AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER17
Every muscle William possessed clenched tightly against the freezing onslaught of rain. He pressed forward, rowing toward the blinking light swaying in the distance and cursing his brother’s name under his breath. Great waves splashed against their boat, rocking them back. For every foot he and his men gained toward Jack’s ship, it felt like they lost two more.
“Blasted ship doesn’t appear to be growing any closer,” Roger hollered over the wind and rain.
“Careful,” John replied. “You don’t want to wake Mac.”
“He won’t wake Mac from here,” Samuel Caney said, turning confused eyes on his uncle. “Mac’s house is too far away for that.”
William looked over his shoulder to where Camden Court sat, surrounded by trees and hidden mostly from view. It was too dark to make it out entirely, but the darkness shrouding the estate was comforting all the same. The very last thing William needed was for the navy man to catch them in the midst of their illegal escapades.
John shook his head. “You can’t know what carries on the wind. It’s best to be cautious.”
William agreed with John, but he was fairly certain no one would hear them from the beach. If the wind drowned their voices from being able to reach one another easily, surely they were safe from being overheard by someone far back on the shore.
“Row harder, men,” William commanded, pulling at his oar handle with all the strength he could muster. The lantern his brother had lit to signal his sloop bobbed further away, and William was growing anxious. “Come on now, one last push.”
They heaved and rowed in time as William counted out the rhythm of the oars. The forward motion felt like sludging through mud instead of water, but they pressed forward and slowly approached Jack’s ship. It was too dark to see much, but Jack’s face was lit up by the lantern he held, and William couldn’t help but feel relieved and glad to see his reckless brother.
“Took you long enough,” Jack called. Rain fell lightly around him, causing a hazy glow around the lantern light. It made the blasted devil look like something of an angel.
“The storm hasn’t helped much,” William called back. Rain sluiced down his neck and chilled him. His boat rocked widely, and he swung to the side, catching himself on the bench.
Jack seemed to search the sea beyond William, forcing him to look over his shoulder again. Ainsworth hadn’t followed them, had he?
“Where are the rest of your men?” Jack called.
“This is it.”
Jack didn’t bother hiding his surprise. “We better be moving or we’ll be here all night.”
Jack’s crew formed a line down the rope ladder and proceeded to fill William’s boat with the first load of barrels. They rowed back toward the beach to relieve the load, their chests heaving and limbs aching. It was the first of at least three trips between Jack’s sloop and the beach, and William had a feeling he was going to sleep long into the morning. If he made it home unscathed.
“Hurry, men,” Roger called, jumping from the boat and carrying the first barrel to the cart that William’s father had resting on the beach. Father sat on the driver’s seat, prepared to drive away when it was fully loaded.
William struggled to put Pippa from his mind; he felt guilty breaking the law in Camden Cove. It may not belong to Pippa’s family by law, but William had considered it Pippa’s beach since he first found her in the rock pools with her niece and nephew.
The longer they worked, the more the rain appeared to recede. It was a blessed thing that by the time they loaded the final barrel of brandy into their boat, the rain had ceased completely. William hovered on the rope ladder, having climbed it to help lower barrels of sugar and brandy down to his men. He descended from his brother’s sloop to reach his own measly boat, holding tightly to the unsteady rope.
Jack called down, hanging over the railing. “I’ll be seeing you in a week, and I’ll have twice the loot. Be sure to have triple the men, at least,” he said. “And another boat or two.”
William bit out a curse. He didn’t want to be in charge of another drop. He’d agreed to this for the sake of Jack and their father but meant for this to be an isolated situation. He clung to the ladder, the rope digging into his gloved hands. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Have you spoken to Father about this?”
Jack lifted his eyebrows, his face glowing orange from the lantern light. “It sounds like it’s you who needs to have a talk with Father.”
Great. Just great. “We don’t have the men,” William called up, irritated.
“Find them,” Jack replied. “There certainly weren’t nearly enough today.”
William didn’t bother to respond but focused on climbing down the slick ladder without slipping. He reached the boat, but it wouldn’t remain near enough to make the transfer easy, despite the rope tethering it to Jack’s sloop. Huge waves, no doubt fed by the storm, sloshed the small boat about as though his men were a pair of dice in a player’s cup and made it difficult for William’s shoe to find purchase on the rim.
“Make a jump for it,” Roger called, holding on to the side of the boat as he jostled about.
William looked to the dark, fathomless ocean below as he dipped with the swaying boat. He’d seen it swallow men on calmer nights. Was he willing to take the risk? Even skilled swimmers—and he counted himself among them—could not always fight raging waves and win. His gaze sought the beach, and he noticed a light bobbing along the top of the cliff, hazy and blurred from the moisture clinging to the air. It was far too late in the night—or early in the morning, more accurately—for anyone to stroll along the lane.
Surely that had to be Ainsworth. Which meant they needed to get to shore, hide, and give Jack a chance to get away.
Looking down at the boat, William swallowed his last bit of reserve and jumped.
