Page 99 of Paid to the Pirate

My pulse raced and an insistent pounding began in my head. Desperate, I sawed at the ropes with my dirk; first one, then the other. I figured I could cut the ropes enough so that when I jumped into the boat, maybe my weight would snap the final fibers and we’d plunge into the sea. If that failed, I could at least jump aboard and try to cut the ropes from below. But watching the jolly boat smack against the hull of the ship and imagining everything that could go wrong once I was inside make my gut twist in fear. If I couldn’t get unstuck, I’d neither be free to sail away nor able to climb back aboardThe Dark Blade.

“Going somewhere?” asked a voice behind me and I jumped, nearly dropping my dirk. With my heart in my throat, I turned to see Maurice.

“You know, I don’t like turtle soup either,” he drawled. Maurice looked more severe than usual with rain soaking his gaunt face. Sparse, graying hair stuck to his shiny forehead. “I guess it runs in the family.”

The ship rocked with a wave and I braced myself on the rail.

“What are you talking about?” I mumbled. I wasn’t really interested in listening, I just needed time to figure out how to thwart him and to continue readying the boat.

“You don’t look a thing like her,” Maurice said, shaking his head. “You don’t look anything like me either.”

A chill ran up my spine.

“But you do look likemymother,” Maurice declared. “Now that you’re starting to fill out.”

My stomach knotted as Maurice drew closer. If he began shouting for the men, I’d lose my chance of escape. If he tried to grab and restrain me, I’d never be able to fight him off.

Unless…I tightened my grip on my dagger.

“I first saw your mother when she was visiting family in Jamestown,” Maurice said, stalking closer. “She was much too stunning a beauty for your father. And what man leaves his lovely wife unchaperoned? I tried to tell her these things. I tried to show her, though she clawed at me and cried throughout.”

Maurice cocked his head. “I thought she was a spirited woman from the fight she put up. But alas…”

What was Maurice saying?The pounding in my head grew unbearable, making it even more difficult to make sense of his words.

“By the time your mother reunited with her ridiculous husband, returning from whatever fool’s endeavor he’d been upon, she was already ripening with my child.” Maurice licked his lips.“You.”

Nonsense, gibberish, insanity.

“You’re crazy!” I spat. The ship rocked again and I hoped the jolly boat didn’t drop into the sea without me.

Why was he saying these things?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I protested, stalling. “This is all some story to cover up the truth, isn’t it? You killed my mother, didn’t you?”

“The captain already told you,” Maurice said calmly. “She killed herself.”

“Liar!” My hands tightened on both the ropes and my dirk, unsure about the best way to escape the looming threat of Maurice advancing.

“Well then, you could say you killed her, if you look at it another way,” Maurice said evenly.

I wanted him to stop talking so badly, I fantasized about stabbing him in his malicious mouth. Each of his words felt like the prick of a blade into my heart. It hurt so much I pressed the heel of my hand into my chest. I was sure I bled, sure it would soak through my shirt at any moment.

“I was coming for her,” Maurice insisted. He seemed the embodiment of blood-curdling evil as he spoke. “But she couldn’t stand to be parted from you and she couldn’t accept life with a pirate like myself,” he mocked, sneering. “So when she received news I’d landed, she put a pistol to her head and pulled the trigger.”

“Stop lying!” I cried.

“You were left alone with her now-widowed husband,” Maurice said. “But he’s no father of yours.”

Tears soaked my face, indistinguishable from the rain.

“Deep down, I’d had the thought…” Maurice mused. “When you were first brought aboard. But that child had been female. And what were the odds that it lived? That it found its way onto my very ship? It wasn’t until Robert tied you to the mast and we all saw the truth that I knew. Fate brought you to this ship. To me. To Colton.”

I tensed my fingers around the dagger’s handle once more.

“Colt wants you as I wanted your mother,” Maurice said, smiling as if his words were happy ones. “I shouldn’t be surprised he takes after me. I raised him like a son, after all. But you, my dear Charlotte, you are my actual daughter.”

“Stop saying that!” I screamed. Before I knew what I was doing, my hand was flying sloppily toward Maurice and I’d stabbed him high, near his right shoulder.

---