“That’s it,” she murmured to herself. Rissa was climbing out of the trunk yet again. “That’s where this desire for revenge started.” Nick had distinguished himself in the battle against Yussef, but the Barbary pirate had managed to escape. The blow stung even more because Nick’s friend had been killed during the battle, and he blamed himself.
Quite suddenly, Ashley understood why and how Nick had become a pirate. He’d wanted vengeance against Yussef, but the royal navy would never have allowed Nick the freedom to pursue the pirate as he wished. So he’d left to avenge his friend, and in the process became a pirate himself. She stood and moved back through the blackness to the cave’s opening. She peered out at the small group of survivors on the beach. Just below she could see patches of the burned ground where the village had once been. Now Nick had more than simply his friend Ralph to avenge.
“Rissa,” she called as she made her way back into the cave. She replaced the medals and papers and arranged the coat so Rissa might pull it over herself once inside. “We’d better go down before we’re missed. I’ll ask Mr. Fellowes to carry this trunk down to the beach. After we say our farewells to your father, you hide inside, and I’ll make sure we are taken aboard.”
Rissa smiled. “I’m so happy you are my new mother! You are much braver than any other woman I know.”
Ashley nodded. Was she brave? Sneaking onto a vessel intent upon attack and a sea battle to the death? Her mother had always said what the Brittany children called bravery was but a mere shade from foolishness.
NICK HAD EXPECTED MORE tears when he said farewell to Rissa and Ashley. He hadn’t expected them from Ashley, but certainly Rissa need not stand with eyes so dry. Perhaps she truly believed him when he said he would come back for her, when he said no harm would come to her. He lifted her and gave her a hug, but she barely returned the embrace. “Goodbye!” she said with a wave and ran off to play with some of the other children.
He turned his attention to Ashley, who seemed to find Rissa’s perfunctory dismissal rather amusing. “I know she’s not yours,” he said when she looked back at him. “But I’d ask you to watch over her until I return.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me,” she said, her voice pitched low, but not low enough. Several pirates glanced their way. “I can’t believe you’re leaving me here.”
“I’ll be back.”
“Good, because when we return to England, I’m sending my brothers after you with sticks, rope, and a blindfold.”
Nick did not want to consider what strange, invented punishment this was. Everyone knew the Brittany men were wild and unpredictable. “Then I had better do this now, while I still can.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She kissed him back, but it was not the molten kiss she’d given him earlier. He released her when he became aware of his men’s whistles and calls. With a deep bow, he walked away, striding to the longboat that would take him on board.
Once onboard, he focused on overseeing the preparations for their sail. If he’d spent any time in his cabin, he might have missed Ashley, might have thought of her more. Perhaps that was why he avoided his cabin. Instead, he inspected the preparations for battle and slept in the foc’s’l with the men. In the morning, before dawn, the Robin Hood set sail for Gibraltar where they would replenish their stores of powder and food stuffs and where Nick thought he could obtain reliable information as to Yussef’s whereabouts.
The men were ready for a battle and so was he.
On the second day at sea, he was conferring with Mr. Chante on the quarterdeck when Mr. Carey, his carpenter, called his name. “Captain! Captain!”
Nick turned quickly, his heart thudding. Had one of the foretopmen spotted Yussef’s ship already? The Snake, as Yussef’s ship was called in English, could certainly be nearby. Nick would have preferred to restock his supplies, but he would not run from a fight if The Snake had been spotted.
“What is it, Mr. Carey?” Nick asked, striding to his carpenter.
“I found something you won’t like, Captain.”
Nick scowled. “Are the repairs to the hull not holding up?”
“No, Captain. That’s not it at all. We have a stowaway.”
He knew immediately it was Rissa. He should have guessed her plans when she did not seem distressed to see him go. He should have realized she would try, once again, to sneak on board his ship. This time he’d been distracted enough not to catch her. He entered his cabin and immediately spotted her sitting on top of a trunk. “Rissa!” he bellowed, his gaze going again to the trunk. It was strangely familiar. Rissa, ignoring his bellow, rushed into his arms. Nick closed his eyes and lifted her. Now what was he to do? How could he take a child into battle?
In the open doorway, he spotted Mr. Chante, who smiled at Rissa’s enthusiams. The quartermaster loved Rissa as much as the rest of the men, but if they returned to the island now, they’d lose time and precious momentum. The men were dreaming of the riches they’d take from Yussef, of how they’d spend the money when they took The Snake as a prize. They would not take kindly to being told they would have to return to the island.
“I found her, Cap’n,” his cabin boy said. “I were cleaning your room and heard her moving about. Thought she was a rat, but when I opened the lid, she jumped out. Almost hit her with my boot, I did.”
So she’d been hiding in his trunk, except that wasn’t a trunk he kept in his cabin. It was a trunk he had not seen in a long, long time. He set Rissa down. “Where did this trunk come from?”
“It’s yours, Papa,” Rissa said. “You showed it to me once in the cave.”
“Why is it on my ship?”
Chante moved into the room. “It were on one of da boats. One of the men said you asked for it to be brought to your room.”
“Who?”
The cabin boy stepped forward. “I’ll find out, Cap’n, but he were just taking his orders from Mrs. Cap’n.”
Nick’s throat seized and he had to cough to catch his breath. “Ashley?” He looked down at Rissa, who was suddenly quite interested in the fabric on her sleeve. He knelt. “Rissa, is Ashley on board? Did she stowaway too?”
The little girl shrugged. It was as good as a yes. Nick’s gaze met Chante’s. His quartermaster looked as though he might strangle someone—the sailor who’d fallen for Ashley’s lie was probably at the top of his list, though Ashley might have surpassed him.
