Under Her Brass Corset (20 page)

“Where did you get that?”

“A story for another time.” He stood and tucked the Compass in his pocket, then reached up and grabbed the rope ladder dangling on the side of the
Illusion
.

All his thoughts went into rescuing Abigail from Eric’s clutches, and then confessing to everything he’d kept from her, including how deeply he had fallen in love with her.

Abigail stared at the man in the dark suit and short dark hair. She saw a little of her father in his face. Blackbeard the pirate—William Thatch—William Drummond—Edward Teach. So many aliases. Did she dare believe it possible he lived an immortal life? She had seen for herself the wounds on Jasper magically healing.

“The newspaper articles describe you a bit differently,” she said.

“That was another life, child.” He touched her face with long, thin fingers. “You are the spitting image of your dear grandmother with the same beautiful eyes that attracted me to her. I bet you have an adventurous soul like her as well. And I see you wear the mother-of-pearl shell cameo I gave her when your father was born.”

She covered the brooch with her hand. He grandmother had said it was a gift from her grandfather. It didn’t seem real that she meant Blackbeard. Yet after all that had happened, she believed him.

“That thieving scoundrel Jasper Blackthorn said you were alive,” she told him, hoping her emphasis on thieving would shift away their need of her.

“He’s been many things since our pirating days. The thieving may be accurate, but a scoundrel, never. The man has a chivalrous soul. Not to mention a sensitive one. I remember a time he only wanted to sail around in that ship of his and write poetry. Then he took to tinkering with tools and making dang contraptions the likes no one had ever seen. He even made that arm for Eric.”

“I don’t believe it. He detests him,” Abigail charged.

“Maybe now, but there was a time he watched after the boy. Just the same way he’s watched over you. Jasper’s a loyal one, keeping an eye out for my children and grandchildren. The one thing I didn’t expect was for him to take a special liking to your father and mother. They had become the closest to friends he’s had since becoming immortal. He never learned how to handle death—goes all to pieces, blubbering like a woman. That’s why it surprised me after all these decades he had taken up with befriending your family. Now I see why.”

“If you’re suggesting he was interested in me when I was a child—”

“Nothing so tawdry, dear. Jasper is an honorable man. Yet I can see how tempting you became once you were all grown up.”

“Enough of the little reunion.” Eric came forward, swinging his arm with the artificial hand, to which he’d attached a sharp blade. “I want to know where the map is that shows where you’ve hidden the
real
bottle of water.”

Abigail gulped down her fear and lifted her chin to show her defiance. “I don’t have the map anymore and you already had the bottle.”

“And it was ordinary water.” He held up his arm, brandishing the cut she accidentally gave him after she’d pushed him into a stack of crates on his ship.

“I told you, boy. That map and bottle aren’t important. It’s the glass sphere Jasper has hidden away,” her grandfather said.

“You know about the Compass of Avalon?” she asked, saddened that Blackbeard had lived up to some of his reputation. Jasper would have told him about the Compass out of trust, and now her grandfather was betraying him.

“Of course. Jasper told me all about it years ago, but he wouldn’t show it to me. He said it was dangerous to let anyone have it because armies of immortals could be made on a whim. I told him that wouldn’t be so bad, having the command of thousands. The seas…No, the world would be ours to rule.”

“You sent Eric to kill my father and ransack my home?”

“Your father’s dead?” He turned an angry glare at Eric. “Did you kill my son?”

“He was in the way.”

“Boy, I told you to get the sphere.” He marched over to Eric and slapped him in the head with no more effort than if he scolded a five-year-old. “Family is important and you can’t go around killing them.”

“That’s all you have to say to him?”

“We can’t change things, now can we? I guess it was a bad plan on my part to send your grandmother that map. Though I have to say, I did a good job convincing Jasper he should hide the sphere there. After all, he was always visiting the place.”

“I can’t believe you’re not more upset about him killing my father, your son.” She shook with anger.

“When you’ve pirated for as long as I have, you get used to death. You know Jasper saved me from that fate. If not for him, that bloody Lieutenant Robert Maynard would have killed me in that brutal battle on Ocracoke Island. Him and his men managed to shoot five musket balls into me and lacerated me body over a dozen times with their swords. But that there brave Jasper, he fought the lot of them and then dragged me into safe hiding. He gave me a vial with some water in it and he told me to drink it. It saved me life. If that weren’t enough, he led Maynard away from finding me. I heard later that fool Maynard cut off the head of one of me crew and hung it from his yardarm, touting it was me own head.”

“Let’s stop this reminiscing and discuss the magic water,” Eric said to the man claiming to be her grandfather. “She and Blackthorn found the bottle you buried and I drank it, but I don’t feel any different. The cut on my arm hasn’t healed.”

“Maybe you cut yourself too soon, before the water had a chance to take effect. Cut yourself again, boy,” Blackbeard told him.

Abigail watched Eric slice his arm with the knife attached to his artificial limb. Blood bubbled up through his blue sleeve.

“Damn, that stings,” he grumbled. “How long?

Blackbeard tugged Eric’s sleeve up. “Should have started immediately. Something that small can heal in less than a minute.” He turned to her. “What’d he drink, dear?”

She didn’t answer.

“That bitch gave me sea water.” Eric lunged for her.

Blackbeard stopped him. “Easy boy, we’ll get you the real thing.”

“How?”

“Jasper. He’ll come here for help in finding her. Then we can negotiate the trade for that device he says locates the closest supply of water from Avalon.”

Eric paced back and forth in the small room. Twice he tripped on the small rug by the door.

“I’m tired of waiting.” Eric struck the vase on a table and sent it flying into a wall, and then turned to her. “Was that really the bottle Edward buried or did you set me up and pretend all along you went to that island to dig it up?”

“Pretend? I’ve been skeptical of this immortality claim from the start. I’d never go along with any plan to pretend anything. However, I’m not stupid enough to take a chance, so when I saw a puddle of water behind the rock, yes, I poured out whatever was in the bottle and refilled it with that.”

Eric swung his blade-tipped arm around as if it was a harmless stick. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Enough!” her grandfather demanded. “Blackthorn will show up with the Compass.”

“He’ll never give it to you.” Abigail glared at him. “I’d rather die than let you get hold of the Crystal Compass of Avalon.”

The door on the other side of the room burst in as if a strong wind pushed with all its might. Jasper stood in the shattered framework with Adam behind him.

“Stay right where you are.” Eric grabbed her and held her in front of him like a shield. “I want the Compass.”

Jasper’s brow furrowed as he entered. He glared her way. Adam entered and stepped to Jasper’s side.

“You told him about the Compass, Edward?” he asked, disappointment in his tone.

“Sorry, Jasp, guess I wasn’t thinking,” her grandfather replied, exhibiting remorse she knew he didn’t feel.

“He told Eric on purpose, Jasper,” she said so he would not blindly trust Blackbeard as the friend he thought he was.

“I know,” Jasper answered.

“How?” Blackbeard asked.

“Eric’s comment about a family reunion. It didn’t sound right that he should mention something like that when you and he always acted as if you’d not have anything to do with one another. And yet, no matter how rotten Eric was, you kept asking me to look out for him. I didn’t want to suspect you of helping him, but then, you are a pirate.”

“It’s nothing personal, Jasp. Think of the power we’d have. You could join us, command your own ship. That goes for you too, Sutterby.”

“Count me out, old dog.” Adam wandered around the room, studying pictures on the wall as if he was there just to observe. “Jasp and I do just fine commanding our own ships already. We don’t need the trouble piracy will bring.”

“Your own ship?” Jasper questioned Adam with an amused look.

She knew Adam no longer had a ship. That was the reason for him joining them. Seeing Jasper joke with Adam made her happy. They had finally showed signs of patching up their differences.

“Well, Blackthorn, where is it?” Eric demanded.

Jasper pulled what she’d once called her snow globe from his pocket. With her final trust in its powers and her acceptance that immortality existed, the small glass sphere was more important than the trinket she once thought it to be.

“This?” Jasper held the Crystal Compass in the palm of his hand.

“That’s no compass,” Eric scoffed.

Jasper spit on the ball and a pattern of lights flew out, arcing in all direction.

“Give it to me.” Eric’s grip on her arm loosened.

“Come get it.” Jasper sat the Compass on a table and moved away.

Eric pulled his pistol out and aimed it at her as he advanced on the Crystal Compass. When the men had exchanged places, Eric stood between Jasper and Adam. He picked up the Compass and peered inside it with awe at the intricate gears. She knew the mesmerized feeling of amazement. Such detail to the design would flabbergast anyone. She heard his sigh of astonishment when he shook the globe and the tiny particles of glittering energy swirled inside.

Even she was caught off guard when Jasper leaped at Eric. Not so much because of the ruckus; that was to be expected. The pain in her stomach, however, had a crippling effect on her stance. Darkness narrowed her vision.

Jasper wrestled with Eric, ripping his opponent’s artificial arm from the leather harness strapped over his shoulder. Eric swung at him with his good limb, connecting with the Compass. The glass ball flew from his grip and hit his head. Jasper felt the impact and heard a
crack
. He hoped it was his skull and not the glass sphere.

“Jasper!” Adam yelled, leaping over Jasper and grappling for control of Eric.

“Sort of busy.” Jasper grabbed the Compass from the floor and got to his feet. “Here, hold this while I kill the bastard.” He turned, tossed the Compass to Adam and moved to go after Eric, who was already fleeing the house. His brief glimpse of an alarming image on the floor by Adam stopped him and he turned back.

Edward held Abigail slumped in his arms. The light green of her dress enhanced a red stain spreading over her midsection.

“Eric’s bullet hit her, Jasp,” Edward muttered in shock. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. You got to know that, boy. She’s my granddaughter.”

Jasper rushed to her. “Abigail?” He placed his fingers on the side of her neck. “She still has a pulse.”

He took the Compass from Adam and spit on it. The moisture activated the device. He felt the vibration of the tiny gears turning inside the glass. When the light arced from the crystal, he looked out the door.

“That’s the direction of Ocracoke Island.” He tucked the compass in his pocket and lifted Abigail in his arms. “I have to get her back there as quick as possible.”

“I’m going with you.” Edward hurried ahead, kicking debris out of the way.

“No.” Jasper hurried through the doorway and then turned back to Edward. “You better pray she doesn’t die, because I swear, I’ll kill you and have your head hanging from my yardarm until the birds pick your skull clean.”

He and Adam made their way to the beach where they’d left the little rowboat hidden in the sea oats. A storm approached. The water had white caps even in the bay.

“Here, we’ll take that one.” Adam pointed out where someone had tied a larger boat to the pylon of a wood dock. “It’ll move faster across the rough water.

Adam took Abigail and held her while Jasper jumped into the boat. Jasper reached up and took her back into his arms and settled on the backseat to let Adam row them out to the
Illusion
.

“Abigail, can you hear me?” Jasper cradled her close, feeling her heart beating where he pressed his hand against her wound. “Abigail, I’m going to fix this.”

She made an incoherent sound, nothing more. Adam pushed them from the dock and took up the oars. It seemed to take forever for the boat to get to his ship. Even longer was the climb up the rope ladder while toting Abigail on his shoulder.

“I think I can manage getting the rowboat cradled. You take her below and make her comfortable. Keep pressure on that wound.”

Jasper went straight to attending Abigail on the main deck. He laid her on the wood and pulled his shirt off over his head.

“Abigail?” He knelt next to her and tore at the hole the bullet had made in her dress.

She moaned when he pressed the wadded shirt against the gash.

“Abby, everything will be all right. Trust me.”

“Thank you, sir. I trust you,” she mumbled. “You always make everything all right.”

“Isn’t she being formal,” Adam commented, stooping down. “I’d sail your ship, but I’m afraid I don’t know the working of this one-man vessel. You get us going and I’ll take care of her.”

Jasper hesitated. The last woman he’d left in Adam’s care had died.

“Go on, Jasp.” Adam pushed his shoulder. “Things don’t have to end the same for her as it did for Isabel and the baby.”

Jasper got up and hurried to the boiler room. The furnace never had so much wood packed into its belly at one time before. Then he went through the paces of hoisting the anchor, raising the sails and navigating them out of the bay. All the while, what Abigail had said gnawed at his thoughts.

The fall on the stoop where she’d dropped the roses.

The thorn in her finger that he had plucked free.

The puppy hiding under the bushes where she couldn’t reach.

How many times had he told her to trust him? That everything would be all right. Her brave answer was always,
“Thank you, sir. I trust you.”
Did she remember him?