Free April Moon by Susan King, Merline Lovelace, MIRANDA JARRETT

boys runningfrom the ship’s magazine with cartridges tucked under their jackets to keep them from catching a spark and exploding. Officers issuing cutlasses and pikes to the sailors and marines who would board the Seahawk once it struck its colors.
    Her heart in her throat, Sarah waited for the cannons to boom and braced for the shriek of torn sails and falling timbers. Instead, the only sounds that came to her and Maude were continuing bursts of rifle fire and a shouted command to raise all sails.
    The deck above her came alive with the slap of running feet, followed shortly by the shriek of pulleys. Mere moments later it seemed, the Seahawk ’s sails caught the breeze and she lunged forward. The pewter crockery rattled. Maude gasped and clutched the table’s edge. Sarah put out a hand to steady herself and waited in agonizing dread for an explosion of fire and death.
    Seconds crawled by. Minutes.
    The rattle of rifle fire died. Canvas snapped. Masts creaked. The ship picked up speed.
    It took a while for both women to grasp the fact that they were away. Well and truly away. Without a cannon being fired on either ship!
    Maude ceased quivering with fright and turned a confused face to Sarah. “Why did Sir James not fire?”
    “I have no idea.”
    Not out of concern for his intended or her maid, of that she was sure.
    “What…? What do we do now, m’lady?”
    For the first time, Sarah considered her abrupt change in circumstances. She was on an American ship, bound for God knew where, with only the clothes on her back.
    She should have been awash with worry about her family, her fate, her future. Yet all she felt was the most ridiculous sense of relief. And excitement. And adventure.
    “What can we do,” she said to Maude, “except go wherever the ship sails.”
    She was free! The realization rushed through her veins. By tossing her over his shoulder, Richard Blake had taken all choice out of her hands. For however long it took the Seahawk to make port, she was free of both her worries and her past. The heady wonder of it still filled her when the captain and his officers crowded into the wardroom.
    “Lady Stanton,” he said with a punctilious formality belied by his broad grin.
    “Lieutenant Blake.”
    She dipped her head in a regal nod, but Richard caught the gleam of suppressed excitement in her green eyes.
    “I hope you and Mistress Maude will excuse the rather clumsy way you were brought aboard the Seahawk. ”
    She arched an auburn brow. “Have we a choice in the matter?”
    “None,” he admitted, his grin widening.
    What an incredible woman she was! Snatched from a ship, carried off amid a hail of bullets, and as cool as a north-water pike.
    “May I present my officers?” he asked with the same formal courtesy.
    “You may.”
    They filled the wardroom, their faces jubilant. Those seeing her for the first time gaped in open admiration at the tumble of fiery curls and swell of snowy bosom above her gown’s square-cut neckline. Those who’d been with the boarding party showed somewhat more restraint, yet Richard could see them falling under her spell as she acknowledged each introduction.
    “And this is Mistress Maude,” he said with a smile for the plump maid who’d wedged herself into a corner.
    The woman blushed furiously as the officers acknowledged her and looked to her mistress in an agony of embarrassment.
    “Perhaps you’ll explain why there was no exchange of cannon fire,” Sarah said, drawing their attention back to her.
    “Well, it’s like this,” Richard admitted, his eyes alight. “My previous encounter with Sir James did not inspire me with confidence that he would hold to his parole.”
    “So we spiked the cannons,” his first officer put in with a grin.
    “All of them?” she asked incredulously.
    “All of them.”
    “The Linx will be a long time in port being refitted before she goes on the prowl again,” the Seahawk ’s surgeon added gleefully.
    And Sir James would