter the private cabin of a self-proclaimed satyr. But she put a brave face on her terror as she set her shoulders and wove her way through the crowd to the stairs.
When she reached the pirate, he stood aside, gesturing to her to ascend the stairs first. She hesitated only a moment before doing so. It was difficult to keep her skirts close about her as she climbed the steep stairs. Why she was bothering to be so modest, she didn’t know. The odds were that she wouldn’t be allowed to retain her virtue much longer. Still, such habits of gentility were too ingrained for her to relinquish them easily.
The Pirate Lord Page 6
