Page 1 of The Pirate's Daughter

Chapter 1

Cartagena, 1827

Devin tugged at the bonds,causing the back legs of the chair to scrape the floor. He’d successfully broken those free hours ago, but the front was securelyanchored.

“They’re coming,” the fat man chained to the wall called. “They’re comingback.”

Devin tugged again, the bonds held and he, too, could hear the heavy footfalls. He gave one last valiant attempt to break free. Settling back to the defeated countenance he’d maintained since the moment he was grabbed outside the tavern. As the door opened the five men chained against the wall started to struggle. They could only hear the goings on, as they’d sacks over their heads, tied with twine at their necks. Devin wasn’t treated to the same which made him far more alert to everything around him. For whatever reason they were taken, their captors had a very specificplan.

He counted seven men entering the room. It was plain these men were pirates given their hard demeanor and crude dress. They stepped aside as the last man entered the room. This man could easily pass for any other gentleman of wealth and status, but Captain Robert Devin Winthrop of His Majesty’s Royal Navy spent the last nine years of his career spotting pirates, buccaneers, raiders, rovers, filibusters, marauders—whatever the criminals chose to call themselves at the moment. Pirates had a look to them. Perhaps it was the cold brutality of their acts. The sinister way they preyed on the merchant and passenger vessels while naval ships tried to keep peace on the waters as so many nations continued to fight among themselves. That man turned to look at him and Devin felt a chill roll through. This wasn’t going to endwell.

The other men went to the wall and unchained the captives. More than a few screams of terror rang out. They were in fact gentlemen of some prominence, all of them accustomed to the soft lives they lived. The begging started as soon as they were lined up and forced to move, blindly,forward.

“Please, please. I have money. My family can pay you, make you rich beyond your knowing,” one man said only to be met with wildlaughter.

“Where are you taking us?” the fat man asked. Devin knew him to be a newly set in governor on one of the smaller islands. He’d been on the ship Devin’s own guided through only lastweek.

“Have no cares, Governor Lowe,” the leader of this group finally said, not taking his eyes from Devin. “As long as the good captain cooperates, you’ll be sent home in fineshape.”

The statement clearly startled everyone as much as it did Devin. “Do whatever he asks, Captain.” Governor Lowe called back over his shoulder. “Do whatever heasks.”

Devin watched them go as another man brought in a chair then moved to cut the ropes holding Devin. “That’ll be all for now Smithe. Leave us,” the leader said as he took aseat.

“Aye, Commodore,” Smithe said, and walked out closing the door firmly behindhim.

As the commodore settled more comfortably, Devin took time to rub feeling back into his wrists. He could take the man before him. He was older, unarmed, if he was quick he might do it before others were alerted to thefight.

“Ah, yes. I see you thinking carefully on all the options.” The man, rather than tighten up and prepare for a fight, settled further back in the chair and crossed his left ankle over his right knee. “It’s something I’ve admired about you. A man who thinks before heacts.”

Devin remained silent and for now, still. The purpose for his being here would come out, but it’d be in the commodore’s goodtime.

“Robert Winthrop, Captain, on the two-decker brigIron Rose.Guns, fourteen six pounders. Sufficient in these waters. Crew of sixty-two, including yourself. Last three years on assignment to hold the Crown’s western territories and colonies. Born, 1798 in South York, put on your first ship at age six by a father you’re still estranged from. Mother, living. Brothers, two, no sisters,” the man laughed, “shame, little girls are—adelight.”

Devin worked to hold his expression. That the man knew so much about the ship didn’t strike him as odd. That he knew so much abouthimchilled, but his last words, they didn’t seem ominous. In fact, they sounded indulging, spoken like a man whose heart was quite soft. Not like a bloodletting, murdering pirate. For a moment, Devin wondered if his judgment wascorrect.

“You’re not nobility, but you haven’t squandered your monies, invested well, a man of means if not wealth. You plan to retire when they recall you toport.”

Devin did respond to those words. Maybe four men knew he was ready to give up his commission. Pirates where under control, a fading enterprise, outnumbered and outgunned with the newer ships and more cohesive navies. He didn’t know yet what he might do. He’d been offered a place at the new academy in Portsmouth, but had not decided if teaching was what he wanted. And again, only four people were privy to that information. “You know a great deal about my person,” Devin said, shifting in hischair.

“I take more time to know my allies than my enemies, as my enemies aren’t long for thisworld.”

“You know nothing if you call me ally.” Devin searched his memory for the moment he might have met this man. Nothing came to mind. No party, no table at an inn, no words in passing. “And no one would believe I’d have associations with a pirate if you think toruin—”

The sharp bark of laughter refocused him on the man sitting easily across from him. “Not yet, but soon. You see, we’ll have a common... interest. An… association, if you will. That’s why you’re here. Why I chose you. Although I suspect I’ll be told, rather forcefully, I had no right to go about it this way. In the end I’ll have what I’ll have, and I’ll haveyou.”

“Have me? For what?” Devin could always feel when the winds were picking up in a bad way, and without a doubt the squall about to hit would put not only him inperil.

“My daughter’shusband.”

Chapter 2

Devin was prettysure he’d misheard. Which was why he gave in to the laughter. How absurd for anyone to think he’d become anyone’s husband, let alone husband to a, apirate’sdaughter. He could only imagine what the ghastly female must look like, let alone how she’d behave. If she wasn’t so young as to make it criminal to wed her she was likely already collecting coppers in the cribs along thedocks.

And to hell with any of that. He was barely twenty-nine, far too young to take a wife, even if his plans to retire were set. Should he change his mind and remain in the navy, he was forbidden to marry. When the man across from him continued to sit in silence, Devin began to wonder if he wasn’t somehow more serious than he thought possible. Clearing his throat Devin sat back and returned the intentstare.

“It’s good to see you can laugh,” the commodore said. “You’ll need a good humor with Mia. She can be quite the riptide at times, but more often she’s little more than willful and stubborn. Marriage should see the winds spillout.”

“You aren’t serious that I should marry your daughter?” Devin asked, then saw the man’s expression and knew he was deadly serious. “I’m not going to marry… why would I marry… I can’t marry…” Devinsputtered.

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