She merely nuzzled deeper into his neck and murmured, “Yes, Captain. Manacles and a post.”
“I am quite serious, Evangeline. You are not coming with us.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Gabriel awoke to the sound of a boot treading softly across the ground beside him. He had his dagger in hand so fast that Billy Crab nearly stumbled into the firepit.
“Cap’n Will told me to come wake you,” he whispered, holding his hands high and spread wide. “Not quite sunrise yet but best to leave while the tide be out.”
Dante lowered the knife and, after a moment needed to chase the sleep out of his eyes, glanced beside him. Eva was still asleep… as was his right arm where she was wedged up tight against him.
Taking great care not to jostle her too much, he slid his shoulder out from under her head and replaced it with a wadded blanket. She made a purring sound and shifted slightly on the bedding, but she did not waken and for that Dante was thankful. He studied her profile for a long moment and curled his fingers against the urge to brush aside some of the soft yellow wisps that had fallen over her cheek. It happened rarely—if ever—that he spent the night with a beautiful woman held close in his arms, with both of them remaining fully clothed. The thought put a rueful smile on his lips and he hoped he would be able to make up for the oversight in the near future.
~~
Glencairn Rowlandson was enjoying a stretch and a full-bodied yawn when two dark figures loomed up out of the shadows. The eastern sky was barely showing a rime of pink along the horizon and it was sheer luck that he had set his arquebus aside while he was relieving himself against the base of a palm tree, or he might have shot off his own toes. One of the figures was a giant, with massive shoulders made to appear even more so by the thick rounds of cable he carried slung crosswise over his chest. The other, he recognized with a curse of relief, was Gabriel Dante.
“Ye near got yer heads blowed off,” he scowled, keeping one wary eye on the giant. “Where did ye find this one?”
“This is Billy Crab,” Gabriel said. “And he more or less found me. Rouse the men, we have work to do.”
He walked past Rowly and followed the stream to the rise he and Eva had climbed the previous night. With the sky growing lighter by the minute, there were no blue-green streaks to use as a guide and it took Dante well over half an hour to carefully search the many overgrown cracks in the limestone rock before he found the one that opened into the cavern below. Once it was located, Billy started tying knots in the cable every two feet or so and lowered the end through the crevice. By then Rowly and a dozen others had climbed the rise and were watching with ever-increasing curiosity.
Up to this point, Dante had not uttered a whisper about the Nuestro Santisimo Victorio, not even to Stubs. As far as anyone in the crew knew or believed, La Fantasma and the lost treasure she carried was a legend, and while he trusted each and every man’s loyalty in battle, they were considered pirates for a reason, and that reason was shiny and played havoc with a man’s common sense.
He had been wrestling with the problem of what to do, when to tell them, how to explain the whole convoluted story since the moment he had set eyes on the wreck and he still had no clear answer. He had discussed it around the fire with Eva and William Chandler but neither of them had suggested an easy solution. For the time being it was enough for the crew to believe Dante’s intent, before crossing paths with Muertraigo, had been to reunite the mermaid with her father.
After securing the rope ladder to a large boulder, Dante shimmied down and found Eva and her father waiting below. Using a wooden sledge, William had dragged several twenty pound kegs of black powder from his stores into the cavern. Loading them three at a time into a net, the casks were hauled topside by Billy Crab, who rolled them out of the net and lowered it again to be refilled. William also sent up several heavy barrels, the contents of which he kept to himself, promising only that Dante would be grateful to have them.
Rowly dispatched men to transport the kegs and barrels back to camp, along with thirty trumpet-nosed blunderbusses, spools of rope soaked in saltpetre to use as fuses, several wide planks of timber to build sledges, and one very fine-looking crossbow with two quivers full of iron bolts.
“Johnny-boy would weep to see this,” Rowly remarked as he ran a hand along the polished wood. “But he’s aboard the Iron Rose an’ strike me dead if anyone else knows how to fire one.”
“I do,” Billy said, grinning through his gums. “Can take the eye out o’ a lizard at fifty paces.”
Rowly whistled softly as he tilted his head well up to see the giant lad’s bearded face. “I don’t doubt ye can, lad. No need to show me just yet, all the same.”
Billy felt a tug on the rope and put his back into the task of hauling on it hand over fist. When Eva’s blonde head emerged from the crevice, Rowly’s eyes popped out of their creases and his whistling ceased abruptly.
“Be double damned if the Mermaid isn’t rising from solid rock now.”
Eva stepped out of the loop of rope and let it slither down the gap again. Minutes later Dante and William Chandler had both climbed up unaided and the four, with Bill Crab slinging the crossbow over his shoulder, walked toward the encampment.
“Nay, don’t tell me what the devil is going on,” Rowly muttered to himself. “Mermaids found at sea, men popping up out of the ground. Nay, don’t tell me. I’ll just wait for a flyin’ Viking ship to swoop down out o’ the sky and carry us all off to Valhalla.”
~~
A plan was discussed and set in motion. The men, with William Chandler as their guide, would push hard to reach Spanish Wells by nightfall. Having overheard her father volunteering to help arrange a warm welcome for Muertraigo and Lawrence Ross, Eva was feeling confident, if she kept out of sight and drew no attention to herself, her presence might go unnoticed until it was too late to do anything about it. Despite Gabriel’s threat, she had no intentions of being left behind, or being parted from her father again, not after everything she had gone through to find him. To that end, she went upstream with a dozen water pipes, ostensibly to fill them with cold, clear water, but taking care to keep a thick patch of trees between her and Dante’s line of sight.
Just as the camp was about to break, she saw him climb a rise and turn a full circle, hands on hips, searching the terrain. Feeling a bit like a child playing a game of hide and seek, Eva ducked behind a jumble of boulders, peeking around the edge with one big green eye until she saw him scowl and stride back down the hill. When the men started moving out of camp, she tucked her hair into her hat and pulled it low over her brow. She slung the full water pipes over her shoulders and fell into step with a noisy group.
She made it a full half-dozen paces before she felt a hand grasp her elbow and pull her aside.
“I have been looking for you.”
She peeked up at Dante from under the brim of her hat. “I was getting fresh water.”
“So I see. And you think you can carry those pipes all the way to Spanish Wells?”
Her lips parted with surprise. “You’re not going to stop me from going with you?”
“Would I have any success if I tried?”
“No.”
“Then it would be a waste of my breath and time, and I have already squandered enough arguing with your father.”
Her face brightened. “Father convinced you to let me come?”
“He convinced me it would not be overly wise to leave you here on your own, and since I can’t spare any men to stay with you...” He shrugged through an expression that clearly showed his displeasure. “I agreed on the condition that he vouch for your behaviour. You will do exactly what you are told to do. If I think it’s too dangerous for you to go any further, you will stay where I put you.”
“Agreed.”
“It wouldn’t matter if you did or not.” His scowl turned into a smirk as he glanced over her left shoulder, then her right. Eva turned and saw Billy Crab standing on one side a
nd Eduardo on the other.
“They have been told not to let you out of their sight for an instant or they will find their ears nailed to a tree trunk. That was William’s threat. Mine was somewhat more detailed and painful.”
Eduardo shifted slightly and his hands moved reflexively to shield his groin area.
Dante reached over and unslung the heavy water pipes from her shoulders, dividing them between Eduardo and Billy Crab. In their place he gave her a leather scabbard with a shortsword, which her father had assured him she knew how to use, and a long-snouted snaphaunce pistol. As he was sliding the gun into her belt, Eva thought his hands lingered a few moments longer than was necessary to complete the task, but then he turned and strode away without another word.
Beside her, she heard Eduardo release a long gust of air. “Don’t see him real angry that often, Miss. But when you see them white lines around his nose- holes… you’d best just slit yer own throat as wait and have him do it for you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Spanish Wells earned its name because it was one of the few deep water bays where a ship could drop anchor. The beach was sandy and wide, shaped in deep C. The shoreline was flanked by a curved, thirty foot wall of rock capped by swaying palm trees. More caves were formed at the base of the rocks, where remnants of previous visitors were strewn about the floors. The inlet was also close to a vast fresh water lake that sent several streams emptying into the bight.
With William Chandler guiding them, the landing party reached the Wells an hour before sunset. Acting further on Chandler’s advice, they carried on past the beach to a spot a mile further inland where a densely thick pine forest provided a safe place to make camp. Come first light they could explore the beach and set up watch posts to give ample warning of any approaching ships and hopefully join up with Giddings’ small scouting party, which had taken the longer route along the jagged coastline.
The men who had dragged the heavy sledges burdened under kegs of mud and gunpowder were grateful to find a soft patch of earth and sleep. Fires were built to ward off the dampness of the night air, although after a full day’s hard march under the beating sun, the cooler air was a welcomed relief.
Dante’s impatience would not permit him to wait for the morning and he returned to the beach as soon as the full, bright moon came up. He posted guards on the bluffs then walked the crescent of white sand from one end to the other, his practised eye searching out the best defensive positions on the surrounding higher ground. The beach itself was fairly open and exposed but above it, the rocky incline would provide ample cover for an ambush. Twenty men placed on the high ground could keep ten times that number pinned on the beach and his confidence grew thinking of what a hundred could accomplish.
It was on his way back, while following a tiny stream into the forest that he came upon a golden haired forest nymph perched at the end of a tree trunk that had been uprooted in some past decade and was tilted out over the glassy surface of a pond. He stopped at the edge of the small clearing, letting his eyes drink in the effect of the moonlight spilling down over her hair and glittering softly off the surface of the water.
Eduardo, sitting cross-legged on the grassy bank shot to his feet the instant he saw Dante. A moment later Billy Crab materialized out of the shadows beside him, the enormous crossbow held lightly in his big hands.
“Tried to keep ‘er in camp,” Billy mumbled unhappily, “but she wouldn’t have none of it. Snuck off twice wi’out us.”
Dante nodded. “Next time shoot her in the leg. Go back and get some sleep now, the pair of you. I’ll deal with her.”
“Aye. Good luck wi’ that.”
When they were gone, Dante walked to the edge of the pool. The log Eva was sitting on was barely thick enough to support her weight which is why, he supposed, the two dolts had not shimmied out to fetch her off.
“You will have to come back to shore some time, unless you plan to sit out there all night.”
Instead of answering, she untied the laces at the collar of her shirt and peeled the garment up and over her head. Her feet were already bare, having removed her boots and flung them at Eduardo earlier, and with a bit of cautious wriggling, she managed to ease out of her breeches and drape them over the tree trunk with her shirt. Naked, she slid off the log and dropped down into the water, submerging completely before she came up again, her head tipped back, her hands pushing the skeins of wet hair off her face.
With nothing but a glance in Dante’s direction, she swam to the middle of the wide pool and ducked under again, emerging with streams of silvery water sluicing off her head and shoulders.
“Come in, Captain, the water is cool and sweet,” she invited softly. “Rinse the hot day off your skin.”
“I suspect my skin might grow hotter, not cooler,” he murmured.
She only smiled and leaned back, stretching out her arms so that her slender, body floated on the surface and glided through the pale mist that swirled around her.
Dante unbuckled his sword belt and let it fall to the ground.
His bandolier and leather jerkin were next, followed by his boots, breeches, and shirt. Two feet from the bank, the bottom dropped out of the pool and he dove in smoothly, swimming out most of the way underwater. Looking up through the warm, crystal clear water, he found her by moonlight, her hair spread out in a silky fan, her slender legs treading lightly to keep her suspended. He reached up with his hands and dragged her under by the waist, meeting her halfway, his mouth finding hers as they both rose to the surface again.
Arms encircled, they hung there a moment, devouring each other’s lips. Eva felt his flesh, hard and thick, pressing up against her as her legs went around his waist. A groan into his mouth was the only sound she made as he thrust himself inside her, and there he remained as he took them both back to shore. When his back brushed against the sandy edge, he rolled her over and thrust again and again, bringing them both to a swift, shattering release.
“What happened,” he growled between panted breaths, “to the promise you made to do whatever I told you to do?”
“You didn’t tell me I couldn’t come to the pond to bathe.”
He growled again and moved his hips so that she would know he was still there, still hard, and not amused in the least by her answer.
“In future I shall have to be more specific then. Do not leave camp. Do not set foot in the forest, do not—“
“—move,” she gasped through a shudder. “Do not move.”
She tightened her legs around him and arched her hips up and the tiny spasms that had set her flesh clutching around his again, sheared through her in a sweet, hot rush of sensation.
“Discipline, Mermaid,” he whispered raggedly, their bodies twined and moving together in the moonlight. “I see I still have much to teach you about discipline.”
He rolled with her again so that she was straddling his hips. Moonlit water streamed off her hair, glistened on her body as his hands gripped her waist and showed her how to move, how to take what she needed, how to give him what he wanted. He dug his heels into the soft sand and strained upward, barely able to hold himself in check as she rode him to a hot, fierce explosion of pleasure. She arched back with a startled cry, her hips moving in a blur, her heat pouring around him until he could hold back no longer. He rose up one last time and felt her flesh squeeze around him like a greedy little fist, stripping him of the ability to think of anything other than needing more… more… more….
~~
Much later, when they were both stretched out on the moss, their bodies cooling in the night breezes, he found enough energy to roll onto his side and assume a stern expression.
“I am quite serious. You cannot just wander away from camp and do as you like.”
“I thought I was doing what you liked,” she said with a soft grin.
“You know damn well what I mean.” He stood and gathered their scattered clothing, then reached a hand down to help her up. “Until we hear from
the scouting party, we have no idea where Muertraigo is or what he is doing. We don’t even know for certain he is going to land here at Spanish Wells.”
“But you believe he will.”
“I believe he will, yes, but he’ll be wary of being caught twice with his breeches down around his knees and will be more cautious going forward.”
“I see.” She sighed, watching him pull up his own breeches and tuck himself away.
“Do you? Do you see that I mean it, Eva.” He stepped close and cradled her face in his hands, forcing her to look up into his eyes. “From here on out, you must do as I say.”
“Yes, Captain.”
He made a low noise in his throat as if he did not quite believe her sincerity. At the moment, however, he could not bring himself to challenge her any further. Her mouth was swollen from his kisses, her eyes were shining with an emotion he dared not acknowledge too closely. He had to struggle to keep his own face blank, although he was coming to realize that every time he looked at her, he wanted to smile. His whole body wanted to smile, if that was possible.
“Dangerous,” he murmured.
“What is?”
“You. Us. This.”
Her eyes shone even brighter. “I’m not afraid. I know I should be, but I’m not.”
Gabriel felt something twist in his chest. He brushed the back of his fingers down her cheek and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. He was glad she was not afraid… for the moment… which was why he had not yet pointed out the fact that Muertaigo would have been foaming at the mouth after the attack. He would have discussed the dinner on board the Endurance with Lawrence Ross, and more than likely described in minute detail the lovely blonde, green-eyed wife of the erstwhile Captain Padilla, right down to the engraved silver locket she wore nestled between her breasts. Ross would have to be a compilation of all the fools in all the world if he failed to recognize his own former fiancée… an obstacle to his greed that he believed he had arranged to have permanently removed back in Portsmouth.
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