Read Online April Moon by Susan King, Merline Lovelace, MIRANDA JARRETT - Free Book Online Page B

Sarah. Snatching her up, he crushed her to his chest and ran back through the rain of covering fire. Once at the rail, he shifted her upward, tossed her over his shoulder, and swung a leg over the side.
    “Dear God!”
    Sarah’s piercing shriek carried even over the rattle of musket fire. Upended and dangling high above the Seahawk ’s bobbing boat, she snatched at Richard’s coattails and hung on for dear life. Once in the boat, he dumped her in the gunwales. She pushed to her hands and knees, scuttled crablike toward the sobbing woman Jenkins had carried down to the boat, and shielded her maid’s body with her own.
    In that instant, Richard knew he’d done right by following his instincts and snatching the lady out from under Lowell’s nose. Her heart was as wide as the sea and as true as a compass. If she went to any man’s bed, he’d do his damndest to see it was his.
    First, though, he had to get her aboard the Seahawk alive and unriddled by musket fire.
    Thankfully, his marines kept the British away from their weapons. Firing in alternating waves, they maintained a steady volley while Richard and his men pulled at the oars of their boat. Long, muscle-wrenching moments later, the boat bumped against the Seahawk ’s keel.
    “Come on, lass. Let’s get you and Mistress Maude aboard.”
    “I can climb the ladder.”
    “We’ve no time for you to attempt it on your own, I’m afraid. I’ll take you up.”
    Tossing Sarah over his shoulder once again, Richard went up the rope ladder with the agility of long practice. Jenkins came right behind him with a wailing Maude.
    Once on deck, Richard made for the aft hatch. He didn’t set his burden on her feet until he got her below decks and away from the musket fire now being returned by the marines aboard the Linx. Jenkins followed hard on his heels and deposited Maude in the narrow passageway as well.
    “You are mad!” Sarah exclaimed, shoving back her tumbled hair. “I thought as much when you put a bullet through your own arm. I’m sure of it now.”
    “Not mad. Just willing to fight for what I want.”
    “And fight you will.” Her face grim, she wrapped an arm around Maude’s heaving shoulders. “James will blow your ship out of the water.”
    “Do you think so?”
    His cheerful unconcern had Sarah gritting her teeth. She knew little about sea battles, but even the most ignorant landlubber understood that a frigate carried twice the firepower as a brig. Before she could point out that basic fact, the American preempted her.
    “I’d best get up on deck. The officers’ mess isstraight ahead. Take your ease, lass, and don’t worry.”
    Since he punctuated that bit of absurd advice with a long, hard kiss, Sarah had no breath left to refute it. All she could do was stare at his back as he disappeared up the stairs. A long, keening cry from Maude snapped her attention to the distraught maid.
    “We’ll be kilt along with him and all his crew!”
    “I suspect you have the right of it. Come, let’s find the wardroom and take what shelter we may.”
    The Seahawk ’s officers’ mess was half the size of the Linx ’s but very well fitted. Wood shone. Brass gleamed. Benches were bolted to the floor on either side of a long rectangular table. The center of off-duty life for the ship’s officers, the wardroom cabinets displayed the usual assortment of pewter crockery, books, musical instruments, board games and well-worn decks of playing cards.
    Maude collapsed onto one of the sturdy benches, shaken to her shoes by the extraordinary events of the past few hours, quivering with fear over what was yet to come. Almost as distraught as her maid but trying desperately not to show it, Sarah paced the mess. It was located in the center of the ship and had no windows, no view of the sea or the ship riding the waves just yards away.
    If Sarah couldn’t see the Linx, she could well imagine it. The gunports drawn up. The cannons run out. The matches lighted. Powder