The Pirate Ruse (13 page)

Cristabel could hear it then—shouting
, pistol fire, heavy footsteps racing across the deck overhead. The
Merry Wench
was under attack.

“Seems it’s revenge they’re after, lads!” Navarrone shouted as the
Screaming Witch
drew broadside of the
Merry Wench
. The
Witch
had not fired her guns, and he surmised she had spent her ammunition stores on taking the
Chichester
. “They’ll swarm our deck…but we’re the crew of the
Merry Wench
! And hell itself could not defeat us!” He smiled as his men roared with cheering—even in the face of battle—at being outnumbered at least two to one. “Strike swift and hard, lads! Show no mercy…for they fly the bloody banner and will surely show none!”

He watched as the crew of
the
Screaming Witch
climbed her rigging and began to swing over to the deck of the
Merry Wench
. He thought of Cristabel Albay hidden in his cabin—hoped she would not allow her stubbornness to rule her actions.

“Stay there, love.
Stay there,” he whispered as two members of the
Witch
’s crew advanced on him. He grinned as the two pirates suddenly realized who was before them and paused, trepidation evident in their yellow eyes.

“Come on then,” Nava
rrone challenged them. “There’re two of you, after all. Don’t tell me you’re afraid to draw cutlass against the Blue Blade when you have the obvious advantage.”

His goading was sufficient to provoke them
, and they advanced. With lightning speed and skill, Navarrone ran his cutlass through one man’s chest, withdrew it, and watched the second man drop to the deck—Navarrone’s blade slitting the blackguard’s throat before he could blink.

“Bully Booth always did sail with idiots and fools,” Navarrone grumbled as he
rushed at a pirate advancing at James Kelley’s back. He easily dispatched the villain with one broad stroke and then took up the dead pirate’s cutlass and turned to face more. Wielding two blades, Navarrone fought an onslaught of attackers. One managed to strike him—at his back—and the wound was deep. Still, he took naught but a moment’s notice of it, for he would not see Cristabel Albay fall into the hands of the crew of the
Screaming Witch
, nor would he see one of his men cut down—not one.

Out of the
corner of his eye, he saw then a pirate skulking toward his cabin.

James was at his back
, and he shouted, “James Kelley!”

“Aye, Cap’n?” the lad asked.
The boy was strong—yet young—and Navarrone could hear the fatigue in his voice.

“To my cabin, boy!
Quick! I will hold these four…but you must best that one!” He nodded toward his cabin.

“Aye, Cap’n!” James Kelley shouted.
The lad was off then, leaving Navarrone at swordplay with four pirates about him.

Cristabel gasped as she heard the cabin door burst open. She clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out in terror. She could hear the battle raging on the deck of the
Merry Wench
—wept for her own fear and for the sake of the men doing battle.

“Where are you, wench?” a low, threatening voice growled.
“I saw that murdering Navarrone take hold of you and jump from the
Witch
and into the sea…after he’d killed our captain Bully Booth to have you. I’m sure he ain’t done with ya yet…so where are you, you trollop?”

Cristabel attempted to hold her breath
, but the great sobbing borne of dread was wracking her body, and she had to breathe. Would he hear her?

“Get out!”

It was James Kelley’s voice, and suddenly Cristabel’s concern was not for herself.

“How d
are you enter the cap’n’s cabin?” she heard James growl.

The pirate whose voice she did not know laughed.

“What? They sent a boy to face me? The Devil Wallace…pirate…and captain of the
Screaming Witch
?” the stranger roared with amusement. “A boy? This is who Navarrone sends to protect his wench? Where is she, boy?”

Cristabel heard James cry out—heard the clash of cutlass blades.

“What wench?” she heard James ask. “Cap’n Navarrone don’t keep women. And besides, he’ll run you through for stepping foot in his cabin.”

“Where is she
, boy? Where is the woman who cost Bully Booth his life?” the enemy pirate growled. “Bully Booth was my brother. And I will have my revenge on that woman…and Navarrone!”

There was more swordplay.
Cristabel tightly squeezed her eyes shut and ground her teeth, for her instincts were screaming in her mind—begging her to run to James Kelley’s aid.

“Ah, you’re a fair swordsman, boy,” the evil pirate chuckled.
“Would it be the Blue Blade himself who instructed you?”

“He taught me how to kill idiots, if that’s what you mean,” James growled.

“I’m weary of nursery games, lad,” the pirate growled.

Cristabel heard James cry out in agony
, and she could not bear it.

“Stop!” she cried as she pushed at the panel in the wall and revealed herself.
“Stop it! He’s only a boy!”

Plethoric tears sprang to her eyes
and drizzled over her cheeks as she saw James lying on the floor, writhing in pain.

“Ah, there you are, trollop,” the hideous pirate mumbled.

Cristabel grimaced at the sight of him—Bully Booth’s brother
, for it was plain obvious they shared the same lineage. The pirate who bore an uncanny resemblance to Bully Booth—long red hair, matted beard, yellow teeth—studied her through small, protuberant eyes resembling those of a rat.

“My brother is dead because of you!” he roared.

“Your brother is dead because h-he was weak!” she bravely countered.

The pirate lunged for her, but Cristabel quickly evaded him.
Dashing to the back of the room, she stood behind Navarrone’s desk. Each time the pirate the Devil Wallace attempted to circumvent it, she moved, keeping the broad desk between herself and a certain morbid end.

“My brother is dead because Navarrone is a coward!”
the Devil Wallace shouted. He was enraged, his face near the color of his dirty red hair. “He did not even face down my brother…simply murdered him for the want of a woman.”

The Devil Wall
ace turned his head and expectorated the contents of his foul mouth onto the cabin floor as a gesture of disrespect and disgust. Cristabel screamed as he slammed the blade of his cutlass on the desktop.

“I’ll have you, girl!” he roared.
“I’ll have you if it costs me my ship and crew. I’ll have you yet!”

“You’ll never have her,” Navarrone
growled.

Crista
bel gasped and wept with relief as she glanced to see Navarrone standing just inside the cabin. His white shirt was splattered with blood, yet he stood as handsome, as calm, and as confident in appearance as ever. Even for the danger lurking just at the other side of the desk and out on the deck, the thought traveled through Cristabel’s mind that the pirate Navarrone was as astonishing to look upon as ever any Greek or Roman god might have been. He tossed one of the two cutlasses he wielded to the floor—to James—and then ran a hand back through his hair. Cristabel watched as several of the shorter lengths of it tumbled back over his forehead.

“You’ll never have her…
and
you will lose your ship and crew,” Navarrone growled as he advanced. “Your life will be spent as well if you dare to match blades with me, Wallace Booth!”

“I will match blades with you, Navarrone!”
the Devil Wallace bellowed. “And when I’ve run my blade through your bloody heart…I’ll cut it out and boil it in my stew!”

Cristabel gasped as
the Devil Wallace lunged at Navarrone. Yet Navarrone easily evaded.

“You’re bested before you’ve begun, Wallace,” Navarrone
taunted. Again Wallace advanced—enraged to murder. Again Navarrone easily evaded.

Cristabel glanced to James—to where
he endeavored to move himself from the center of the room. She wanted to go to the boy, to aid him—with all her being she wanted to aid him.

She glanced to Navarrone
, but he glared at her—shook his head in indicating she should not make to move. She understood his unspoken warning—that she may well cause distraction enough to give the Devil Wallace an opportunity to strike, at either her or Navarrone. Thus, she swallowed the lump of fear and anxiety spurring her toward rushing to James and waited.

“Is that the best you have
to offer, Wallace?” Navarrone goaded the enemy.

“Not by a fathom!” Wallace growled, advancing once more.
This time blade met blade as the two pirates engaged in a battle of strength and skill. Cristabel covered her ears as the crash of steel rang in them.

The door to the cabin burst open
, and two more pirates from the
Screaming Witch
entered.

“Aye, lads!
Get the girl aboard the
Witch
!” the Devil Wallace shouted.

“James!” Navarrone growled.

Cristabel looked from Navarrone
, steeped in violent cutlass battle with the Devil Wallace, to where James had been lying on the floor. She gasped when she saw that he had somehow managed to rise to his feet and was facing the two pirates. Her instincts drove her to attempt to make her way past the Devil Wallace and Navarrone in order to aid James Kelley.

Drawing a deep breath
, she began to sprint toward the wounded boy.

“No!” Navarrone shouted.
Yet her feet carried her forward. Navarrone increased the measure of his aggression on the Devil Wallace, and Cristabel dashed beyond the two pirates locked in battle.

Without thinking, she reached down
, retrieving the spare cutlass Navarrone had discarded upon entering the room. Wielding the weapon clutched firm with both hands and braced at one shoulder, she ran straight for the two pirates advancing on James.

“Leave hi
m be!” she screamed. One pirate was startled into looking at her—stared at her as if he could not believe what he was seeing. The other, however, was intent upon James—intent upon James until Cristabel drove the cutlass blade into his chest.

Instantly, Cristabel released the cutlass
, sickened as she saw the manner in which it remained in the man’s body—as he looked at her in utter astonishment and sank to his knees.

“Why
, you little…” the other pirate began, raising his cutlass to strike.

Cristabel screamed as she felt her body
being yanked backward—saw Navarrone lunge forward from behind her and drive the blade of his cutlass into the man’s gullet.

“They’re running like rats, Cap’n!” Baskerville called as he hurried past the open cabin door.

“Aye!” Navarrone said.

Cristabel could not move.
Her body was still—unable to fathom the sight before her—at what she had done. She stood paralyzed with horrific awe.

“James Kelley!” she h
eard Navarrone say. “Are you able?”

“Aye, Cap’n,” James panted.
“Nothing a little stitching won’t solve, I hope.”

“Then attend the girl while I see what other damage has been done us.”

“I’ve killed a man,” Cristabel whispered. She could not yet move—felt as if she were sculpted from stone and would never move again.

She felt Navarrone take hold of her chin—looked at him as he turned her face toward his.

“You ran through a pirate that meant to murder James,” he said, scowling at her. “And he would have tortured and murdered you had he been given the chance. Do you understand?”

Cristabel nodded
, even though she could make no sense of Navarrone’s words.

“She is experiencing shock, James Kelley,” Navarrone told the wounded boy. “Baskerville! Baskerville!” he shouted.

Baskerville appeared at the doorway once more, “Aye, Cap’n?”

“Are they gone? Is the
Witch
setting sail?” Navarrone asked.

“Aye, Cap’n.”
Baskerville chuckled. “Them that’s still alive anyway.”

“And our crew?
How many lost?” Navarrone was concerned for his men, yet he knew Cristabel’s mind was failing her. James Kelley was wounded and could not care for her if her shock worsened.

“None, Cap’n.
Not one,” Baskerville answered, shaking his head with awed disbelief. “Some’s pretty cut though.” Baskerville looked to James then. “Yep. Looks to be we’ll be having us another stitching-up festival.”

Navarrone nodded.
“See to James Kelley, Baskerville,” Navarrone said. “I’ll be on deck in a moment more.”