Free Seizure by Kathy Reichs Page A

siblings, Anne spent a lot of time alone, and eventually fell in with the ‘wrong crowd.’”
    My breath caught. My eyelids burned.
    Oh God. Don’t fall apart.
    Sometimes it happened like that. The slightest connection to my mother and, without warning, I’d go to pieces. I always tried to hide my sadness. Mostly, I succeeded.
    It’d been less than a year since the accident. Though duller now, at times the pain still cut like a knife.
    Anne lost her mother. You lost your mother. Shake it off.
    I refocused on Sallie’s words.
    “—stabbed him with her dagger! Young Mr. Grabby-Hands was hospitalized for weeks. After that, nobody made unwanted passes at Anne. And she was only fourteen!”
    Like ping-pong, the tale bounced back to Chris. “At sixteen, Anne fell for a drifter named James Bonny. Most think he was simply after her inheritance. When they married, her father was furious.”
    Ping. Sallie’s turn.
    “Cormac had always wanted Anne to be a lady of importance,” she said. “He planned to marry his daughter into a respectable Charles Town family, through a man of his choosing. She was supposed to be an aristocrat. A plantation owner’s wife.”
    Pong. Chris took over.
    “When Anne refused to renounce her no-account, sea captain husband, Daddy Cormac gave her the boot. So the couple moved to New Providence, a pirate hotbed in the Bahamas.”
    “She was married?” That surprised me. “Even as an outlaw?”
    “Not for long,” Sallie said. “Anne got cozy with the local pirates, then found out James had turned informant. She left him for a flashy swashbuckler named Calico Jack Rackham.”
    “This part I know,” Shelton said. “Calico Jack offered to buy Anne, but her husband wouldn’t have it. So they ran off together.”
    “Buy her?” I couldn’t keep the irritation from my voice. “He tried to purchase Anne like cattle?”
    Shelton shrugged and grinned. “It was a simpler time.”
    “And that was before Anne’s ‘lady friend’ entered the picture.” Hi’s leer aimed for lecherous, nailed it. “You know Bonny swung both ways, right?”
    My look conveyed that I did not.
    “He’s telling the truth,” Shelton chuckled.
    My eyes swung to Chris, who nodded with a grin.
    Why do boys find this topic so thrilling?
    “The Neanderthals are referring to Mary Read, another female pirate.” Sallie rolled her eyes at Chris, whose palms rose in innocence. “Read joined Calico Jack’s ship, Revenge , also dressed like a man. Anne took a shine to the ‘new guy,’ but eventually discovered Read’s deception. Nothing changed. From then on, Read and Bonny had a special relationship of an undisclosed nature.”
    “ Pillow fights ,” Hi fake sneezed, then danced away from my elbow.
    “Mary and Anne were two of the toughest sailors on board,” Sallie said. “The crew all knew their secrets but accepted them as equals.”
    “Pirate ships were very liberal, almost complete meritocracies,” Chris said. “Bonny and Read could sail, fight, and handle themselves, same as the men. Nobody messed with them.”
    “Tell the capture story,” Shelton urged. “Didn’t they shoot up their own guys?”
    “Only because the men wimped out.” Sallie looped my arm as if we were confidantes. “In 1720, Captain Jonathan Barnet, a pirate turned pirate hunter, attacked Revenge while she was anchored. The crew was passed out, having celebrated the capture of a Spanish trading ship the previous night by getting bombed.”
    “Barnet sailed close and blasted Revenge with cannon fire. Badly hungover, Calico Jack and his men refused to fight. Only Anne and Mary resisted.”
    Sallie threw a classic “men stink” look at Chris. I was starting to like her.
    “Legend goes, Anne screamed, ‘If there’s a man among ye, ye’ll come out and fight!’” Sallie snorted derisively. “The men cowered in the hold like beggars. The two ladies were so incensed they began shooting at them , killing one and wounding several