Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
The ship lurches hard to the right, and I’m glad the table is bolted to the floor though the plates go flying. I hang onto the bed as the chandelier lists sideways and everything in the room goes momentarily sideways.
I should stay in the bed like Hook ordered, but my worry and curiosity foil that plan.
Once it evens out again, I get to my feet and hurry to the windows at the back of the cabin. A pale ship follows us as the Jolly Roger speeds ahead, throwing up a foamy wake in the dark water.
Lights hang along the pursuer’s decks, giving the whole thing a ghostly glow beneath a moon swathed in wispy clouds.
The timbers of Anne’s ship are so light they remind me of bone, only growing dark where the hull makes contact with the water.
Cannons poke out on either side, but I don’t see how she can fire on us unless she gets beside us.
Then again, I’m not exactly well versed on maritime warfare.
Turning from the windows, I head for the door, the momentum of the ship making me feel like I’m walking uphill. When I whip the door open, I see Hook at the wheel, Smee standing at the stairs to the lower deck yelling orders, and Starkey leaning over the side of the ship with a spyglass.
“She looks fucking pissed, Captain!” Starkey yells.
“Drunk or angry?” Hook yells back over the hiss of the water.
“Both!” Starkey collapses the spyglass and leans back over.
“Where’s Bill with Long Tom?” Hook lashes a piece of leather to the wheel, then jumps down the stairs and takes off across the deck.
I venture out toward the wheel and grab the railing that separates this deck from the lower one.
“You shouldn’t be out here!” Smee yells.
I flip him off, mainly because he’s right, and also because I can’t stand him.
Holding onto the railing, I watch the crew as they work, each one somehow knowing exactly what to do to make the ship cut through the water even faster. The deck rumbles, and cannons appear one after another on either side of the ship.
“Can we outrun Anne?” I call to Smee.
He glares at me, and for a moment I think he won’t answer. Then he rolls his eyes and walks to me, rope in hand, before lashing it around my waist and to the railing in one quick movement.
“What was that for?” I ask.
“Because if you fall and break your neck, Captain will blame me.”
At least he doesn’t lie. No sugar-coating—definitely not. It’s actually refreshing, even if it’s coming from Smee.
“We can outrun her. Anne’s ship can’t get the drop on us.” He reaches out and grips one of the spindles on the wheel, steadying it. “But she’s not the only variable here.”
“What’s the other variable?”
The deck rumbles even more, and I grip the railing harder as several pirates begin yanking at ropes on a pulley.
From beneath the deck, a platform rises, and on it is a long cannon.
It’s almost comical, like something you’d see at a circus sideshow that fires a clown out of it.
But this wicked creation of black metal doesn’t promise a fun time for anyone.
“Long Tom.” Smee pulls out his own spyglass and leans over the side, peering behind us.
“What’s a Long Tom?”
Starkey climbs some rope netting in front of me and gives me a smirk. “I thought you’d already seen Captain’s Long Tom.”
I give him a salty look. “I wouldn’t expect any less from a fuckboy like yourself.”
Smee snorts as he pockets his spyglass and adjusts the wheel again. “A fuckboy? I think that’s quite fitting for our Gentleman Starkey.”
“A fuckboy, eh? I rather like it.” Starkey grins.
“No. It’s an insult.”
“Is it? I don’t find it to be so.” He winks at me.
“Move!” Widow climbs up beside him. “Long Tom is the cannon.” She swings off the rope netting and lands on the upper deck beside me. “Biggest one ever made. No other ship has the size to handle Long Tom. Only the Jolly Roger.”
She holds her hand out, palm toward Starkey in a ‘stop’ motion. “Keep the jokes to yourself. Captain wants you in the crow’s nest.”
He sighs. “Fine. But I have some really good ones about—”
“Crow’s nest!” Widow snaps.
He climbs faster, then swings away to the biggest mast and climbs even higher.
“You two having issues?” I ask.
She smirks. “Issues? My sweet darling, that was foreplay.”
Smee groans and reattaches the leather to the wheel before jumping down to the lower deck and yelling at someone about gunpowder.
“I meant to come check on you earlier, but you were asleep.” She puts her arm around my shoulders. “You all right?”
“As all right as I can be, I guess.”
A boom sounds behind us, and I turn to look.
“She’s not shooting at us.” Widow smiles tightly.
“Then who’s she shooting at?”
“No one.” Widow glances behind us at Hook’s cabin. “You should get inside.”
“Forward!” Hook yells, and I see him on the deck with several other pirates as they push Long Tom toward the side. “Bill, ready with the blocks!”
“Aye, Captain!”
“Now!”
Bill swings two triangular hunks of wood beneath the cannon, and the pirates stop pushing. It rolls back only a little, then rests against the blocks. The entire ship rocks to the side, and sea spray flies over the railing where Long Tom rests.
“Load it!” Hook runs up the deck and climbs the mast with amazing fluidity. Leaning out, he stares behind us.
Anne’s cannons boom again, the sound skipping across the water.
“If you aren’t going inside—” Widow grips the ends of the rope Smee tied to my waist and tightens them. “Then you need to stay put.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Captain will have to broadside her and fire Long Tom. But she has to be far enough away that she can’t hit us.
That’s the beauty of Long Tom. Problem is, we’re slowing down.
The ship isn’t weighted properly now that it’s set in its firing position, even though it’s at the beam, the ship’s widest point.
He’ll have to turn the Jolly Roger hard port and fire.
” She finishes with the rope. “You’re strapped in tight.
I have to go.” She points to a small piece of the sail above us that flaps in the wind.
“Need to make fast or it’ll rip in the wind when Captain turns to face her. ”
She jumps onto the rope netting and climbs to the sail.
From high above, I hear a whistle. It must be Starkey. He yells something, but I can’t make out the words.
Widow seems to already have the sail repaired, but then she climbs higher and works on another part of it. I know she knows what she’s doing, but seeing her so far above the deck with nothing but a piece of rope around her forearm to keep her aloft is nerve-wracking.
Hook runs across the lower deck and takes the stairs two at a time. The crew scatters, several of them diving into the opening leading down into the ship. I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“All hands clear the deck!” Hook yells.
The pirates scurry away, and some lash themselves to the masts. I look up, and Widow is still trying to secure the sail.
“Wait!” I yell right as Hook yanks the wheel with a fierce motion.
The entire ship turns hard into the wind, the sails billowing even more as we race toward the shore.
I try to find Widow in the dark, the moon casting a shadow on where she was working on the sail. “Widow!” I yell for her.
“Lass, you should be inside!” Hook runs to me.
“Captain! Long Tom!” Starkey slides down a rope from the crow’s nest and rushes to the cannon. One of the blocks under its wheels has come loose, and it’s pointing toward the front of the ship. Starkey heaves the rope attached to the cannon, but it doesn’t budge.
“Go!” I push Hook away. “Go. I’m fine.”
His brows lower, but he jumps over the rail, lands hard on the deck, then darts to Starkey. “Grab the line!” He and Starkey both pull at the rope as I still search for Widow.
“Widow!” I’m not foolish enough to untie the knot at my waist, but I pull against the rope, my eyes searching the gloom for her.
“Heave!” Hook cries as Bill Jukes and a few other pirates join he and Starkey on the gun.
When I look out to sea, I find Anne’s ship bearing down. She’s cutting a diagonal line through the waves to us, firing all the while. Why is she shooting? There’s no way she has cannonballs to waste.
A hard thump has me whirling to find Widow behind me.
I scream and throw my arms around her. “You’re okay!”
“Of course I am.” She hugs me back. “I can hold a line even tighter than I hold a cock.”
“I don’t know what that even means.” I’m just so happy she’s safe and sound.
“Sit tight.” She pulls away and jogs down to the deck where Bill Jukes is replacing the blocks.
Shiner peeks out from one of the ladders that leads below decks, and even in the dark, I can tell her face is a sickly greenish shade.
She keeps climbing, though, and makes it onto the deck before Skylights rises behind her, grabs her around the waist, and drags her below.
It’s probably for her own good, but I don’t think she’s going to let Skylights manhandle her like that for too long.
The boom of Anne’s guns grows louder, and her ship is racing toward us on a collision course.
“There!” Bill replaces the block beneath Long Tom.
“Get ready to fire!” Hook’s whistle pierces the hiss of the sea and the blowing sails. He comes back to the wheel and spins it a few turns. “Are you all right, lass?”
“I’m good.” I blink against the wind as we turn more toward Anne’s ship.
Hook watches Starkey and Bill load the cannon with powder while Cecco carries a huge cannonball up from below. Cecco struggles, but Bill takes the ball from him and lifts it overhead to load it into the cannon.
With eagle eyes, Hook scans Anne’s ship, then makes another minute adjustment at the wheel, positioning the Jolly Roger like a piece on a playing board.
“Fire when ready!” he calls then turns to me. “Lass, cover your ears!”
I slap my palms to my ears and watch as Widow lights the cannon. She and the others run back and hunker down behind some barrels as the fuse burns and disappears inside the iron monster.