A Most Unconventional Courtship

He climbed the steps, again letting his bare feet slap noisily on the wooden rungs. The steersman was staring straight ahead, his eyes on the sails, the sailing master was leaning on the rail, about to look over, presumably in search of his missing men.

‘Buon giorno,’ a cheerful voice remarked. ‘Parliamo italiano?’

Alessa, damn it, this is not in the plan! What the hell is she playing at? The bastard will shoot her…

The man, startled, leaned right over, Chance slid up behind him, plucking a belaying pin from the rail as he did so, and hit him neatly over the head. The man folded up and fell with a thud at Ales

sa’s feet. The steersman let go the wheel, then grabbed it again at the sight of the pistol held unwaveringly under his nose.

‘Do you speak English?’

‘A little words,’ the man said warily.

‘You can choose. You steer as I say, or I shoot you. Which?’

‘Steer.’ The man nodded vigorously. ‘I steer good.’

‘Alessa!’

‘Yes, Chance?’ She was right behind him.

‘If you ever, ever, do anything that stupid again I will throw you overboard, is that clear?’

‘That will keep me safe.’

‘Don’t bring logic into this—I am furious with you.’

‘Yes, Chance.’

‘And don’t pretend to be meek, or I’ll drop you over anyway.’He turned to the steersman, who had been trying to follow this interchange with furrowed brow.

‘You see this lady? She is very angry because of the Count kidnapping her. She has been hurt and insulted. She wants to hurt someone.’ Out of the corner of his eye he could see Alessa nodding energetically, a fierce scowl on her face. ‘So I am going to give her this pistol.’ He handed it over, giving Alessa’s cold hand a comforting squeeze as he did so. ‘She does not shoot very well, so she will aim for your fat gut, then she cannot miss.

‘Hold it steady for now. Doctor!’ He jumped down to the deck and strode over to where a cannon sat, long, muzzled and black. ‘Let us see how good our aim is.’

‘Can you fire one of these?’ The doctor hefted up a shot and looked dubious. ‘Is it large enough for what we need?’

‘I’ve fired a starting cannon and I’ve seen a large one exercised at gunnery practise at a fleet review. This is enough for what I want, and they’ll notice if I run one of the big ones out below.’ Chance picked up the rammer and tried to recall exactly what he had seen that day. The risk was overloading or underloading the charge. And they only had one shot and he did not want to risk holing her below the waterline, not with her innocent crew on board. Not much to go wrong, then.

‘Right, run her out.’ They strained at the ropes and the long black snout poked though the gun port. ‘Go up and tell that fat rougue at the wheel that you are the Lord High Commissioner’s personal doctor and a man of much power—slowly, he hasn’t much English. Tell him that if he does what he is told, you will order me to release him on shore unharmed. If he does not, then we will shoot him, and, if he survives that, hang him.’

‘Right.’ The doctor squared his shoulders. ‘Just so long as you do not expect me to shoot an unarmed man, I will threaten all you like.’

‘Give him the impression that I am a dangerous madman, but you can rein me back and save him. When I raise my hand he is to bring her in alongside the merchantman as though we are trying to get within easy hailing distance. Tell him to keep it steady.’

‘I understand. And then what are you going to do?’

‘Shoot out their rudder.’ There, I said it as if I believed I can do it. He glanced up to where Alessa was holding the pistol steady on the fat steersman, said a quick prayer and turned. ‘Have you managed to get the match alight, Lady Blackstone?’

Her ladyship, somewhat smudged about her aristocratic features with her efforts with a coal from the mess fire and a length of slow match, produced the results and handed it to him with as much elegance as if she were awarding a trophy after a horserace at Epsom. ‘Is that as you required?’

‘Certainly, thank you, ma’am. Could you now go below with the other ladies? This may get rather heated in a few minutes.’

‘Shall I take Alessa?’

‘I doubt you can get her to go with you. I will try. Alessa! Give the gun to the doctor and go below.’

‘No!’