Chapter 2
Two
WILLIAM
Over the past month, the crew shared stories of their life on the seas.
Daisy especially was enthralled by the stories of near brushes with pirates and the fascinating lands the crew visited during their journeys.
Amongst all the pirate stories they told, the one ship that seemed to frighten them the most was that of the Devil’s Revenge.
Those stories were told with hushed voices, like the sailors were afraid if they spoke too loud, the dreaded Sea Wolf would appear out of thin air and rain hell upon us all.
I remembered Henry scoffing at such stories until the captain himself confirmed them.
“If you ever see that ship, the one with the bleeding skull on the flag, you best start praying. The Sea Wolf doesn’t suffer fools and takes great pleasure in finding the most creative ways to torture his enemies.
There is no option other than surrender.
If you’re lucky, he might be in a good enough mood to spare your life. ”
Henry had hesitated at the seriousness of the Captain’s tone and the grim looks of the crew, but he eventually scoffed and crossed his arms defiantly.
“You’re bluffing. Pirates are nothing more than scoundrels. I could run them through with my blade without blinking.”
His comment had earned Henry several derisive snorts. I wanted to join them. Henry was decent with a blade, but he was also too cocky. I watched his training before, and his instructor always bested him because Henry was too busy talking shit to actually do the movements correctly.
Now, it seemed, Henry would get his chance to face down the pirates. The crew raised a white flag, dropped anchor, and waited. There was no one willing to put up a fight.
Unlike Henry, I wasn’t cocky. I survived the occasional tussle, usually protecting the girls from bullies or cads, but I had never been taught to wield a blade.
But while I didn’t care what happened to Henry, it was the girls I was worried about.
Daisy was little, there was the possibility they’d leave her alone, but Jane was fifteen and gorgeous.
I knew without a shadow of a doubt, if they went for her, they wouldn’t hesitate to pass her around. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
With the anchor down, it would be only moments before the Devil’s Revenge was upon us.
Shoving past the crew in my way, I ignored their calls, telling me not to bother, that it would do me no good to be near the children when the pirates arrived.
I didn’t care. I’d been working for Lord Davenport for most of Jane’s life and all of Daisy’s.
Those girls were kind, treated me like family, and I’d give my life to protect them from being raped by pirates.
The door was locked when I arrived, but Jane quickly opened it for me when I called out to them.
I pushed her inside, locking the door again and putting myself between them and the door.
Barricading would do us no good since the door swung outward.
I hoped with them forced to squeeze through the door, I could put up enough of a fight to draw the captain’s attention.
If I could convince him to sell the girls unharmed back to their father, they might survive.
“I can’t see shit from down here,” Henry complained. He was straining to see through the small window. Since we were on the port side, he wouldn’t see a thing until the pirates were already upon us.
“Henry, where is your sword?” I demanded.
He made a face, wrinkling his nose. “Why? You don’t know how to use it.”
“No, but you do,” I snapped. “The girls need protection.”
He huffed, irritated, but as selfish as he was, Henry wasn’t so much of an ass that he would leave his sisters undefended. He was scrounging through his messy trunk when shouts rang out on the deck above us, followed by the thundering of footsteps.
“They’re here,” Daisy whispered. Her little hand fisted the back of my shirt as she hid behind me.
Jane stood next to her, hovering at my back.
With only the small knife I’d been using to carve earlier, I stood defensively in front of them, holding my breath as the steps came down the stairs and ever closer.
“Ah ha!” Henry cried triumphantly, holding his sheathed sword aloft.
My eyes widened, and I whipped my head around to yell at him, but the footsteps paused outside the door, and before the words could leave my lips, the door handle rattled.
I pushed the girls against the wall just before the handle exploded.
Someone must’ve shot through the damn thing.
We were lucky no one was hit inside the room.
The door ripped open, and two pirates peered in, sneering grins on their faces. “Well, well… Look what we have here.”
The first pirate stepped into the room, and I didn’t hesitate, lunging for him and slashing out with my knife. He jumped back to avoid it, cursing. I slashed again, pushing him and the other pirate back until they stood a few feet from the open doorway.
“Davis! Stiles! What the hell is takin’ you so long?” someone called from the top of the stairs.
“Got a whelp lookin’ to make trouble,” the pirate who stood behind growled. He tried to step forward, but he couldn’t get close without me slashing at him. The doorway was too small to get around me.
A few minutes of the same song and dance seemed to piss the pirates off but didn’t convince them to stay away.
With the small space, they couldn’t use long blades against me.
They kept trying, coming at me together, but Henry stood at my back and jabbed out, stabbing one in the arm with his long blade, and they backed off with a chorus of curses.
The thud of heavy footsteps came down the stairs, and the two pirates paused, stepping out of the way of the newcomer when he approached. My tongue turned to lead, and my stomach twisted uncomfortably.
Steel grey eyes penetrated mine, sending shivers down my spine.
There was a long scar slashed across his face, barely missing his left eye.
His shoulder length hair was wild and windblown, covered in a plain black tricorn hat.
He wore rings on his fingers and a medallion around his neck.
Holsters crossed his chest, holding two pistols at his sides and a longsword on his hip.
His outfit was black on black, down to his boots and the thick jacket he wore, the seams around his arms tight around thick muscles. I didn’t have to ask who he was.
His eyes trailed over me, then Henry, and he raised an eyebrow at our standoff. “How long exactly do you intend to keep this up? You’re only dragging out the inevitable.”
He was surprisingly well spoken for a pirate. It almost sounded as if he was educated, which made little sense if the rumours told about pirates were true. It was my goal to speak to him, though, so I shook off the terror crawling along my skin and lifted my chin.
“You’re making a mistake. The governor will pay good money to get his children back. Unharmed.”
A flash of amusement crossed his face, and he stepped up to me, toe to toe, like he was unconcerned about the knife in my hand.
His voice dropped to a low growl, his glare locking me in place.
“He’ll pay either way if he wants his children back alive.
If he doesn’t, I’ll send them back to him piece by piece. ”
Daisy’s whimper snapped me back into reality, and I took a step back, keeping myself between the pirate captain and the girls.
I needed a moment to figure out a new plan.
I couldn’t fight them all off with a carving knife, not even with Henry’s help.
I never had the chance to consider a new idea before Henry got involved..
“Coward!” he bellowed, lunging at the captain with his sword.
The captain drew his own sword and knocked Henry’s away in such a smooth movement that Henry never saw it coming.
He stumbled, and with an effortless shove by the captain, collapsed on the ground outside the door of the room, a stunned expression on his face.
“That was stupid,” the captain commented dryly. “String him up. We’ll get plenty from the females alone. Let’s make an example of these two.”
The pirates waiting in the hall, now six in number, grabbed Henry and disarmed him, tying his hands behind his back and marching him up the stairs.
The rest swarmed into the room, and I couldn’t keep all of them back longer than a few moments before my weapon was ripped from my hand and a fist slammed into my gut.
The shock sent me to my knees, and I was quickly tied up, exactly like Henry.
I fought against them, growling, but my feet left the ground, and they dragged me out of the belly of the ship onto the main deck.
The merchant crew stood silently by the rails, their weapons and possessions stripped from them, and their expressions muted. They wouldn’t raise a finger to help, even as the girls cried and begged for mercy.
Panic swelled with their cries, and I fought harder, ripping myself away from the two holding me and dodging forward. They grabbed me before I could reach the captain, but I caught his attention enough for him to look at me.
“You’re making a mistake!”