Free The Pirate Takes A Bride by Shana Galen Page A

“The Captain has a plan in mind. It’s genius, if I do say so myself.”
    Ashley paused outside the door to the cabin, which she’d forgotten to close in her haste to escape. “What is it?”
    The carpenter looked about, as though he didn’t want to be overheard. “When the bastards are right on us, we drop sail, and they fly right past us.”
    “Won’t they fire?”
    “Oh, some chain and nails. They don’t want to sink us.”
    “So there isn’t a chance of a fire.”
    Mr. Carey shrugged. “In a battle, anything is possible.”
    She was thinking of fire again. She’d seen paintings of Trafalgar. She remembered there being smoke and burning ships engaged in battle.
    “But once we hit them, they’ll be hobbled. Then we cut and run. By the time they give chase, we’ll be in the middle of that squall.” He pointed toward the bow of the ship, and Ashley realized she hadn’t thought about the weather. There was a squall out there? And they were heading
into
it?
    “They’ll never find us in all wind and rain.”
    Ashley blinked. It seemed to her, they might have sailed fast earlier and avoided this entire confrontation. “Will it work?” she asked.
    “If we have a bit o’ luck and the wind gage,” Mr. Carey said with a shrug.
    Wind gage? That did not sound promising. She wanted to ask what would happen if they lost the wind gage, but she really didn’t want to know. Mr. Carey patted her arm like one of her uncles might have done. “You’ll be safe in here. If something doesn’t go as planned, one of us will come for you.”
    He gestured to the cabin, and she stepped inside. When she turned back to him, he’d already closed the door. She was thankful he didn’t lock it. At least she wouldn’t be trapped in the cabin if all hell broke loose.
    An hour later, Ashley was relatively certain all hell had broken loose. She was half deaf from the sounds of the guns and choking from the smoke that had seeped into the great cabin. She’d peered into the corridor and hadn’t spotted any fire, and so she closed the door again and went back to cowering beside the berth. She would have preferred to pace, but the seas were so rough she could barely keep her seat. Everything not nailed down in the cabin, which was precious little, had rolled across the floor several times now, including Ashley herself. And at the last shuddering blast, one which she was certain had cleaved the ship in two, she’d closed her eyes and prayed. God was probably surprised to hear from her, his lost hellion, but she had a feeling they might become reacquainted sooner than she would like and she wanted to be on good terms.
    She coughed again and looked up to note more smoke in the cabin than before. Do not panic, she counseled herself. She could not panic. Heart racing and the urge to flee barely kept in check, she crawled to the cabin door and reached for the latch. Immediately, she yanked her hand back, wincing at the sting.
    The knob was hot. Blisteringly hot.
    Now seemed a good time to panic, but she bit the inside of her cheek hard to keep from dissolving into hysterics. Brittanys did not tolerate nor engage in hysterics. The maxim had always seemed reasonable before, but Ashley was not so certain she could live up to her name now. She reached for the hem of her dress, lifted it to the latch, and opened the door.
    Fire, hot and deadly, licked at the walls and the ceiling in the corridor outside the great cabin. Despite the heat radiating from the flames, Ashley felt her skin turn cold. For a moment, she was completely paralyzed, and then she felt as though she were falling directly into the flames. The ship must have pitched, and she grabbed the door for support. She’d almost fallen into the flames. Again.
    And with that last thought, all of her hard-fought resolve fled. She screamed at the top of her lungs then ran back to the berth, snatched Martingale’s expensive bed clothes from the bed, and turned to attack the flames. She