Clockwork Pirate by Lyn Gala

Author:Lyn Gala
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: steampunk, pirate, historical
Publisher: Lyn Gala
Published: 2018-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Four days of waiting had turned the ship into a powder keg of bad tempers. Each midday, Alex would retreat to the captain’s cabin after starting a new salted-pork-and-potato stew. And since Manuel had ordered them to run the ship dark, he couldn’t even have a light by which to read.

The first night, Alex had tried lying down in Beche’s bed, but as much as the mattress was more comfortable than the floor, it didn’t feel right. He retreated to his normal nest of pillows and covers on the floor where he could only relive the miserable events of each torturously slow day.

Then Andrew had come back with word of at least one airship and two warships at the fort, but Vern hadn’t yet come out with his report. All anyone knew was that the captain hadn’t been hanged.

Armstrong had, though.

The army had hanged him and then tarred his body and left it to dangle where his feet dragged in the high tide. The only regret Alex could muster was that Armstrong had not lived long enough for Manuel and the others to take their revenge. The reports on the wireless said Armstrong had claimed to be an honest sailor who had taken hire on the wrong ship. However, he had admitted that he had participated in the raid on the Meili out of fear that the other seamen would turn on him. So the government hanged him after he had helped them.

Copying down the increasing traffic of wireless messages was one of Alex’s other jobs. When Manuel called for him, he would sit in Fabrice’s quarters and copy down wireless code. It was strange to write the words that reported a man hanged for Alex’s own murder.

Murder.

If the government believed him dead, then Philla would officially be the Marchioness Philippina of Mergau, and no doubt some man with only a courtesy title to his name and some vague family tie to the royal family had claimed her hand. At least Philla was smart enough to treat her marriage as a business contract and get as much profit for herself as possible.

Alex had no idea how his reappearance might affect her marriage. Of course, that was assuming he could get anyone in the Republic of Texas to believe he was the Margrave of Mergau and not some deluded seaman. At this point, Alex questioned his own sanity, so he could not assume others would find him credible.

These thoughts had driven sleep from Alex’s mind, and he could only stare out the windows at the stars and wonder if Beche could see the same stars from his cell. Would they keep him in a damp stone room well under the ground level so he was forced to breathe the unhealthy vapors or would he have a barred window where he could look out to the sea and the sky?

Alex’s stomach twisted. Could Beche look out onto the gallows? Would the soldiers be cruel enough to give him a view of

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