Undercurrents grabbed my useless legs and pulled me down, down, down into the yawning darkness.

16

I came to awareness, choking, convulsing, and vomiting seawater. Callused hands turned me side to side, pounding my back, and pushing on my abdomen between agonizing intervals of wet coughs and tremors.

Minutes lasted hours as every muscle and organ worked to expel the burning water. When my airway finally cleared, I lay bone-tired and grateful to be alive with a wooden deck canting lazily beneath me.

The warship.

Blinking ocean tears from my eyes, I stared up at the rank and file of uniforms on the upper deck, where I sprawled like a starfish.

Gold buttons, hats cocked on three sides, navy-issued dragoon pistols, boots of the finest leather, stoic expressions… The soldiers stood as one, symbolizing England’s power.

I couldn’t see Jade’s mighty masts off the starboard bow. Couldn’t hear her sheets hissing in the wind. Couldn’t detect the stench of blood or the gunpowder smoke of battle. The navy sailors were all here, seemingly awaiting orders without urgency. Which meant they weren’t engaged with my ship.

They’d let her go.

By the teeth of almighty God, my ruse had worked.

Jade escaped!

Quiet jubilation startled into my throat and tumbled past my lips, rolling into hacking fits of laughter.

Two men stood over me, bowing their cocked hats together. Lieutenants, given their buckled shoes and powdered periwigs.

“Why is she laughing?” one asked. “Does she not realize her crew threw her overboard to save their own hides?”

“She’s mad as a March hare,” the second lieutenant said.

“Oh, my foolish lads.” Grinning maniacally, I pushed to a sitting position and straightened the shirt to cover my nudity. “You have no idea what you just invited onto your ship.”

They glowered down their bladed noses with all the haughtiness of English nobility. I yawned, losing interest.

Meanwhile, every muscle in my body continued to shake, reminding me I almost drowned. Or maybe I did? Which one of these pretty boys brought me back to life? Why was no one addressing me or slapping me in irons?

Perhaps I was the first woman to ever step onto this first-rate ship of the line. But every seaman in the vicinity stared as if I were a mystical, fire-breathing sea dragon they’d mistakenly hauled from the sea.

They’d caught a lady pirate and seemed uncertain about what to do next.

“Don’t put a ball through my heart.” I thrust my hands in the air. “I’m just going to stand.”

No one moved as I wobbled ungracefully to my feet and made a quick scan of the horizon. The silhouette of distant sails sent a flutter of relief through my chest. Beyond the range of the warship’s guns, Jade was already vanishing beneath the horizon.

Keep them safe, Reynolds.