The Following Sea (The Pirate Wolf series)

by Canham, Marsha

  Shocked, Muertraigo stretched out to try keep hold of the hilt, giving Dante a clear, unguarded opening. He slashed his blade up and across, severing Muertraigo’s arm at the elbow.

  “That was for my mother,” he gasped, “and this—“ he drew back and thrust again—“is for daring to touch the woman I love.”

  Muertraigo felt something punch through his chest. He screamed in shock and horror as the double-edged length of steel was driven into his body. It carried enough anger, vengeance, and sheer force of will to lift him off his feet and skewer him to the trunk of a tree. His spine was shattered and his limbs turned instantly to jelly. His upper body sagged forward, the stump of his arm gouting blood, and he was dead before the hilt stopped quivering.

  Dante staggered back, his chest heaving for breath. The front of his shirt was drenched red with blood. His legs buckled, sending him heavily to his knees.

  He heard someone screaming his name and he saw a flash of long bare legs dashing toward him, but then he slumped forward and saw nothing at all.

  EPILOGUE

  “After all that’s happened, I’ll not be sorry to see the last of this place,” said William Chandler, a tear leaking down his cheek as he looked down over the two graves. They had been dug in a shaded patch of wildflowers overlooking the glittering silver water of the bight. After a month, grass and flowers had already covered the mounds, leaving only the markers to show what lay beneath. One of the graves bore a polished wood crossbow, the other a sword with a crimson and black sash wrapped around the hilt.

  Evangeline leaned her head against her father’s arm, her eyes red-rimmed from weeping. The Cormorant was leaving today, sailing for home. So much had happened, so much had changed.

  “Will you remain in England?” she asked quietly.

  “Only long enough to fulfill Billy’s wishes for his mam. She’s going to be a very rich baker.”

  “Money does not make up for such terrible losses,” she said, wiping at a fresh rush of tears.

  “No. No it doesn’t, lass.”

  They heard a strangled snort behind them and glanced back to see Rowly blowing his nose in the hem of his shirt. “I blessed well told him there was too much powder in that last bell, but did he listen? Nay, nay. He had to pack it full didn’t he? And now look where he is. He’s lucky we found enough pieces to give a proper burial.”

  “Master Giddings accomplished what he set out to do,” Gabriel said. “He opened a hole in the wreck large enough to empty her belly of every last ounce of treasure. I’ve no doubt he and Billy Crab have their heads together right now thinking of other, bigger ways to blow things up.”

  Rowly nodded. He nodded again as if affirming the hopeful thought in his own mind before waving a last farewell to his mate’s grave and returning to the caverns to have one last look around. In another month Mother Nature would do her part and cover the trampled earth around the camp and the entrance to the caverns with gorse and weed. In a year the terrain would change so much even those who knew where the hulk lay would be hard-pressed to find the way in again.

  The Endurance had returned two days after the final confrontation with Muertraigo, and was anchored alongside Geoffrey Pitt’s Christiana in the bight. Stubs had brought the news that neither the Avenger, belonging to Simon Dante, nor the Tribute, captained by Jonas Dante had returned to Pigeon Cay. While on New Providence, there had been reports of a second attempt by the Spanish to send a small treasure fleet home and they were curious to know what or who was on board to prompt them taking such a risk. Juliet had taken the Iron Rose out of port, ostensibly to test her repairs, but more likely to chase after her father and brother and join the hunt.

  That had left only the Christiana to return to Espiritu Santu to support the Endurance. The two ships had come into the bight, bristling with open gunports, but to Stubs’ cap-stomping disappointment, the fun was over. All that remained was to help with salvaging the treasure and load it aboard the ships.

  “It will give me great pleasure to change the name of my company back to what it was before Lawrence Ross came along,” William declared. “Chandler Shipping. And with the wealth we carry home in the hold of the Cormorant, we will build a fleet to rival anything the Dutch, the French, or anyone else has sailing the Ocean-Sea.”

  “What will happen to him now?” Eva asked.

  “Ross? We’ve put him on board but Doc Podd figures the gangrene has spread up his arm and he won’t live out the week.”

  Eva tried to arrange her face in an expression of sympathy but failed.

  William chuckled, seeing her struggle, and plopped his hat on his head. “Well, Daughter, I should get myself on board as well before those bastards sink her with the weight of the gold they’ve managed to stuff in their breeches. That, plus what she has in her holds should make her waddle like a women birthing twins. Are you certain you’ve taken enough for your share, Captain?”

  “Half was more than generous,” Gabriel assured him.

  “More practical than generous, lad,” William chuckled. “The sooner I spend through my share, the sooner I’ll have to come back and take up the life of a privateer with my new son-in-law.”

  Eva gasped. “Father!”

  “Oh hush, Daughter. He’s already asked for my blessing and I’ve already given it, and most heartily so.”

  Her eyes widened. “He has?” She looked at Gabriel. “You have?”

  Dante shrugged. “I had to give your father a good reason not to take you home to Portsmouth with him. Marriage seemed as good as any.”

  She lifted an eyebrow and refrained from elbowing his injured ribs. “How endearingly romantic.”

  “I can be a romantic fellow,” he agreed. When she sighed, he laughed and swept his wide-brimmed hat off his head and went down on one knee. William rolled his eye and Eva was about to pull her hand out of his to stop the silliness, when he withdrew something from beneath his shirt.

  It was Eva’s silver locket, cleaned and polished and mounted on a shiny new chain. The last time she had seen it, Muertraigo had torn it from around her neck and flung it away into the shadows. She had gone back to search for it half a dozen times over the past month, but had become resigned to the fact it was lost forever, either trampled into the soft ground or taken by one of the men.

  She smiled with gratitude and lifted the locket out of Gabriel’s hand, her throat closing too tight to express how much it meant to have it back.

  “Open it,” he said.

  She swallowed, determined not to shed any more tears, and flicked the tiny hasp with her fingernail. When it opened, she gave a little cry and the watery floodgates burst open again despite her resolve.

  It was the ring. The plain gold ring she had found hidden in the coral box.

  Gabriel rose off his knee and took the ring out of the locket. He slipped it gently on her finger then raised her hand to his lips.

  “It isn’t all I have to give thee, my love, not by a far cry… but it is a jolly good start.”

  THE END

  If you have enjoyed Gabriel’s story and have not yet read the first two books in the Dante series, Across A Moonlit Sea features the Pirate Wolf himself, Simon Dante, who finds love in the arms of the Black Swan as he sails with Sir Francis Drake to attack and burn the Spanish port of Cadiz. The second award-winning book in the series is The Iron Rose, the story of Juliet Dante, who saves a pompous English nobleman and teaches him harsh lessons about life on the Spanish Main.

  Other unrelated high-seas adventures include The Wind and the Sea and Bound by the Heart.

  For a complete list of my books, with information and excerpts, please visit my website at www.marshacanham.com.

  You can also check my blog, Caesars Through the Fence or join me on Facebook, www.facebook.com/marsha.canham and Twitter @marshacanham.

 

 

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