Free The Sea Rose by Amylynn Bright Page A

walked with them the length of the
walkway to the door. He was of an age with her father, but there
was nothing paternal about the man. The way he looked at her made
her skin crawl. “Pretty, pretty lady. What brings you to our dirty
jail?”
    “ She come for the hanging,
I bet,” said a fat soldier who looked even sweatier than Roselyn
felt. She studiously ignored the man’s heartless comments and
concentrated on gliding, jingle-free, towards the
stockade.
    “ How can I help you,
miss?” Standing just inside the open doorway, the soldier who
addressed her was young and tall, and he had more epaulets on his
jacket than the other men. He looked disdainfully past her shoulder
to the soldiers in the yard.
    “ I’m here to minister to
the prisoner,” Roselyn said with as much serene dignity as she
could muster under the circumstances. “I hope to save his soul
before you mete out his punishment.” Save
his soul and his beautiful neck .
    “ The boy I know, but I
don’t believe you’ve been here before.” The young man squinted at
her like he could see into her heart and new she was lying. That’s your father talking. He can’t see
anything.
    “ I am Miss Weldon,
Reverend Merickel’s fiancée.” It was only a lie for the last
several hours. She had been the reverend’s fiancée for longer than
she hadn’t been. “I’ve helped many lost souls find redemption
before they meet their final reward. No matter what the man’s
crime, he deserves to know his maker before he dies.” Amos sidled
nearer the man in charge.
    “ Oh, let her go, Major
Hansen,” the lecherous old soldier told his superior while he ogled
her. “Let the last thing he sees be a pretty piece.”
    The young major shot the man a
distasteful glare. “I’m not sure that’s wise, miss. The prisoner is
a dangerous and desperate man.”
    Roselyn suspected he was feeling very
desperate, indeed. “I’m not afraid, officer. The saving of souls is
often a dangerous and desperate occupation.” Roselyn kept his gaze,
schooling her features into a passive and benign expression she
hoped belied her own feeling of desperation roiling in her
stomach.
    Finally Major Hansen nodded and
stepped aside to allow her entry. He took her elbow in a courtly
gesture to escort her deeper into the jail. “The boy must remain
outside. For your safety, I won’t allow you in the cell. You should
be able to conduct your business from a chair a relatively safe
distance away.”
    Well, that’s not going to
work.
    “ I’ll wait for you out
here,” Amos assured her and shook her hand.
    The hallway seemed excessively long,
and the pistol strapped to her thigh was wiggling its way further
and further down her leg. Pretty soon she’d have to clench her
knees together just to keep it from clanking to the floor. They
rounded a dark corner and, there at the end of the hall, was Jack’s
cell. A barred window situated high on the wall, too high for a
prisoner to see out and too small to wiggle through, afforded
enough light for Roselyn to see her pirate.
    Barren of any furniture, Jack sat on
the floor of his cell, his back against the wall. His long, black
hair hung loose across his face and it was several seconds before
he acknowledged their presence approaching down the hall. He kicked
out one leg in an overtly relaxed pose and scooped his hair back
with one hand to reveal dried blood on his jaw line and his neck.
Roselyn barely suppressed a gasp. At least he wasn’t chained. His
eyes flashed fire when his gaze met hers and then he was
immediately sullen and withdrawn again as he glared at the major
with open antagonism.
    “ This young lady has come
to offer your soul succor.” The major settled a wooden chair a good
five feet from the bars of his cell – too far for the prisoner’s
grasp should he mean her harm and too far for Jack’s skillful
fingers should he wish to caress her. “You are to act in a
gentlemanly manner to her while she is here. Am