Ill Wind and Dead Reckoning: Caribbean Pirate Adventure (Valkyrie) (53 page)
Read Ill Wind and Dead Reckoning: Caribbean Pirate Adventure (Valkyrie) Online
Authors: Karen Perkins
We wasted no time, and headed straight for the
Dutch Pride
,
Valkyrie’s
bow cannon firing effectively under Jean-Claude’s direction. Carmen and Andy aboard
Freyja
followed suit. Blake’s ship – or what had been Blake’s ship at least, she had no master now – got off a shot at us. It missed. It seemed she had men enough for only one gun, everyone else was ashore. They were hopelessly outnumbered.
As we drew up alongside, four men appeared on deck, their hands raised above their heads. They were realists, they knew they had no chance, and if they resisted further they would die.
We boarded, put them into the smallest boat and sent them shoreward. I had a ship again.
*
‘What now?’ Sharpe
asked.
‘Now we weigh anchor, put off from this godforsaken island, and Gaunt gets to work on the new nameboards.’
‘What new nameboards?’ Gabriella asked.
‘
Sound of Freedom
. I will not sail about the Carib Sea in a ship called the
Dutch Pride
. Blake took
Freedom
from me, now I’m claiming her back.’ I hugged her, thrilled at her smile. I’d feared I would never see it again. ‘Are you staying aboard or returning to
Valkyrie
?’
‘I’m staying with you,’ she said, smiling. ‘I nearly killed you today, I’m not going to abandon you too –
Valkyrie’s
in safe hands with Frazer and Gaunt, and
Freyja
will do well with Carmen and Andy.’
‘Do you trust them?’
‘I do now. Carmen and I spent a month alone in a cell together. Things were a bit fraught at first, but we came to an understanding.’
I hugged her. Truth be told, I didn’t care at the moment if the Dane sailed
Freyja
away and we never saw her again. I had all I wanted on this deck.
‘Slip the anchor!’ Davys shouted from the quarterdeck, and Jean-Claude brought a boarding axe down on the anchor warp. We’d had our fill of Sayba, we wouldn’t spend another hour here hauling up an anchor – they were easy enough to come by for a pirate ship in the Caribbees.
We started to drift and Davys shouted for the sheets to be hauled in. The sails filled and we were underway, finally heading to our future, the past avenged. The only thing to spoil our victory was the knowledge that Cheval had got away, and if any man had murder in his heart, it was he. He’d voiced such intentions on the last two occasions we’d met, I would be prudent to beware him.
And what about Sharpe? He’d betrayed van Ecken when he helped Gabriella to escape, and he’d fought against Blake. Could we trust him now? Then there was Magdalena – he’d shared a ship with her, had he mistreated her? I hadn’t forgotten it was he who had appeared at the stern gallery after she’d jumped. I shrugged the thoughts off as Gabriella moved closer to me, hands on her enormous belly, and I embraced her as best I could.
‘Where to, querida? The whole Carib Sea is at our bows, and we have no ties left.’
‘Not quite true, I want to give the Africans the option of settling on St Vincent – not all of them are happy to be at sea again.’ She smiled. ‘And then . . . hmm, when does the Flôta sail?’
‘The Flôta
?’
I laughed. ‘You want to attack Spain’s treasure fleet?’
She shrugged, then gasped in pain. ‘Aye, but it might have to wait a while.’
I raised my eyes in question, then realized. ‘The child? It’s coming now?’
‘Soon.’
‘Davys, set a course for La Isla Magdalena, a new Freedom Fighter’s on his way!’ I shouted in glee, then panicked. It was too soon. How many knocks had she taken in that square? She could die.
‘Hurry!’ Gabriella gasped, bending and grasping the rail. ‘For pity’s sake, hurry!’
‘Full canvas aloft!’ I shouted. I guided Gabriella to our cabin. We were followed by a couple of the women from Brisingamen. I left her in their hands and went back out on deck to see about sailing my new ship as fast as I could to La Isla Magdalena.
*
Two days later
,
I stood on my decks,
Freedom
anchored off La Isla Magdalena, Gabriella standing by my side and our daughter cradled in my arms. I smiled down at Raphaella, and Gabriella leaned against me. I had never been so happy.
THE END
The third book in the
Valkyrie Series,
Look Sharpe!
is now available from Amazon
.
Also look out for the free Valkyrie short story Where Away
Valkyrie 4,
Ready About!
will be available from
Amazon
soon
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this book. If you would like to join Karen Perkins’ mailing list to receive news and advance notice of new releases, please email:
*
If you enjoyed
Dead Reckoning
, please consider leaving a rating and review on
Amazon
. All genuine comments and feedback are welcome.
Reviews and feedback are extremely important to Karen Perkins, as well as other potential readers, and would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
If you would like your digital book signed, please request an ‘Authograph’ at:
Many thanks to everyone who has helped me with their time and editorial skills, in particular Bernie Crosthwaite, Peter Mutanda, Lesley Taylor, Louise Burke, Louise Turner and Rachel Reeves. Thank you to my friends at the writers group: Susanna, Pam, Morag, Rose Marie, Joan, Janice, Chris, Kathy, Stephen and Liz, and also the authors of authonomy.com for all their input and advice.
I would also like to thank my family and friends for their patience, encouragement and support.
I am grateful to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds for their help and advice about weapons, and to the books of Alan Villiers, in particular
The Way of a Ship
, for teaching me how to sail a square-rigged ship – at least in theory. I apologise to his memory for any mistakes.
Karen Perkins lives in Yorkshire, where she spends her time writing and publishing as proprietor of LionheART Publishing House. She has been a keen sailor since childhood, competing nationally and internationally until the day she had both National and European Ladies Champion titles. Although she no longer takes to the water, she continues to enjoy sailing in her imagination and fiction – capsizing far less often!
She has written the novella (
Ill Wind)
and the full-length novel (
Dead Reckoning
– long-listed in the
Mslexia
Novel Competition 2011) both of which are number one bestsellers in Sea Adventures on Amazon.co.uk in the
Valkyrie Series
.
Look Sharpe!,
Valkyrie 3
, has just been released and will shortly be followed by
Ready About!
.
Karen Perkins has also written the novel,
Thores-Cross.
A dark, haunting tale set in the North Yorkshire Moors about isolation, superstition and persecution,
Thores-Cross
follows the stories of Emma, a present day writer, and Jennet, an eighteenth century witch.
Thores-Cross
is a number one bestseller in British Horror on Amazon.com.
See more about Karen Perkins on the LionheART website:
Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com/author/show/7135531.Karen_Perkins
Amazon Author Page:
www.amazon.com/Karen-Perkins/e/B009BLBUTY/
Smashwords Author Page:
www.smashwords.com/profile/view/KarenPerkins
Or contact her at:
Email
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/ValkyrieSeries
Twitter:
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www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=196018802&trk
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plus.google.com/100377907252216242747/posts
Valkyrie Series
Where Away – a Valkyrie short story
Where Away
is very closely related to
Look Sharpe!
and will not be released separately – if you would like to read it, please email
[email protected]
for your FREE Kindle copy with my compliments.
Ill Wind and Dead Reckoning are available as a two-book set
Where Away and Look Sharpe! are available as a two-book set
Coming soon:
Yorkshire Ghost Stories
Non-Fiction
The LionheART Guide to Editing Fiction – UK Edition
More novels by the same author and published by LionheART Publishing House include:
Look Sharpe! (
Valkyrie
Series 3)
Henry Sharpe is a recently bereaved and bankrupt English earl who travels to the Caribbean to help his uncle run his sugar plantation. When he arrives, he finds his uncle has given up on that idea to lead a more exciting life as a privateer.
With no money and no prospects, Sharpe has little choice but to join him, although he is uncomfortable with the life he is living.
He is more likely to rescue the doomed souls he meets than terrorise them, which leads to repeated conflict with his fellow privateers, especially when he takes the kidnapped Magdalena under his protection.
Battling ships and the Spanish fortifications protecting Porto Belo, Sharpe finds his deadliest feuds are those aboard his own ship. Trapped in the middle of the rivalry between his uncle, Captain Richard Tarr, and Captain Edward Hornigold, Sharpe makes more enemies on deck, in particular the formidable yet sly Cheval.
He is pushed to his limits as he fights for his own survival and that of the woman he loves, knowing the odds are stacked high against him.
A Caribbean Pirate Adventure
Magdalena Ortega is bored. She hates her life in Porto Belo – a town that comes alive every year with the arrival of the Spanish Treasure Fleet, then dies once more until the next visit. The thought of marrying, raising children, and spending the rest of her life here terrifies Magdalena and she is determined to escape.
Can she sneak aboard a galleon of the treasure fleet to stowaway?
Will a pirate raid prove to be her making or her undoing?
The books in the Valkyrie Series are character based rather than chronological and can be enjoyed in any order.
Where Away
is very closely related to
Look Sharpe!
and will not be released separately – if you would like to read it, please email
[email protected]
for your FREE Kindle copy with my compliments.
