Page 5 of Devil of the High Seas
“Abandon ship!” Gavin ordered.
The quartermaster took the order and began to cut a path to the small dinghy that a loyal few men were attempting to lower into the water. Gavin had one goal: save theSiren. The only way he could do that was to leave her. Beauchamp was a fair sailor and could right the ship before the storm capsized her, but that meant he would have to stop trying to kill Gavin, and the only way that would happen was if Gavin wasn’t on board. The day was Beauchamp’s, damn his eyes.
Someday he would find his way back to his ship, and when he did, he would kill every man who’d dared to take her from him. He was the bloody Admiral of the Black, leader of the pirate fleet in the Caribbean. There would be consequences with the Brethren of the Coast for such a mutiny.
“Castleton!” Beauchamp shouted in challenge as he started toward Gavin. The usurper was not as tall as Gavin, but he was built as thick as a bull. He held two blades and swung them effortlessly, even though the deck pitched beneath them. Gavin tightened his grip on his own blade.
“We offered to maroon you,” Beauchamp called and flashed his yellow teeth in a grimace of a smile.
“And I politelydeclinedthat offer,” he reminded his enemy. “Ronnie and I rather objected to being stranded together on an island with one pistol and one bullet between us.”
Beauchamp lunged, both of his swords raised. Gavin braced himself and used his short sword at an angle to parry Beauchamp’s blades in a mighty clash. All he had to do was survive long enough for Ronnie to get the dinghy in the water. Beauchamp caught him in the shoulder with the tip of one blade. It sank deep enough for a fiery pain to radiate through Gavin’s body. But Gavin arced his blade in the air, nearly finding its mark and forcing the other pirate to step back, wrenching the blade from Gavin’s shoulder.
Beauchamp advanced again, swinging fast at Gavin, who retreated a step. But as he did so, he caught a loose rope from the mainsail and hoisted himself into the air with his good arm and danced out of the other man’s reach just as a wave rolled over the deck. Gavin escaped the dangerous wave, but Beauchamp was not so lucky. The black water knocked him onto the deck, and he slammed into several crates that were tied down against a railing. They were the only thing that kept the mutineer from washing over the side.
Some bastards have all the bloody luck.
Gavin dropped back onto the deck, noting that the fight had died down.
“Ronnie?”. Ronnie was nowhere in sight, nor was the dinghy or the rest of his crew who’d defended him in the mutiny. Gavin could only pray that meant his quartermaster had gotten the boat into the water. The remaining mutineers now converged on Gavin in a semicircle, trapping him with his back to the railing on the waist deck of the ship.
“Kill him!” Beauchamp ordered as he climbed to his feet. “Send him to Davy Jones!”
Gavin couldn’t stay on theSiren, but he wasn’t a man to turn and run, especially not from something he loved. TheLady Sirenwas his mistress, his love, his very soul. She had been the thing to save him all those years ago when he had fled home with a broken heart. And now he was forced to leave her in the hands of his enemies.
“By all means, jump—the sea will kill you for me,” Beauchamp sneered as he joined the circle of men who had Gavin surrounded.
Gavin glanced at the distant shore behind him, seeing a familiar cliff face and a distant house whose lights flickered through the storm.
“Oh, Beauchamp, that was always your problem. You forget, I’ve been dead for seven years. You can’t kill a ghost!”
With that, he dove over the side of the ship. The water rose up in a dark wall to meet him, and with his arms pointed above his head, he cut through it with the ease of a boy who had learned to swim and dive in fathomless stormy waters like these.
As the water swirled and crashed around him, he kicked and swam until he broke the surface. He glimpsed the outline of the dinghy rolling on the waves and started toward it. As expected, Beauchamp and his men now rushed to tack the sails and guide theLady Sirenaway from the rocky coastline of Cornwall. When Gavin at last reached the dinghy, Ronnie helped pull him over the side.
“Christ, Cap’n, you’re hurt.” Ronnie reached for Gavin’s shoulder, but Gavin held up his hand.
“Where are the others?” He’d expected to see at least a few of his loyal crew on the boat with Ronnie.
“Lost ’em. They helped me get the boat in the water, then turned to fight to give you time to escape. A wave took them overboard.”
Gavin said a quiet prayer to the sea, asking for peace for the men who’d perished in his defense.
“Let’s get to shore. Scavenger crews watch for ships to wreck on this stretch of beach. We could be killed if we’re spotted on the shore for long, even if we have nothing worth stealing.”
“You know this bit of land?”
“Aye, Ronnie, I do, it’s... a place I’ve been to many times.” The wordhomealmost left his lips. But this hadn’t been his home for a very long time.
They rowed the dinghy in the direction Gavin gave. Once they were just out of reach of the waves rolling in, Gavin urged Ronald to stop rowing.
“What do we do now, Cap’n?” Ronald asked. He wheezed a little as he breathed. As a man in his late forties, he’d seen and done much as a sailor, and Gavin was fortunate to call him a loyal friend.
“You must go to town and find a crew for me, and then a ship. Then we’ll go after Beauchamp and get theSirenback.”
“Right,” Ronnie said. “What are my orders?”
“Row down the coast until you see a trail up the cliffs. It will take you into a village if you follow the path. There’s an inn on the edge of town, the Stag Antlers. Tell Mary McGiver, the woman who runs it, that you’re an old friend of mine. She’ll know to take care of you. I’ll be in touch with you soon. I have something to tend to first.” Gavin stared at the cave entrance.
