Windswept (44 page)

Nora barely heard his words. Every artery rushed blood to her temples which throbbed with a thunderous roar. At the same time her limbs went numb with the chill of shock.

Moony stalked her to the center of the cabin. “And what might you be doin’ on the
Raven’s Wing
, missy?”

She couldn’t have answered past the lump in her throat, but he didn’t give her time anyway. He cocked his head to the side and squinted one glittering eye at her. “Methinks you might be lookin’ for something,” he said. “Is that what you’re doin’, missy? Treasure huntin’?”

She forced a response on a trembling breath. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not looking for anything. I…I came to locate you. I thought you might be able to help Jacob…”

Whiskey-laden breath exploded in her face when Moony laughed. “That’s a rich one, it is. Moony Swain helpin’ Jacob Proctor! Case you don’t know it, girl, I’m as happy as can be the good captain has his arse in the town jail. And seein’ him swing from a hangman’s noose will make me positively gleeful.”

The vulgar evil of the man fired Nora’s loyalty and her anger. “That will never happen, Mr. Swain. Jacob is innocent of any crimes…”

“Oh, innocent, is he?” Moony echoed. “We’ll see if a court of law decides the same way. A court presided over by your own pappy.”

His crude chortles raised the hair at Nora’s nape and made her palms itch to slap the taunting grin from his face. She darted a glance to the corner of the room where Felix was still pressed against the wall. The door was open, giving him a chance for escape if she could keep Moony occupied. She stepped back, knowing Moony would follow. “Fine,” she said. “Think what you will. But the evidence will prove otherwise, and Jacob will soon be a free man.”

Moony’s eyes lit with sudden understanding. “Evidence? What evidence is that?” His mouth curved down into a snarl and he grabbed her arm. “Just what exactly have you been doin’ in my quarters, missy?”

Knowing she’d said the wrong thing, Nora used Moony’s anger to divert his attention from the cabin door. She struggled against his grasp, keeping his focus on her face. Further help arrived from a gust of wind which swept into the room rattling the one window and blowing papers around their heads. Moony tumbled backwards, providing the opportunity for Felix to escape. In a shadowy flash of quick movement, he was out the door, and Nora was determined to follow.

Moony fell against a corner of the desk and uttered a scathing curse. Nora ran past him to the door, and almost made it out before his hand caught her skirt. He hauled her back inside and pinned her to the wall. But in the silvery moonlight she’d seen what she’d hoped to see - a slight body slithering over the side of the
Raven’s Wing
and dropping into the black water. Moony’s crew advanced onto the gangway, but Felix had gotten away without being seen.

Moony’s arm pressed against Nora’s collarbone. His face was just inches from hers. “We’ll just see what evidence you have,” he bit out.

She turned her face toward the door and started to scream, but her cry was cut off by Moony’s palm over her mouth. An acid taste of dirt and grime mixed with her saliva. Nausea churned in her stomach, gagging her. She sputtered for a breath, and he removed his hand long enough to pull a rag from his pocket. Threading the greasy cloth between her teeth, he bound it in back of her head. Then he pushed her to the door and into the arms of one of his crew on deck.

“Tie her hands and keep her flat on her belly so no one’ll see her,” he instructed. “And don’t let her out of your sight.” Immediately the edge of a hand slammed into the back of her knees and she went face down onto the deck. Once he’d made certain her hands were bound, Moony headed back to the cabin. “We’ll see if the little darkies’ school marm has found herself any evidence,” he said, pushing the door closed against the roar of the wind.

He came out a few minutes later with the damaged padlock in his hand. Dangling it in front of Nora’s eyes, he taunted, “Come to see if I’d help Proctor, eh?”

Nora swallowed against the oily rag and closed her eyes to Moony’s sneer. His boots sounded twice on the deck before he grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. “Some of those bank notes are missin’ little teacher. And they aren’t the ones I hid in Proctor’s barrel.”

Moony fastened his fiery gaze on one of his men and jerked his thumb toward the hatch of the ship’s hold. “Open it up.”

Once the hatch door swung away, he pushed Nora to the opening. Still holding her arm, he forced her down the ladder. Her shoes grabbed just enough of the rungs to keep her from tumbling headlong into the dark hole. Even so, she fell when she reached the bottom.

Moony followed her down and advanced with threatening intent etched in his features. He flung the padlock across the hold. It clanged against the inside of the ship’s hull. A strangled cry tried to force its way past the cloth in Nora’s mouth as she watched him reach out a hand toward her.

“Not so cocky now, are we, missy?” he said pulling her to her feet.

She tried to push him away with her shoulder, but he slammed her against the ribs of the ship and held her fast with his forearm pressed on her chest. “Let’s see if ol’ Moony can find those bank notes you took,” he said. She kicked fiercely, but he only laughed and moved his arm up to her throat so any movement would block her air passage. With his free hand he ripped the front of her dress. Onyx buttons clattered across the floor. Moony groped under the lacy fabric of her camisole with greedy fingers.

“No bank notes there,” he said with a leering grin. “Though a mighty pleasin’ substitute.” He spread his legs to balance himself against the tossing of the ship and leaned into her, pressing his hip against her abdomen. With one sweep he raised her skirt to her waist and jerked her undergarments to her knees.

Tears of shame and fear swam in Nora’s eyes. Her throat burned with the need for air. Moony’s hand raked across her thighs and around to her backside. When he found nothing, he slapped her hard on her bottom, laughed out loud and stepped away. She drew a welcome draft of air.

“Now where else could you have hid those notes, little teacher?” he demanded. His eyes went glassy with lust. “Could take me a long time to find ‘em, but find ‘em I will, and I’ll enjoy the search.”

He walked to the ladder and called up to his crew. “Shove away, boys. Prepare to sail. We’ve not a minute to lose.” Then he turned back to Nora. “I’ll be back little missy. You wait for me now.” With a boorish laugh that mingled with the creaking of the hull, he stumbled up the ladder and closed the hatch. The heavy metal bolt clicked home as Nora slid down the curved ribs of the
Raven’s Wing
.

“Cap’n J, Cap’n J! You in there, Cap’n?”

Jacob pulled himself up from the cot and shook his head. For days he’d only snatched minutes of sleep at a time, but tonight exhaustion claimed him and he’d fallen back on the pitiful straw mattress and slept like a dead man. “Who’s there?” he called, struggling to regain the sanity of clear thinking and throw off grogginess that made his head feel like it was filled with sand.

“It’s me, Cap’n…Felix.”

Jacob pulled the cot to the window, stood on it and looked out. In a ray of moonlight spearing through the palm fronds, Felix Obalu jumped up and down like a jack-in-the-box. “Felix, what are you doing here? It must be the middle of the night.”

“It is, Cap’n, and maybe the middle of the
last
night for Miss Nora.”

The remaining cobwebs disintegrated from Jacob’s brain at the mention of Nora’s name. He leaned his face out the window as far as the bars would allow. “What are you saying?”

“Moony’s got her, Jacob. She’s on the
Raven’s Wing
, and he’s plannin’ to sail.”

“What?” The full impact of Felix’s words slammed into Jacob’s head with the force of a blow. “How’d it happen? What…”

“We found the bank notes on Moony’s ship. Miss Nora and me, we both thought they’d be there, and sure enough…”

Jacob blocked out the rest of Felix’s words. “Is she all right? Moony hasn’t hurt her?”

“Not so far as I know. I jumped the ship and came right away to tell you.”

Jacob pounded a fist against the rough bricks of the prison wall. He was powerless to help, yet he had to do something. “You’ve got to get the judge, Felix. Hurry!”

Felix’s head bobbed in a frantic nod. “What’ll I tell him? That Moony’s got Miss Nora?”

Logic and panic warred in Jacob’s mind for dominance. What could Thurston Seabrook do? Jacob was the only chance Nora had if Moony had left the harbor. “No,” he said. “Tell him I’ve got to see him. Tell him I’m confessing…tell him I’m escaping. Tell him anything. Just get him here as fast as you can. And then wake Willy and tell him to ready the
Cloud
just in case Moony has already sailed.”

Lightning flashed over the tops of the trees, and rain began to fall in sheets as Felix darted through the shadows. Jacob paced. Surely no sailor with an ounce of sense would venture out on a night like this, but Moony Swain…Jacob wasn’t at all sure. He ran to the door of his cell, rattled the bars and hollered for the guard. “Frank! Come quick!” He was answered with the oaths of his cellmates until the guard appeared and threatened to beat all of them into silence.

“What is it now, Proctor?” he said, sauntering up to Jacob’s cell with lazy insolence. “You got a bed bug in your drawers?”

Jacob was beyond reasoning with anyone. “You gotta let me out of here, Frank. Someone’s life is at stake.”

The guard laughed. “I know. Yours.”

“Damn it, Frank, open the cell!”

“Go back to sleep, Proctor. It’s the first peace and quiet we’ve had here since you became a guest.”

Jacob lashed out between the bars with his booted foot. “Damn you to hell, Frankie! There’ll be a death on your conscience.”

The guard danced free of the danger. “Not yours, Jacob my boy. Not on my conscience. After you hang I might just have me a shot at them wrecks myself.” He turned away and walked back down the hall, leaving Jacob to prowl around his cell like a caged animal.

Once the
Raven’s Wing
sailed away from Key West harbor, the wind picked up with intensity, causing the ship to pitch mercilessly. Unable to stand, Nora lay on the floor of the hold, braced her feet against a barrel of fish, and struggled to free her hands from the rope at her wrists. Luckily, the drunken man who’d bound her had done a poor job of it, probably the only advantage she could see to being on a ship in a storm with a half dozen soused sailors.

She loosened the rope, slipped her hands from the loops and snatched the cloth from between her teeth. Spitting the rancid taste from her mouth, she gulped the air of the hold, which was foul with fish and mildew.

It wouldn’t do any good to yell. Minutes had passed since the ship had left the safety of Key West. Thunder combined with the howl of the wind and filled the hold with ominous sounds of the storm. No one would hear her through the narrow slits in the bow of the hull that served as the only ventilation. Besides, the last thing she wanted was for Moony to hear her and come back down.

It was so dark. Even after many minutes, Nora could only make out large indistinct shapes in her prison. The
Raven’s Wing
rose and fell over the waves, churning its way out to sea. The timbers of its masts creaked with the pressure of overfull sails. Boards at Nora’s back moaned with the effort of holding together in the increasing swells.

She groped around the floor for something to stabilize her in the wicked tossing of the sea. Finding the rope which had bound her wrists, she stood and coiled it twice around her waist. Then sliding her hand above her head, she located an iron hook which would secure her to the side of the ship. Her hands shaking and her body pitching forward and back with the motion of the waves, she finally managed to loop the end of the line around the hook. She drew it as tight as she could, knotting it with the rope at her waist. She planted her boots against the pine planking at her feet, thought of Jacob, and prayed that Felix had made it to shore.

“What’s the meaning of this, Proctor?” Rain water streaming from his hair onto his face, Judge Seabrook scowled through the bars of Jacob’s cell. “I don’t like being dragged out on a night the devil himself wrought.”

Jacob slammed the flat of his hand against the bars. “Stop talking for once, Judge, and listen.”

Thurston swallowed his next words in a sputter of indignation. “Now see here…”

“Your daughter’s life is at stake, Judge. Does that make you want to hear what I have to say?”

Thurston’s cheeks puffed out with a startled breath. “Nora? She’s home in bed.”

“The hell she is. She’s right now on Moony Swain’s ship, and God only knows what he’s doing to her this minute.”

The judge clamped his mouth shut and stared at the man who’d silenced him.

“She found the bank notes on Moony’s ship,” Jacob said, “but unfortunately Moony found her. We can only hope the
Raven’s Wing
hasn’t sailed.” Lightning flooded Jacob’s cell, illustrating his frustration. “I pray Moony wouldn’t be fool enough to test the seas on a night like this.”

Thurston looked to the guard for help. “Go down there, Frank. See if my daughter is on that ship and bring her back here.”