Page 60 of The Pirate Takes A Bride

“Are you sad or happy?”

There was no fooling the little girl, and there was no point in trying. In a matter of moments, she would hear and feel the battle. “I’m scared,” Ashley admitted. In all her life, she did not think she had ever admitted such a thing. When she was a child, her mother would have told her there was nothing to fear, and her brothers would have teased her unmercifully. As a young woman she learned to face her fears directly. If she was afraid of something, she took it on.

And that was what she had to do now. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t hide, and there was a little girl who needed her.

Rissa’s eyes had grown wide. “Why?” she asked, going completely still.

“There’s going to be a battle. Will you hold my hand?”

Rissa nodded her head and Ashley joined her on the berth, where the two of them huddled together for comfort.

"HOLD!” NICK RAN PAST the cannons, yelling orders. “Wait for my word.” The two ships were almost broadside now. So close. He could see the sneers of the Barbary pirates, smell their stench. And there—there was Yussef. The bastard stood on the deck with his arms at his side. He wore a flowing red shirt, wide black trousers, and a red scarf on his head. Red for blood and red because he was not afraid to be seen, to be a target.

How Nick wished he had had a pistol with the range to cut Yussef down. One more moment. One more...

He could feel his gunners growing anxious as the two boats drew level. The Snake fired a shot and it slammed into the bow of the Robin Hood, sending wood splintering everywhere.

“Hold!” Nick ordered. They had one shot. One. He wanted everything lobbed at The Snake in one fell swoop. As the men grew more anxious, as their discipline was tested, Nick’s determination grew. “On my word. Hold.” He looked at Chante, standing on the deck, looked at Yussef, and yelled, “Fire!”

The timing was perfect. The ship lifted on a swell as the cannons roared to life. The sound was deafening, and it took iron in his spine not to flinch at the blast. Heedless of the danger, heedless of the sound of Yussef’s cannons returning fire, Nick raced to the side rail. Smoke obscured his vision for a long, maddening moment. And then his ship raced past The Snake, raced through the smoke, and Nick had the first clear view of the damage he’d wrought. But victory was brief, all too brief as he heard the words, “Fire aft!”

Aft! The stern and the captain’s cabin.

“No!” Nick screamed.

Chapter Seventeen

“Captain!”

Nick raced past Mr. Daniels, who was coming to give his report. Nick knew the damage. A direct hit to the stern, to his cabin.

Ashley and Rissa.

God, no! Please, no. Anything but that. And in that moment, he meant it. He could face anything but losing the two of them. Anything.

Chante caught him before he could plunge down the ladder and into the smoke-filled companionway. “Cap’n, no! Let me go.”

“Get out of my way, Chante.”

His quartermaster outweighed him by two stone and was easily close to a foot taller than he, and if the man did not want to move, Nick would not be able to move him. “You the cap’n. I’ll check on the ship and report.”

“Get out of my way.”

“Cap’n—”

Nick flung his hat on the deck and pushed his pistol into Chante’s hands. “You’re the captain now, Chante. Out of my way!”

Chante gave him an uncomprehending look then stepped aside. Nick raced past him, his throat closing as the smoke swirled around him. He coughed, tried not to breathe, and pushed his way through wood and debris that should not have been there. Oh, God. Was the great cabin even there any longer? Had Rissa and Ashley been completely blown away?

“Ashley!” he bellowed, but his ears were ringing from the cannon fire, and he could hear nothing but the thundering of his own heart. “Ashley!” he stumbled forward, tripping over God knew what in the darkness.

“Nick!”

Nick rushed forward, praying he hadn’t imagined the sound of her voice. The smoke grew thicker, and he tripped and fell against the wall. He reached his hands out, feeling his way along until he found an opening. He closed and then opened his eyes, seeing the blue of sky and ocean through the gap.

And also the flicker of flames.

THE CABIN WAS ON FIRE. Ashley didn’t know what had happened. One moment she and Rissa had been clinging to each other, the little girl crying at the deafening sound of the cannon blast. The next moment, everything around them had exploded. She’d flown and come down hard, knocking her head and everything was blackness for a long moment.

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