Read Online Raven Saint by MaryLu Tyndall - Free Book Online

stung her nose.
    â€œSacre mer, what are you doing? Get below, mademoiselle!” Captain Dubois clutched her arm and dragged her to the companionway hatch.
    â€œWho are they?” Grace could not keep the hope from her voice.
    â€œAh, you think they are your sauveteurs, your champions, eh, mademoiselle?” He raised a brow then released her arm. “Je t’assure, they will not save you. Now get below. I have no time for this.”
    â€œThe Avenger wishes a parley, Captain,” Mr. Thorn shouted from the quarterdeck.
    Swerving away from Grace, Captain Dubois darted to the bulwarks. His men ceased their frantic activities and formed an audience upon the main deck. Grace slunk into the shadows beneath the quarterdeck. She would not allow her fear to send her below when a possible rescue was at hand.
    The schooner ranged up alongside them keel to keel within twenty yards, and her captain, a brawny man with a full beard and plumed tricorne hailed them in a powerful voice. “I am Captain Howell of the Avenger.”
    Captain Dubois leapt upon the gunwale and grabbed a backstay for support. “I know who you are, monsieur.” His deep tone full of cheerful insolence held not an ounce of fear. With his tricorne atop his head, his gray coat flapping in the breeze behind him, and the sun glinting off the long rapier at his side, he appeared every bit the pirate he claimed he was not.
    â€œWe come with the compliments of Captain Roger Woodes,” the man bellowed, waving his plumed hat through the air, “who bids you to haul down your colors and surrender your ship.”
    Coarse chuckles bounded over the sailors, and Grace wondered what they found so amusing. She had heard of Roger Woodes, the ex-pirate turned governor of New Providence—a man who thought nothing of rounding up his one-time colleagues and stringing them upon the scaffold.
    â€œFor what reason, monsieur?” Captain Dubois asked.
    â€œFor the crime of piracy,” boomed the captain of the Avenger, who replaced his hat atop his head and began fingering the hilt of his sword.
    Snorts of derision replaced the laughter among the crew, and Mr. Thorn broke away from the agitated mob and retreated toward the starboard side of the ship as if frightened of the altercation. But when his eyes met Grace’s, only malevolence brewed within them.
    â€œWith my compliments,” Captain Dubois shouted, “you may tell Governor Woodes that I am no pirate and as such, am in no position to surrender anything.” He turned and whispered something to a sailor behind him, sending the man scampering below.
    â€œMost unfortunate, Captain, for I have been instructed to blast you from the sea should you resist.” Howell’s laughter bounced over the sapphire waves between them, silencing all within its hearing upon the deck of Le Champion.
    All save Captain Dubois.
    â€œBy all means, I beg you to try, monsieur.” Captain Dubois swept his hat out before him, hand on his heart.
    Seeing that she only had a few moments before the battle began, Grace rushed to the railing, waving her hands through the air. “Captain Howell! Captain Howell!”
    The man halted and squinted in her direction. She continued, “I am a prisoner aboard this ship. I am the daughter of Admiral Westcott. Please save me!”
    Instead of the expected look of horror on the captain’s face, followed by his quick action to save her from these scoundrels, the man chuckled, put his hands on his waist, and replied, “What is that to me, miss?”
    The crews on both ships broke into coarse laughter as Grace’s heart sank to the deck. One of the sailors fired a pistol into the air, initiating the battle, and Grace attempted to go below but found her feet would not move—no longer from curiosity, but from pure terror. Instead she uttered a prayer for the souls on both ships, herself included.
    Captain Dubois, on the other hand,