The Sea Hawk

by Brenda Adcock

  Julia could see the dark anger building in Simone's eyes as she spoke. The captain snapped her head sharply in Julia's direction. "Is that what you would have preferred?"

  Before Julia could respond, their discussion was interrupted as the cabin door opened. A boy of around ten with deeply tanned skin entered the cabin. He flashed a wide, white toothy smile as he walked toward Simone and set a platter on the table in front of her. Simone smiled warmly at the boy, who went to her and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Merci, Joaquin, mon petit chou," Simone said as she hugged him. Julia couldn't conceal a smile at the endearment as she watched Simone's arms encircle the child.

  "You are welcome, mon Faucon," Joaquin grinned.

  A moment later, a stunning woman with skin the color of mocha coffee and shiny black hair falling in waves over her shoulders entered Simone's cabin. She was dressed in a simple dark green skirt and light yellow peasant blouse, the scooped neckline revealing ample cleavage. A silver, hand-tooled belt encircled her waist. Pushing her way between the two women rather than go around them, she moved next to Simone. She leaned down and kissed her, sliding her hand seductively across the captain's shoulders. Julia felt a niggling wave of jealousy creep along her spine at the intimacy between the two women. When the kiss ended, the woman looked pointedly at Julia, letting her know Simone Moreau belonged to someone and was off limits. Seeing the woman's face clearly for the first time, Julia was convinced she was in the midst of an elaborate hallucination or dream. Otherwise, there was no reason Halle Berry would be making an appearance. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and shook her head slightly. Only the captain's voice drew her back to her current reality.

  "Joaquin, please ask Anton to join us in a few minutes, s'il te plait," Simone said. The boy smiled and nodded, bowing toward Julia and Kitty slightly as he prepared to leave.

  "Please, take some food," Simone offered as her eyes drifted down the length of Julia's body. "It will do no one good if you attempt to starve yourselves until we reach a port where I shall set you free to rejoin your friends."

  SIMONE SAT DOWN once again at her desk to complete her nightly journal entry. Each day she carefully noted everything of interest that happened on board Le Faucon de Mer for no other reason than to keep track of her time. The brigantine had been her home for nearly seventeen years, since the day she and Anton fled their home on Montserrat and were duped by its captain, Louis Rochat. The old pirate took their money and then stole three years of Simone's life before she found the strength to steal his ship. She learned everything she could about the sea and how to read it before cutting his throat and claiming Le Faucon and its crew as her own. Her hatred of the British remade her into a driven woman, intent on revenge for the loss of her family's home on the tiny former French island in the Caribbean, and the loss of her own innocence. She became a murderer to survive.

  As she dipped her pen into the inkwell to continue writing, warm arms slid down her shoulders and loosely enclosed her. "You look tired, my falcon," Esperanza whispered.

  "I am growing weary of the constant movement from place to place," Simone said as she wrote. Esperanza and her son had been with her since the day she rescued them from a loathsome man in New Orleans who believed he owned them as he would have owned livestock. Simone watched as he beat the defiant Esperanza and followed them. His fatal mistake was in believing the tall, dark-haired woman was attracted to him. When her dagger slid effortlessly between his ribs, she watched impassively as life faded from his eyes. Although she and Esperanza became lovers not long afterward, she knew her affections were initially given out of gratitude. In the four years they had been together Simone had enjoyed the physical satisfaction Esperanza gave her. But while her lover's feelings had grown almost to the point of possessiveness, Simone knew she was not in love with the woman who willingly shared her bed.

  "Perhaps we should rest at Martinique for a while," Esperanza suggested. "You love it there with your horses."

  "Yes, I do miss them." Simone smiled thinking of the powerful Arabians flying across the sandy beaches and green meadows of her adopted island. Frowning, she said, "But I must take the two English women safely to a neutral port."

  Kissing down the side of Simone's neck, Esperanza said, "You could set them free on one of the islands as we pass by."

  "Perhaps," Simone sighed, relishing the feelings awakening within her. Closing her eyes, she breathed in the scent of Esperanza, her spicy fragrance serving as an aphrodisiac. It was an earthy smell and she filled her lungs with it, driving the scent of the ocean out of her mind for at least a few moments. Simone turned in her chair and swept the laughing woman into her lap, teasing her lips before gazing into liquid brown eyes. Their faces close, they breathed in one another's heated breath before Simone bought them together in a slow, exploring kiss. As Esperanza's long fingers tangled in her short thick hair the captain knew she would not be able to resist the feel of her lover's body touching hers.

  "You are a shameless temptress, ma chère," Simone said as her mouth traveled lower onto Esperanza's tempting chest, her hands running smoothly up her lover's sides.

  "Just as you are a shameless conqueror, mi amor," Esperanza breathed, pressing her body closer to Simone.

  "See to Joaquin, then come to bed," Simone said. "I must give the course heading to Gaston."

  A SOUND PENETRATED her sleep. Julia opened her eyes and rolled onto her side in search of a more comfortable position. She was still sore from her close encounters with the buoy. She had slept in more uncomfortable quarters many times and the gentle rolling of the sea should have rocked her to sleep within minutes, but she was wide awake. Was this all really a dream? If it wasn't, was she stuck forever in the past? Everything she knew and understood wouldn't exist for nearly two hundred years. She smiled to herself thinking that if she already knew what would happen in the future, she could make a fortune and live as a wealthy woman. She was obviously stuck in a time around the period of the War of 1812. If Napoleon had already been defeated at Waterloo, the war was surely near its end. What happened after that? When nothing came to mind, she decided that must have been the day she dozed off in Mr. Logan's European history class.

  In the darkness, she heard Kitty's soft even snoring. She liked the young woman and even though she could never tell her the truth about herself, Kitty was someone she didn't mind being around. It could have been worse. It could have been Lady Kent. The idea made her smile. Her thoughts were interrupted by a hand pressing roughly over her mouth. Julia grabbed at the hand but was stopped by a low threatening voice. "If you struggle, I will slit your pretty white throat." The lethal sounding threat was enough to make Julia lower her hands and lie completely still. The voice, now close to her ear said, "I see the way Faucon looks at you, Englishwoman. She is mine and you are nothing more than a temporary distraction." Ordinarily Julia would have found the lilting Caribbean accent attractive, but there was a cold edge to it that kept her frozen in place. "I would not hesitate to kill in order to protect her. Do you understand this?" Julia managed to nod and the hand immediately released her. She watched the silhouette of a woman's body disappear through the door into the passageway.

  Julia sat up and ran her hands back and forth through her hair. Well, if I wasn't awake before, I sure as hell am now. She slipped into her shoes and felt her way to the cabin door, surprised to find it unlocked. After one or two wrong turns in the dimly lit passageways, she located the steps leading onto the main deck. She didn't know what time it was and it didn't really matter. She walked to the railing and leaned against it on her forearms, inhaling the cool sea air. She felt a burning need to do something, to do anything. She wasn't accustomed to doing absolutely nothing. There was a purpose to her life, a direction, a goal. Now she could no longer do the work she loved, with no idea what the future might hold for her in this time before cars, planes and trains, before telephones, before computers. She smiled to herself as she considered having to actually hand write her letters. Go
d, what an awful thought. Her life depended on the use of a computer thereby allowing her handwriting skills to deteriorate over the years.

  Her musings were interrupted by the sound of soft music. She turned her head from side to side, attempting to determine the source of the music. As she moved away from the railing, she let her sense of hearing guide her toward the soft dulcet sounds. It was lovely and quite haunting. Soulful, yet filled with a sense of longing and sadness. Moving quietly, Julia realized the music came from above her near the stern. Two steps up the ladder from the main deck, she froze when she saw the fluttering sleeves of a dazzling white shirt. The light of a three-quarter moon provided enough illumination for Julia to see the captain leaning back on a bench on the deck, some type of stringed instrument lying across her thighs. Julia remembered seeing a similar instrument on a weekend trip with Amy. Although the instrument looked somewhat different, it was very similar to the mountain dulcimers Julia saw and heard at an Appalachian museum. She thought then the music the simple four-stringed instrument made was beautiful.

  Simone Moreau is an unusual woman, Julia thought as she settled on a step leading to the wheel deck and listened. She was apparently a woman of some culture. Then what the hell was she doing sailing around the Caribbean in another time? Just my luck. I finally meet an interesting woman, even if it is in a dream, and she is not only out of my league, but has a jealous bulldog bodyguard to boot. Figures. She didn't know how long she listened to Simone play when the music stopped and faded away. She heard movement followed by voices on the wheel deck and quickly moved into the shadows beneath the ladder, waiting until Simone strolled down the steps and walked to her cabin, pausing only to look up at the stars for a moment. Julia wondered if she was making a wish.

  SIMONE STEPPED INTO the cabin and made her way to her desk. The soft glow of a single candle that had melted into itself provided enough light for her to slide the dulcimer on top of her book case. She sat on a long trunk at the foot of her bed to unlace her boots and slip the soft leather from her feet. She felt the bedcovers behind her shift and smiled as Esperanza's warm lips nuzzled down her neck. Simone loosened the fabric ties of her shirt and allowed Esperanza to pull the shirt up and over her head. She looked over her shoulder and smiled back at Esperanza, watching her slender, full-breasted form recline against the pillows at the head of the bed. She knew Esperanza was taking her body in as she stood and removed her pants and stockings. Crawling onto the bed, she moved over the woman's caramel skin and lowered her body, her head coming to rest between Esperanza's breasts. As she felt long fingers stroke her hair and back, Simone closed her eyes. She slowly fanned her fingers over the warm skin beneath her. She didn't need to look at Esperanza. She knew her body as well as she knew her own.

  Finally relaxed, she ran her hands under Esperanza and held her as she rolled onto her back, catching a dark nipple between her teeth and teasing it with the tip of her tongue. When she released it, Esperanza took Simone's mouth with hers hungrily. She was Faucon's woman and would never permit anyone to come between them.

  CAREFULLY SLIPPING HER arm from beneath Esperanza's sleeping body Simone slid out of the bed and found her shirt. As it dropped over her head, she walked to a bench under an open porthole and sat down, her back leaning against the bulkhead. She watched Esperanza sleep for a few moments before looking at the moonlight glistening off the Caribbean waters. More and more often she was growing discontented with her life. She longed to settle down. She commanded the obedience of her crew and they had been successful in plundering many treasures from the British and Spanish ships they encountered. Certainly Esperanza satisfied her body, but not her soul and she knew the woman's feelings for her were deeper than her own.

  Frowning as she stared out the cabin window, Simone became lost in memories of much worse times. She missed Montserrat, but knew she could never return there. Her father's imprisonment by the British as a provocateur and his unexpected death only served to leave her mother an embittered woman who soon followed her husband to the grave. Simone, only eighteen, took her ten-year-old brother and fled Montserrat, only to fall into the clutches of Louis Rochat and his men. Unaware of the old man's reputation, it took most of the money her parents left to pay Rochat for transportation to Martinique where they hoped to live with relatives.

  The result was three years of servitude on board Le Faucon de Mer with threats of harm to her brother and beatings and rape by the crew members hanging over her. Her life revolved around the whims of an ageing and unpredictable man. The relationship between Simone and Louis was a precarious one at best. She was a young woman forced to share an old man's bed in order to survive. Fortunately, he spent a great deal of time drinking and celebrating with his crew and often fell into his bed half-conscious...but not always. Glancing at the sleeping form in her bed, she sometimes wondered whether Esperanza was using her the way she used Rochat. Although Rochat abused her on occasion, it demonstrated his control in the eyes of his crew. While she, unlike Rochat, would never force Esperanza to do anything against her will, she knew the woman harbored dreams of freedom. Simone observed everything Rochat did and, when she could, finagled information from him about tactics. She learned the lessons well, eventually using them against Rochat and taking riches from British and Spanish ships to build a new home on Martinique. Now she longed to return to the island. Even taking her revenge against the British no longer satisfied her.

  Tired at last, Simone drew her body up and removed her shirt to slip back into her bed, seeking the warmth of the body that would always welcome her return. As she slipped her hand across Esperanza's abdomen and closed her eyes, the vision of short reddish-blonde hair and hazel eyes flashed through her mind.

  Chapter Six

  THE SUN WAS shining through the cabin window when Julia's eyes popped open the following morning. She had slept like the dead and finally felt rested once again. Sea air always did that to her. She would have killed for a nice warm bath and wished she had different clothing, or at least less of it. As she sat up and stretched, she glanced at Kitty's cot and found it empty. She walked to the cabin window and looked out at calm seas. It would be a beautiful day. A pitcher of water sat on a small table near the window and she splashed some on her face, drying her hands and face on the hem of her dress.

  Julia spun around as the cabin door creaked open. Kitty's smiling face peeked around the door. Seeing Julia awake, the young woman stepped into the cabin carrying a bundle in her arms. "Good morning," she chirped.

  "Good morning, Kitty. I was just going to look for you," Julia said, running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to give it some semblance of order.

  "The captain sent these clothes for you," Kitty said as she set the bundle on Julia's cot. "They are nothing fancy, but much lighter than the clothes we have."

  Julia scanned the simple skirt and blouse Kitty wore and nodded. "She must be a mind reader. I was trying to think of a way to alter this one."

  "When you have changed, the captain has invited us to dine with her in her cabin. She has given us free rein of the ship," Kitty smiled.

  "Not like we'd have any place to go if we left it," Julia groused. Remembering her visitor from the night before, she added, "Why don't you join her and just bring me something?"

  As soon as Kitty left the cabin, Julia tore part of her petticoat and used it to wash her body before dressing. The clothing Simone sent was soft and supple and Julia luxuriated in the way it felt against her skin. It was almost as soft as her old knit pullover. She missed her cargo pants and deck shoes.

  The first sound striking her ears as she stepped on deck less than an hour later was the snapping sound of the sails under a steady breeze. She was pleased to discover there were pockets on either side of the ankle length tan skirt she wore and sank her hands into them while she strolled along the deck, nodding to an occasional seaman. She didn't know much about the actual workings of the old sailing ship, but found it all fascinating. Men scampered up the
sail rigging as if it was nothing more than a ladder. If she had been wearing her usual clothing, she might have given it a try herself. As she neared the bow, she stepped onto a raised platform and walked to the foremost portion of the ship. She looked out over the vast water the ship was cutting through and saw nothing but miles and miles of water. She leaned over the railing to get a closer look at the figurehead adorning the ship's bow. The carved head and body of an eagle, its wings swept dramatically back, its beak open to capture its prey, protruded from beneath the bowsprit. An occasional breeze added to the forward movement of the ship and whipped though Julia's hair as she took in the water world around her. It reminded her of riding in Amy's convertible with the top down.

  "Is beau, no, Mademoiselle?" a voice asked.

  She cast a glance over her shoulder and saw the boy who had been in Simone's cabin the night before. Smiling at him, she said, "Oui, c'est très beau."

  Her response and smile brought a wide grin to the boy's face and he stepped up next to her, resting his chin on his forearms as he joined her at the rail. They watched the sea flow beneath them silently for several minutes. Suddenly standing erect and leaning over the railing, the boy pointed down toward the water. "Dauphins!"

  Julia laughed, "Yes, dolphins." She and the boy moved from one side to the other and delighted in watching the antics of their escorts. Eventually, the dolphins dove beneath the water in front of the ship and disappeared.

  Turning to Julia, the boy bowed slightly, "Je suis Joaquin."

  With a smile, Julia curtseyed. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Joaquin. I am Julia." Seeing the expression on his face, she said, "Je m'appelle Julia."