Dunham

Chapter 6

Well, that settled it.

Celia spun the wheel to come hard about. Sea spray and sun splashed her face, her heart beat faster with excitement. ’Twas hard to remember why she was bored with this life at times like these.

“Run up the Union Jack.” She grinned now, the urge undeniable. “Look sharp! If we cannot sing praises to God, then we shall plunder in his name!”

Celia could now see the white sails of the British merchantman, which were approaching fast. It would not take but a few moments to reach them.

“Has she spotted us, Kit?”

“Aye, and she’s spilling wind.”

“Glad of a Navy escort, is she?” Celia laughed, but the sound was whipped away by the stinging wind.

“Cap’n, there’s a woman aboard. In a dress.”

Celia’s eyebrows rose in surprise. It made no difference in her battle plans, but women in dresses aboard British merchantmen bound for England meant gentry and that did not bode well for her.

The master gunner barked orders for the guns to be readied in the surreptitious manner he had drilled into his gunners.

“I hope to settle this with not a shot wasted.”

A quarter hour passed before the Thunderstorm was close enough to the Lamplight to hail it.

“Ho, Lamplight!” Bridge called from the prow, his voice strong enough to carry back to Celia. His bare chest glistened ebony in the sunlight.

“Long live the king!” came the return.

“Run up Congress’s colors!” Celia bellowed. The Union Jack was struck. The gunports slammed open.

The crew aboard the Lamplight scrambled in panic.

Bridge cupped his hands around his mouth. “Stand down and prepare to be boarded!”

She struck her colors the moment Bridge ended his command, and Celia’s crew ran to grab the grappling hooks. Down the rails, the hooks struck the wood one after another in rapid sequence—

thunk

        thunk

                thunk

                        thunk

                                thunk

—then Celia’s crew heaved as one until the two ships crashed together. Immediately, thirty of her men and women swarmed the deck of the Lamplight, swords bared. They met no resistance, much less a fighting force.

Celia handed command off to Smitty, clipped down the stairs to the main deck and vaulted over the rails, Solomon and Bridge following. Ten of her crew followed the pair of them, her other officers left behind to sail the Thunderstorm should anything untoward happen to their captain.

Celia surveyed the scene before her before she spoke. A normal-looking crew, scattered across the decks, betraying a great deal of fear. The captain slowly came forward because his position demanded it, but the man would have turned and fled at a moment’s notice. Across the deck, Celia caught the flash of pale blue going down a hatch, and with a slight signal that only her crew could discern, one of her men sprinted across the expanse and dove down after it. With another signal, the rest of her crew disappeared into the holds to inventory what she held, leaving Celia, Bridge, and Solomon alone on deck.