The Cursed Doubloon (11 page)

It was time. I quivered against him, arching up and moaning with pleasure. He continued to thrust while quietly watching my face and pressing his solid hand against the skin of my lower back.

After regaining my senses I opened my eyes. He was looking down at me with seriousness, the same look that was always coupled with his passion for me. I ran my fingers through his hair. “That was more than I have ever dreamed,” I told him.

He smiled. “I agree. And I’ve dreamt it many times.”

“As have I.”

He laid his head against my chest and sighed. We laid in silence for a time, listening to the gentle rocking of the ship as it was moved by the gentle tide.

“I finally found out what I wanted,” he said.

“And what is that?”

“That your back arches quite wonderfully.”

“Yes,” I laughed. “I suppose it does. And I found out that you were right about the way you make love.”

“How do I make love?” He asked, raising his head and looking at me with a witty smile, knowing exactly what I was speaking of.

“With the current of the ocean just as you told me. When the ship rocked gently you rocked gently. When the waves crashed against it you reacted the same, vigorously thrusting inside of me like the angry sea hitting its wooden sides.”

“Was that too much for you?”

“Are you serious? No, not at all. It was exquisite.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” He pulled himself up and kissed me, smoothing his fingers along my cheek. “I watched you when you released yourself. You looked heavenly. It was the most glorious sight I have ever seen.”

“Do you want to see it again?” I flirted.

“Yes, as many times as I possibly can.”

I guided him off me and on to his back, straddling his naked body, readying myself to take my place as his lover the rest of the night.

* * *

“Show a leg, Lad!” my father howled outside of my door, jolting us out of a perfect slumber.

I rolled over and opened my eyes, taking note that the sun wasn’t quite up yet. “Go away, Father. We’re trying to sleep!”

His heavy hand slammed against the wood outside. “We be bein’ pursued!”

Ladarius stirred in bed next to me. “Pursued? By whom?” he asked.

“It be Keelhaul and his crew. They be catchin’ up with us through the night.”

Ladarius climbed over me and landed on the chilly cabin floor, picking up his trousers and sliding them on as quickly as he could. “Are you certain?”

“Aye.”

Ladarius pulled on his shirt and then opened the door. “Do you think he knows we have Melody?”

“Well why else would he be sailin’ toward us so quickly? We need to be gettin’ ready fer a fight!”

Ladarius glanced back at me with a troubled look. I knew exactly what he was worried about: my safety.

“We need to be raisin’ the flag,” John suggested hesitantly to my father.

He stroked his beard and looked up at his crew that was waiting for his orders. “We be raisin’ no flag.”

“But Captain—”

“We be raisin’ no flag!” His voice echoed down the length of the ship, stirring a seagull that was resting on the main mast from its sleep.

“Father,” I cut in, hoping to calm him. “What if John is right. Maybe we
should
raise the Yellow Jack. It’s not like it’s a sign of surrender.”

“It be out of the question!”

Ladarius leaned into my ear. “What is the Yellow Jack?”

“It’s a yellow flag which is flown to indicate the presence of an illness on board the ship. It is usually meant to indicate Yellow Fever.”

“Yellow Fever. Isn’t that what took your mother’s life?”

“Yes. And that’s what is most likely bothering my father so much. But I think John has a good idea. If we raise the Yellow Jack then it may trick Keelhaul and his crew into believing that we are all contagious on board. They would surely stay away from us.”

As if overhearing our conversation, John spoke up, “But Captain, Keelhaul will most likely be stayin’ away from us if he be thinkin’ we be sick.”

“Keelhaul be willin’ to risk his life to get Melody and the doubloon so he can gain passage to me treasure! The Yellow Jack won’t be deterrin’ him!”

“Then what do you suppose we do?” Ladarius asked.

“We be flyin’ the Pretty Red.”

“The Pretty Red?” Ladarius asked in a whisper.

“The Jolly Roger,” I told him. “It means we will give to quarter. We will spare no lives of our opponent.”

The crew muttered to each other with worry. “Do ye be havin’ a problem with me orders?” my father asked them. They reacted quickly, shaking their heads and replying no with certainty. “Good,” my father answered. “Now get to raisin’ the flag. And be ready fer a nasty fight.” The men dispersed throughout the ship and my father walked away with John glued to his side.

Ladarius faced me and placed the warmth of his hand against my cheek. “I am worried about you being on board, my Grace. This is not a place for such a fair woman to be. I fear they will take you, do things to you that I will have to kill them for.”

“Well, you are supposed to be killing them anyway, are you not?”

He managed a slight smile. “You and your attempts at being humorous. This is quite serious, my love.”

“Yes, I know.” I brought my arms around his shoulders and nuzzled my face into his neck. “But I am a tough woman. I can defend myself.”

“It’s not that I don’t agree, it’s just . . . I was on board with Keelhaul and his crew. They are not ruthless in the same way that you are used to seeing with your father’s crew. They have a brutality all their own. With cheerfulness they bragged about murderous pillages where they didn’t just kill people but tortured them horribly. They found humor in raping women. You have no idea the evil that is sailing toward us at this very moment.”

I sighed heavily and brought my head back to see his troubled face. “I suppose you are right about them then, if you know firsthand how they are. I’m sorry I took it so lightly.”

“Just stay hidden as much as you can. Will you promise me that?”

“I will try.”

“Don’t just try. They will take one look at your youthful beauty and take you for their own pleasure. I will never be able to forgive myself if that were to happen.”

“Ladarius,” I shushed him, “don’t worry. I will stay hidden. I can promise you that. But you must promise me to stay out of harm as well.”

“That might be a hard thing to do. Keelhaul is after me for stealing Melody back. He will likely want my head as his trophy to hang from his ship’s bowsprit.”

I shuttered at the thought. “That is why you must stay hidden as well.”

“I can’t just stay hidden; I have to fight with the crew. I am a part of them now. They welcomed me as their own and I will help them. It is my duty.”

I ran my hand over his forehead, twisting a short lock of his hair in my fingers. “I love you, Ladarius. And I’m scared.”

“I am scared as well. And I love you too, my Grace.” He leaned in and kissed me softly. I prayed that that kiss was not to be our last.

* * *

It took most of the day but Keelhaul’s ship was getting close. Ladarius had me go below deck to hide just before the sun was setting. He made sure I was armed with weapons— a dagger and a pistol—and told me to stay hidden in the shadows and only to fight if I were spotted. Before he left he made sure a single candle was lit in the large expanse of the room, providing an insignificant glow so I wouldn’t be in complete darkness once the sun was down for the night.

An hour had passed before I heard the warning shot of a cannon directed at our ship. My nerves agitated me and I huddled closer in my dark corner, hoping Ladarius and the rest of the crew were going to make it through the horrible fight. I jumped at the sound of one of our own cannons being fired off at our target. I pictured John on board somewhere above me, fastening his wooden boxes filled with scraps of metal and gunpowder to the side of the ship to be lit on fire. He reveled in the explosions that they made and he was rather good at concocting them. Although when he was younger a few of them had blown up in his presence before he could get far enough away, the flying debris contributing to the scars on his face.

The hurried footsteps above me turned frantic. I could hear the muffled shouts and cries of the members of our crew as more and more boots joined them on board. Keelhaul’s crew had made it onto our ship. I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing; the love of my life was up there as well as my father. In a rush of panic I began ransacking through what I could find of the crews dirty clothes, silently thanking Ladarius for leaving me with the lit candle to see. I happened to find a pair of trousers and a shirt close to my size, as well as a bandana to fasten around my hair to hide its length. I stripped off my dress and tugged everything on. Having no mirror to see if I could pass as a man, I prayed no one would notice and made another attempt to feel around my bandana, making sure all of my hair was tucked inside.

Climbing the stairs to the door that lead to the main deck was distressing. Every step that I took made the noise from the fighting above me amplify. The sounds of cutlasses clanking together frightened me, especially hearing the groans of men who had been sliced through. I gathered my courage and pushed the door open.

The length of the deck was filled with battling pirates who were fighting with all their might under the light of the moon and a few sparse candles in their lanterns. I was completely terrified. Trying to stay hidden, I sunk down behind a barrel and searched for Ladarius. He was nowhere in my sight.

A man gurgled and fell next to where I was hiding. Covering my mouth to keep from screaming, I realized that it was one of Keelhaul’s men. His eyes focused on me while he tried to speak, but the blood draining past his lips kept the words from making their way out.

An older pirate fell to his side. “Thomas!” he screamed. “Thomas, no!” I pulled the pistol out of the band of my trousers as the pirate sobbed on the man’s chest. As if hearing my movement, the man’s head shot over to see me. “You! It be you who killed me son!” He stood up and pulled his sword from its sheath but before he could come any closer I aimed my weapon and pulled the trigger, lodging a bullet into his gut. He grabbed the wound but continued to stagger toward me. Not being able to reload, I drew my dagger and jumped up, thrusting it into his chest before he had the chance to swing his sword. His heavy body fell on top of me and I screamed as we fell to the ground, beating him with my fist to try and get him off as the warm slickness of his blood drained out of him and into the fibers of my cotton shirt.

Once I gathered enough strength I pushed his weight off of me and he fell to the floor with a thud. He was the first person I had ever killed. As hard as it was to realize what I had done I had no choice but to ignore my thoughts and find Ladarius. I searched the expanse of the deck and took in the sight of Keelhaul’s ship looming next to our own. His was far bigger than ours, and I could see that fighting was taking place on it as well. Something caught my eye. It was a man, standing on board an upper deck with no one around him. He watched our ship quietly with his hands laced behind his back, the breeze moving the flaps of his long leather coat open to reveal a belt laced with five or six small pistols. I knew instantly that it was Keelhaul.

A group of men at the bow of the ship roared with victory. I strained to see through the commotion and gasped when I saw Ladarius being lifted above the crowd, his hands tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth. My heart sank as Keelhaul’s men quickly left our ship and went back to their own, taking Ladarius with them.

In a panic I looked around for my father but spotted John instead, who had blood smeared on his face. “John! John you must help him!”

It took him a second to recognize me but once he did he shook his head. “I can’t be helpin’ him. We be outnumbered by Keelhaul’s crew, and they’ve already killed off half of our own. I’m sorry, Grace.”

“But you must try!”

“I already be tellin’ ya, there be nothin’ we can do!”

“Well if you won’t help him then I will!”

“No Grace,” he begged, grabbing my arm. “Ye be killin’ yerself or worse by bein’ spotted. Go back down below and hide.”

“I will not hide when the love of my life is being carried off by a group of murderous pirates. If it were me Ladarius would risk his life trying to save my own.” I ripped my arm away from his grasp and took off down the length of the ship toward where the men boarded back onto
Hades Halo
, ignoring John’s pleas for me to come back. I stopped when I reached the bow and watched as Keelhaul descended to the deck below where Ladarius was.

“Silence!” Keelhaul’s voice was deep and raspy, and it stopped his men’s victorious cries in an instant. His crew parted as he walked through them with his hands still laced behind his back, stopping gingerly in front of Ladarius and sucking his teeth with disgust. “Hello, Lad. It be nice seein’ the likes of ye again.” I could see Ladarius’s chest rise and fall with the heavy breaths he was drawing in through his nose. Keelhaul inched closer, sticking his face right into his. “Do ye know what happens when a man tries to run a rig on me?”

“Tell ‘em Captain!” one of his men yelled out from the crowd.

The ugly captain grunted. “They don’t be callin’ me Keelhaul fer no reason. My favorite thing be to throw a man off the bow of me ship and drag him along the rocks below until he be dead. It be a fittin’ punishment fer the likes of ye, don’t ye think?”

I searched the eyes of my crew members, most of them aimed down at the ground. “We need to help him!” I shouted. “He’s going to kill Ladarius!”

“We don’t be standin’ a chance,” one of the men spoke up. “We will surely be dead if we board their ship.”

“But he is a part of this crew!” They stayed silent. I sighed heavily, releasing a puff of steam that floated into the cold air above me. My eyes followed its path and I gazed up at the stars in defeat. I tried desperately to rack my brain for a plan, anything that would get Ladarius away from that ruthless pirate, but I could come up with nothing.

“Well Lad,” Keelhaul continued, “I think it be time fer yer punishment.”

Without another word one of his men stepped forward and tied a rope around Ladarius’s ankles. “When should we be throwin’ him overboard, Captain? The ship not be movin’ yet.”

Keelhaul grunted. “We be havin’ more business to attend to upon
The Fog Chaser
. As much as I be wantin’ to drag him along the hull, I’ll just have him thrown overboard fer now. A death by drownin’. We’ll pull him along after we be finishin’ our dealin’s here.”

“Aye Captain.”

The men cheered and lifted Ladarius above them. He squirmed hard against the ropes that were around his wrists and ankles but there was no use; he was trapped in the torrent of angry pirates.

My eyes widened and filled with tears as I watched them carry the love of my life to the bow of the ship. I was at a loss of what to do. A single drop rolled down my cheek and left my skin, falling on my hand. It was then that I had an idea. “The pearl!” I took off down the ship and flew into my room, opening my bedside table drawer and pulling out Ladarius’s last pearl. “Where is my father?” I cried to myself.

I left my room and looked back at Keelhaul’s ship, only to see Ladarius being held up on the ledge. He looked so graceful in the moonlight, with his hair covered over with his red bandana and his gold hoop earring catching the light of the flickering lanterns. Even though he was still gagged he seemed to be breathing easier now, as if he was accepting his fate. Keelhaul approached him and stood behind him, untying his gag and dropping it to the floor. Ladarius spoke, his words lost in a small gust of wind so I could not hear. Keelhaul thrust his hands out in front of him and with a solid blow to Ladarius’s back he pushed him over the front of the ship.

“No!” I screamed. I ran across the deck to my father’s room and pushed open the door. There he was, sitting on his bed with the Cursed Doubloon in one hand and a pistol in his other. I didn’t expect to see him there.