‘Sorry.’ She subsided, shooting him a side-long look from under her lashes that was pure feminine speculation.
The anchor was up, the sails crashing down, beginning to fill as the hands scrambled back to the deck. Nathan tried the edge on the cutlass with his thumb and studied the men on the poop deck. Just behind the steersman, that was the place.
Sea Scorpion began to move, nosing out towards the sea and its victim. ‘Hoist the bones,’ Cutler yelled and a man ran to th
e main mast and began to lash an odd bundle to it.
‘What’s that?’ Beside him Clem craned to see.
‘The skull and cross-bones,’ Nathan said grimly, watching it jerk up to the foremast.
‘But…that’s not a flag. Those are real…’ Clem turned away, her face white as she saw the gulls swoop to feast on the remains that still clung to the pathetic relics.
‘I told you, our captain has a novel sense of humour.’ To say nothing of a unique personal style. The merchantman had seen them now. Its few gun ports dropped open; across the water there was the sound of shouted orders, the rumble of gun carriages. The armament looked pitifully small, but that was all to the good, Nathan thought. They didn’t want a long-distance gun battle, they needed hand-to-hand fighting if the trap was to be sprung on the Sea Scorpion.
Beside him Clemence gasped. ‘They are running out their guns—what if we’re hit? The men down below won’t have a chance.’
‘Nothing we can do. Clem, be quiet—’
There was a shout from the crow’s nest. ‘Cap’n! Big merchantman, just coming into sight off the starboard bow!’
There was a rush for the rail, telescopes trained beyond the stricken ship. Minutes passed, then, ‘It’s the Raven Princess, Cap’n!’
Chapter Seven
‘Yes!’ For the first time Nathan saw McTiernan animated. The captain slammed his clenched fist into the other palm. ‘Leave this one, it isn’t going far.’ He turned to the wheelman, firing rapid orders as Cutler shouted up to the sail handlers.
Sea Scorpion swung round, away from her crippled victim towards the richly tempting prize of a great ocean-going craft bound for London. ‘Hell!’ Nathan let the one word escape, then shut his lips tight. The rat had so nearly walked into the trap and now, whiskers twitching, it was off after a bigger, tastier piece of cheese and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.
‘No, oh, no.’ Clem’s whisper cut through his own furious thoughts. ‘Not the Raven Princess.’
‘Why not?’
‘I…I know the captain, some of the crew. That was the ship I was making for when McTiernan stopped me.’
It must be the thought of what would have happened to her as a member of a captured crew that was making her so distressed. She was going to cry in a minute, he could see her full lower lip begin to tremble.
‘Clem,’ he hissed, ‘if you can’t control yourself, you’ll have to go below. There is nothing either of us can do about this.’
‘Why should you want to?’ she spat at him, her face contorted with anger. ‘You’re one of them, you’ll share the killing and the booty and the plunder and I expect you’ll want me to wash the blood off your clothes when you come back from getting it.’
‘Clem, shut up.’ He took her arm and shook her. ‘You are attracting attention.’
‘I will not stand by and—’ His hand over her mouth cut off the threat. Nathan wrapped his other arm around her waist and hoisted her off her feet, kicking and struggling. Her buttocks squirmed against his groin, sending desire lancing through him, deepening his anger. His entire strategy was going to hell in a handcart and this damned woman, who hadn’t the sense to be terrified, was going to give it a final shove off the cliff if he couldn’t shut her up.
‘What the devil are you about, Mr Stanier?’ Cutler shouted down from the rail of the poop deck.
‘He’s frightened, Mr Cutler, but he won’t go down. He’ll be a damn nuisance under our feet, I’ll dump him in the cabin and be right back.’
Ruthless, Nathan slung Clem over his shoulder with considerably less care than he had shown the day before and got her, struggling and cursing at him, down the companionway.
‘Will you shut up, Clem?’
‘Put me down!’ She fetched him a painful thump in the kidneys with a clenched fist. Nathan dropped her on to her feet and pushed her back against a bulkhead, keeping one hand pressed to her shoulder to hold her still. The deck around them was deserted, everyone was either above decks or at the guns.
‘There, you are down.’ She glared at him, hands fisted on her hips. ‘Now, show some sense and shut up.’
‘There was no need to manhandle me.’ She pushed the hair out of her eyes and tugged at her shirt tails.