And that includes my husband.
I let go.
I fall through the air, my gown flapping around me as I twist my body away from the boat so as not to hit the rudder.
The water meets me like a slap to the face.
And everything goes dark and very, very cold.
CHAPTER 3
Ramsay
“They’re Danish, Cap’n,” my bosun, Crazy Eyes, says as he walks over to me, folding up the spyglass. “Looks to be a navy ship from the Dano-Norwegian line, a big-un at that, but she’s a bit too quiet than she oughta be.”
I look around, my eyes scanning the waters in front and behind of the vessel that serendipitously crossed our path this evening. “For a supposed ship of the line, there looks to be no one else in her line. I’d wager she’s easy pickings.”
“Think she has anything worthwhile on board?” the bosun asks.
I shrug and give him an encouraging smile. “We’ll have to find out, won’t we, bosun?”
He laughs and looks through the spyglass again as I turn the wheel enough to bring the Nightwind closer to the mystery ship. She’s a beauty all right, and I can see with my own eyes now that she doesn’t have the crew of a naval ship in service. Either they’re transporting precious cargo, or precious people.
“What do you think, Captain?” Sam asks as she runs up the stairs to me in the forecastle. “Do we hold back?”
I give her a tepid look. It’s not often that Sam shows any restraint. “I think we’re going to politely ask the Norsemen to surrender whatever it is they have—and then themselves.”
She snorts. I am quite polite, but only after I’ve slit a few throats.
“Do you think that’s the Elephanten?” she asks. “You heard of it, the one that the Danish prince and princess are on. They’ve been spotted about these waters on their travels. Could be their ship.”
“A prince and a princess?” Crazy Eyes says. He looks delighted. “Mayhaps they have treasures we’d never even imagined. A crown I could fix on me head!”
“Possibly,” I muse. In all my years sailing the high seas, I’d never intercepted a royal ship before. Our usual route across the Pacific only had us overtaking Spanish galleons and the occasional Chinese junk ship. “They might have jewels and crowns on board. Or they might have something more valuable than that.”
“What’s that?” he asks.
“Themselves.”
Sam smacks me on the arm. “Careful, Bones. We don’t need to bring any more people on board than we usually do. They start to smell after a while.”
I give my mariner another wry look. “My dear sister-in-law, this would be a real hostage. Not the ones you discard, but ones you can hold for ransom and negotiations. For money. You don’t think the King of Denmark will want his son and daughter-in-law back? He’d have to pay a hefty price, mark that.”
“So, this has turned into a legitimate kidnapping operation,” she says with a sigh. “You know I hate having to hold myself back.”
“You’ll manage.” I clear my throat and look across the ship at my crew, who are awaiting my instructions.
“Listen here now, lads,” I boom. Sam stopped rolling her eyes at being called a lad a long time ago. “A bit of a different approach for tonight. That pretty ship there, she’s up for grabs and she’s a Danish navy ship at that. If the lady here is correct, there’s a prince and a princess on board.”
“Ooooh,” the crew says with a laugh.
“And I’ve taken a notion to them being worth more alive than dead. Sure, we’ll take their loot if they got ’em, and we’ll do our best with some of their crew, but when we take the royal couple aboard, I don’t want a hair on their heads touched. Well. Unless the prince is wearing one of them periwigs. Then feel free to toss it overboard.” I look down at Sterling McCoy. “You best get the cell ready for them.”
He nods from the quarterdeck, jangling the jailer keys at his side.
“Still and patient, lads,” I tell the crew, keeping my hands steady on the wheel. “We should be able to take this ship with our eyes closed.” I glance up at the Greek on the mizzenmast above me, hanging like a monkey. “Drakos, bring in the mizzen. Soon as we’re close I want you and Lothar swinging aboard. Take out their mast and rigging. They won’t even see you coming in the dark.”
Drakos grins at me and nods. He’s always such a happy-go-lucky lad, but nights like this light him up like the fireworks we saw over Malacca.
“Deck to be cleared fore and aft!” Thane yells as he storms down the middle of the deck, hands behind his back. “Hammocks up and chests down!”
“Bring small arms up to the quarterdeck and every man to his post,” I add, making sure my voice is louder than my brother’s. Though he’s the quartermaster, I am the captain, and he often seems to confuse the two. Doesn’t help that the crew tends to listen to him more than they listen to me. “And snuff the lights. It’s time we go dark!”
A small cry of enthusiasm goes up, followed by the silence we need by going dark. Henry and Lucas, two of our page boys, run around snuffing out all the lights on the Nightwind until I know that we’re invisible to the other ship. But the other ship isn’t invisible to us.
“Hoist the colors?” Cruz, my first mate asks me.
“Aye. They won’t see them in the dark but I like the formality.”
“Hoist the colors!” Cruz yells as Sam starts hoisting the red flag affixed with a white skull up the mast.
Thane comes up beside me. “You verily sure this is a good idea, Captain?” As always he exaggerates the word captain.
“This might be one of the last ships we see before we hit Los Pintados. We need supplies for us and for Lucas and the boys, and we need money.”
“We have enough money.”
I scoff. “Money for today, but what about tomorrow?”
“And you reckon holding a prince and princess hostage for months will result in anything? Might take that long before the king hears of this, and then what?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead, brother, but like you said, we have plenty of time for thinking. We’ll just make sure we keep one crew member alive long enough to kick them overboard. They’ll swim to shore and spread the word just as we leave the islands. Maybe we’ll leave a few survivors here as well. Be merciful for once.”
Thane’s golden eyes narrow thoughtfully. “It’s a gamble. By the time we get to Acapulco, they might be old news.”
“Then we kill them. No harm, no foul.”
“There is something to be said for keeping things simple. First you wanted to go hunting, which will lead us on a daft chase around the ocean, now you want to add people to our crew.”
“We’re not press-ganging them,” I remind him. “Now, if you please, I’d like my quartermaster to pick up the slack.”
His jaw tightens as it always does when I order him about. Something to do with him being born first and expecting his brother to cower at his feet.
I turn my attention back to the royal ship. Judging by the yelling from onboard, they’ve spotted us despite the cover of night, which means they’ll be going on the defensive any moment now. It takes a lot of round shots at close-range to damage the Nightwind—any good ship can take a real beating from the guns and come out fine—but even so I’d rather she come out unscathed.