Page 85 of Maggie and the Pirate’s Son

After several excruciating minutes, Bash extracted the heavy chest and stepped towards Maggie.

“Let her go,” he tried again.

The captain laughed. “You’ll have to start joining the lads for Ruff. You don’t seem to understand I’m holding all the cards.”

“Except one,” Bash said. “One very heavy card. The only card you’ve ever cared about, at least so long as I’ve known you.”

“True,” Mad agreed. “But I’m holding the prettiest card. So which do you want more, boy? Wealth or beauty?”

When Bash didn’t answer, his wretched father chuckled.

“That’s what I thought. Now bring it here and put it in her hands.”

Maggie shook her head the tiniest bit, but, sensing the movement, Mad pressed the knife tighter to her throat, and she held her breath, not even daring to swallow.

Bash did as he was told, staring into her eyes with so much sorrow that she wanted to weep. The gold was his by rights, earned if nothing else, through toil and the lash. The one thing which could finally set him free from the cruelty he’d known all his life, and now he was being forced to sacrifice it to save her. She was grateful, but she wasn’t sure she was worth it.

His hand brushed against her arm as he surrendered the chest. Like the day he found her, St. Elmo’s Fire sparked between them, and Maggie almost stopped breathing. When their eyes met, his were filled with sorrow.

The gold was heavy, and she grunted under the weight, nearly forced to her knees. The captain cackled at the most unladylike sound.

“Now what?” Bash asked, stepping back only a pace or two as the captain waved him away. “You have your long-lost treasure. Let the girl go.”

“Have I taught you nothing about the value of a hostage?” Mad asked with a disappointed tone.

“You’ve taught me nothing except how to hate.”

The captain threw back his head to roar with laughter, his dagger scraping against Maggie’s throat. The stinging cut brought tears to her eyes, or would have done, if her vision wasn’t getting cloudy around the edges, her legs threatening to buckle.

“A worthy lesson every boy should learn.”

Instinctively Maggie turned her head away from the knife and noticed a third man creeping up to join them. He wore a naval coat of blue serge.

“Cornelius MacLeod,” the man said calmly. “At long last. Care to introduce me to your friends?”

Realizing he must be the captain of HMS Pursuit, Maggie’s breathing grew shallow, and she darted her gaze to Bash, who stood frozen, weaponless and exposed.

“Constantin,” Mad exclaimed, swinging Maggie and his gun around to face the officer. She staggered to her knees, dropping the chest, as the man raised his hands in supplication. “You’re here just in time. I caught these two red-handed.”

“Come now, Cornelius. After twenty-two years, you must call me Frederick!” the officer said jovially.

Both captains laughed like old comrades and Maggie grew faint. The warm air she had once longed for was too thick and humid. She couldn’t catch a proper breath, especially not wearing her horrid bodice and stays. How had she ever stood them before?

“This woman is a pirate thief,” Mad continued. “She boarded my vessel uninvited and in disguise. She stole from me. I followed her here, only to discover the two of them attempting to hide what they took.”

Bile surged up Maggie’s throat, sour with the taste of regret. Was this how her foolish adventure would end? Prosecuted as a criminal when all she’d ever stolen was a kiss?

“Lies,” Bash said, his voice soft but strong and cold.

Constantin turned his way as though noticing him for the first time, but Mad remained focused on the navy man.

“She’s no pirate,” Bash explained desperately to Constantin. “Just a silly girl, forced into hiding when she snuck aboard the wrong vessel by mistake.”

Tears burned her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. He would implicate himself if he didn’t stop talking. She shook her head once more, ever so slightly despite the blade still at her throat.

“I’m the one responsible for all of this,” Bash went on. “It was me who took his property. Believing we were lovers, he kidnapped her to get it back.”

Constantin looked at each of them in turn with an inscrutable expression on his face. “Which is it, miss? A thief or a victim?” the officer asked, and Maggie opened her lips to plead with him, but her throat was too dry to make a sound.