Chapter 14 #2
“When in the bloody hell did you ever care about making a pregnant woman comfortable?” Barnaby asked, taking the words right out of Gideon’s mouth. “And when did you stop calling Louisa ‘that woman’? Don’t tell me Miss Yarrow has softened your shriveled heart.”
Red color crept up Silas’s neck until his bearded face looked a mottled crimson and brown.
“She ain’t done no such thing. Just because she’s got a little sense in her once in a while—” He broke off when Gideon and Barnaby burst into laughter.
Turning away from them, he began to stride purposefully down the beach.
“Aw, to hell with you both. It ain’t none of your business what a man chooses to think of a woman. And it ain’t like I ….”
He passed out of hearing, his mumbling drowned out by the surf.
“I don’t believe it,” Gideon said. “Silas Drummond captivated by a woman?”
“I wouldn’t say captivated. I think it’s more like flummoxed.
No woman has ever stood up to him before.
They’re usually terrified of him … or disgusted by his wooden leg and his inability to give them satisfaction in bed.
But ever since Louisa started fighting with him, he’s been a different man.
This morning, I even caught him dabbing bay rum behind his ears. ”
“How the mighty have fallen.” Gideon knew one thing. He would never act like such a fool over Sara. He glanced at Barnaby. “You’re not in danger of losing your head, too, are you?”
“You should know better. I like women, to be sure, but they’ve got their place.” He grinned. “Preferably, in my bed.”
Gideon would once have shared Barnaby’s opinion. Now he found it slightly unsavory, and that disturbed him. “Well, I see you won’t be bothering me about a wife for some time. Not as long as Queenie is giving you what you want for free.”
“True, true. But I assure you the other men are going to make your life hell until they get their wives, especially if you insist that they sleep on board the ship.”
“That doesn’t leave me much choice, does it? I’ve got to figure out a way to convince the women to stay on the Satyr—for a while anyway.” Sara, at least, would be more than glad to sleep in her cabin, especially after her encounter with that confounded snake.
The snake.
A grin broke over his face. “Call the men and women together in front of my hut. I know how to convince our prospective wives that they don’t want to sleep alone in our island dwellings.” Turning back to the stream, he retrace dhis steps.
“Where are you going?”
“You’ll see. I won’t be long.”
Half an hour later, Gideon stood on the beach before the entire company with the noon sun beating down, a canvas bag in his fist. They all looked disgruntled, both with him and each other.
The women and men were divided, the men standing near the brush line and the women clumped together by the ocean.
His men wouldn’t look at him, but their faces were set mutinously.
The women, however, looked at him with challenge in their eyes, no doubt put there by the little troublemaker standing in their midst with head held high like Joan of Arc.
How she’d gone from heartfelt tears to bold crusader as quick as lightning, he didn’t know.
But no matter. She’d soon learn who she was dealing with.
He held up his hand for quiet and got it for the most part, although some women continued to mutter. Until he shot them a dark glance.
Pitching his voice above the sounds of gently rolling surf, he addressed them all. “Barnaby tells me that the lot of you are unhappy with the current sleeping arrangements.” Both groups broke into explanations at once, but he silenced them with a shouted “Quiet!”
When he had their attention, he went on. “I understand that none of you wish to stay aboard the ship. And since the women still have four days to choose their husbands—”
“Five days, Captain Horn,” a feminine voice interrupted. When he scowled at Sara, she added quietly, “We have five days left.”
It was the first time their eyes had met since their stolen kisses in the woods, and it pleased him to see a blush spring to her cheeks when he prolonged the glance.
“If you say so. I won’t argue with you.” He broadened his gaze to include the other women.
“And none of you need worry I’ll go back on my word concerning the choosing of husbands. ”
As the men groaned and the women relaxed, he shot his men a quelling look. “We’ll give the women the time they ask, won’t we, lads?” It was more a command than a question.
“But Cap’n,” one brave seaman called out, “do we have to be thrown out of our comfy houses just because these women are too uppish to share our beds without a courtship?” Choruses of “Yes” and “Why must we?” told Gideon that the other men shared the sailor’s opinion.
Gideon waited until their voices died down. “That’s the matter we’re here to discuss. And I think when the women hear what I have to say, they’ll see it’s wisest they sleep aboard ship.”
“Look here,” Queenie called out, “your men have been shipbound for less than a week, but we been sailin’ for near to a month already. You told Miss Willis we’d be sleepin’ on land, and that’s what we want to do!”
The women murmured their assent. Gritting his teeth, Gideon glanced at Sara. She tilted her chin up. Just as he’d suspected, she was behind this little mutiny. But if he couldn’t handle a mob of women, he wasn’t much of a pirate captain, was he?
“I understand how you feel, ladies.” He gentled his voice, although he felt anything but gentle.
“The problem is, this island is no place for women to stay alone at night. There are wild animals and other dangers.” When the women exchanged looks, he added, “Miss Willis can tell you about those dangers herself. Only an hour ago, she was nearly killed.” Reaching inside the canvas bag, he pulled the mamba out and held it up to show its full length, letting its tail trail along the ground. “By this.”
There was a collective gasp from the women. “Snakes?” one woman shrieked as she caught sight of the headless reptile. “Oh, Lud, there are snakes here?” The others turned anxiously to Sara, whose gaze was fixed balefully on him.
Cocking an eyebrow at her, he smiled, then went on.
“Fortunately I was close by to kill it, but if I hadn’t been…
.” He trailed off dramatically, letting them come to their own conclusions.
“Of course, when all of you are married, your husbands can watch out for things like this, but in the meantime, you’d be much safer remaining on the ship than sleeping alone in our huts. ”
“Some paradise this is.” Queenie kicked petulantly at the sand. “You’re mad, guv’nor, if you think we’re gonna sleep in a place where there’s snakes roamin’.”
“Yes,” Louisa added. “You promised us a new land, and instead you brought us here to be eaten alive. I’m not setting foot on this island again until you rid it of snakes.
” She scowled. “And while you’re at it, why don’t you see that those huts are properly furnished?
They’re barely fit for one person to inhabit, much less two. ”
Fueled by Louisa, the women began to grumble about everything they’d found wrong with the island. Sara crossed her arms over her chest and smiled sweetly at him.
“There’s nothing to worry about once you’re married, ladies,” he repeated. The women were supposed to be throwing themselves into his sailors’ arms to gain their protection, not threatening to mutiny. “My men know how to handle the snakes. As for the conditions in the huts—”
“Yes, Captain Horn,” Sara interrupted in a honeyed voice, “do tell us about what improvements you intend to make. I’m sure you’ll agree they’re inadequately fitted out for us.
As far as I can gather, there are no bedrooms to accommodate the women with children.
Surely you don’t expect them to share their husbands’ beds in front of small children. ”
“Sara—” he began in a warning tone.
She went on blithely, the women crowding behind her as if she were their standard bearer.
“Then there’s the lack of secure doors and windows to keep your ‘wild animals’ and snakes out.
Even your fearless pirates have to sleep sometimes, don’t they?
How will we be protected from snakes then?
Not to mention the woefully inadequate cooking facilities and the lack of—”
“Silence!” he roared, making even her jump back a step.
Blast the woman, he would find a way to muzzle that mouth if it was the last thing he did!
He wiped sweat out of his eyes, speaking through gritted teeth.
“I suspect that the kitchen facilities in the ladies’ previous London dwelling were far more inadequate. ”
Thankfully, his reference to London’s prisons shut most of their mouths. Even Sara couldn’t seem to find an answer to that.
But his earlier encounter with her had taught him a few things about how not to unduly anger the woman, and he acted on them now.
“Nonetheless, Miss Willis, we don’t want you and the others to think we aren’t willing to make concessions.
You’ll have your kitchen and your doors and windows.
I had intended all along to send some of my men to Sao Nicolau for supplies once we determined what the women might want or need.
If you’ll give me a list of what’s required, I’ll make sure that a handful of my men go in the sloop as soon after the weddings as—”
“After the weddings?” Sara interrupted. “What are we to do in the meantime?”
“Sleep on board the ship. I know it’s not the best accommodations, but with all the dangers to the women and your obvious concerns, it’s the best I can offer.”
If he thought he’d won this battle, Sara’s too sweet smile gave him pause.
“Under the circumstances, you leave us no choice.” Her expression grew smug.
“In fact, your proposal has such merit that I think we shall stay aboard the Satyr indefinitely … at least until your men have made the dwellings habitable. We’ll be happy to do that for as long as it takes, won’t we, ladies? ”
As the women chorused their agreement, a new swell of protests rose from his men.
Gideon gritted his teeth. This was not turning out as planned.
Although his men had gained their huts, Sara had made sure it was a hollow victory.
He could force the women to live in the huts with their husbands after the weddings, but he was beginning to see that the women would refuse to cooperate as long as Sara kept helping them find reasons for not making this work.
His only choice was to send some men back to the islands as soon as possible and delay the weddings until they returned. Perhaps if the women saw that he and his men truly intended to make the island comfortable for them, they might relent.
At least delaying the weddings would give him more time to separate Sara and that blasted Hargraves. If only he could send that particular sailor off the island with the other men….
His eyes lit up. Why not? Hargraves hadn’t been that pleased about living on the island. He’d seemed much more interested in the riches to be gained by piracy. Perhaps if he had some incentive, the man might choose never to come back.
Gideon hid his elation beneath a fierce scowl as he faced the women, bracing his hands on his hips.
“I tell you what, ladies. You decide what you need, and I’ll send some men to Sao Nicolau in the sloop tomorrow for supplies.
When they return in a few days, we’ll get right to work on improving your homes.
We can have them quite comfortable for you in a short time.
That ought to satisfy you, don’t you think? ”
And I’ll be rid of Peter Hargraves at last, he thought smugly as Sara turned to discuss what he’d said with the women.
You haven’t won this battle yet, sweetheart, no matter what you think.
You may have gotten your way on the matter of sleeping arrangements.
But you’ve just lost your English fiancé.