Captain of My Heart (55 page)

“Lift the sail,” Brendan commanded, not
wanting to look, but knowing that he must if he was to live the
rest of his life without the specter of Crichton hanging over
him.

Wordlessly, the lieutenant did as he was
asked, and it was enough.

A jagged piece of wood some five feet in
length had driven itself straight through Crichton’s bowels,
impaling him to the deck.

Brendan turned away. The nightmare was
over.

Beneath them, the doomed frigate moaned, and
the deck tilted still further over. Wordlessly, Brendan replaced
the bloodied sail cloth over Crichton’s face, and straightening up,
motioned for Stafford to follow him. Time was running out if they
wanted to escape the dying ship.

And he had somewhere he wanted to be.

Moments later, he and Stafford were back
aboard
Kestrel
, whose boat was picking up the remaining
survivors, and standing together at the rail as they solemnly
watched the frigate’s last moments. Bathed in the fiery afternoon
light,
Viper
sighed and with a deep and awful groan, finally
capsized, her tallowed underside glistening wet in the fading
afternoon sun. She floated that way for five minutes, maybe ten,
then, slowly began to sink.

Brendan felt someone tugging at his arm. “Not
now, Dalby.”

But Dalby didn’t answer, the tugging
persisted, and with a start, Brendan opened his eyes.

And saw that it was not Dalby, but Mira, and
that he lay in his old room at the Ashton house, in his old bed,
with his new wife—which was exactly where he wanted to be.

“Nightmare?” she asked, her impish green eyes
wide with love and concern.

He smiled and drew her close, pressing his
lips against her hair and gazing out through the open window at the
dawn just pinkening the sky outside. “Nay, s
tóirín,
” he
murmured, softly. “Just a dream. The nightmare, I daresay, is
over.”

“Well, then, shall we get up and greet our
first day as Captain and Mrs. Merrick?”

“Aye, lass. But first, we have some catching
up to do,” he murmured, and pushing his hands beneath her thick,
heavy hair, he lowered his head to hers and claimed her lips in a
kiss. “A lot of catching up to do.”

Epilogue

The
Essex Gazette,
September 15,
1779

After setting his prize—not his own
ship—afire, and using it to cut a hole through the British fleet at
Penobscot and dashing through it to make his escape, the brave
Captain Merrick gallantly brought his sharp-sailing schooner
Kestrel
off Newburyport, where he engaged in a heated battle
with Captain Richard Crichton in His Majesty’s frigate
Viper
that was witnessed by many from the shores of Plum
Island.

We are happy to report that despite being
outgunned, Captain Merrick managed to get the better of his
superior rival and, taking advantage of both tide and the seabed,
caused such damage to the British ship that she foundered and sank
within sight of all who witnessed this stunning affair.

There was no mention of the brave Captain
Merrick’s collapse following his ingenious escape from Penobscot,
nor of Lieutenant Liam Doherty’s taking over command of
Kestrel
and keeping her out to sea for a few weeks, long
enough for his captain to recover from the abuse he’d suffered at
Crichton’s hands, and a thirty-foot fall from
Kestrel’
s
rigging. But that didn’t matter, as far as Ephraim was
concerned.

The important details were all right
here.

Upon bringing his schooner safely into
Newburyport to the rousing cheers of the town, our heroic Captain
Merrick found himself rewarded with the finest prize of all—Miss
Mira Ashton— the happy couple tying the knot within moments of
Captain Merrick’s triumphant arrival.

Crichton dead and gone, never able to harm
his family again.
Kestrel
tied up down at the wharf, both
she and her captain restored to their former glory. Matt and
Eveleen happily married, and Mira and her cooking and her bleedin’
cats now Captain Merrick’s problem.

Ahh, life could sure be good, even to an old
man.

Cackling with glee, Ephraim Ashton,
shipbuilder, picked up the paper and read the passage a second
time.

And then he licked the jelly from his fingers
so as not to get any on the Marine News section, carefully rolled
up the paper, and made his way to Davenport’s Wolfe Tavern,
chuckling all the way.

THE END

About the
Author:

Bestselling, multi-award winning and
critically acclaimed author Danelle Harmon has written ten books,
previously published in print and distributed in many languages
worldwide. Though a Massachusetts native, she has lived in Great
Britain and is married to an Englishman; she and her husband make
their home in New England with their daughter Emma and numerous
animals including four dogs, an Egyptian Arabian horse, and a flock
of pet chickens. Danelle welcomes email from her readers and can be
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