Chapter Thirty-Nine
AFTER CALLING MORTIMER OVER and relaying the full plan to him, the first mate went below to issue the challenge and wake up any sleeping pirates, promising a fight they wouldn’t want to miss and taking wagers. Jeremy went down to the main deck, removed his wrinkled coat, and started stretching and jabbing at the air, typical preparations for a round of fisticuffs. Jacqueline stayed with Damon, trying to figure out a way to help without hindering. But she doubted she could knock out anyone with a single punch; disable, yes, but she didn’t dare leave any of the pirates able to get back up before most of them had been captured. She wished she had some sort of weapon, but none was being offered to her.
Then Damon slipped her the little pistol he’d taken from her at the start of this voyage, saying, “Just in case.” Knowing that he now trusted her with it gave her such a warm feeling she couldn’t resist thanking him with an ardent kiss, even if it had to be brief. She knew the pistol was only for her own protection, not to be used in taking out any of the pirates, but she still felt more confident now that she had it and slipped it into the pocket of the britches Jackie had loaned her.
Jeremy’s preparations were drawing the attention of the three pirates on deck. Jacqueline moved to the top of the stairs when one of them yelled at her brother, “Wot are you up to, toff?”
Jeremy motioned the pirate forward, his expression making it a dare. “I’ve offered some entertainment in the form of a challenge, and your captain thinks it will be amusing, so he’s agreed.”
“You’re fighting him?”
“Eventually, but today I want any two of you who beat me down in London to dare try it again. Weren’t you one?” The pirate’s snort had Jeremy add, “No? Well, your mates have been invited and will join you shortly. Decide amongst yourselves who’s brave enough to give this a go.”
“Yer a bleedin’ giant. Two to one ain’t soundin’ fair for our boys.”
“Oh, come now . . .”
“Three maybe.”
“Three it is.”
Jeremy had probably agreed too quickly because one of the pirates snickered, “But four’s a nice even number, I’m thinkin’.”
Jack could see that Jeremy hadn’t expected that, so his reply was deliberately insulting. “It’s a cowardly number, but if that’s what you think of your fellows, so be it.”
That got him some nasty looks, but more pirates started appearing on deck, and the three who had haggled with Jeremy went over to confer with them. Jacqueline started counting heads, but it wasn’t necessary. Mortimer came up the lower-deck stairs last and stood where Damon could see him, nodding and giving the signal that all the pirates were present. She saw Dr. Death, still wearing sinister black. She hadn’t seen him since he’d treated Damon’s wound. His deathly pale complexion was proof of his dislike of the sun. Next to him was Bart Satin, still carrying four pistols tucked in the waistband of his britches. She hoped that particular troublemaker would be one of Jeremy’s contenders. And Scar Face and the other pirate who’d snuck into Damon’s cabin to get a good look at her were laughing at the notion that Jeremy thought he could take down four of their brethren.
The rest of Lacross’s men, all flamboyantly dressed and heavily armed, blended into one gang. She tensed when most of the pirates started toward Jeremy. The normal sailors got out of the way, many of them climbing the masts for a better view, though others gathered around with the pirates for a closer view of the fight that was about to get under way. She wished they would help her brother instead, but she supposed their not taking sides was better than helping the wrong side.
She gasped when she heard her brother say, “Five? Really? No brave lads among you a’tall?”
“No stupid lads.”
She ran back to Damon. “You have to stop this. Now the challenge is up to five against one.”
He gave her a grave look and a nod of agreement and pulled her forward to take the wheel. “Just until I get this under control,” he said before she could ask, and he started down the stairs.
It was the first time he was trusting her with the wheel, but he’d picked a lousy time to do it because she didn’t have a good view of the main deck from there. But no sooner had he started down the stairs than Mr. Thomson came up the other set that led to the quarterdeck. Looking tired but quite awake now, the helmsman was hurrying toward her, and the moment he reached her, she ran after Damon.
She’d only just bumped into his back when she heard Jeremy tell the prospective fighters, “Four, and you get to pick. Five and I pick. You decide, but keep in mind, there’s at least one of you that I could flick over with a finger.”
That got some laughter out of the pirates, and the shortest one among them had gone red in the face. But Jeremy’s solution solved the numbers problem because the pirates chose the first option, and Damon turned around to whisper, “All eyes are on your brother. Now go lock yourself in the cabin.”
Before the fight even began? She would have laughed at the suggestion if he didn’t look so serious, so she merely reminded him, “That wasn’t the deal.”
He swore under his breath, something about stubbornness, but said, “You’ll stay behind me, and the very moment I crack someone’s head, you run to the cabin.”
Mortimer pushed his way through to the center of the ring of pirates that was forming around Jeremy and ordered, “The contenders must hand over their weapons to me. This is going to be a—somewhat fair fight.” But by the time five pistols and two daggers were dropped by his feet, he added, “Bloody hell, I need a sack,” which drew even more laughter.
Still, he managed to stuff seven pistols around his waist and picked up the eight daggers from the four pirates who had stepped forward to participate. Finally, he raised his hand and said, “On your mark—”
One of them threw a punch at Jeremy before Mortimer could finish. The blond got out of the way and joined Percy behind the ring of onlookers, slipping him one of the pistols.
“Four is still a lousy number,” Jacqueline whispered to Damon.
“Your brother must not think so, but you know him better than I. Can he do it?”
“Certainly—but he might not get in those missed swings we were counting on.”
Three more swings toward Jeremy, all three misses. Jeremy was playing with them, apparently. Jack wished she had a better view, but at least she could still see her brother, taller than all the others, to know that he was enjoying himself!
But then Jeremy took his first swing at the pirate who was trying to slip behind him. A bystander went down instead and Jeremy complained, “Now see what you’ve done. That’s what happens when you don’t stay in front of me.”
Jacqueline started to worry. Jeremy might have all their attention on him, but he should have taken down one of the four contenders first so he’d just have to face a manageable three, especially when the four could converge on him. She hoped he didn’t think pirates would actually fight fairly. But she realized when another bystander went down that having the four contenders still standing was possibly keeping anyone else from interfering yet, if they planned to.
Two down, thirteen to go, and what was Damon waiting for? He wasn’t. He hit the man in front of him with the butt of his pistol, helping him to the deck so his fall wouldn’t make much noise. That was her cue to leave and she did, running back up to the quarterdeck and straight to the short set of steps leading down to Damon’s cabin. Instead of going inside the cabin, she turned to the center railing in front of his cabin.
It was the perfect place to watch the fight because it provided an unobstructed view of the main deck and was only a few feet from Damon’s cabin. She could still get behind his locked door if she had to, but she didn’t think she’d have to since she also had a good view of both stairways leading up to the quarterdeck. If any of the pirates broke away from the fight on the main deck and headed toward her, she’d see it. She even put her hand in her pocket so she could quickly reach the little pistol if she needed it.
Damon and Mortimer were quietly but quickly disabling pirates on the edge of the crowd. Percy wasn’t. He’d stuck his pistol in the back of one pirate and had given him a warning that was keeping him quiet. One was better than none for old Percy. The three armed sailors who’d been guarding Jeremy earlier had also taken out three pirates. When one of the pirates noticed what was happening, he shouted a warning, which set off the mayhem.
Jeremy got swarmed for a moment when his four contenders converged on him, but he was able to knock one out and push the other three back so they fell over their mate. Then he quickly went after the pirates who still had weapons. But for a moment during the brawl he came face-to-face with Damon and could have knocked him out as well. She saw her brother pause, seeming to consider it! She was about to yell something nasty at him when a pirate stuck a pistol in his back. Damon saw it and tackled that one away from Jeremy. Jack smirked, but her brother would still get an earful from her later about not honoring deals.
That’s when an arm went about her neck, half choking her, and the tip of a dagger pricked the skin below her ear. Filthy black silk covered the elbow under her chin. She knew only one of the pirates wore that dark color. An icy chill ran down her spine, but then she got angry at herself. They’d been so close to winning and it was her fault that they wouldn’t! She had to fix this.
“How’d you get up here?” she asked Dr. Death. “I would have seen—”
Foul breath crossed her cheek when he said, “Was already up here, pretty. Snuck up as soon as ye ran back to the cap’n to get him to leave his post, and I hid on the other side of his cabin. Fights are boring. If ye’ve seen one, ye’ve seen them all. But ye ain’t boring, wench, and there’s a nice bed only feet from here where we’re gonna do a little bouncing.”
“Take a look below. Your friends are done for.”
“Then I guess they need to be helped up and given back their weapons, eh? And what do ye think will make the cap’n do that?”
He started to laugh, and of course he would, he was holding a knife near her throat—exactly what she’d been warned couldn’t happen if Damon’s side was to win. But she’d slowly been pulling the pistol out of her pocket so Dr. Death wouldn’t notice, horribly aware that shooting someone behind her whom she couldn’t see wasn’t guaranteed to be successful. She had to turn her head enough to see some part of him she could hit because she didn’t dare miss when she had only one shot. So she leaned into his elbow even though it cut off her breath for a moment and shot him where it would hurt him enough to let her go.
He didn’t. He cackled like an old hen instead. “Oh, yer funny, girl. The reason I’m a sawbones is I had to cut off my own foot when I was a youngun. Ye just shot an empty boot.”
The firing of the weapon drew a lot of attention her way, though, and just that momentary distraction provided enough of an advantage for Jeremy, Damon, and the others to beat down the last of the pirates who were still standing. But that wasn’t helping her situation, which could give the upper hand back to the pirates, and she wasn’t about to let that happen if she could help it.
“I think I set your boot on fire though.”
“Nice try, girly.”
“You can’t smell it burning?”
That got him to lift his leg so he could at least see the empty boot, which loosened his hold on her a little, and that’s when Damon dove at him. She grunted as she got knocked aside, but the pirate went down with Damon, and a furious punch knocked the pirate out. She almost laughed when she saw that Death’s boot really was smoldering.
But Damon was already pulling her to her feet. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“Just a scratch.”
Of course Damon had to see for himself, but then he was hugging her fiercely. “Next time, can you do what I ask?”
“I could—maybe.” She grinned. “But if there isn’t a next time, then we don’t need to find out if I will or won’t.”
“Not a good answer, Jack.”
She laughed. “For me it was.”