How To Please a Pirate (35 page)

“Well, Drake,” Oddbody said. “Looks like
you’ll dance the hempen jig this day after all.”

“Only if you’re disposed to negotiate the
release of the women and children you’re unlawfully holding,”
Gabriel said.

Meri cocked his pistol and balanced it across
his forearm. “I think I can drop ‘im if ye wish it, Cap’n.”

Oddbody reached into the cart and pulled out
a squealing Lily to hold before him as a shield.

“No, no, don’t take her.” Jacquelyn reached
after the child, but Oddbody wouldn’t release her.

But Lily wasn’t willing to go without a
fight. She squirmed and kicked and finally clamped her little teeth
down on Oddbody’s arm. He gave a girlish scream and released her.
Lily ran toward Gabriel, made a running leap off the end of the
dock and into her uncle’s arms. He caught her and deposited her
beside Meri where she burst into tears.

“I had to bite him, Meri,” she said between
wails. “Don’t let Mrs. B. tan my bum.”

“Don’t ye fret, missy,” Meri assured her
without lowering his pistol. “I’ll square things with Mrs. B.”

“Well, at least we know what you are,
Oddbody,” Gabriel said. “Any man who hides behind a little girl is
the most pitiful coward alive.”

The crowd jeered, hissing at Sir Cecil. The
scowls on some of the Beefeaters’ faces said they agreed, but they
kept their muskets trained on the oxcart.

“These women and children may look like
innocents, but they were caught red-handed aiding and abetting the
escape of a convicted pirate,” Oddbody said, trying to rally
support. “They’ll be duly executed for their crimes.”

“And yet, you won’t be able to hang me,”
Gabriel said. “And while I live, I’m still Lord of Dragon Caern.
You won’t be able to get your thieving hands on my barony, unless I
allow it.”

“What are you proposing?”

“Release them now,” Gabriel said as he rowed
the boat closer to the dock and slipped a rope over one of the
posts. “Let them get into the boat with Mr. Meriwether, and you may
have me.”

“And watch you all sail away? I think
not.”

“I give you my word.”

“The word of a pirate.” Sir Cecil spat the
words.

Gabriel stepped onto the dock and made a
graceful leg. “No, the word of a gentleman. A bond, I believe, you
are not able to return.”

The crowd cheered.

Sensing the momentum shifting, Oddbody
relented. “Very well. Release the prisoners.”

Mrs. B and Jacquelyn shepherded the girls
into the waiting boat. Gabriel wished he could take a moment to
speak to Lyn, but he felt he must stand at the ready, glaring at
Oddbody to keep the man from changing his mind. Then at the last
moment, Jacquelyn untied the boat and gave it a shove. Meri started
rowing.

“Lyn, get in the boat,” Gabriel ordered.

“No, I won’t leave you again.”

“You’ll die here.”

“Die all, die merrily.” She shot him a quick
smile and slipped her hand in his. They turned together to face
Oddbody and his guards. He squeezed her hand, knowing he didn’t
deserve the love of such a woman, but grateful beyond words for
it.

The crowd fell to hushed expectancy. This
little drama had more turns and twists than a play at the Rose.

“Seize them,” Sir Cecil screamed.

But before the guards could follow his
command, a coach rattled into the dock area, the crowds making way
for it like the Red Sea parting before Moses. The glittering crest
of the Elector of Hanover was emblazoned on the side of the grand
conveyance. When the matched quartet of white horses were reigned
to a halt and a footman leaped down to open the door, King George
himself stepped majestically from the coach, followed by . . .
Isabella Wren.

The crowd, the Beefeaters, Jacquelyn and
Gabriel, even Oddbody, fell to their knees in deep curtseys and
bows, not rising until they heard His Majesty speak.

Of course, it was in German since King George
spoke no English, but they all assumed they’d been given permission
to rise.

The king spoke again and Isabella answered
him in flawless Deutsch. His Majesty cast an assessing glance at
Gabriel and then turned back to Oddbody.

“His Royal Highness wishes to know why you
are trying to hang a man who did him the service of rescuing his
royal cousin from French pirates?” Isabella translated.

“Be that as it may, sire,” Sir Cecil said
with a wheedling tone. “This man has violated the terms of his
pardon by appearing in London.”

Isabella relayed this information. “The king
did not consent to any such restriction. When our gracious
Sovereign pardons a man, he remains pardoned. You have overstepped
your authority, Sir Cecil.” She swept toward the courtier and held
out her hand. “The King orders you to surrender his Privy Seal
immediately.”

Visibly shaken, Oddbody complied, placing the
heavy signet ring in the center of Isabella’s palm.

The king leaped into the fray, gesticulating
wildly to the Beefeaters and then pointing to Oddbody. It was so
clearly an order for his arrest, no interpreter was needed. The
captain of the Beefeaters took obvious delight in manacling Cecil
to the oxcart and driving it away with Oddbody forced to trot along
behind it lest he be dragged to Newgate Prison.

The crowd jeered its contempt for Oddbody and
found good use for the rotten vegetables it had decided not to toss
at Gabriel.

King George turned his piercing dark eyes on
Jacquelyn and strode over to inspect her, lifting her chin with one
finger.

“
Isabella, meine Liebe. Ist diese meine
Tochter?”

“
Ja, deine Majestät, ist sie.”
Isabella smiled at Jacquelyn and Gabriel realized the truth. Lyn’s
unknown father wasn’t some unnamed courtier, after all.

“Majesty,” Gabriel said. “I am under royal
orders to marry only a woman of noble birth in order to advance the
line of fathers. However, I find this woman,” he cast a loving look
at Lyn, “who cannot claim noble blood, is the only one I want. We
have already been secretly wed. May I beg your indulgence in this
matter?”

Isabella relayed his message and the king
spoke at length.

“His Majesty says that sometimes one is
obligated to wed outside the dictates of one’s heart,” Isabella
said, a real blush kissing her cheeks. “But in your case, Lord
Drake, he sees no such impediment. The edict requiring nobility in
your future wife was another of Oddbody’s overreaching orders.
However, rest assured, the lady you have wed has the noblest of
blood.”

The king spoke again.

“His Majesty is not surprised that even
without his favor, you have done as your heart inclines you, but he
forgives your impulsiveness,” Isabella related. “And now, he orders
you to get that bloody pirate ship out of his harbor, before you
have another impulse or he’ll change his royal mind.”

“Is it normal for it to take this long?”
Gabriel asked as he made his tenth circuit of the solar.

“Ye’re asking the wrong person,” Meri said.
“But don’t ye fret, me wee Hagitha will see yer babe into the world
safe and sound. Here, have another dram. Best whisky I ever tasted.
Who knew Curtmantle had such a good collection of spirits?”

Once Cecil Oddbody was pressed, he informed
the Crown that Baron Curtmantle was his minion in the plot to
relieve Gabriel of his barony. In fact, Lord Curtmantle was accused
of engineering the death of Rhys Drake in what was supposed a
hunting accident. So King George saw fit to relieve Hugh Curtmantle
of his lands and title. He declared Curtmantle’s barony extinct and
ordered Hugh and Catherine transported to the Colonies to labor as
indentured servants for the rest of their sad lives.

Along with Cecil Oddbody.

Then, as a favor to Lord Drake, His Majesty
installed the unlikely personage of Joseph Meriwether as the new
baron to the north of Dragon Caern. Meri was mostly pleased to have
inherited such a fine wine cellar, but Hagitha Beadle, the new Mrs.
Meriwether, was delighted to be known as ‘my lady.’

And there had been another wedding in the
family. Isabella Wren finally took a man’s name. The new Lady
Haversham wrote from Rome that she and ‘dear Geoffrey’ had decided
to wed while gallivanting about the Continent.

Isabella was sorry to miss the birth of her
first grandchild, but she was never much use in a sick room and had
absolutely no interest in changing a newborn’s napkins. She
promised to visit once Jacquelyn and Gabriel’s child reached a
‘more interesting age.’

Gabriel stopped pacing the solar. “Meri, I
can’t wait any longer.”

“Them women are like to have yer balls for
breakin’ in on ‘em during a birthin’,” his friend said
cheerfully.

“Well, since my balls caused the problem in
the first place, they might not be wrong.” Gabriel left Meri to his
whisky and took the curving stairs two at a time.

When he reached his chamber, he hesitated.
After nearly hanging, he didn’t fear much, but the last few hours
spent wondering what was happening to Lyn had reacquainted him with
the emotion. There was no sound coming from beyond the portal, but
he didn’t think that was a good sign. He pushed the door open
slowly.

Lyn was reclining on a mound of pillows, her
lovely hair streaming past her shoulders. Even from across the
room, he could see that her locks were damp with sweat. One breast
was partially exposed and she was looking down at it. No, he
realized, she was looking at the wadded bundle in her arms.

“What are you doing here?” Lady Meriwether
exclaimed. “We haven’t had time to clean the babe or—”

“No, it’s all right,” Lyn said with a tired
smile. “Come in, Gabriel. There’s someone who wants to meet
you.”

He tiptoed toward the bed, feeling like an
intruder in his own chamber. Gabe eased a hip down on the side of
the bed as Lyn pulled back the blankets to show him a little head,
dark hair plastered to the tiny skull.

“Meet your daughter,” Lyn said. “I know you
were hoping for a son but—”

“Who wants an ugly old boy when I can have
the two most beautiful women in the world?” he said as he cradled
the baby’s delicate head and leaned forward to kiss first Lyn, then
the pulsing soft spot on his daughter’s crown. “I never believed it
was possible to love two people with my whole heart, but I do.”

Lyn put a hand to his cheek as the baby
rooted at her breast. “We can try again for a boy.”

“Ah! The trying is my favorite part, but
after all this, I won’t rush you. When you’re feeling ready, tip me
the eye,” he said, as he helped guide his daughter’s lips to his
wife’s swollen nipple. “But once you’ve given me the word, be
forewarned, my lady.”

She arched a questioning brow at him.

He kissed her again, slowly and deeply. “What
a pirate wants, a pirate takes.”

HOW TO PLEASE A PIRATE is a work of fiction,
but an actual historical person makes a brief cameo appearance in
the story—King George I. First of the Hanoverian kings, he neither
spoke English nor spent much time on his island nation, a fact
which may explain the relative peace and prosperity of his reign.
In his personal life, he was a man of his age. He kept a number of
mistresses and reportedly sired children by some of them, so making
my heroine one of his by-blows is not too far a stretch. It is
worth noting however, that though George I was rather cavalier
about his own bed partners, he had his wife imprisoned for
thirty-two years after he caught
her
with a lover.

The scene in HOW TO PLEASE A PIRATE where the
heroine’s courtesan mother hides the hero between her feather
mattresses to avoid arrest is borrowed from a real life account.
Grace Elliott, a famous English courtesan, saved the Marquis de
Champcenetz from a date with Madame Guillotine during the bloody
days of the French Revolution in the exact same manner. Miss
Elliott was imprisoned, but later escaped France with her lovely
head still attached to her shoulders. Her heroism during a dark
time is a testament to character that has nothing to do with how
she secured her living.

Happy Reading,

* * * * *

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