The Following Sea (The Pirate Wolf series) (27 page)

Ross clenched his fists in frustration. “There were three bodies, scorched down to charred bone. The house burned like a pyre and spread to the two on either side and there was little left to identify. We chose some bones, put them in a casket and buried them in the Chandler plot.”

“And now she is resurrected from the ashes.” Muertraigo cocked the pistol. “How did she get here so fast, senor? And how could she have already managed to ingratiate herself with one of the Dante cubs?”

“
I don’t know
! God’s truth, I don’t know how she got here. I have no bloody idea, unless—” Ross stopped, the blood still pumping too hard and fast through his veins for him to think clearly. “There were only two other ocean-worthy ships in Portsmouth the day the
Cormorant
sailed. One had just come in the day before; the other was a smaller carrack taking on trade goods. I noted the carrack at the time because the captain…
what the bloody hell was his name?...
the captain was a former pilot on one of the Chandler ships.” He snapped his fingers. “Fitch. His name was Fitch, by God, and the ship was the
Eliza Jane
.”

“Did this Fitch know Chandler’s daughter? Did he know her well enough to be persuaded to bring her here?”

“If she was able to convince him that her father’s life was in peril, then yes. He could have been persuaded.”

“This still does not explain why she was on board Dante’s ship masquerading as his wife… and quite convincingly so, I might add. There was no lady’s maid or duena present, no manacles or chains holding her prisoner. Indeed, she looked quite at home when she excused herself from the dining table and went straight into his cabin, her eyes shining with lust as she gazed back at him. For a woman to look at me that way, senor, I would be hard for a week.”

The hot red blood that had been coursing through his body, flushed upward to suffuse Lawrence Ross’s face and throat.

“I cannot explain it. The bitch was always as cold as ice to me and it was cause for celebration when she graced me with a chaste kiss on the cheek.”

“There was nothing chaste about her gown or her manner,” Muertraigo said, slowly lowering the pistol. “And from what I know of this younger wolf cub, women spread their thighs for him as eagerly as they reach for water to quench their thirst.”

“She can spread them until she turns raw for all I care,” Ross said. “Right now the only thing that should concern us is where they’ve gone. A ship that size could not simply have disappeared.”

He heard the irony in his own words, for that was exactly what an enormous treasure galleon had managed to do two decades before. No sooner had the thought put a fresh scowl on his face when he heard something else as well: The unmistakable booming thunder of cannonfire.

Muertraigo was first to stride across the cabin. He had to kick the limp arm of Augustus George out of the way before he could open the door but then he took the stairs two at a time to reach the upper deck. He ran to the ship’s rail, joining scores of crewmen in the gathering dusk as they looked out at the distant blooms of light.

~~

The
Endurance
, with Stubs at the helm, had emerged from hiding and was attacking the crippled
Asuncion
. The two galleons were on the far side of the reef, far out in the Tongue, and from several miles distance looked like child’s toys. Broadsides were lighting up the surface of the water like bolts of lightning, silhouetting both vessels against the night sky. The rolling booms of thunder took several seconds to reach the
San
Mateo
, whose captain watched with renewed outrage as the
Asuncion
was turned into a spire of flame and smoke.

The
Endurance
, having done its worst, piled on sail and beat away on a course due south, her deck lamps blazing a final insult before she disappeared behind the headland.

CHAPTER TWENTY-T
WO

Evangeline Chandler came back to consciousness slowly, roused by the tantalizing aroma of… roasting chicken? It was pungent and unmistakeable, and immediately conjured visions of warm kitchen fires and big iron spits turning above the flames.

She heard voices too. They were not above a murmur but she thought she recognized Gabriel’s soft laugh—his laugh!—and she opened her eyes a slit, trying to see past the throbbing in her head.

Dante was there, seated with two other men around a small fire. His face was bathed in the glow, starkly handsome in the firelight. The sight of him made her belly shimmer like the walls of the cavern, a reaction that was so unexpected, she almost forgot where she was and what had happened.

The last thing she remembered seeing was an enormous shadowy monster reaching out for her, but there were no monsters seated around the fire. To be sure, there was a big, broad-shouldered giant of a man sitting next to Dante, his face furred behind a thick black beard, his eyes sunken behind an almost unbroken, wide black eyebrow. His hair was twisted into thick spikes that stuck out in all directions like a Medusa; his hands were as big as shovels as they turned the spitted capon.

Eva did not recognize him as being one of Dante’s crewmen.

There was a third man seated around the small firepit but he had his back to Eva and she could see nothing but a massive halo of ratty hair and bare arms bulging with muscle.

Wincing, she pushed herself up onto her elbows and used her fingertips to gently probe the tenderness at her temple. There was a lump, but the skin was not broken. Her arm, though, where she had scraped it in the fall, was bound in linen strips.

Dante saw the movement and glanced her way with a wry chuckle. “I didn’t think the Mermaid would want to be left out of the conversation for too long.”

William Chandler shot to his feet and was beside his daughter before she could fully grasp what she was seeing. She jumped up and flung herself into his outstretched arms, where she was spun around and around, the pair of them laughing and teary-eyed and in no hurry to let go of one another.

“Eva, Eva… good God, girl, but you are a sight for sore eyes! What are you doing here? Where have you come from? You scared the shite out of Billy Crab who said you both just dropped down out of the rocks. Of all the people I have dreamt of seeing, you were always the first, and the last, but I never expected it to come true.”

He hugged her again, hard enough to smother her ability to answer any of his questions. She did not mind, however. She doubted she would have been able to speak anyway through the flood of tears streaking down her cheeks.

“The captain here has told me some of your trials, daughter. God spare all the martyrs in heaven, but you’ve had your share of frights. Enough to last a lifetime, I warrant.”

“Father… Father, where have you been all these years? Why have you not written? Why have you not come home? Why--?” Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up and saw the rough black patch covering his left eye. An ugly, puckered scar ran from under the bottom edge of the ragged leather down to his chin, carving through his full beard and tugging the side of his mouth into a permanent smirk. His shaggy blond hair was as matted as a lion’s mane with strands braided and twisted around bits of colored beads and gold loops. His shoulders and chest were broader than she remembered, and solid with muscle. Had it not been for his voice, for the unmistakable brilliant green of his eye, and for the way he hugged and held her, she might not have believed it was really him. “Why are
you
here? What has happened to
you
?”

“Nothing that can’t be told over a cup of rum and a tasty bite of capon.” He tipped his head and examined the lump on her temple. “You’ll be hearing jungle drums for a while, but aye, you’ve as hard a head as your old father.” He grinned and knocked his knuckles on his forehead. “You’ve young Billy over there to thank for not having your nose rearranged on the rocks.”

Eva glanced toward the fire and saw the big man shift uncomfortably on his log seat. Under all that hair and beard she could see now that he was much younger than her father, with the same round cheeks as his mother, the baker. “Thank you, Billy. And thank you for looking after my father all these years. If it wasn’t for the letter you sent home to your mother, I might have begun to believe Father was dead.”

“Billy is a good lad,” said William Chandler. “Loyal as they come and as protective as a mastiff. Pretty much leaves the talking to me, though, since he lost all his teeth to the scurvy. Now come sit by the fire and tell me what you mean by not getting any letters from me. I wrote many and sent them every chance I had. Letters to you and to Lawrence Ross.”

She shook her head and frowned. “I only ever received the one packet; the one with the coins hidden in the wax seals. Lawrence claimed he never received any others, that he hadn’t heard from you in all the years you’ve been gone.”

“If he never heard from me, how did he manage to answer me?”

Eva rubbed the lump on her temple thinking the throbbing had affected her hearing. “Did you say… he answered you?”

“Aye, several times. I sent word for him to outfit all three of our ships and bring them here. He informed me that we had only the one vessel but that he would find a way to bring more.”

“He found a way, all right,” Dante remarked dryly. “He’s enlisted the services of Estevan Muertraigo, one of the biggest pirates on the Main and a Spaniard with the loyalties of a fox.”

Chandler nodded grimly. “I know him well.” He touched the patch over his eye. “We met about a year ago. A deadly choice of allies.” He turned his single green eye on Eva. “Lawrence also informed me the two of you were married.”

Eva’s jaw dropped. “He lied. We were only engaged, and for that I feel foolish enough.”

Chandler arched a bushy eyebrow.

“At the time he was attentive and concerned for my welfare… or at least he pretended to be. I was alone and past the age where I could avoid my cousin’s notice for much longer. Without you there to intercede on my behalf, I would have been married off in a blink to some foul-smelling old man who would have happily taken the shipping line as a dowry.”

“Aye, the king was ever on the watch for allies who could add to his coffers.”

It was Dante’s turn to look surprised. “The king is your cousin?”

“Second cousin, on her mother’s side,” William provided with a snort, “though I never held it against my Elizabeth. She was ever a fine, loving wife with a rare, gentle beauty deserving of more than the likes of me. She never complained, mind. And I’ve never met her equal since.”

He raised a calloused hand and wiped a bit of moisture from the corner of his eye then was all scowls and thunder again. “And what’s this about a robbery and a fire? Surely, Daughter, you must be mistaken that Lawrence tried to have you killed.”

Eva shook her head. “No, Father. There is no mistake.” She tugged the hem of her shirt up and showed him the puckered scar over her ribs.

The thunderclouds darkened on William’s face. “You’d best start at the beginning and tell me everything.”

While Billy turned the capon and Dante sat quietly poking embers with a stick, Eva told her father about finding the coins in the wax and not realizing the importance until many months later. She told him about the baker’s letter and finding Augustus George ransacking the house, and what he said when he shot her, that it was on Ross’s orders. As she spoke, William’s face grew tighter and his hands trembled around the cup he was holding, the strength of his outrage threatening to crush it flat.

“I trusted him,” he growled when she was finished. “I trusted him with my daughter, my business. I even trusted him with the news that I had solved one of the greatest seafaring mysteries of our time.”

“Then it’s true?” Gabriel asked quietly. “You found the
Victorio
?”

William studied Dante’s face for a long moment before answering. “Aye, it’s true. I found her. And I was foolish enough to share that information with Lawrence Ross. Risked my bloody neck numerous times venturing to New Providence in order to dispatch letters back to Portsmouth for him… and for my Eva.”

“I never received any of them beyond that first packet that came back on the
Gull
. And that was delivered by the captain himself into my hands.”

“Aye, those were the instructions I gave him. The bastard Ross must have intercepted the others and kept them from you. He should pray I never get
my
hands around his throat.” He ground his teeth, as if contemplating the pleasure it would bring to do so, then glanced over at Dante. “Whereas I owe you a debt of gratitude I cannot hope to ever repay, young man. You appear to have won my daughter’s confidence, though with what I’ve heard so far, her ability to judge an honest man has been set somewhat askew.”

“Father!” Eva was shocked enough to drop her cup on the ground. She may not have known Gabriel Dante for long, but the thought of questioning his honor would never enter her mind. “Captain Dante was sailing for his home port and showed not a wit of interest in pursuing any lost treasure galleons. Nor had he any intention of helping me find you, for that matter, for he told me repeatedly that it would be like trying to find a single drop of water in the ocean. He saved my life not once, but twice! He put his entire crew at risk from the plague and faced down a threat of mutiny when he took me off the
Eliza Jane
, after which he nearly drowned swimming through shark-infested waters in a hurricane to save me!”

When she ran out of breath and words, Dante stared at her, then at William Chandler. “Slight exaggerations, sir, although I admit I am not the best of swimmers.”

William detected steel beneath the self-effacing humor and chuckled. “She’s much like her mother in that respect. When my Elizabeth laid her case before the king to give his consent for our betrothal even I looked around the room searching for the fellow who was being described in such glorious terms. No harm intended, Captain, and my apology is sincere.”