Island Flame by Karen Robards

Author:Karen Robards
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Historical
ISBN: 9780440221074
Publisher: Dell
Published: 1981-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Stop!” Cathy wanted to scream, but the words wouldn’t come. She could only open and shut her mouth soundlessly, like a fish out of water, her throat closed up with pure terror. Her limbs seemed frozen to the deck, refusing to carry her across to where Jon stood with that horrible rope around his neck. Oh, God, this was worse than any nightmare! They were just moments away from hanging him, and she could neither speak nor move!

A hand caught at her arm, squeezing familiarly, and Cathy suddenly recovered the use of her limbs and whirled viciously on her assailant. The vituperations quivering on the tip of her tongue died a quick death as she stared up into the grim, tired, but suddenly vastly relieved face of her father.

“Cathy!” He made the words sound like a prayer. “Cathy, child, I thought you were dead.…”

“Papa!” Cathy cried on a note of thanksgiving. “Oh, Papa, thank God! You have to stop them from hanging that man!” She pointed to Jon. The sailors about them turned at her desperate plea, their faces curious. Cathy didn’t care. She was beyond feeling embarrassed or thinking of the proprieties. Jon was the only matter worth considering.

When her father just stared at the blindfolded man, making no move to go to his rescue, Cathy shook his arm frantically.

“Papa, hurry! Oh, God, please hurry!”

“Is that the man who abducted you?” Sir Thomas asked viciously, his eyes never leaving the man on the gallows.

“Yes! Papa, stop them!”

“Let them hang him! Hanging’s too good for the dog! I’d like to draw and quarter him! I want him to suffer as he’s made you suffer! Bloody bastard!” Sir Thomas flashed a hateful look to where Jon stood, too far away to hear Cathy, pale and quiet as he nodded in answer to the earnest questions of a priest. As Cathy and her father watched, one horrified and the other gloating, the priest made a sign of the cross over him and moved on to the next man, where he started to repeat the ritual.

“Papa, you have to stop them! He’s the father of my child!”

“What?” Sir Thomas cried, his voice cracking with pain and outrage.

“I’m going to have his baby! Oh, Papa, I don’t want my baby’s father to hang! Please stop them! Hurry!”

Sir Thomas stared at Cathy for a full minute while she thought she would go mad. The priest granted absolution to the last of the five and stepped back. The drum roll that preceded all executions began.

“Papa, please!” Cathy begged urgently, clutching at her father’s arm. It was too late now for her to appeal to the captain of the Lady Chester. If her father would not relent, what was there left to do?

Sir Thomas’s eyes moved from her pleading face to the man on the gallows and back again, his lips compressed in a straight line.

“Papa … !”

“Halt!” His deep, authoritative voice rang out. “I want that man, third from the left, brought to me for questioning!

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