Free To Tame the Wind (Agents of the Crown Book 0) by Regan Walker

catch the glass
shards. “This one is beyond repair, I fear.”
    “Not to worry, mistress,” the cabin boy said with a winning
smile. “The cap’n has a hoard of ‘em squirreled away in the hold. ’Twouldn’t be
the first that fell to the deck.”
    “You are very kind to me, Nate, and serve your master well.”
    The boy beamed and, to Claire, it seemed she had found a
friend.
     

Chapter 6
     
    Saint-Denis
     
    Turning away from the Mother Superior, Jean Donet crumpled
the note in his hands and gritted his teeth, as outrage rose in his chest. Merde !
He had expected Powell to strike, but in Lorient, where the Abundance was guarded night and day, not in Saint-Denis where he hid his most valuable
treasure. Where he believed Claire was safe with the sisters behind convent
walls. Where his own misdeeds could not touch her. Never had he expected the
English privateer to kidnap Claire. But he’d been wrong. Powell was more wily
than he’d imagined and more well informed.
    His dark brows drew together. “I will have my revenge and my
daughter!” he hissed to Émile. The first mate’s dark gaze echoed his own rage.
    Jean faced Sister Augustin, who backed away with an anxious
look. “I am most sorry, M’sieur Donet. We had no idea Claire was in danger.”
    Coming to his senses, he shot a glance at Émile, who wisely
remained silent in the face of his captain’s anger. “No, of course not. I will
handle this, Reverend Mother. I do not hold you responsible.” The danger to
Claire had always been there but he’d grown complacent after so many years.
    From her habit the Mother Superior withdrew an unsealed
letter, which she handed to him. “Claire must have written this the night she
was taken. It concerns her desires for her future. Knowing her wishes, I had
also sent you a letter, but it may not have arrived before you left.”
    Something he had heard in the tone of the nun’s voice puzzled
him as he unfolded the letter. “What were her desires? Surely you told her I
wish her to wed, that I’d arranged a marriage?”
    “ Oui , Claire was aware of your plans, but she had
developed a strong commitment to the Order and hoped to one day take vows to join
us. I, for one, did not encourage her, but since I was unable to dissuade her,
I told her I would pass along her request to you, which I did.”
    He looked up from the paper. “No, that is not the path I
have in mind for my daughter.”
    “I thought as much, m’sieur.”
    “Please have her things packed, s’il vous plaît ,
Reverend Mother. I have a meeting in Paris this afternoon I must attend and I
would take them with me.”
    The Reverend Mother nodded, then hesitated. “There is
something I have held for her, knowing it was among the things she prized.” The
nun walked to her desk and opened a drawer. Lifting out an item, she dropped it
into his open palm. He turned it over with his thumb. The blue moonstone
shimmered in the ring he had given Claire for her birthday a year ago.
    He studied the stone that he’d purchased because it reminded
him of her eyes… her mother’s eyes. “It was not on her hand when she was
taken?”
    “No, she kept it safe among her things. But I am certain she
will be grateful to have it again.”
    A short while later, he and his quartermaster departed. The
horses pulled in their traces as the coachman’s whip cracked over their heads.
Jean stared out the window at the ever-changing landscape as the carriage sped
on its way through the city. “If he harms one hair of her head,” he hissed to
his quartermaster sitting across from him, “or fails to return her, I will kill
his crew.” He clenched his teeth. “All of them.”
    “ Oui , I will see to it myself,” came the grim reply
from Émile, his harsh voice sounding as deadly as Jean’s thoughts.
    He pulled the crumpled parchment from the pocket of his
waistcoat, flattened it out and handed it across the space. “Send Powell a
message to the address in Dartmouth he