Tangled Hearts (30 page)

The sea calmed before dawn and in the muted silence he fell asleep. At the first click of the lock he surged to his feet. Ewan held his blade ready to throw. There would be no questioning. He knew without a doubt that the girl had been, was being abused. She had the haunted look of a beaten child. He should know.

Ewan held his hand as the lad edged his way in with what looked like more of last night’s stew. His eyes found the girl directly and he seemed to exhale. “I knew you wouldn’t hurt her.”

“Who the bloody hell is keeping her here?” Ewan asked as he walked quickly to the door, shutting it as the boy entered.

“She belongs to the captain.”

“Where is yer captain? I’d like to have a word with him.”

The boy swallowed, his face hardening. “He left you in here with her, you know. He wants you to try to protect her.”

Ewan’s brow wrinkled. Wellington was playing games? For what purpose? “Well he’s getting his damn wish,” Ewan muttered. “What is yer name?”

“Stephen.”

“How long have ye been on board here?”

“Two years or so.” He shrugged, his mouth tight. “It’s a decent life.”

“A decent life doesn’t entail torturing children and selling them as slaves.”

“I’m alive, ain’t I? Have the captain to thank for that.” His eyes strayed to the girl. “And I’ve watched over her as best I could, but… the captain likes her… too much. Maybe you can help her. Get her away.”

“To do that I need to get away.” Ewan ran his hand through his hair. Lord, help the world. Monsters lurked everywhere. Had Wellington been leading a double life? Gentleman of the court half the time and slave trader and deranged child molester the other half?

The boy moved toward the door. “I need to get back to fixing the nets before I’m missed.” He peeked out. “I’m leaving your door unlocked.”

“Thank ye, lad,” Ewan said.

“I’m only doing this to help the girl,” he grumbled, but Ewan knew that haunted look in the lad’s eyes. The look of angry fear, fear of the life you suffered and fear of something worse if you tried to leave it. He remembered Dory’s face as she talked about “bad pirates” and he’d argued that they were all bad.

Which are the bad ones then?

The ones that profit from human suffering.

As he watched the wee one, his heart ached for the hurt children in the world. None of them deserved to live with fear and violence around them. Not even one who’d abandoned his own mother. He swallowed down the bile with the memory.

Dawn came like creeping mist, a bit at a time until it surrounded a man without him knowing when it had arrived. The normal sound of routine had progressed outside the room. He thought of leaving the cabin, but wasn’t sure how to ensure the girl’s safety. She’d have to learn to trust him more before she would quietly let him carry her.

“Ship!” a voice from above came muffled through the door. Activity ratcheted up, shouts, thudding feet. Ewan looked out the port hole but apparently the spotted ship was off the bow. After several long minutes of listening, boots stopped outside the door. He drew his sword and motioned for the child to hide behind him.

“Brody,” came the voice.

“What do ye want, Wellington?”

“We need to discuss an issue.”

“Would it have anything to do with this ship ye see?”

“It’s the
Queen Siren.
”

Ewan’s heart drummed a deep beat in his chest. Och, but he’d swim for the bloody ship if he could get over the side. As if to remind him, the child curled her fingers into the back of his shirt. He’d never forget her. He slipped his arm behind and gently squeezed her hand.

“Give the little lass to the
Queen Siren
, and I’ll convince them to leave ye unharmed.”

A low chuckle penetrated the door. “Not part of the plan, but I’ll take it under advisement.”

“Bastard,” Ewan swore. “Why don’t ye come inside then and tell me yer plan.”

The latch moved as if he knew the door was unlocked. “I have the boy before me, so you can put down your sword and dagger near the door.”

Ewan swore in Gaelic and dropped the blades, kicking them over. Wellington cracked the door and shoved the boy into the room while grabbing out the blades. Then he pushed the door open wide.

“Stupid prig.” Stephen sneered behind him. The girl latched onto his arm.

Wellington stood by the door, several grim-faced men behind him.

“It seems your wife is headed right toward us.”

“What do ye want with Dory?” Ewan kept his fury internal. Losing control wouldn’t help the situation, even though pounding the man would certainly make him feel better.

Wellington’s look darkened. “She’s a bastard and was never meant to be born.”

Ewan’s hands fisted by his legs as Wellington continued.

“Katharine, her mother, was a slut. I sent her away when I found out about her adultery. She couldn’t tarnish the Wellington name. My brother thought she left him, but I convinced her to set sail. My associate was supposed to take her.”

“Ye mean kill.” Ewan scoffed.

Wellington smiled. “She deserved to die. She was an adulteress and now we know she was also a traitor.”

“Ye were the third traitor all along, weren’t ye?”

Wellington’s face squeezed a bit. “No, but Katharine’s disgrace is already priming Cromwell’s suspicions.” He flopped his hand. “Wyatt ended up taking her aboard even though I’d already paid my associate to take her. Then Wyatt kept the whore’s baby. It’s time to rectify that mistake.”

Fire churned through Ewan, an inferno that could wipe out half this crew if he could get his sword back. But could he take them all down? Not likely.

“What do ye want from me?”

Wellington’s lips twitched upward. “Ah… when you came to me in port I couldn’t believe my luck. With you on board, she will possibly bargain for your release. My associate was just going to use the girl trembling behind you to lure Pandora in, but I think you make much better bait.”

“This isn’t yer ship, is it?” Ewan asked. He looked at Stephen. “He isn’t yer captain.”

“I’d never serve this prig,” Stephen said and spit.

“Really Brody, did you think I had a ship and crew just waiting out on the Thames for me? My associate was doing some business at the docks—”

“Ye mean picking up stray children to sell into slavery.” Even though there weren’t any other children on board, Ewan was certain he knew what ship he was on.

“’Tis quite a lucrative business. Working with him, I’ve been able to double the Wellington fortune over the last twenty years.”

“What will ye do with Dory?” Ewan asked. If the bastard had wanted her dead before she was born, he wanted her dead now.

“I understand she has talents,” Wellington said. He frowned. “My associate is in need of her services after you maimed him.” Wellington smiled then as if he were the cleverest man in the world. “Master Brody, welcome to the
Raven
.”

…

Dory stood on the deck of the
Queen Siren
, looking through the eyeglass. “Blast, where are you?” She searched the deck of the
Raven
. Would O’Neil’s ship sail without him? Could he have survived the tournament after Ewan had sliced him, knocking him unconscious?

“Come out of hiding, you black-souled devil,” she said. The wind tugged her hair. She’d taken the helm next to the quartermaster as soon as they’d turned around, Captain Bart giving her the task of blowing them back to England’s western shore. This morning when dawn had lit the ocean, she’d spotted the dark smudge of a ship. And now as they raced toward it, she could plainly see the red flag with a black shape emblazoned on it. The sight of it churned her stomach.

“Captain,” she said as her father stepped up next to her, his hands behind his back as if watching a scene unfold. “It’s the
Raven
. O’Neil must have survived.”

“Have you seen him?”

“No, he’s not on deck, but his crew looks the same.” Dory searched the corners, the shadowed edges where a child might hide, but no head of red curls came into view.

Anger unfurled through her tight chest. Agony had plagued her since she’d left the Tower, and now she knew she must hurry back, but to scuttle the
Raven
—’twas too good to leave.

“We need to stop them, Captain,” Dory said, her words nearly sticking in her throat. “The crew will continue their shipments even without O’Neil.”

“I agree, but it may delay us,” he said, his voice every bit the authoritative captain she needed at the moment. He tugged the end of her hair that hung down her back. “You can blow the bastards out of the water with your lightning.”

“What if there are children aboard? If they were picking them up in London.”

Her father took the spy glass and scanned the
Raven’s
deck. “I don’t see any.”

“They could be below, chained, or in the captain’s cabin.” She felt the acid in her stomach try to boil up into a gag. Her father had told her long ago that O’Neil had wanted her when she was born. What would have happened to her on the
Raven
? The thought ate at her, but the memory of that little red-headed girl could cripple her.

“He always brings them up on deck if he has them when we’re within sight,” Captain Bart said. “Knows you won’t blast his ship with children on board.”

She scanned the deck as it neared, her winds blowing them toward their target in record time. If she saw any evidence of children they would have to board.

Captain Bart issued a series of orders to the quartermaster, who left to disseminate it to the rest of the crew. He kept the wheel turned in a direct course to the
Raven
while Dory continued to search. O’Neil’s quartermaster steered, his eyes straight on the
Queen Siren
. Her jaw ached and she opened her mouth to stretch it.

Something didn’t feel right. Dory gathered the water droplets overhead with a few deep breaths. Thunder clouds billowed and puffed under her direction. As she imagined the bits of air sliding across each other, lightning flashed through the clouds and the seas tossed with the wind. Dory’s hair flew up and around above her head as she concentrated, giving her the look of a great magician controlling the heavens.

The angelic face of the little enslaved girl with red curls flashed through Dory’s brittle mind as she watched the billowing sails of the
Raven
.
Crack
! Lightning split the skies above the
Raven
and the crewmates began scurrying to ready their cannons. Vengeance churned in her core, readying her magic to explode on the ship.

“We’re ready, Panda,” Captain Bart said. “Give them hell.”

Dory handed him the spy glass. “If you see children, we’ll have to board. Keep looking.”

“Aye, aye, Panda,” he said gruffly but she knew he’d do just that. Captain Bart couldn’t stand the death of a single child any more than she could, even when he talked about bringing an end to O’Neil’s reign of terror no matter what.

Dory tipped her face upward toward the clouds. She funneled the great store of magic pooled at her core through the mark on her wrist. The dragonfly allowed her to focus her abilities to move the moisture and air above her. Her hands rose before her, mimicking the way she pushed the clouds above into a twist. The wind followed her silent commands, shifting into a giant funnel cloud. It danced across the sea toward the
Raven
. Immediately the ship changed the position of its sails to run a perpendicular path to the water spout. Once the twister was set on a course it was fairly impossible to change it. She dropped her hands and the tornado dissolved into mist. She twisted her pointer finger of each hand next to her trouser-clad legs, spawning two separate twisters to come at the
Raven
from opposite directions. They would catch the ship in the middle, tearing it apart.

The ship had changed course again, coming back to head straight at the
Queen Siren
. Her crew might be from the devil himself, but they knew about riding the wind. They turned their sails, capturing the drafts, but her twisters would still hit the war ship.

As the tornado closed in on its prey, Dory caught a movement up on deck. Three large men, perhaps. She squinted but her hair blew across her eyes for a second. Brushing the strands away, she focused on one of them and something tugged at her. Still she kept the twisters moving, almost there, just a bit more and she’d blow the ship apart.

“Panda,” her father called next to her, but she already knew. The tornados dissolved.

Tall and sure, he bent down and picked up…

“She’s alive,” Dory whispered. And in the arms of Ewan Brody.

…

Ewan looked across the choppy water where Dory stood on the bridge of the
Queen Siren
.

Julian O’Neil laughed beside him. “’Twas the child that she dropped the twisters for.”

“Brody and the child,” Wellington countered.

O’Neil held his uninjured left hand in the air. “Ready the cannon and bring the ship to port,” he yelled.

Ewan tucked the trembling girl against him.

“I thought ye needed her alive,” Ewan called against the wind. The rain lashed down on them as if Dory’s fear and fury filled each drop.

“I do,” O’Neil said and reached around to hold his useless arm. “But to get her over here under my terms, I will cripple the
Queen Siren
.”

“All ye have to do is trade the children for her,” Ewan said. “She’ll come.”

“I’d rather destroy the ship and Bartholomew Wyatt, but I’ll keep that idea in mind, Brody.”

“I need that box,” Wellington threw in, his stylish hair being whipped around. “You can’t sink the Queen Siren until I have that box with whatever Katharine left!”

Ewan could see O’Neil roll his eyes as he stared out toward the other ship. “You’ll get your damn box, after I get me arm fixed. We’ll board her so I can take Bartholomew’s head while you get your Pandora’s box.” He laughed.

“Look,” O’Neil yelled, pointing. “She doesn’t know what to do!”

Dory stood talking with Captain Bart, her hair weighted with the rain. Even so she was still captivating, there among the men scrambling to ready themselves for whatever the captain and his daughter would decide. Ewan could see Will’s bulk in the midst of the men, directing and strapping on blades. They were preparing to board.