style="font-size:15px;"> A man in the tawdry finery of a pirate turned and yelled, "Cap'n! The scurvy dogs be surrenderin'!"
The crowd parted, revealing a tall man, every inch the pirate captain. The sun was behind him, and thus Ned could not quite make out his features, but he could see long hair and a full beard beneath a tricorn hat. In the ultimate mockery and contempt for the Royal Navy, he wore a tattered blue naval officer's coat. Ned wanted to tear it off of the man, but kept his attitude of surrender.
"Arr, so, what have we here?" the pirate captain snarled. "So ye be the brazen an' the bold who dared to attack me ship?"
Ned bowed his head further. "Captain Bluejacket," he said, taking care to speak distinctly and with the refinement he had learned in the Navy, "I have heard of you and of your reputation. I know to expect no mercy for myself, but I humbly request that you deal leniently with my crew. After all, they were only following my orders."
There was a brief pause, then Bluejacket laughed. "Haharr, you don't know so much about piracy, do you? Ye men of the Danae, I offer ye a simple choice. Ye may join me, or be cast overboard. Swim fer shore if ye so desire." Ned felt a light sword prick on his back. "All except for ye, ye fo'c'sle codfish. Hand over the jacket."
Before he could move, the jacket was forcibly pulled off of him. Ned wisely kept his head down. The captain spoke again. "Throw the men who so choose over the sides, but drag this man to my cabin! From commander to cabin boy seems a fitting punishment to me, eh, lads?"
The crew jeered with laughter. Ned was dragged cruelly upright and shoved into what he assumed was the captain's cabin. The door slammed shut behind him, and he could hear the cruel laughter through the thick wood.
Ned straightened himself and looked around. He had been a cabin boy before, then worked his way up through the Royal Navy, and as such he had been in any number of captains' cabins before. He knew that, while there was a certain similarity to each one, every captain or commander added his own personal touches, made it his own. He was startled, therefore, to realize that in style and appearance, this cabin very much resembled his own on the Danae. A particular object on a small table next to the bed drew his eye. He was starting towards it when the door banged open. Ned froze and dropped humbly to his knees.
"Well, now, cully," the voice of Captain Bluejacket hissed, "what d'ye have to say for yourself?"
Ned kept his gaze directed down at the floor. "I thank you for sparing my life, Captain."
"Well, of course I did, lad," the captain said in a somehow different voice. "Or should I say...Ned?"
Ned's head shot up. He leaped to his feet, whirling around to face the notorious pirate captain, his eyes wide, his face pale.
"Sam?!"
Chapter Eight
"A sail, a sail!"
Jane immediately shot to the window, her body slave hanging desperately to the brush still tangled in her hair. Snow-white sails bleached by the sun billowed from the harbor mouth. It would make landfall soon.
"Hurry, Susanna!" Jane cried impatiently, returning to the seat before the vanity. Edward would come up to the house as soon as he returned, of course, but she wanted to be at the docks to meet him when he stepped off the ship. And, of course, it went without saying that she wanted to look her very best.
Susanna finished brushing Jane's hair and began pulling it back into an intricate but becoming hairstyle. She was silent for a while, then said softly, "That is not him, Miss."
Jane couldn't turn for the pins, so instead she met Susanna's eyes in the mirror. "How can you be so sure, Susanna?"
"It is not his ship. I know of these things," Susanna explained. "Mr. Edward's ship was a three-master, Miss, and that ship has but two. And the Navy has only three-masters or more. It is not a Navy ship and it is not Mr. Edward."
Jane mulled this over for a moment, then sighed. "You may be right, Susanna," she said finally. "But I should be there to meet it anyway. Perhaps there's some news of him."
Susanna bowed and said no more. Jane stood and headed for the door. Just as she opened it, a messenger stood outside, looking about to knock and scared out of his wits. Jane offered the young boy a smile. "Yes, what is it?"
The slave bowed deeply. "Mr. Clarence's compliments, and will you please come downstairs?"
"I'm on my way, Daniel." Jane signaled to Susanna and headed down the stairs. As she reached the foot, she found her father standing with a man who was obviously a merchant captain and another, apparently some common sailor.
Clarence Wickham smiled at his only daughter and held out a hand. "My darling child, come down here, won't you?"
Jane took her father's hand and joined the cluster as he made the introductions. "This is James Wilson, captain of the Sarah Rose." Jane nodded; the ship, named for her long-dead mother, was the pride of her father's fleet, and the captain of such a ship must surely be a well-respected and excellent sailor to have earned that right. "And this fellow is, as I understand, a man they found swimming for shore in the Caribbean." To the captain, Clarence said, "This is my daughter Jane. Her sweetheart is in the Caribbean as well, hunting pirates."
"Commander Edward Sharpe of the HMS Danae?" asked the sailor.
Jane smiled. "Yes, you know him?"
"And few better, for I served as his lieutenant."
The smile dropped from Jane's face. "Why do you not remain with him? What has happened?"
The young lieutenant spoke haltingly. "We had turned for home with a number of prizes to our name when the lookout spotted another pirate on the horizon. We sailed closer before we realized it was Captain Bluejacket, but by then it was too late to turn back. Commander Sharpe fought as valiantly as anyone, but it was down to the last ten of us and the commander ordered us to surrender to save our lives. Captain Bluejacket offered us a choice: join his crew, or be thrown overboard."
Jane gasped. Clarence paled. "Did Edward drown?"
The lieutenant shook his head. "Only myself and one other lad chose to go overboard rather than join. He drowned within a few moments. But Bluejacket never gave Commander Sharpe a choice. Said he was to be demoted to cabin boy and kept aboard to work. He was taken to the captain's cabin, and I never saw him after that." He looked up at Jane, his eyes filling with tears. "I am sorry, Miss Wickham, truly. If I could have lain down my life for the commander's freedom, I would have. He was a good leader, and a fair one."
Jane stared at the sailor. Her father put a hand behind her to catch her if she should faint, but she clung grimly on to her awareness. In a calm, even voice, she asked the lieutenant, "And does he live now?"
"Upon my life, lady, I know not. All I can tell is that he lived when I was cast from the ship, and I heard that the rogue Bluejacket vowed he was to be kept alive."
"A pirate's word..." Clarence mumbled.
Captain Wilson spoke for the first time. "Is his bond, sir. It's an odd thing, but they have a rather rigid code of rules and honor. If this Captain Bluejacket said he was to be kept alive, he will remain so until he break some unforgivable rule. Commander Sharpe lives, sir, though for how long I can hardly say."
"Then
