Sea Scoundrel (12 page)

“Why?” Patience and Sophie asked together.

“Because we’l be roasting him, soon as he’s slaughtered.” Sophie paled and ran from the fo’c’sle.

After a stunned minute, Patience fol owed, but she didn’t see Sophie anywhere. Where had she said the pig was kept?

Barking, screaming, shouting, and an equal y loud squealing, made Patience lift her skirts and run.

Red and Izzy knelt holding a huge frightened porker on its back while being accosted by the pig’s protectors. Angel cracked each man over the head with a broom while Sophie wielded a huge coil of rope, slamming it against Izzy yel ing, “Murderer!”

Horatio tossed his head from side to side, squealing relentlessly. Angel final y tossed the useless broom and began kicking the pig’s assailants. One wel -aimed sal y split Red’s chin. He let go of the pig to grab his face, blood dripping between his fingers.

Despite Sophie’s attempts to knock him unconscious, Izzy tried valiantly to clutch Horatio single-handed, but he couldn’t do it. The terrified swine jumped up and began a squealing run for its life. Wel ington fol owed barking steadily. Pittypat fled for its kitty life tripping a sailor coming into the fray.

The huge porker jumped over the forward hatch and made his way to the fo’c’sle deck nearly succumbing when Paddy came up behind him, and threw his arms around the animal’s bel y. The pig dragged Paddy—or Paddy rode the Pig; it was difficult to tel —nearly fifty feet before the poor boy had enough sense to let go.

Patience tried to help Paddy and stop the pig at the same time landing herself in a heap, skirts over her head.

Fortunately, everyone was too busy chasing Horatio to notice.

Their evening meal continued across the deck, Angel and Sophie in frantic pursuit. Patience wondered how they intended to protect Horatio even if they caught him.

With a growl of fury, the Captain joined the fray. “Bloody, useless jackasses. One crazy pig and two women against a ship ful of men. And you cal yourselves sailors! Catch him, damn your hides!”

Shanks tried, then Dublin, even Sven. Al made missing tackles, Shanks and Sven knocking heads into the bargain.

Al in al , his sailors failed to respond to the Captain’s direct, if ridiculous, order.

Rose and Grace arrived adding their screams to the uproar.

With two sailors waiting aft, Horatio seemed final y cornered as he wove in al directions.

As Patience and the Captain caught up, the pig scooted down the cabin hatch, making for the Captain’s cabin direct. And they were right behind.

Through the open door the pig shot, then circled the beautiful cabin like the cornered prisoner he’d become.

Wel ington’s constant barking seemed to make him more skittish, so Patience put the pup in Rose’s arms and shoved her and Grace out the door.

Horatio knocked over two more chairs, and jumped on Shane’s bunk to evade the Captain’s tackle, which caused the furious man to tumble off his brother’s bunk and slide into his sea chest.

Horatio’s eyes rol ed in his head, his squeals demented.

With nowhere else to go, the crazed animal jumped on the window seat, then made for the open sea by jumping through the window, glass flying in al directions.

He’d barely hit the water when the sharks fol owing the ship put him out of his misery. Piggy suicide.

Angel and Sophie screamed.

The Captain wiped his bloodied hands with a cloth and glared at her as if she, alone, had caused the fracas. It was al Patience could do not to say, ‘It wasn’t my fault,’ but in a way, it was. These were her girls, after al .

Stil , he didn’t say a word.

Silence, punctuated by Angel and Sophie’s sobs, lengthened to the point you could cut the tension with a knife, and a good thing no knife was available, because from the look on the Captain’s face....

“You must understand, Captain. The girls thought of Horatio as a pet.”

“You must understand, Lady Patience, the sailors thought of him as their supper. They aren’t going to be happy the sharks had pork tonight and they didn’t.” Angel and Sophie gasped at his heartless statement.

“Get them the hel out of here!” the Captain snapped.

Patience cal ed to Grace, waiting in the companionway, and handed the sobbing girls over, then she examined the Captain’s angry face. “What are you going to do?”

“Board up my window for starters.”

“I’l change the bunk, sweep up the glass, and wash the floor. That should take the piggy smel out of the room.” The Captain scowled, opened his mouth, clamped it shut, shook his head, and left.

Patience washed and scrubbed until the room shone bright.

When the Captain returned to board the windows, she had just finished. He looked around. “Thank you. Though I think it the least you could do, under the circumstances.”

“Sometimes you can be quite disagreeable.”

“Not as disagreeable as I might be. I could think of several forms of punishment for those two, but I’l refrain, this time.”

“Why?”

“Because, when I was on deck, I realized discipline was unnecessary. A lot can anger a sailor, Patience, and there’s much he can forgive, but taking away his food, that he wil not forgive. They’re so positive you and your girls are bad luck, I’m worried they’l try to throw the lot of you overboard.”

Patience couldn’t hide her concern.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “As much as I’d like to, I won’t let them.”

“I’m sorry about the entire incident, Captain. Truly.”

“Are you?” He was suspicious of her apology, she could tel .

“Yes,” she said. “I love pork.”

After the pig incident, Patience and the girls walked the deck together once a day then returned to their cabins.

When they did, the sailors wouldn’t look at them. Even Doc ignored Sophie when she offered to help with the cooking.

The Captain merely grunted when Patience tried to speak to him.

One afternoon, a few days later, Patience heard Jasper say that he and the Captain had the night watch, so after the girls were asleep, she went on deck. The Captain could not walk away from her, if it was his duty to be there and she needed to speak with him.

He stood at the wheel, moonlight etching his features to harder angles. The sight of him fil ed her with a huge sense of regret. What they’d shared was special, yet not enough.

There would never be a true friendship between them, or anything else.

Uncertain what she expected with regard to this man, Patience realized she was sorry she would never have it.

Then she scoffed at herself for being so fanciful.

Al was quiet. A few men worked in the rigging. Jasper kept watch while the Captain stood at the wheel.

“I didn’t think we sailed during the night,” she said as she approached him.

“We don’t usual y. But the weather is favorable tonight and I thought it best to make time before the men’s anger gets the best of them.”

“You want to be rid of us.”

“Yes.”

Patience wished she could see his face more clearly and sighed. “I had hoped to make amends, somehow. We’ve had some wonderful times, the girls and the sailors. I wish there might be only happy memories of our voyage.”

“The women wil remember the good times, Lady Patience.

The men wil remember the bad.”

“Why? Do you suppose?”

“Because the men predicted disaster. Remembering it, they’l believe they were right al along. Everyone likes to be proved right. And from the little time I’ve spent with your girls, I think they are likely to remember the good in most situations.”

Patience had to agree, and nodded, but he didn’t notice because he didn’t care to. Discouraged for so many reasons, she turned to go.

“Wait.”

The word made her heart skip and she turned back to him.

He handed her an object which she stared at with great surprise, attempting to identify it for al of a minute, before she realized it was a lantern, dark and cold. “It went out,” he said. “The draft is strong here. Take it to the lamp-room, wil you, and re-light it? Then I won’t have to cal one of the men from the rigging.”

Her disappointment bringing an ache to her throat, Patience went to the lamp-room, opposite the forward house, where the men bunked, re-lit the lamp and returned to the main deck.

The sight she saw stopped her dead.

Advancing toward the
Knave’s Secret
, in ful sail, came a huge, hulking phantom of a ship, cast as it was in moonlight as a dark, eerie pewter, given its lack of rigging lights.

If it continued its present course, it would split the
Knave
in two.

“Jasper! Captain! A ship! Coming down on us. Sail O! Sail O!” Patience shouted, waving the lantern, to catch the eye of someone, anyone, on
either
ship.

“Hard down your wheel,” Jasper shouted. “Stand by the topsail hal iards.”

The Captain spun the wheel.

Suddenly, like her heart, the
Phantom
fairly leapt from its perch to rise like a conqueror. The sea, green and luminous in moonlight, now gave a glowing, eerie cast to the spectacle. The huge monster, its bowsprit like a lance, hovered over the
Knave
. Patience was surprised it didn’t tangle or foul the rigging, but, like
The Connecticut
, it must be farther away than it appeared.

When the looming hulk buried herself back in the sea, it came so close, the splash made a frightening, thunderous sound while seething, foamy water boiled over the
Knave’s
decks.

Fear held Patience frozen. As the water roared and covered them, the lamp flew from her hand, and the wave threw her against the wheel box. She sought purchase, grasped a crampon and, held.

When the churning water drained low, she gasped and coughed. Surely she would never breathe again.

But, eventual y, she did. On al fours, taking deep, treasured breaths, she raised her head and looked about.

The Captain had been tossed like a rag dol against the hatch. With an ugly gash on his forehead, he lay unmoving, her lamp floating beside him.

“Hard over, sir,” Jasper shouted. “Hard over, sir, I say.” Patience knew Jasper could not see the abandoned wheel whirling out of control, setting the ship square to impaling itself on the
Phantom’s
bowsprit, a lance in every sense of the word.

If that spear met its mark, the
Knave
would splinter and become the conquered, the
Phantom
the conqueror. And everyone would die.

Her heart pounding in her head, water pul ing at her dress, Patience dragged herself to the ship’s wheel, almost as wide as the span of her arms. With every ounce of strength she could gather, she set to forcing it in the opposite direction from whence it had gone minutes before.

She emptied everything from her thoughts but her girls, and from some hidden cavern in her mind came a desperate need to turn the wheel. She pul ed and turned for her very life. For everyone’s life.

She wondered momentarily at her strength, could not fathom it, but thanked the heavens, nonetheless, and continued to turn. For they must, at al costs, evade the
Phantom
.

She couldn’t let the girls die. She loved them al .

As she forced the next spoke downward, she began a litany. “For Sophie,” another spoke, “For Angel.” Another.

“For Rose.” She pul ed one for each sailor, Doc, Dublin, Paddy. When she pul ed a spoke for the Captain, she sobbed, panic nipping her, but she stayed with the wheel, turning, praying.

How long she should continue, she did not know; she simply knew she must.

Sudden voices pierced her determination. Strong arms attempted to hinder her. “No!” She fought Lucifer’s temptation to relieve the pain in her arms, but— “I can’t stop. I can’t let go. They’l die.” She sobbed. “Oh, God, they’l die.”

Lucifer uttered an expletive in the Captain’s voice.

“Patience, Patience. It’s al right now. We’re safe. You saved us, Patience. Do you hear me?”

“I have to turn the wheel!” No matter that she’d conjured the sweet-snarly captain, she would not be seduced from her purpose.

“Sweetheart, everything’s fine now. Let go, love.” She looked up. Her imagined Captain had a bloody gash on his brow, and she knew a surge of pain at the sight. But she wouldn’t let go of the wheel. She couldn’t, or her girls and the sailors would die.

Grant ignored the pain in his throbbing head and slipped his arm around Patience’s waist, holding her tight, aching for her panic, proud as anything of her courage.

Jasper had to pry her hand from the spokes, one finger at a time. “Her fingers are so stiff, Captain, I’m afraid I’l break one.”

“Be careful then or you wil . I’ve seen this kind of hysteria before.” Grant bent to Patience’s ear, to gentle her with his words as if she were a frightened colt, poised to bolt, but when her hand became final y free, she grabbed a different spoke.

Jasper looked at him and sighed.

Grant shook his head. “Try again. The minute that hand’s free, I’l hold it so you can remove the other.” Patience held the wheel in a death-grip, but they final y tore her away. “No, they’l die, my girls, the sailors. I can’t let them die.”

Grant lifted her in his arms. “Hush, love. They’re safe.

Jasper is taking the wheel now, see?” He knew she must understand because she calmed in his embrace. “Jasper, get us back on course. Dublin can finish my watch.” Grant carried Patience toward his cabin, his climb down the hatch, a study in balance. When he tried to lower her into Shane’s bunk, she took such a stranglehold of his neck, he almost choked. She gripped him tight as she had the wheel. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t seem to see him. Balancing her, he yanked Shane’s blankets free of his bunk, hooked a chair leg with his foot to turn it and sat with her on his lap, Shane’s bedding in a heap nearby.

He kissed her forehead, alarm biting his bel y.
She
could have been washed overboard. He pul ed her closer. “My brave little sailor, we need get you out of your wet clothes or you’l catch your death. Me too. If you were yourself, I’d suggest we get naked together, just to see your cheeks turn pink. But it’s no fun teasing you unless you can fight back. I do so enjoy our little squabbles.”