Free The Sea Hawk by Brenda Adcock Page A

SLIPPING HER arm from beneath Esperanza's sleeping body Simone slid out of the bed and found her shirt. As it dropped over her head, she walked to a bench under an open porthole and sat down, her back leaning against the bulkhead. She watched Esperanza sleep for a few moments before looking at the moonlight glistening off the Caribbean waters. More and more often she was growing discontented with her life. She longed to settle down. She commanded the obedience of her crew and they had been successful in plundering many treasures from the British and Spanish ships they encountered. Certainly Esperanza satisfied her body, but not her soul and she knew the woman's feelings for her were deeper than her own.
    Frowning as she stared out the cabin window, Simone became lost in memories of much worse times. She missed Montserrat, but knew she could never return there. Her father's imprisonment by the British as a provocateur and his unexpected death only served to leave her mother an embittered woman who soon followed her husband to the grave. Simone, only eighteen, took her ten-year-old brother and fled Montserrat, only to fall into the clutches of Louis Rochat and his men. Unaware of the old man's reputation, it took most of the money her parents left to pay Rochat for transportation to Martinique where they hoped to live with relatives.
    The result was three years of servitude on board Le Faucon de Mer with threats of harm to her brother and beatings and rape by the crew members hanging over her. Her life revolved around the whims of an ageing and unpredictable man. The relationship between Simone and Louis was a precarious one at best. She was a young woman forced to share an old man's bed in order to survive. Fortunately, he spent a great deal of time drinking and celebrating with his crew and often fell into his bed half-conscious...but not always. Glancing at the sleeping form in her bed, she sometimes wondered whether Esperanza was using her the way she used Rochat. Although Rochat abused her on occasion, it demonstrated his control in the eyes of his crew. While she, unlike Rochat, would never force Esperanza to do anything against her will, she knew the woman harbored dreams of freedom. Simone observed everything Rochat did and, when she could, finagled information from him about tactics. She learned the lessons well, eventually using them against Rochat and taking riches from British and Spanish ships to build a new home on Martinique. Now she longed to return to the island. Even taking her revenge against the British no longer satisfied her.
    Tired at last, Simone drew her body up and removed her shirt to slip back into her bed, seeking the warmth of the body that would always welcome her return. As she slipped her hand across Esperanza's abdomen and closed her eyes, the vision of short reddish-blonde hair and hazel eyes flashed through her mind.
    Chapter Six

    THE SUN WAS shining through the cabin window when Julia's eyes popped open the following morning. She had slept like the dead and finally felt rested once again. Sea air always did that to her. She would have killed for a nice warm bath and wished she had different clothing, or at least less of it. As she sat up and stretched, she glanced at Kitty's cot and found it empty. She walked to the cabin window and looked out at calm seas. It would be a beautiful day. A pitcher of water sat on a small table near the window and she splashed some on her face, drying her hands and face on the hem of her dress.

    Julia spun around as the cabin door creaked open. Kitty's smiling face peeked around the door. Seeing Julia awake, the young woman stepped into the cabin carrying a bundle in her arms. "Good morning," she chirped.
    "Good morning, Kitty. I was just going to look for you," Julia said, running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to give it some semblance of order.
    "The captain sent these clothes for you," Kitty said as she set the bundle on Julia's cot. "They are