Pirate Wolf Trilogy (135 page)

Thanks to William’s
warning, Gabriel anticipated the direction of Muertraigo’s initial
attack. It came out of the darkness as the Spaniard launched a
series of blinding cuts and slashes. Each stroke was fuelled by the
arrogance of a master swordsman and Gabriel was forced to go on the
defensive from the outset. He narrowly missed a thrust to his hip
and another across his chest before he settled his balance and
adapted to the stunning swiftness of Muertraigo’s sword.

Steel clashed on steel,
with sparks flying off both blades as the two opponents searched
for any opening to strike. Muertraigo challenged and feinted,
testing Dante’s skill as well as his nerve, and grudgingly admired
his ability to anticipate and block thrusts that would have sent a
lesser swordsman reeling.

They circled like birds of
prey, striking hot and fast, their blades moving in a blur, only to
fall back and catch a breath, blink the sweat out of their eyes,
and circle again. Both men scored cuts, both had slashes, nicks,
and blood spattering their clothes. They grunted through the effort
it took to drive an attack forward and cover the entire wide
clearing, sending the circle of men scattering farther back into
the trees each time.

Gabriel saw a wink of
silver in the dirt and the fraction of an instant it took him to
recognize Eva’s discarded locket cost him dearly. Muertraigo’s
blade hacked across his ribs, cutting the flesh to the
bone.

He spun away, groaning with
the pain, and the Spaniard, hearing him, was relentless in pursuing
his advantage. He slashed and sliced in a flurry of brilliant
strokes that were too fast to block or turn away and Dante was
forced back into a shallow furrow in the ground. He lost his
footing and skidded sideways, but his balance was broken and he had
no chance to recover. He saw the flash of steel lunging toward him
and he saw the triumphant look in Muertraigo’s eyes. He braced his
arm to take the blow but at the last possible second, angled his
sword so that the tip slid along the oncoming steel. He twisted his
arm with every ounce of strength he had remaining, and in a move he
had only seen executed successfully once before, snapped the
tension in Muertraigo’s wrist, causing his fingers to spring open
and the hilt of the sword to fly out of his hand.

Shocked, Muertraigo
stretched out to try keep hold of the hilt, giving Dante a clear,
unguarded opening. He slashed his blade up and across, severing
Muertraigo’s arm at the elbow.

“That was for my mother,”
he gasped, “and this—“ he drew back and thrust again—“is for daring
to touch the woman I love.”

Muertraigo felt something
punch through his chest. He screamed in shock and horror as the
double-edged length of steel was driven into his body. It carried
enough anger, vengeance, and sheer force of will to lift him off
his feet and skewer him to the trunk of a tree. His spine was
shattered and his limbs turned instantly to jelly. His upper body
sagged forward, the stump of his arm gouting blood, and he was dead
before the hilt stopped quivering.

Dante staggered back, his
chest heaving for breath. The front of his shirt was drenched red
with blood. His legs buckled, sending him heavily to his
knees.

He heard someone screaming
his name and he saw a flash of long bare legs dashing toward him,
but then he slumped forward and saw nothing at all.

EPILOGUE

“After all that’s happened, I’ll not be sorry
to see the last of this place,” said William Chandler, a tear
leaking down his cheek as he looked down over the two graves. They
had been dug in a shaded patch of wildflowers overlooking the
glittering silver water of the bight. After a month, grass and
flowers had already covered the mounds, leaving only the markers to
show what lay beneath. One of the graves bore a polished wood
crossbow, the other a sword with a crimson and black sash wrapped
around the hilt.

Evangeline leaned her head against her
father’s arm, her eyes red-rimmed from weeping. The
Cormorant
was leaving today, sailing for home. So much had
happened, so much had changed.

“Will you remain in England?” she asked
quietly.

“Only long enough to fulfill Billy’s wishes
for his mam. She’s going to be a very rich baker.”

“Money does not make up for such terrible
losses,” she said, wiping at a fresh rush of tears.

“No. No it doesn’t, lass.”

They heard a strangled snort behind them and
glanced back to see Rowly blowing his nose in the hem of his shirt.
“I blessed well told him there was too much powder in that last
bell, but did he listen? Nay, nay. He had to pack it full didn’t
he? And now look where he is. He’s lucky we found enough pieces to
give a proper burial.”

“Master Giddings accomplished what he set out
to do,” Gabriel said. “He opened a hole in the wreck large enough
to empty her belly of every last ounce of treasure. I’ve no doubt
he and Billy Crab have their heads together right now thinking of
other, bigger ways to blow things up.”

Rowly nodded. He nodded again as if affirming
the hopeful thought in his own mind before waving a last farewell
to his mate’s grave and returning to the caverns to have one last
look around. In another month Mother Nature would do her part and
cover the trampled earth around the camp and the entrance to the
caverns with gorse and weed. In a year the terrain would change so
much even those who knew where the hulk lay would be hard-pressed
to find the way in again.

The
Endurance
had returned two days
after the final confrontation with Muertraigo, and was anchored
alongside Geoffrey Pitt’s
Christiana
in the bight. Stubs had
brought the news that neither the
Avenger
, belonging to
Simon Dante, nor the
Tribute
, captained by Jonas Dante had
returned to Pigeon Cay. While on New Providence, there had been
reports of a second attempt by the Spanish to send a small treasure
fleet home and they were curious to know what or who was on board
to prompt them taking such a risk. Juliet had taken the
Iron
Rose
out of port, ostensibly to test her repairs, but more
likely to chase after her father and brother and join the hunt.

That had left only the
Christiana
to
return to Espiritu Santu to support the
Endurance
. The two
ships had come into the bight, bristling with open gunports, but to
Stubs’ cap-stomping disappointment, the fun was over. All that
remained was to help with salvaging the treasure and load it aboard
the ships.

“It will give me great pleasure to change the
name of my company back to what it was before Lawrence Ross came
along,” William declared. “Chandler Shipping. And with the wealth
we carry home in the hold of the
Cormorant
, we will build a
fleet to rival anything the Dutch, the French, or anyone else has
sailing the Ocean-Sea.”

“What will happen to him now?” Eva asked.

“Ross? We’ve put him on board but Doc Podd
figures the gangrene has spread up his arm and he won’t live out
the week.”

Eva tried to arrange her face in an
expression of sympathy but failed.

William chuckled, seeing her struggle, and
plopped his hat on his head. “Well, Daughter, I should get myself
on board as well before those bastards sink her with the weight of
the gold they’ve managed to stuff in their breeches. That, plus
what she has in her holds should make her waddle like a women
birthing twins. Are you certain you’ve taken enough for your share,
Captain?”

“Half was more than generous,” Gabriel
assured him.

“More practical than generous, lad,” William
chuckled. “The sooner I spend through my share, the sooner I’ll
have to come back and take up the life of a privateer with my new
son-in-law.”

Eva gasped. “Father!”

“Oh hush, Daughter. He’s already asked for my
blessing and I’ve already given it, and most heartily so.”

Her eyes widened. “He has?” She looked at
Gabriel. “You have?”

Dante shrugged. “I had to give your father a
good reason not to take you home to Portsmouth with him. Marriage
seemed as good as any.”

She lifted an eyebrow and refrained from
elbowing his injured ribs. “How endearingly romantic.”

“I can be a romantic fellow,” he agreed. When
she sighed, he laughed and swept his wide-brimmed hat off his head
and went down on one knee. William rolled his eye and Eva was about
to pull her hand out of his to stop the silliness, when he withdrew
something from beneath his shirt.

It was Eva’s silver locket, cleaned and
polished and mounted on a shiny new chain. The last time she had
seen it, Muertraigo had torn it from around her neck and flung it
away into the shadows. She had gone back to search for it half a
dozen times over the past month, but had become resigned to the
fact it was lost forever, either trampled into the soft ground or
taken by one of the men.

She smiled with gratitude and lifted the
locket out of Gabriel’s hand, her throat closing too tight to
express how much it meant to have it back.

“Open it,” he said.

She swallowed, determined not to shed any
more tears, and flicked the tiny hasp with her fingernail. When it
opened, she gave a little cry and the watery floodgates burst open
again despite her resolve.

It was the ring. The plain gold ring she had
found hidden in the coral box.

Gabriel rose off his knee and took the ring
out of the locket. He slipped it gently on her finger then raised
her hand to his lips.

“It isn’t all I have to give thee, my love,
not by a far cry… but it is a jolly good start.”

THE END

I hope
you have enjoyed this trilogy. If you want more sea-faring
adventures, you might try
The Wind and the Sea
and
Bound by the Heart
.

Please
check my website at
www.marshacanham.com
for a complete list of all my historical romance
novels.