Page 7 of Pirate's Intent
“We must go.” He paused. “Do you trust me? Can I remove my hand?”
She barely heard him over her pounding heart but nodded.
“Thomas?” she gasped the moment he removed his hand. She tried to see him in the dark but had no luck. “I don’t understand. How are you here?”
“I will explain later,” he said gruffly. “Once I get you to safety.” He put a finger to her lips, evidently seeing more clearly than her. “Until then, youmustbe quiet.”
“All right,” she whispered against his finger, trying to gather her thoughts. Trying to make sense of him being here. Real. Not lost to her as she thought he was.
“Big Devil has men posted out front, so we will have to go another way.” He pulled her after him through an exit hidden behind a tapestry of some sort based on the scratchy material. Though she could see a little better outside, she was still unable to make out his features as they traveled down a narrow set of stairs to a dark pathway between buildings. Lightning flashed in the distance and thunder rumbled.
“We need to get my sister,” she whispered. “They have her too.”
“We know,” he whispered back. “We’re getting her.”
They zigzagged in and out of several dark alleyways before he yanked her between two buildings right before several men rushed by heading in the direction they had just come. It was impossible to make out their frantic hushed words until a man behind them talked a little louder.
“Big Devil will have our hide if we don’t have her ready to talk quick-like,” he grumbled. “His rum ain’t going to last long.”
“He’ll be rewardin’ us not punishin’ us after he talks to her,” another assured, in swift pursuit. “After all, it was our quick thinkin’ that followed those scrolls and learned what we did.”
“Bloody hell,” Thomas whispered. He shifted in the darkness as though seeing if that was the last of them then pulled Rose after him. They continued between buildings before they left everything behind and made their way through trees. The ocean crashed nearby, but she couldn’t actually see it. Warm wind gusted, and a heavy raindrop hit her cheek.
Though tempted to speak, she sensed silence was best until Thomas said otherwise. As it turned out, that was a short time later when they broke free of the vegetation and came upon a small stone dwelling near the shore. Free of the trees and cloying darkness, she finally got a few glimpses of him in the lightning flashes.
A man who by no means looked like the boy from her youth.
If possible, he seemed even taller than the last time she saw him, his shoulders broader, his dark brown hair longer, now interwoven with small braids and beads. He wore a waistcoat, black breeches, and black boots with several weapons tucked on his person.
“Are you a...” she stuttered, barely able to get the word out, hardly believing it.
“Yes, Rose, I’m a pirate.” Thomas nodded at a short, wiry man who melted out of the darkness. “This is my quartermaster, Charles.” He glanced in the direction of the town then looked at Charles. “Did he get her then?”
“He got her,” he grunted moments before her sister appeared out of the night.
“Hannah,” she cried when her sister embraced her. “I am so glad you are well, Sister.”
“I told you I would be.”
She had said no such thing.
“How are you, Rose?” Hannah squeezed her waist then shoulders in concern. “Are you well? Did they hurt you?”
“No, I’m fine,” she assured. “You?”
“Well enough,” her sister replied, her voice a little hoarse. “Just muddling through.”
Muddling through? “I dare say this is a bit more than that!”
“That would depend on who your hero is,” Hannah muttered, uncharacteristically flustered.
“They’re scoutin’ the shoreline, Cap'n,” a pirate reported to Thomas.
“Aye, then?” Thomas replied. “You’re sure?”
“Aye.” He nodded. “Lookin’ for any fool ship departing in this weather.”
Thomas murmured something to the pirate she couldn’t make out before the man rushed off.
