Devil of the High Seas, page 19
Now Griffin could only stare at the sea and worry. A sense of doom seemed to be creeping toward them, and he could not shake the feeling something terrible was going to happen.
Vesper came to his side at the bow of the ship, and their arms touched. Her golden hair was loose about her shoulders, and given the sunrise topping the horizon, he guessed she must have woken and come straight up on deck. The sight of her stilled that dreadful tension in him and gave him an immense sense of peace.
“You’ve barely eaten or slept in days,” she said.
“Is it foolish to say I have a bad feeling? I do not wish to curse our voyage, but I fear we’re doomed in our mission to rescue Josephine. Lady Camden agrees with me. She says she feels an ill wind in the air.”
“No, I feel it as well,” she admitted.
They stood in silence for a long while, and after a moment Griffin clasped her hand in his. He’d dared to steal a few kisses from her after dinner each night, but whenever he did, it felt like a betrayal. Josephine had no real desire to marry him, and the marriage contract had been signed by her father, not her. Still, he was doing wrong by her. He wanted Vesper with every fiber of his being. Could he ruin his duty and honor to be with the woman he truly loved? The answer was simple. Yes.
“Vesper . . . If I break my marriage contract before we find Josephine, it will bring shame upon my name.”
She sucked in a breath beside him but didn’t speak, so he continued.
“If I were to do that and then asked you to marry me, would the shame of that be too much?” He looked away from her, afraid of what she might say.
Vesper cupped his cheek, turning his face toward her. “You know I have my own shame.”
“That is why I worry. I do not wish to add to it.”
She smiled. “When people love each other, we share our burdens. It is nothing to carry yours.”
“Then you would marry me?” he asked again, this time pressing the important question more clearly.
She smiled, and tears shimmered in her eyes. “Yes.”
He pulled her into his arms, kissing her. No words were needed to show how relieved he felt, but a warning cry soon broke them apart.
“Sail dead ahead!” the lookout on the foreyard above yelled.
Griffin and Vesper turned in the direction the man pointed. A sail was now visible on the horizon.
The next hour was fraught with worry as Brianna’s ship closed in on the other vessel. Dominic prowled the deck like a wolf scenting prey. Lord Camden and Adrian seemed torn between watching him and the ship as they approached.
“It’s not the Pixie!” Dominic growled as he put a spyglass to his eye.
“It’s not?” Camden asked.
Brianna took the spyglass and studied the vessel. “He’s right. It’s not the Pixie, but I do recognize it. It’s Encino’s ship.”
“Who is Encino?” Adrian asked.
Brianna and Dominic shared knowing looks as everyone gathered on the deck.
“Encino is a member of the Brethren,” Dominic said.
“Pirate,” Adrian added helpfully in a murmur to Griffin. Camden shot a glare at his younger son.
“He is one of the captains of our pirate court,” Brianna said and moved closer to her husband. “Or was. He would never let a vessel like this catch up to him, not without raising a signal flag. Something’s wrong.”
Everyone gazed at the ship as they slowly caught up with her. Encino’s ship’s sails were full, but the ship was empty. Not a single sailor stood on deck or hung in the rigging. The wheel at the helm slowly spun back and forth as the ship glided aimlessly wherever the wind pushed it.
“Nick, Father, you come with me,” Dominic said.
Griffin stepped forward beside Lord Camden and Nicholas. “I’m coming as well.”
Dominic seemed ready to argue, then changed his mind. “Do not forget your promise to me.”
“I haven’t,” Griffin replied.
The men boarded a boat and rowed to the drifting vessel. Adrian kept watch from the railing, along with Vesper, Roberta, and Lucia. The three women who’d dared to brave the long voyage with Griffin and the others, gazed at them with worry. Everyone knew this was dangerous. Brianna stayed at the wheel of the Sea Serpent, ready to steer it away at the first sign of danger. Griffin followed Dominic up the side of the ship, catching hold of the wooden planks that formed a ladder.
“Be ready. This could be a trap,” Dominic whispered as they stepped up on deck. Then he cupped his hands. “Encino! It’s Dominic Grey,” he bellowed. No call answered.
“Griffin, you’re with me. Nick, you and Father stay together. We’ll search the ship from top to bottom.”
Griffin and Dominic moved belowdecks. It wasn’t long until they found the crew. Bodies littered the gun deck. Throats had been slit, and most had other wounds or gunshots. Griffin paled. He’d never seen death on this scale before. He placed his palm on the sword that hung at his hip, needing the comfort of steel at that moment.
“Watch your back,” Dominic murmured as he led Griffin deeper into the ship. They reached what Griffin guessed was the captain’s cabin. The door swung ajar as the ship rocked on the waves. It didn’t bode well for whoever might be inside. Dominic pressed a palm flat and pushed the door open.
The cabin was in disarray. A single lamp swung above the table in the center of the captain’s cabin, even though the sun shone clearly through the windows. Griffin guessed that whoever had committed these crimes had wanted this discovery to be visible even in the dark. A man’s body lay on the table, his chest bare and his body carved deep with cuts.
Dominic approached and touched his shoulder. “Encino.”
The man gasped, giving Griffin a shock. He’d thought the fellow to be dead, but that fate could not be far off now.
“Dominic . . . ,” the captain groaned.
“I’m here, old friend. Who did this to you?”
Griffin peered down at the gravely wounded man. Encino’s dark eyes drifted from Dominic to Griffin.
“You . . . He’s coming for you, Castleton.”
“Who?” Griffin demanded.
“Beau . . . champ . . .” The name escaped Encino’s lips as his gaze slowly turned distant and the light faded from his eyes.
“Beauchamp . . . That name . . . I know it,” Griffin said.
“He was one of Gavin’s crew,” Dominic said. “I met him once.”
“That’s the man who my brother said led the mutiny against him,” Griffin said. The captain had mistaken him for his brother.
They both stared at the dead man for a long moment.
“We have to get off the ship,” Dominic said. “Beauchamp could be following at a distance. I noticed he spiked the cannons so they cannot be fired. The line from the wheel was cut so the ship can’t be steered. Anyone who boards this vessel would easily be trapped. All of the cargo was removed . . . I think Beauchamp set a trap for anyone who came to see this ship.”
Dominic strode to the door, and Griffin was on his heels. There was no talk of burying the dead at sea. There simply wasn’t time to even collect the bodies and give them a quick ceremony. Every life aboard Brianna’s ship, including Vesper’s, was in grave danger.
Josephine stood knee-deep in the shallows of the waves with Sam. They both held spears, watching for fish. She had left her dress in the wardrobe today and was in her borrowed clothes from Dominic’s ship, which Jada had been kind enough to wash for her.
“Wait,” Sam counseled as a silvery fish slowly swam around their feet.
“When?” Josephine whispered, even though the fish could not hear her.
He held his spear ready. “Not yet . . . Now!”
Josephine plunged her spear deep into the water, impaling the fish. With a hoot of triumph, she raised the spear up. Sunlight sparkled off the fish’s silvery scales.
Sam grinned. “We’ll cook it tonight. I’ll show you how to remove its scales. We just need to—” His next words died as he stared off at something beyond her.
“Sam? What is it?” She turned toward the horizon and saw a ship sailing for the cove. It dropped anchor just outside the area only Gavin knew how to sail past.
“That’s not the Pixie,” she muttered to herself as she raised a hand over her eyes to shield her gaze from the sun as she studied the ship.
Sam whooped and waved at the vessel. “It’s the Siren!”
“The Siren?” A sudden feeling of dread bottomed out in her stomach. If Gavin had recovered his ship, it would have been easy for him to guide it into the cove. But the ship stayed safely away from the maze of reefs, which meant Gavin was not at the helm.
“Sam!” She snatched the boy by the shoulders and shook him. “Listen to me. That’s not Gavin. You must go! Tell everyone to hide. Oh God . . .” Was there even a place in this little spot of paradise to hide from such evil?
She glanced back at the ship and saw they were in the midst of lowering a small boat into the water.
“Josie . . . ,” Sam began uncertainly, his dark eyes wide with terror.
“Go, Sam!” She hurried him toward the shore. At the sight of the sails, some of the island’s residents had left their fields and homes to come greet the newcomers. Josephine screamed for them to run. They had only a few minutes before the mutineers would reach land.
Jada met them halfway to the shore. When she spotted the ship and then saw Josephine’s face, she seemed to know at once that this wasn’t Gavin.
“We have to hide. That man tried to kill Gavin, and he’ll kill anyone in his path,” Josephine explained as they raced toward the house.
Jada ran across the front porch of the house and toward a silver bell that hung from one overhead beam. Grasping the brown rope with a metal ball that hung from beneath it, she rang the bell hard. The sound echoed far and wide across the island.
“This will warn the others. We must go to the caves.” Jada grasped Sam’s and Josephine’s hands in each of hers.
“The caves?”
“Gavin always feared something might happen to us while he was away, so he set up a shelter in the caves for us in case of storm or attack.”
“But won’t Beauchamp and his men know about it?”
Jada shook her head. “’Tis the only place on the island that Gavin’s crew never knew about, except for Ronnie.”
“Can everyone fit in these caves?” Josephine feared for all the men and women who lived here. She could not bear the thought of anything happening to them.
“We can fit. The caves run deep into the center of the island but never flood when it rains.” Jada led the way, meeting others from the fields and the village along the way, stopping to explain what was happening as quickly as they could.
When they reached the cave entrance, Josephine was stunned to see that they were at the very spring water pool that she and Gavin had gone swimming in. Men and women were diving deep into the pool. Josephine saw a man dive in and swim straight down, and then he swam along the bottom before he disappeared suddenly from view.
“You can swim, yes?” Jada asked.
“I can.”
“The cave entrance is underwater. Don’t worry, it’s not far. It opens up to caves with plenty of air.” Jada urged several women to go ahead of them. Then she glanced around and her eyes widened.
“Sam? Sam!” Jada screamed her son’s name. The little boy had been with them for most of the way . . . but somehow in the chaos they’d lost him.
The number of people who were taking turns diving into the pool was growing smaller. Jada tried to push her toward the pool.
“Go, Josie. Swim to the cave. I will join you once I find my son.”
“You might need help. I’m not going to leave you.” Josephine wasn’t about to let Jada face down a dozen murderous pirates alone.
The two of them rushed down the jungle path, back toward the house. They reached the place where the jungle ended and the field leading to the shore and the house began, and Josephine saw Sam struggling in the arms of a pirate. They were too late. The boy was being carried away over the man’s shoulder. Jada started to leave the cover of the foliage, but Josephine stopped her.
“You have to stay here. I’ll go after him.”
“They will kill you.” Jada gasped, her face stained with tears. “It should be me. I’m his mother. I must go, not you.”
“They have no reason not to kill you, but if I tell them I’m Gavin’s wife, I’ll be more valuable to them alive than dead when Gavin arrives.”
Jada frantically shook her head. “Or they may kill you the moment you tell them.”
“I’m willing to take that risk to save Sam.” Josephine cupped the woman’s face until she was sure that Jada was focused on her and not the vanishing sight of her son.
“Someone has to tell Gavin what happened and help the other residents of the island. Do you understand? It must be you who stays,” she told her friend.
“But . . . my son . . .”
“I will rescue him . . . and if I can’t rescue him, I will defend him with my life,” Josephine vowed, and she meant it. She would kill or die to protect the boy.
“Now, go! You must hide before they see you!” She shoved Jada back into the forest and crept toward the house, taking care not to leave a trail that would lead them back to Jada or the path to the pool.
She climbed through a window on the ground floor of Gavin’s house and reached the drawing room. There, she saw two pirates searching the house. Their backs were to her, but it wouldn’t take long for them to find her. She rushed toward the fireplace where a pair of blades hung crossed above the mantel as decoration. She prayed the steel was still sharp enough to kill. The moment she freed one of the swords, she heard the pirates shouting at her from the entrance to the drawing room.
She whirled from the hearth and cut down the first man who advanced on her. Blood sprayed across the walls and her face as the blade sank into his neck and shoulder. He howled and gurgled before he stumbled back, clutching at the fatal wound.
The other pirate stared at her in shock for a brief instant before he raised his own cutlass and rushed at her. But years of training with her father and Adrian had given her some skill, and the pirate’s assumptions about her because she was a woman proved a fatal mistake. The fight was over almost before it had begun. Only later would she dare to think about the lives that she’d just taken.
She rushed into the yard and chased the pirate carrying Sam toward the water. The landing boat waited for him there to take them to the Siren.
“You!” she bellowed at the man carrying Sam, who still struggled in his grasp. The brutish pirate holding the boy sneered at her.
She pointed her sword at him as she advanced. “Put the boy down.”
Sam was dropped into the surf. He coughed as a wave smashed into him. The pirate advanced on Josephine. Despite the fear coursing through her, her steps and her grip on her weapon were steady.
“Leave this island and never come back,” Josie said, her voice cold.
“Or what?” a voice said from behind her.
There was the crack of a pistol shot, followed by a searing pain exploding in her upper right arm. Sam screamed her name, but she didn’t dare look at him. She turned and faced the man who still held a pistol pointed at her.
“You used your one shot,” she said, her voice raspy. “You won’t get another.”
“Maybe not. But he will.” The pirate nodded to a third pirate who now joined them, pistol drawn and ready. The pirate who had dropped Sam picked him up again, and the third pirate held the muzzle of his pistol at Sam’s temple.
“Toss your sword down. Now,” the first pirate ordered. “Or either your or the boy’s brains will splatter this beach, and the other’s body will feed the sharks in the bay.”
Josephine’s shoulders slumped as she threw her blade to the ground. It sank halfway into the white sand. This was not a fight she could win. She was already growing weak with pain and blood loss.
“Who are you?” the man demanded.
Now was the moment to gamble whether as Gavin’s woman she would be worth more alive or dead.
“I’m Gavin’s wife.”
“Are you now? How very interesting.” The man smiled, and the chill in his eyes told her that this must be Beauchamp.
“Take her,” Beauchamp ordered. “The boy too. If she thinks to fight us, we’ll remind her of all the bad things that can happen to a child at sea.”
Josephine gasped as the massive pirate who’d first taken Sam suddenly grabbed her from behind, his arm wrapping around her neck and choking the air from her body as she was dragged toward the distant waiting boat.
“Now I have the one thing I need to kill a ghost.”
CHAPTER 15
Something was wrong. Gavin sensed it the moment he smelled smoke upon the wind.
Something is burning.
They were perhaps an hour from the Isle of Song when he spied smoke on the horizon.
“Cap’n?” Ronnie stood at his side and handed him a spyglass.
“I don’t like this, Ronnie,” Gavin muttered. “It’s too early in the year to be burning the sugarcane fields.”
“Aye.” His quartermaster folded his arms and stared at the horizon where the smoke now billowed in the sky.
The column of smoke grew larger as they drew closer toward Gavin’s island. Gavin took the helm and guided the Pixie into the cove. The sight that met his eyes was one he would never have imagined. His beautiful home was nothing but blackened timbers and ash that drifted upon the wind like fiery snow.
“Christ . . . What happened?” the vicar asked as he joined Gavin at the helm. Gavin said nothing. The sight had struck him dumb, something out of a nightmare.
“Drop anchor!” Ronnie gave the order, and Gavin didn’t wait for a boat to be lowered.
He climbed down the side of the ship and plunged into the water so he could swim to the shore. No one greeted him with laughter or smiles. His Isle of Song was silent. Even the birds dared not sing.
He ran to the house, dripping wet, and stepped onto the once grassy lawn that had led to his beautiful home. The charred grass crunched beneath his boots. The second story of his home had collapsed. Only the ground floor remained, though all of the rooms had been gutted.
