DOGS. Legacy Saga II

73

Soon after, Marina settled the pillows for Morris to sit a little up. His broken ribs had already healed, and they didn't torture him anymore when he tried any position other than horizontal.

Marina helped him wolf down Pierre's soup while she told him that Robin had returned from Tortuga with letters for them, and he'd given them to her on their last visit to Port Royal, ten days earlier.

"That includes Dolores' letter for you."

"Letter...?" Morris repeated between spoonfuls. He'd already finished a mug full of soup and was halfway the second mug. And it was amazing how something so simple seemed to clear his head.

"Be a good boy and finish your soup if you want to read it."

He managed to snort without spraying soup all over his bed, making Marina giggle. A while later she gave him the letter, still sealed. She helped him open it, because the delicate tissue his growing nails hadn't covered yet was still healing too, and it hurt him to apply any pressure with his fingertips.

When he unfolded the pages, they dropped a velvet ribbon with a golden cross. And in its center, a heart-shaped gem. Morris kissed the cross, his good eye closed and a tear trembling between his eyelashes. He tried to read, but ended up handing the letter to Marina with a grimace.

The girl helped him to lie back down, the cross in his hand against his chest. She sat down on her cushion and read Dolores' letter aloud for him, full of words of love, trust and hope.

"Rest now," she said, giving him back the letter. "If you feel bold, you can try to eat some fruit later."

Morris nodded, his eye closed and the letter with the cross close to his heart.

It was then than a voice shouted: "Dead astern ahoy! Sails!"

The girl turned to the cabin door. As to answer her questioning look, Maxó knocked and stuck his head in.

"A war brigantine barreling down on our wake, pearl."

"I'll be right there."

"Want me to stay?"

Before Marina replied, Morris shook his head.

"Captain Van Dort says there's no need," she said, smiling.

She tucked Morris in, kissed his forehead and walked out in no hurry.

Briand and Jean were openly relieved when they saw her come to the bridge. They could handle replacing her and Morris while they strolled away from the coast and the trade routes. But being forced to make the calls because a warship bore down on them was pretty different.

Marina opened her telescope on her way to the taffrail and studied the brigantine. A chill ran down her spine, and she frowned. Brigantines looked all the same, but she was sure she knew this one. It didn't show any colors, and the figurehead was the same another hundred ships had. She kept looking for any sign that would allow her to identify it. It wasn't a pirate ship. Only Laventry and Harry kept their ships' painting so neat, and that wasn't the Royal Eagle, nor the Sparta. It was fast and weatherly, and it was only lacking the crew's hammocks hoisted to load more wind. At that speed, it'd be in range in under thirty minutes.

"De Neill," she said, without raising her voice.

"Aye, pearl."

"Turn east to cut them off. Jean, ready the starboard battery. Briand, let's lie to after veering. And let's see what they do when they see our guns."

"Aye, aye, pearl!" the three men replied, hurrying to do as she'd said.

The Phantom turned alarboard first, to the west, in order to turn away from the brigantine's course and then cut it off to the east, like Marina had ordered. And the telescope almost fell from the girl's hands when she caught a glimpse of the brigantine's side. Because she spotted the red board hiding the New Lion's gunports.

While she still working on breathing despite her racing heart, and chills feasted on her back, the Phantom finished veering and floated with its bowsprit into the wind, right across the course of the brigantine, that didn't slow down.

"Oi, pearl!" called Oliver from the maintop. "Isn't that the New Lion?"

Everybody glanced up at him, then down at Marina, who could only nod.

The New Lion was only two-hundred yards away from the Phantom when it veered to the east too.

"There comes the blockhead," Maxó said to De Neill. "A doubloon that now they lower a boat away."

"Come. Like he ever dared to make the first move with the pearl."

Marina suffocated a cry when she saw the Spaniards lower the shallop away. By the helm, Maxó stretched out his hand, palm up. And De Neill was forced to pay a doubloon, grunting under his breath.

"Dammit. He only plays bold when I bet against him."