Free The Pirate Takes A Bride by Shana Galen

station, many of them manning guns on the deck. She could hear orders shouted, but the man giving them did not sound alarmed. Perhaps they weren’t sinking after all? And how on earth were these men so calm when they were being fired upon?
    She ran to the deck rail, skirting out of the way of a large pirate carrying a long rifle, and peered out at the ocean. She didn’t remember if she was looking portside or starboard, but there was the ship Nick must have seen earlier. It was close now, close enough that she could identify the British flag it flew. And it was enormous. She had thought the
Robin Hood
huge and imposing, but this vessel was a monster cutting through the waves and heading straight for them. As she watched, one of the cannons fired, and she screamed and ducked as the ball of fire came straight for her.
    She heard the splash and peeked her face over the rail just as a heavy hand landed on her shoulder. “Ashley.”
    She jumped and almost screamed again but saved her dignity at the last moment. “Nick.” She was almost relieved to see him. Or perhaps her true relief was that the ship was not on fire. Not yet. Another one of those cannon shots, and she could not be so certain. “That ship is firing at us. Don’t they know who you are? Can’t you tell them you’re British? You’re Lord Nicholas?”
    He gave her a sort of half smile and pulled her away from the rail and into an area not so out in the open. “They know this ship, and they don’t care who captains it. If they knew it was me, they’d imprison me. That is, if they could catch me.”
    “Because you’re a pirate.”
    “Exactly. You need to go below decks. I have everything in hand.”
    She gaped at him. “B-but they’re trying to sink us.”
    He raised a brow, and she definitely saw a smile grace his lips now. He thought her amusing. He thought being fired upon by a British warship a grand adventure and, oh very well, it was a grand adventure—but not if one was on the ship at the time of the attack! The arrogance of the man, to think he would not be killed or sunk. In that moment she could only shake her head at him because she wanted to both sneer at him and hug him. She had a weak spot for arrogant men, and never so much as now when she needed that show of arrogance to reassure her.
    “Do you think I’m going to allow them to sink us? They’re testing their range right now. We’re not in danger.”
    “Yet!” she pointed out.
    “And when they hit us, I want you safely below decks.”
    “
When
?” She felt dizzy all of a sudden. The entire world spun and roiled up and down. Everything settled when his hand cupped her chin.
    “Ashley, you have to trust me. Go below deck and stay there.” He nodded to a man with light brown hair. “Mr. Carey, take her back to the great cabin.”
    “Yes, Captain.”
    Ashley shook her head. “I can go alone. I don’t want to take your men away from their duties.”
    Mr. Carey ignored her and took her arm gently. He was a man of middling years, perhaps forty but perhaps aged by the sun. He had light brown eyes and a ruddy complexion and a trim beard. He wore a blue vest and faded blue trousers, anchored at his waist by a brightly colored scarf. He had an earring in each ear and a sword at his side. “He can spare me for a minute, luv. I’m the carpenter. My real work begins when we sustain the first hit.”
    Oh, how she wished they would all stop speaking of being hit by cannon balls. It was making her nauseous. Why didn’t anyone talk about running away? That’s what she would have done.
    Except, of course, she’d never run away from a fight yet. The Brittanys did not run. They stood and fought. Of course, the Brittanys were not sailors, not like Josie’s family, the Hales. Perhaps this was one of those times it might be acceptable to run.
    “You have nothing to fret about, luv,” Mr. Carey said as he handed her down the ladder and escorted her along the corridor to the great cabin.