A Captain's Destiny (8 page)

“The damned fool has run the ship aground on a reef. Stay here!” he ordered, and then he slammed the door shut. As soon as the door was closed, Katherine jumped up and ran to the small window.

Looking out all she could see was dark gray clouds. Thinking it would be foolish to stay below if the ship was in danger of sinking, she decided to take matters into her own hands. So what if Anthony saw her? She would rather live, than die just to carry on with her charade.

As she stepped into the passageway, Katherine was surprised to find water rolling down the stairs from above. Up those stairs was the only way out, and she was determined to climb them. The level of the water in the corridor had already risen to her knees; she had to get out of there. But first she must rid herself of some of her clothing, as it would only drag her down once it got wet.

Back in the cabin she untied her slips and tossed them onto the bed. Then she pulled the back of her skirt up between her legs and tucked it over the sash at her waist. She had done this as a child in order to ride astride. Now it would facilitate her climbing the ladder.

Water was spilling into the cabin now, but she was up on the top step in no time. But when she opened the door to the main deck, it was jerked out of her hand by the force of the wind and the waves crashing over the ship. Water was blown into her face, and she coughed and tried to wipe it out of her eyes. But her long hair had come unpinned, and now it flew around her head and into her face and eyes too. She held it back as best she could with one hand as she tried to take a step forward, but a huge wave pushed her sideways, sending her careening toward the starboard railing. She crashed into it and tumbled over headfirst.

The next thing she felt was her breath being knocked out of her, as she landed in the water on her back. She inhaled a great breath of air, coughed and flailed her arms, trying to remain on the surface, but the waves were huge, and she was easily overcome by them. And what was worse was they were pulling her toward the ship! At first Katherine tried to hold her breath, but then she realized she was going to die if she allowed the ship to pull her down with it. With her last breath she threw her arms out and began swimming away from the ship.

She hadn’t gone very far when something hit her in the back of the head. Suddenly her vision went from the dark gray of the storm to the black of unconsciousness.

Jack could breathe easier now that his debts were paid and he had a ship under him again. The
Lady Elizabeth
had been lost, sunk by the Royal Navy, and though this frigate wasn’t nearly as grand, at least it belonged to him…more or less.

He had decided that if the crown thought of him as a pirate, he might as well behave like one. So as soon as he was fit for a lengthy voyage, he and his men had set sail on a small cargo ship he already owned from his transporting days. They had positioned themselves in the path of their prey and played dead in the water. And when the captain of the
Celeste
had stopped to offer assistance, Jack and his men had fallen on the unsuspecting crew of the larger ship. They took her easily, for the opposing crewmen were mere sailors, not fighting men. And now the
Celeste
was called the
Katherine
, and not one of Jack’s men had dared to ask why he had chosen the name. They’d set sail that very day to retrieve the gold he’d left behind, on the island where he’d lost his heart to the only woman he would ever love.

Now, two weeks later, the
Katherine
was safely moored on the leeward side of the rugged island in a small cove, safe from a storm that had hammered the island chain during the night. They had been there since the previous afternoon, about twelve hours, when the lookout posted in the crow’s nest spotted what appeared to be wreckage floating ashore, about a quarter mile east of their location. The debris, which had washed up on the pristine, white beach, had not been there at sunset the day before. Jack, who had become tired of being cooped up on the ship with nothing to do but wait out the storm, was eager to go ashore and stretch his legs, so he decided to lead a group of his men down the beach to investigate.

The wind was still gusting, but at least it was no longer raining. There were a few crates washed up on the sand, and here and there lay pieces of a mast, ripped portions of canvas sails, and other debris. It was a ghastly reminder of just how much damage a storm could do, and how lucky they had been to have taken shelter when they did.

“The ship must ’ave run aground last night in the storm,” old Jim remarked, as he tried to lift one corner of what appeared to be a cabin door. But the solid old oak panel was too heavy for him to budge on his own.

A piece of blue cloth stuck out from under one end, and the old man gasped, imagining the worst. “Here! Help me lift this,” he cried, and Jack and two other men came and lifted the door away. “Saints preserve us!” the old salt cried when they saw what lay under the door.

*

Back in the other direction, a man climbed out of the sea, slowly and painfully inching his way up the anchor chain of the
Katherine
.

* * * *

“I don’t know if she’ll make it, lad, but she’s as comfortable as I can make ’er,” a male voice declared sadly.

His voice seemed to come from the bottom of a very deep well, and she had to try hard to hear him, to understand him. Somehow she knew that the voice was referring to her, and she forced her eyes open and tried to speak. But her voice was barely a whisper as her breath escaped from her sore throat. He turned to leave, and she panicked. No! She didn’t want him to leave. She had a million questions she needed to ask him, but it felt like she’d been eating sand. That distasteful thought caused her to recall the storm and the ship, and how she had been washed overboard. The last thing she recalled was getting hit in the head. The storm had been fierce, but somehow she had survived. But where was she now? Unless she was mistaken, this was not the same ship on which she and Anthony had set out for England. That thought reminded her of something else…where was Anthony?

“Pardon me, Sir, but where is my husband?” she asked in her scratchy whisper. This time he must have understood her, for he turned and looked back at her.

“Sorry,” he said, shaking his grizzled head meaningfully.

He looked familiar, but Katherine couldn’t place him. She supposed it didn’t matter whether or not she knew him. What mattered was that she was alive…and safe as far as she could tell.

“She’s comin’ around, Captain,” the old man said as he stepped aside. He managed to remain in one place, while the ship tipped back and forth.

Another, much taller man stood braced in the doorway, his dark head bent down to one side, allowing him to see into the cabin. Katherine lifted herself on one elbow in order to get a better look at him. She wanted to thank him for rescuing her.

He stooped a bit and entered the cabin, stopping just a few feet from the bed on which she lay. Her head began to spin again, and time seemed to stop. My God, it could not be. The second man was tall and lean and robust looking, and he was as familiar to her as her own reflection in a mirror.

Her heart was racing in her chest, and for a minute Katherine thought she might faint. She had taken a knock on the head. That was it. She must be suffering from a head injury. She blinked and widened her eyes, hoping to clear away the ghostly image she was seeing. It simply could not be! Jack O’Bannon was dead; she’d seen his lifeless body on the burning ship, his life’s blood a crimson pool all around him. Her head must be seriously injured for her to be seeing things that were not there. He seemed so real.

“Good, you’re awake,” the vision said with seeming approval, as it stepped closer to her.

Her heart almost stopped, and she fell back to the bed.

The older man laid a damp cloth on her forehead, clucking like a mother hen. “Twill be all right, missy, yu’ll see,” he soothed.

The ghost, or whatever it was, indicated with a tip of his head that the old man should leave. Without another word, he shuffled out of the cabin.

Katherine closed her eyes for just a moment, hoping beyond hope that her vision would clear. But when she opened her eyes, the specter in black leather britches and white, billowy linen shirt was still standing over her.

It took a minute for her to recover her poise, and when she did, her voice was louder, if not steady. “Am…am I awake, or is this…a dream?” she asked, feeling at once overjoyed and betrayed. If Jack was alive, why hadn’t he sent word, come for her, done something to let her know?

Suddenly the specter spoke. “I’m sorry if I shocked you. I assure you I’m not a spirit or figment of your imagination. I’m very much alive.”

“What of my husband?” Could Anthony really be gone?

“I regret to inform you that it appears everyone else on the cargo ship has perished,” he told her in a brisk, emotionless tone of voice. “My men searched the entire shoreline, but they found no one else…nothing to tell of the ship’s violent end. You are very lucky to be alive.” He bowed from the waist as he backed toward the door. “Now, Madam, I’ll leave you to rest…and mourn your husband,” he finished with a noticeable growl.

“Wait! Wait, please! We need to talk. My marriage…it was not what you think. My stepfather arranged it; I had no choice.”

“Your life is no business of mine. It never was.”

He turned to exit the cabin, and Katherine sprang up and threw her legs over the side of the narrow bed. He wasn’t going to get away from her before she got an explanation from him. So he was angry that she’d gotten married, so what? He had let her believe he was dead, and that was much worse. She was barefooted and dressed in only a thin cotton nightdress. It wasn’t hers, but she couldn’t waste time wondering where it had come from or how she came to be wearing it. All that mattered was that she speak with Jack.

Hearing her rise up behind him, Jack stopped, his hand on the door latch as he stared over his shoulder at her.

“I never would have married him, if I had known you were alive, Jack,” she said plaintively.

“What would you have done? Vowed your love to a pirate? Aligned yourself with a man who is wanted by the most powerful empire on Earth? I think not. Your reputation would have been ruined. We both know our relationship was doomed from the start.” He took another step as if to leave, and then turned back to her, a look of grim resolution on his handsome face. “As soon as the storm is over and I have what I’ve come for, you will be put ashore at the nearest British colony. Since I’m a wanted man, I’m sure you’ll understand if I don’t accompany you there myself. Don’t worry; one of my men will see to it that you arrive safely,” he told her, his eyes cold and emotionless. And then he stepped over the threshold and into the corridor, closing the cabin door behind him.

“No! Wait!” she yelled, hurrying to the door as quickly as she could, considering the floor kept tipping this way and that. Out in the passageway she came face to face with the old man. She remembered him now; he was Jack’s most trusted friend. And right now he looked as though he would fight her to the death to keep her from Jack.

“Ye best not bother ’im now, if ye know what’s good for ye,” he said with a disapproving look.

He held a tray with food on it, and another man stood behind him, the two of them blocking her path. With the ship rocking so much that it was hard for her to stand, let alone walk, and with the two men in her way, she had no choice but to return to the bed.

Katherine watched as the old man set the tray on the table next to the bed, the other man watching from the doorway. The smell of food made her stomach churn. Although it had been many hours since she’d eaten, she was too upset to even think about food.

“Take me to the captain, Jim. Please, I must speak to him,” she insisted, but he shook his silvered head and shuffled out of the room, leaving Katherine to sit on the bed, pondering her situation. Jack had loved her; she was certain of it. How then could he be so heartless; how could he turn her away?

In the first mate’s cabin Jim came in, carrying a tray. “Cook’s made a nice stew for yer supper, lad,” he observed, as he set a steaming bowl and a mug next to Jack’s elbow. “Ye should eat somethin’, keep up yer strength.”

“Did you take the lady her supper?” Jack asked without looking up from the gun he’d been cleaning. It hadn’t needed cleaning. He had just needed something to take his mind off the lady in his cabin. God, would he ever be able to get her off his mind?

“Aye, I did, but ye know how she is; ’er nose is too high in the air to eat anything I put in front of ’er. Yu’ll be well rid of that one, ye will,” the grizzled old man opined with his usual vinegar.

Jack had to smile. Jim didn’t think much of Katherine; Jack had always known it. He also knew that the stubborn man’s opinion of Katherine had grown out of his loyalty to Jack. Knowing that was the case, Jack could hardly fault him. So he put the pistol down and began to eat, just to make the old man happy.

The storm had delayed him by only a day. Once he had the gold, he’d sail to the nearest British outpost and rid himself of his disturbing passenger. He’d have to take care so as not to get caught, but he figured one man in a dinghy, in the dead of night, could accomplish the task. He’d thought it over, and since he couldn’t ask any of his men to risk their lives solving his problem, he would have to do it himself. He’d see her safely in the hands of the local authorities, and then he’d vanish. How exactly he was going to manage this feat he didn’t know, but he was certain a solution would present itself when the time came.

The afternoon sky was cloudless, and Jack knew it was time. He could no longer avoid the past. He had spent many memorable days on the island, hiding from the Royal Navy, and many memorable nights there too, losing himself in the body of the only woman he had ever loved. He still loved her, but something inside him would not allow him to tell her, to be with her. It wasn’t that she’d gotten married. She had thought him dead; what else could she do? No, it was that now his circumstances were even more dire than before. Before, there had been a chance that he could clear himself of the charges against him. Now his fate was sealed. He had become a pirate in every sense of the word, and now nothing could save him, not even the word of a lady.