So, this is the end.
The door of the cabin burst open. Darcy and Richard entered the room, pointing their pistols at its occupants.
And then, they froze. They could not shoot the men; Elizabeth was just behind them.
The fourth man, the one playing the violin, ran towards the door, fighting against Mr Chase and his men before they could enter the room. The pirate grabbed his pistol and shot at a soldier, wounding his arm. The other soldiers retreated, giving the criminal enough chance to push the heavy door. Mr Chase shot back at him, hitting him in the shoulder, but the miscreant had enough strength to close the door, locking the iron bolt before collapsing to the floor.
Startled by the commotion, Wickham ran, hiding behind the smaller table.
Darcy and Richard exchanged quick glances. Realising their vulnerable position, they turned over the large table. It collapsed on the floor with a loud thud; scraps of food, plates, cutlery and cups were strewn across the floor; the smell of wine from the broken decanter filled the air as three gunshots hit the table as Jose and Gonzales were already charging at them, wielding their swords.
Wickham was in a complicated position. If the pirates killed Richard and Darcy, he was as good as dead; it was only a matter of time before the rest of the soldiers forced the door down. If Darcy and Richard ended up killing the pirates, he would probably be arrested… and hanged.
Unless…
Richard and Darcy had good hearts. If he could help them, perhaps he could have his sentence changed to deportation. It was worth trying. He had nothing else to lose.
Captain Macedo turned and grabbed Elizabeth, taking the table knife from her hand, keeping her in a firm grip.
Darcy and Richard, now isolated from Mr Chase and the other men, had only two pistol shots and their swords to defend themselves, while the captain held Elizabeth in a most vulnerable position.
Things were not good for them.
Jose and Gonzales reached behind the table and engaged Darcy and Richard in direct combat, the clink of the swords echoing around the cabin.
“We need to hold until Mr Chase can break the door,” Richard shouted, defending himself against Gonzales’s lunge.
“Yes,” Darcy shouted back, also defending himself against his attacker. He was trying to focus all his attention on his fight, despite his mind stubbornly turning to Elizabeth and fearing for her safety.
From her end of the room, Elizabeth watched in horror as the two cousins fought for their lives, while she kicked and flounced, looking around for anything she could use to free herself from the captain’s claws.
Captain Macedo, who had been simply observing, confident that his participation would not be necessary, realised that his men were no match for the two younger swordsmen. They were fighting as if the devil had possession of their bodies.
He snarled when he saw the man in uniform plunge his sword through Gonzales’s body. Cursing, he took a dagger from his waist and hurled it towards the colonel.
“No!” Elizabeth shouted.
The dagger reached its target, stopping at Richard’s abdomen, who cried out, falling to his knees.
With eyes flashing in fury, Captain Macedo discarded Elizabeth, unsheathed his sword and walked towards Darcy, who was still fighting Jose.
Seeing the wounded colonel falling down, Elizabeth remembered what John William had said about her swordsmanship — that“any man who underestimates your abilities will be sadly surprised”. She fetched the table knife from the floor and ran after the captain, kicking his leg and sticking the knife in his back as he wobbled.
The man howled, shouting profanities as he collapsed on the floor.
Elizabeth turned and saw Gonzales’s sword beside his body. She grabbed the sword and turned to reach Mr Darcy, but Captain Macedo was already standing before her, blocking her way.
With a guttural cry, he pulled the bloodied piece of metal from his back. “It will give me great pleasure to torture you,” he shouted loud enough to catch Darcy’s attention.
As Darcy and Jose attacked each other and locked their swords together, Darcy looked towards Elizabeth and his heart froze. An enragedman was lunging towards her. Elizabeth was swaying her sabre in a way that reminded him of his fencing days back in Cambridge.
Darcy just had time to look to the other side of the room and see Richard on the floor, bleeding.
“Are you a fighter? So, let us see what you can do,” Captain Macedo mocked, charging against her. “Do you want to kill me?”
With his heart bumping erratically in his chest, Darcy pushed Jose and, with a skilful defence that came to his mind while observing Elizabeth, he allowed the man to pass beside him as Jose lunged at him. The pirate lost his balance and Darcy thrust his sword into his back.
Another mighty snarl came from the other side of the cabin. Elizabeth not only had defended herself against the captain’s first attack, but also erased the sneer from his face, as she cut his hand counterattacking.