Page 144 of Storm over the Caribbean
“What is it?” Mr Ambrose whispered, scouring the dark waters with his gaze. “What did you see?”
“A ship!”
“Arriving at the harbour?”
“No.Leaving,” I grumbled, staring after the vessel. “What kind of idiot would set sail at this hour?”
“It is of no consequence, Mr Linton. Focus on the matter at hand.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Meaning the attack on the well-fortified harbour over there?”
“Precisely.”
“So, tell me again, what is your plan? Last time you told me, I was too busy cursing to really listen.”
“All right. Listen here. This is what we are going to do…”
***
“I am going to kill him for this,” I growled, tugging at my dress. “Painfully.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Jack glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, snickering, as he walked alongside me through the island harbour. “You make quite the convincing pregnant lady.”
“You…!”
“Aye.” A certain little brat with a far-too-cheeky grin on his face piped up and took hold of my hand. “He’s right,Mum.”
“You just have to put on a few more pounds and actually start acting like a woman,” the adult pirate added smoothly. “Then I might actually believe it.”
I felt one of my eyebrows twitch. “Jack?”
“Aye, Freddie?”
“What do you think would happen if you were to say that kind of thing to an actual woman?”
He gave a short bark of laughter. “Ha! I’d besodead!”
“I’d definitely have my butt spanked,” the little boy added with a shiver.
“Quite.”
Reaching out, Jackal patted my shoulder. “Our luck that you’re as male as they come, right?”
I contemplated for a moment or two what answer to give to that. A fist to the face was definitely among the top ten candidates. But then again, children were present.
You can always shield his innocent eyes with your free hand.
Good one! I was about to do just that, when, when—
“There!” Jackal hissed, alerting me and saving his nose in the process. “The signal!”
Immediately, I searched the dark horizon, and he was right. There, in the distance, at the end of a long stretch of sand that jutted out from the island into the sea, I saw a blinking light, as if from someone repeatedly uncovering and covering a lantern. Once. Twice. A pause. A third time.
That’s the signal all right.
What, you thought I was parading around here in a stolen dress just for fun? No. Mr Ambrose had come up with an actual plan for this mad venture of his. One that required me to put on a dress to the snickers of dozens of pirates. And worse, one that actually was smart, and that I had no logical arguments against.
Although Ireallywanted to argue.
