Little Jane Silver by Adira Rotstein

Author:Adira Rotstein
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Dundurn Press Limited
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Under Attack!

Their grievances forgotten, the sailors now scrambled to their stations.

Long John peered through his spyglass with growing fascination. The strange ship was coming on fast — seventy knots if she wasn’t a league, he’d wager. And an odd craft from the looks of her. He didn’t know quite what to make of it. Merchantman? Pleasure cruiser, perhaps? Not likely. Warship, then? He was certain she was a frigate, but customized in ways unlikely to find favour in any standard navy.

She was flying three more square-rigged sails than an ordinary ship, their white bellies swollen with the mighty northeast wind. A right lot of sheets for a ship that size. Slave ship or pirate? The hull was cut down fairly level, with a low forecastle, almost perilously close to the water. That was something only slavers and pirates did to increase their cruising speed. A masterful captain indeed, to sail something so tricksy, Long John mused. A captain had to be vigilant with such a low-hulled ship, for she was easily swamped and highly vulnerable to cannon strikes if your enemy knew where to hit. In fact, the Pieces was the only ship he had ever seen to sail so low to the water so fast.

Now that he considered the matter at length, the strange craft seemed much like the Pieces in other respects, too. Looking at her was like looking at an eerie reflection of his own ship across the water. For a brief moment, Long John was aware of the fear that must grip the captains of the ships he plundered as they witnessed the Pieces bearing down upon them.

Bonnie Mary sidled past him and he followed her behind the cutter, where they could confer in private.

“What do you think?” she asked, a furrow of worry creasing her brow.

Suddenly, she looked so pretty Long John just wanted to freeze everything and kiss her.

She stared back at him. “What? What is it?”

Long John shook his head. Danger always did the oddest things to him. “Somethin’ ain’t right here, Mary. That boat out there — don’t like the way she looks — too much like our own Pieces. I say we run.”

“Me, too.”

“Should they give chase—”

“We’re sunk for sure,” she finished for him.

“There is a little extra powder still in the cannons—”

“And the private stash in the room for our pistols. I’ll get it. You hold the deck.”

“What about Little Jane?”

“I’ll send Mendoza to take her below decks when, I mean, if the time comes,” Bonnie Mary corrected herself.

“She can stay in the kitchen,” Long John suggested. “If she needs protection, Ishiro’s got his knives down there.”

“Wonderful,” she muttered darkly.

“I don’t see what other choice we got, love.”

“Aye,” she said softly. For a second she looked like she was going to cry, but then she broke his gaze and looked down. When he met her eyes again, her soul was steel. She turned resolutely toward the deck. Long John gave her hand a rough squeeze, one calloused palm to another, and they stepped out together, swords held high.

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