The Valkyrie Series: The First Fleet - (Books 1-3) Look Sharpe!, Ill Wind & Dead Reckoning: Caribbean Pirate Adventure

by Karen Perkins

  Suddenly, cannon exploded to my right and a shot cracked out from above. Juaquim, high up in Freedom’s rigging, had spotted the man who had fired, and killed him. He’d got his load of swan shot off, but Juaquim had spoiled his aim and it shredded our sails rather than our men.

  I’d landed amidships with Leo beside me, and fired my first gun at a man who rushed me as I found my feet. At the same time, Leo discharged his. The man fell and I looked at Leo, grinning in excitement, and pulled my blades as I watched two more men fall from Juaquim’s musket balls. Then another fell back down the mainhatch where he’d been hiding to fire his own muskets. So much for striking in surrender!

  There was only the captain and one other left, and I pointed my second gun at him. He tried to push his man in front of him, but Leo fired and the crewman dropped to the deck. I lowered my gun and met Leo’s glance, but the captain wasn’t done. He saw our lack of attention and charged us, well, me. I turned back at Leo’s warning shout and knocked his cutlass away to my left, brought my knee into his groin and thrust my dagger into his side. I heard Leo’s grunt of rage as he knocked the man away from me. Disarmed and bleeding, he scrabbled on the deck and whimpered at our feet. Leo was disgusted.

  “Get up you fool, what kind of man are you?” He turned to me. “By the smell of him he’s rum-soaked himself into believing he has the courage and battle skills of a warrior.” He sneered at the man on the deck again. “But look at you, swept aside by a woman and cowering on your own decks—your men dead or injured, you’re a disgrace to the sea.”

  More Freedom Fighters swung down beside us as he spoke, shrieking and shouting every second, but there was nobody left to fight.

  “We’re not done yet,” Leo hissed, and I ran with him to the main hatch. Thomas and Phillippe had gone below after the shooter, and we needed to know there was no more danger aboard the ship.

  “Let me go first,” I said, pushing at Leo. He ignored me and slid down the opening in the deck. Secretly relieved, I followed. It was over. The dead man had fallen on his two companions who hadn’t had time to extricate themselves and re-join the fight. We’d won.

  *

  “Come on, querida, it’s not time to celebrate yet.”

  I took my arms away from around Leo’s neck and narrowed my eyes. I’d just taken my first prize. My prize—and I wanted a congratulatory kiss.

  “We need to check the captain’s cabin and his logbooks and see what we’ve won,” he continued. “After you.”

  I led the way aft to the cabin below the quarterdeck and started to look through the papers strewn over the chart-table.

  “Your shoulder!”

  I hadn’t noticed it until Leo exclaimed at the blood staining my shirt. The captain must have cut me when I knocked him away, and I sat on the cot to let Leo bind it, shaking after the excitement. After a slow, frustrating day, the attack had been quick, efficient and deadly. I was exhausted.

  “Right then, lass, first aboard, what does thee choose for thy battle honors?” Gaunt grinned as he came in to report that mine was the only injury to our crew, and Leo paused to wait for my answer.

  “I want the ship,” I said. “I want my own boat.”

  Chapter 57

  LEO

  16th January 1687

  I woke with the rays of the winter sun peering through the stern gallery of Freedom’s windows. I looked at Gabriella, still fast asleep, and smiled. I thought about waking her up to enjoy the dawning of a new day with me, but decided against it and let her sleep after yesterday’s excitement. Her insistence on working as hard as anyone else on the crew was exhausting her. She wasn’t built for such heavy work; she needed rest—not that she’d admit it.

  I loved the Carib winters; warm and dry took over from scorching and dripping, and the steady winds from the east or northeast made it a mariner’s paradise, despite the occasional heavy blow from the north. I could just see the curving tip of the sun above the horizon to the east, spreading golden light north and south where sky met sea. There were no clouds to add to the beauty this morning, just blue and gold that blended and danced over the water and reached into my cabin to touch us with warmth and life. I watched the sun’s rays caress Gabriella beside me, her face and arms glowing at the touch, and wondered at the last year and what it had brought. I’d thought love had died with Magdalena; I hadn’t given any thought to finding it again, and certainly not aboard a slaveship!

  Even then I’d held back, nearly three months. I needed to know that she’d chosen not just me, but this life. I had to be sure of what she really wanted. I’d needed to know I was more than a means of escape before I could take the risk of letting Gabriella take root in my heart, but she had taken root—there was no pulling her out now.

  And now I was happy. And now I had everything to lose, again. There were so many ways for her to be killed. Just like Magdalena; just like Mamá and Papá; just like so many members of my crew. Shot, stabbed, a fall overboard, a fall from the rigging, drowned if Freedom foundered, or worse: captured and hung as a pirate. Every night I lost her. Every morning my first thought was to ensure my nightmare was a dream, and now she wanted a ship of her own, where I wouldn’t be able to keep her safe.

  *

  I jumped out of my thoughts at a touch to my face. Gabriella had woken and smiled at my frown. The sun had risen fully now and was a gleaming gold coin shining down on us; tempting us, promising us, with more. More riches, more love, more days. And I wanted those days with Gabriella. I wanted her at my side, all day, every day, not on another vessel, out of sight and reach.

  I smiled in return and kissed her, but I hadn’t succeeded in hiding my thoughts from her.

  “Trust me,” she said. “I don’t want to leave you and I’m not going to, but I need to do this. I need to be at the helm of my own ship. I’ll be with you because I want to be, not because I have to be. I’ve never had choice before, I’ve always been at the mercy of the whims of another and I can’t be happy living like that anymore.”

  “But you do have choice,” I retorted. “You’re not a prisoner, you can go wherever you want, do whatever you want to do.”

  “On your ship. With your crew. By your command. I can only go where you direct the helmsman. I can only do what you allow me to do.”

  “Well, yes, but I’m the captain of this ship and I’m responsible for every soul aboard her. I don’t want to control you. You’ve already seen how easy it is to die out here; I just want to keep you safe.” Did she not understand that yet?

  “But I want to look after my soul. I need to be responsible for myself, and it’s just as easy to die on this ship as another. You named this ship Sound of Freedom, but you won’t allow me the freedom to make my own choices. You keep me too close.”

  “How can you be too close to me? Why don’t you want to be close?”

  “You still don’t understand! I do want to be close to you, I just want to be able to make decisions for myself!”

  I could see her temper rising again and knew I was only barely holding onto my own. We’d get no further if we carried on like this, and in any case, a decision this big would have to be agreed by the whole crew. I knew she had little chance of captaining the prize, whatever she said. I reached for her to draw her closer.

  “There’s no denying you’re a pirate, querida.” She did not want to fight, and smiled again as she kissed me, curling her arm around my neck, the sun hot where it fell on our bodies.

  I knew I should be out on deck, but my men could look after themselves for a while. Freedom seemed happy enough. Her motion was regular as she skipped through the waves, thrusting forward with the wind behind pushing her onward, happy to be on the move, powered up and excited, racing toward our future, exhilarated and leaving the past behind in our wake.

  I hugged Gabriella tightly. A year ago I had nothing. Now I had everything, and I would do whatever was necessary to hold on to it. She would not be sailing on any vessel but this one.

  *
>
  A heaving shanty rang out and I looked up at the ripped fore-topsail being lowered so a new one could be bent to the yard then sent up to replace it. The best sails in a calm were the thinnest, the lightest ones, but unfortunately they tore easily, often for no apparent reason. I could feel a light breath on my left cheek; the wind was shifting already.

  “Come on men, put your backs into it. I want that sail replaced before the wind picks up.”

  I looked back aloft at the half dozen sailors handing the sail, and realized Gabriella had taken the hardest and most dangerous position on the weather earing—right at the end of the yard—despite her wounded shoulder. I sighed when I saw her pause and look across at the prize sailing off our starboard quarter, Frazer at her helm. I realized that she wanted this badly, and there’d be no peace until she got it. Is this what she’d wanted all along? A command rather than a captain?

  I took Papá’s glass out and examined the sloop. I couldn’t deny she was a good-looking boat (yes, boat, whatever Gabriella said, she didn’t have enough masts to be called ship). She looked to be well-balanced with graceful lines, and I wagered she’d sail well in a breeze. She’d be easy to handle as well with those fore-and-afters; it would be like sailing an enormous pinnace and use the same boat-handling skills in the main, just doubled and enlarged.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to sail with a consort again. We’d worked well with the Magdalena in our lee and this one was bigger—the two vessels could work well together. She was fast and weatherly, she maneuvered well and would sail rings around a bigger, heavily laden ship. If we put topsails on her, and maybe even added a square forecourse, she’d do better in a chase, too. But was Gabriella ready? Captaining a ship, any ship, was harder than she seemed to think. Even with an experienced and willing crew that I trusted, the fact was she’d been at sea less than a year and didn’t have the experience to command a pirate ship. And she was a woman. No.

  “Watch it, I don’t want to have to repair the forecourse as well!” I called as the men jerked the halyard, swinging the wooden spar around the rigging.

  I thought back to Frazer’s warning. The men were grumbling about the watches I spent in the cabin rather than on deck. Would this be a solution? Or would it inflame mutinous feeling? We barely had enough hands to man Freedom under full sail in a chase; we didn’t have enough to work two vessels. Even though the sloop only needed half a dozen men to sail her, we’d need more men from somewhere to fight her, and they’d all have to be able-bodied.

  The yard hit the deck and George immediately stooped to inspect the damaged sail before Gibson and the others had a chance to unbend it, whilst Blackman supervised the rigging of the replacement.

  Aloft, Gabriella still stared aft. I could understand her yearning for freedom, but I still wanted to hold her close. If I allowed this, at least she wouldn’t be on her own; she’d be sailing in company and would have to follow my decisions and directions. With the right first mate, preferably Frazer, the right sailing decisions would be made. If he was willing, that is, asking him to sail under the command of a woman was not a small request, especially as he knew what would happen if she came to any harm.

  I realized I didn’t want to let the crew vote on this. I had no idea what they would choose. Would they be insulted? Or would the superstitious goats jump at the opportunity to get an “unlucky” woman off their decks? But even though I was captain, I had no choice, the articles were clear. This wasn’t my decision, it was the whole crew’s, and I had to make the best of it.

  So what do I do? Do I talk for her or against?

  “Land oh!”

  Cloud off our larboard bow showed the position of Saint Croix.

  “Leave it to larboard, Thomas, and steer north to lay Sankt Jan Island.”

  Nearly there. The Danish island just off Sankt Tomas was quiet and had everything we’d need. The crew would vote as they always did, and I’d take the consequences and make them work, as I always did.

  The foretop yard was back in position and, as I watched the new sail loose and set, I realized that was exactly what I needed to let Gabriella do: set her sails. She’d make her choices, but I’d be there to catch her if she made a wrong one.

  Chapter 58

  GABRIELLA

  “Calm yourself, lass,” Gaunt encouraged me. “Thee’s with friends here, just talk to ’em like thee does every day. If thee’s managed to talk Cap round, thee’ll talk the rest of ’em round an’all.”

  I smiled at him and looked at the beach. A large fire had been built and the crew had ferried the few more valuable contents of the prize ashore in the remaining boats (what was left of her original crew had been set adrift in one of them, as usual). The light was almost gone and the last of the sun shone on the ships anchored in the natural bay. I admired what I hoped was my new ship off Freedom’s starboard beam and my belly flipped again with nerves. I’d spoken to everyone together before, but this was different. I wanted this desperately and I had no idea how the men would react.

  I jumped when I felt pressure on my shoulders, then relaxed against Leo’s chest.

  “It’s time, querida.”

  He squeezed my uninjured shoulder, and I turned and headed to the boat where Thomas waited to take us ashore and begin the night’s celebrations.

  I had one chance at this. Only one chance to convince these men to trust me, and some of them to sail under me. Some would be relieved to get me off Freedom’s decks and away from their captain, others would be insulted, but, hopefully, most would be supportive. I stood in front of the fire on the beach and took a moment to look each man in the eye.

  “Klara and I owe you our lives. You saved us when you brought us aboard Freedom from that slaver. You’ve taught us a new way to live: a way of life neither of us dreamed possible. Our lives have never been so good since we came aboard Sound of Freedom; until we made friends, fell in love and were loved back.” I smiled at Klara and Obi. “You’ve become our family and I hope we’ve both earned your respect just as each one of you has earned ours.”

  “Shut up, Newton,” someone said at the back, but I had missed the comment. I gulped, wondering what he had said, and turned to Leo.

  “You all gave me my freedom but, ironically, my love for your captain is stopping me being free.” I smiled to try and soften Leo’s scowl. “You know I don’t mean that I want to be free of you, but you are the captain of this ship. Your decision is final and mine doesn’t count. I’ve lived that way all my life, controlled first by my father then my husband. I’ve never stood on my own. I’ve never been allowed to choose how my life unfolds.

  “I’ve spent the past year getting to know all of you and the way you live your lives. I’m asking you for the same choices. I want to stand on my own.” I turned back to Leo. “I don’t want to leave you, yet I don’t want to be so completely tied to you either, Freedom’s articles notwithstanding. I want to be with you and will be with you, not because I’m aboard your ship on an empty sea, but because I can go where I want to, at my own helm, yet choose to sail and fight alongside you.”

  I tore my eyes from Leo and looked around at the men again. I couldn’t tell what they were thinking, so pressed on.

  “I understand you all have to agree and vote on this, and you know the tactical advantages better than I, but I hope you will see how important this is to me, and will help me prove myself to you—and that some of you will sail with me, of course.” I looked at Gaunt, trying to smile. Oh God, what if they said no? Was I making a fool of myself? I flexed my left shoulder, my hand going to the wound I’d suffered in the fight.

  “I know some of you will be angered by my presumption in asking for a command, although I’m sure most of you will be relieved to have Freedom free of women again.” I smiled. “I’m not trying to put myself above you. I’m not trying to claim I’m a better sailor or even as good a sailor as you. I know I’m not, I’m just asking you for the chance to be.” I did not know what else to say, and had a sen
se I was losing them. Leo came to my rescue and took my place.

  “I’m not sure I’m happy about this either, but I’ve thought it over and I think it’s a good idea to replace the Magdalena. As far as Gabriella as captain goes, I’m aware that I’ve been neglecting you and Sound of Freedom, and that can’t go on. Neither will I go on without her. This does seem a satisfactory solution.”

  “It’s all right, Cap, we’ve managed well enough without you!”

  He laughed, then carried on. “I can also see that Gabriella needs to do this, and although she does lack experience, she will have experienced hands sailing with her, and my backing. If it helps, Gabriella has agreed that she will not take a share of the plunder out of this prize.”

  “So what? There wasn’t any decent plunder in her, just cloth and sugar!”

  “There’s value in cloth and sugar, as you know well.”

  “One share, even with battle honors, doesn’t pay for a boat like that.”

  “No, but I hadn’t finished. I’ll forego the captain’s share too, and we’ve agreed that future plunder will be split as it is now. Gabriella will not be taking a captain’s share of your profits. No one will lose, and we’ll have more chance of taking bigger, richer prizes, just as we did with the Magdalena. We’ve seen the prize is good in light airs—and she’ll be even better once we’ve made a few alterations. She’s fast and handy and will complement Freedom’s size and firepower well. With the right tactics, not many will escape us. Do not fear, if you allow Gabriella this chance to prove herself, she’ll be earning her place on the quarterdeck, and together we’ll be unbeatable.”