Promise of a Family

by Jo Ann Brown

  The sailors on the main deck dragged her aboard roughly. When she glowered at them, they made rude remarks in French. She let them go on, until Captain Allard’s head appeared over the rail. Then she lashed them in her best French and the low cant her governess had never expected she had learned. The men’s mouths gaped, but they snapped to attention when Captain Allard dismissed them. His warning that he would speak with them later made them cower.

  She was not fooled by Captain Allard’s fake gentility. He was a pirate. Would he keep his promise to let her and Lulu return to Cothaire alive? She began to doubt that as Captain Allard ordered them imprisoned belowdecks.

  He taunted her by saying, “I will not forget you, Lady Susanna. As soon as The Kestrel is sighted, you will be brought up to watch my vengeance on Nesbitt.”

  Susanna did not reply. She kept her head high and tried to copy the expression Mama had worn when she was faced by something too base for her even to acknowledge.

  Captain Allard endured it for less than a minute before his eyes shifted away. He muttered something unflattering about Englishwomen under his breath. When he looked back at her, she simply raised her eyebrows in a pose she had learned from Drake, and for a moment Captain Allard looked flustered.

  “Capitaine!” came a shout from across the deck.

  Susanna could not catch all the words because they were lost to the wind, but she heard enough. She did not try to conceal her smile this time when she listened as Captain Allard’s crew yelled about a chain of debris across the channel between the cliffs. Turning, she looked at the shore. As she had suspected, all the fishing nets and the pieces of broken boats had vanished. While his crew had been looting the village, some of the fishermen must have gone out to the cliffs with what nets they still had. She suspected they had lashed the nets with pieces of iron and wood before stretching them across the water to trap the French ship in the cove.

  Suddenly, she was grabbed and shoved toward a companionway. Holding Lulu close, she did not protest when they were taken down two decks and locked in a room that stank of gunpowder and rotten meat. Both must have been stored recently on its wide shelves. She tried opening the porthole to let in fresh air, but it refused to budge.

  “Way-dee Susu, go home,” Lulu cried as the door slammed shut and a bar crashed into place. “Go see Moll and Bertie and Gil and Joy. Go home. Now!”

  Dropping to her knees on the filthy deck, Susanna set Lulu in front of her. She folded her hands over the little girl’s and began to pray that all of them would be safe in God’s hand, knowing He was with them always.

  No matter what.

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was useless.

  Standing at the wheel of his beloved ship, gazing out over the waves that emerged from the spot where the sea met the sky, Drake was miserable. He could not enjoy the roll of the ship beneath his feet. He was oblivious to the wind in his face, luring him to a new adventure. Even the duet of the creaking timbers as The Kestrel climbed each roller and the flap of the sails did not make him smile. In fact, he did not hear it.

  Since they had left Porthlowen before dawn, he had given orders to his crew automatically. His thoughts were not on The Kestrel or the search for her next cargo so he could pay off what he owed from the losses of the last one.

  His thoughts—and his heart—were focused on Susanna. What a fool he had been to let her become such an important part of his life! Had he been an even greater fool to leave her? But he was not a part of her glittering world, where a man was judged solely by the circumstances of his birth. Her family had accepted him...as a guest. Would the earl have allowed a man who had been tossed aside as a child to marry his beloved younger daughter?

  And the children... How could he have failed to bid them farewell? They had trusted him, and he abandoned them. Susanna was right. He, of all people, comprehended the bafflement and pain a child felt when learning the familiar world was not as he believed and that adults he thought he could depend on, in truth, did not care about him.

  Would the children think of him as he had his parents and the people whose cramped house had been a poor home? He flinched, and his hands gripped the wheel until his knuckles cracked. Calling to a nearby crewman, he motioned for the man to take over steering the ship. He strode toward the bow.

  Drake stared out over the bowsprit and the hawk figurehead beneath it. He had thought his path was clear. One ship, then another and another under his command. A life on the sea as both a captain and the owner of his trading company while he urged other captains to join him in setting fair prices for cargo. He even had a name for his company: Nesbitt’s Shipping of Cornwall. Plain and to the point.

  Now he could think only of what that dream was denying him.

  Benton walked up to him. “Captain?”

  “Report.” Drake waited for Benton to give him an update on their location and a report on general conditions of the ship and the weather.

  “I have to report that you have windmills in your head,” his first mate said.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.” Anger tinged Benton’s voice. “For all the time we have worked together, Captain, you have had nothing but my respect and admiration. That changed when you had us sneak out of Porthlowen Harbor like thieves in the dark.”

  “I had my reasons.”

  “Stupid ones, no doubt.”

  Drake frowned. “That is quite enough, Mr. Benton!”

  “Not until you hear what I have to say, Captain.”

  “You have nothing to say that I want to hear.”

  “Probably not, but you need to hear what I have to say.” Not pausing to take a breath, his first mate hurried on. “I know you have been overly cautious since that Ruby woman cheated on you. Did you decide to leave Lady Susanna before she could leave you? Or is it that you thought she believed you were too lowborn for her?”

  “She does not believe that. How can you say that after she welcomed those babies into her life as if they were to the manor born?”

  “If she is not the one who thinks it, then you must.”

  “Leave off, Benton. I am warning you.” His hands fisted at his sides.

  Benton folded his arms in front of him and raised his chin in defiance. “Are you?”

  “Speak one more word, and you will be sorry.”

  “If I am going to be sorry if I speak another word, then I am going to make it a good one. I never thought I would say this to you, but you are acting like a coward. Why couldn’t you trust the woman who loves you, instead of fleeing?”

  Drake grasped his first mate by the collar and saw Benton’s shock. Other captains were heavy-handed and did not hesitate to use the whip to keep order on their ships, but not Drake. He recalled the shame and terror he had felt as a child when he was beaten publicly by the boys who had mocked him for being a charity boy who never knew his parents. That fear was not what he wanted on his ship.

  His first mate was speaking the truth that Drake had tried to submerge beneath talk of duty and obligation in Cothaire’s back garden. All of Drake’s frustration was aimed at himself.

  He released Benton. Turning on his heel, he walked to the closest companionway. He did not halt until he reached his private quarters. Going in, he shut the door. He intended to sit on his bed and regain his composure before he returned to the main deck. Instead, he fell to his knees.

  “Is Benton right, Lord?” he prayed aloud, the first time he had ever done so outside of church. “Have I lost my faith in others as I did in You? You know my heart, and You know Susanna’s. Am I afraid to trust her? Help me learn to trust again. Help me trust You, so I can trust the woman I love.” Saying that he loved Susanna—aloud and without hesitation—sent strength through him. “Help me trust myself and search my heart and my soul to find the courage to follow the path You have creat
ed for me, instead of running blindly away. I don’t want to be like my parents, who took the easy way. I want to take the right way. I want to take it with Susanna, if that is Your will. Whatever Your will is, I will follow it.”

  He bowed his head over his hands folded on the bed. A calm he had never experienced, not even when wind died on a flat sea, settled over him. From within his heart, a sense of belonging grew out to fill the void that had ached in him for so long. He had always been God’s beloved child, even when he believed his heavenly Father was not watching over him. He had never been alone, even during those darkest days of his childhood. He stayed on his knees, thanking God for never forgetting him.

  A knock sounded on his door, followed by a frantic “Captain Nesbitt!”

  Drake pushed himself to his feet and winced as his knees protested. How long had he been on them? No matter, because it had been time well spent. He had been embraced by the love of God. To have that and Susanna’s love would be the sweetest dream come true, far better than owning a hundred ships.

  The knock came again, and Drake opened the door to see Obadiah. The cook’s eyes snapped with anger.

  “Captain,” he said the moment Drake stepped out of his quarters. “’Tis happenin’ agin. ’Tis the galley this time. Supplies are gettin’ soaked.”

  “We are taking on water again?”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Drake did not hesitate. He ran to the main deck and sprinted across it. Shouting to his crew, he gave orders to change course for the shore. They needed to get there before The Kestrel sank with all hands.

  * * *

  The cove where The Kestrel anchored was wide-open. Its sea cliffs did not resemble a pair of arms closing in an embrace like at Porthlowen. An inspection of the ship turned up only a handful of holes on the upper decks. The crew had not checked those areas because there had been no leakage in the harbor’s shallow waters.

  Drake examined the holes and realized they looked identical to the ones on the lower decks that had been drilled by their unseen enemy. Setting the crew to fixing them, he and Benton went to the small village to see if they could buy some sugar and flour to replace what had been ruined in galley stores.

  He was astonished to hear his name called. Shading his eyes with his hand, he looked east and saw someone racing toward them. He recognized the lad from the stables at Cothaire. What was he doing so far from the earl’s estate? Something must be horribly wrong.

  Grabbing the lad before he could tumble off his feet, he sent Benton running to the village well to get some water. Drake waited until his first mate came back with a tin cup he had gotten somewhere. He offered it to the boy, who was gasping with exhaustion.

  The boy tilted it back and drained it.

  “More?” asked Drake.

  He shook his head while he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Baricoat sent me and another stable boy running to see if we could catch up with you at your next port of call. He told me to go west, while Jerry went east.”

  “What is wrong?”

  “Frenchie sailors in Porthlowen. The ones you captured.”

  Drake’s blood froze in his veins. “But they are in prison.”

  “They escaped. They have a ship in the harbor.” The boy pressed his hands against his thighs as he struggled to catch his breath. He stood and went on, “They went to the earl’s house, and when they came out, they had Lady Susanna and one of the little girls with them.” He coughed again, but forced out, “Took them out to their ship.”

  Benton snarled an oath that Drake had never heard him use, then asked, “Your orders, Captain?”

  He did not stop to consider the madness of his hastily improvised plan as he outlined it to Benton. There would have to be changes when they saw what they truly faced in Porthlowen, but he had enough to get them started.

  As Benton ran across the sand to reboard The Kestrel and alert the crew to his orders, Drake looked at the lad. “Tell me. What is the fastest route overland?”

  “Your ship—”

  “Never mind that for now. Tell me the fastest route. Every second we lose may be the very one that costs Lady Susanna her life.”

  * * *

  Susanna heard running feet far overhead and muffled shouts. Had the French sailors finally cleared a route out of the cove? The fishermen must have built an intricate net from one cliff to the other. It had held up Le Corsaire’s departure long enough for the tide to fall and prevent the big ship from reaching the sea. The Kestrel could handle the narrow channel with ease, but the French ship required deeper water to keep the keel from scraping.

  But the tide was rising again.

  “Go home?” asked Lulu, hopeful about the distant sounds.

  “I hope so.” She sat on the deck. Picking up Lulu, she set the child on her lap.

  “Scared.”

  “Do you want to know what I do when I am scared?”

  The little girl nodded eagerly.

  “I ask God to put His arms around me and keep me safe.”

  “God’s arms?”

  “Just like this.” Susanna wrapped her arms around Lulu and snuggled her against her breast. “When I remember that God will always hold me like this whenever I need it, I am not so scared.”

  “Scared.”

  “Just cuddle close and shut your eyes. Think of something pretty.”

  “Way-dee Susu pretty.” She patted Susanna’s cheek as she had so often.

  Tears burned her eyes. In the past hours she had discovered that Lulu remembered a lot of what she had forgotten, though she had no memory of her fall and only jumbled images of the day the children arrived in Porthlowen.

  The deck shifted under Susanna. Suddenly she slid sideways as a thump resonated through the whole ship. Had Le Corsaire struck something? A cliff?

  More shouts and thuds came from the decks above them. She pushed herself up and put Lulu where she had been sitting. Another thump knocked her to the deck again. What was going on?

  “Stay there!” she called to Lulu as she stood again, holding her scraped left elbow in her right hand. “Stay close to the wall.”

  The sound of running feet stopped. What was happening? Again, the deck moved. She had to grasp a shelf as the deck tilted. She looked out the porthole. Her heart sank when she saw the cliffs sliding past them. The ship was moving out of Porthlowen Harbor.

  “No!” she cried before she was knocked off her feet.

  Lulu giggled, clearly believing Susanna was playing a game as Susanna sat up and put her feet on the deck again. Beneath her, the deck was going both side to side and up and down at the same time. The capricious currents of the cove must be pulling it in different directions. She hoped Captain Allard was skilled. Otherwise, they would be dashed against the cliffs.

  As Susanna waited, unsure what would happen next, Lulu grew restless. She wrapped her arms around Susanna’s neck and whispered, “No scared. God’s arms.”

  Susanna’s tears fell as she thanked God for the blessing of this loving child in her life. She would protect Lulu for as long as she could, even though she had no idea how.

  The door rattled, and she heard the bar being lifted. Standing, she pushed Lulu behind her. If whoever stood on the other side of the door wanted the child, he would have to fight Susanna to get to her.

  She breathed a desperate prayer as the door opened.

  “Surprise!” came a laughing shout.

  Drake!

  She ran across the deck, flinging herself into his arms. His lips found hers. Softening against him, she put everything she found impossible to say in the kiss. She had no idea how he could be on the ship. She did not care. He was alive, and she was in his arms.

  “Cap!” shrieked Lulu with delight.

  Susanna reluctantly stepped back to let th
e little girl hug Drake’s leg. A score of questions exploded in her mind, but she was silent as she watched Drake kiss Lulu’s soft cheek before he scooped her up.

  He looked at Susanna. “Surprise!” He grinned. “Wait a moment. You don’t like surprises, do you?”

  “I love this one!” She threw caution to the wind, knowing they might have only seconds before the French sailors arrived belowdecks. “And I love you.”

  “Now, that is a surprise.”

  “That I love you?”

  “That you would admit it.” He brushed her tangled hair back from her face. “Giving in to love means surrendering control of your heart.”

  “I know it’s safe with you.”

  “It is,” he said as solemnly as if he took a vow, then smiled again. “And you have my heart, which is firmly in your control because I don’t ever want it back.”

  Susanna ached for more of his kisses but said, “We need to go.”

  “We are going. Out to sea now, but that will change as soon as I give the command.”

  “You?” She looked past him to familiar sailors swarming over the cannons, drawing them in and closing the wooden portholes to keep out water. “That is your crew.”

  “About half of them. The other half are aboard The Kestrel. With the help of the good folks in Porthlowen, they have already captured Captain Allard and the rest of his men whom we lured off the ship to fight hand to hand aboard my ship. Too bad Captain Allard forgot that one should never leave a ship with too few guards when the tide is high. It can easily be stolen by a small group of determined sailors. After we were alerted to the situation in the village and at Cothaire by one of your father’s stable boys, I led half of my crew overland and hid in the village until The Kestrel made her appearance. Captain Allard unwisely was only watching seaward.”

  “Why are we sailing out to sea?”

  “It will be easier to claim this ship as a prize if she is at sea.” He laughed. “With God’s help, this may become the second ship of Nesbitt’s Shipping of Cornwall, though changing her name will be the first order of business. What do you think of The Lady Susu?”