The Pirate Lord Read Online Free PDF Page B

those keys?” she demanded.
    “The first mate. Tole us men that as long as we don’t bother nobody, he don’t care wot we do with the women.”
    The very idea! She would certainly record that in her journal. The Ladies’ Committee would be apprised thatthis travesty extended all the way up to the ship’s officers.
    Quickly, she stepped on the hatch, blocking his way to it. “I’m afraid I can’t allow you to go down there.”
    “You ain’t got any say in it, missy.” He stepped closer and grinned, exposing a gap between two of his rotting teeth. “You best be gittin’ out of me way, before I change me mind about who it is I’m wantin’.”
    She colored as she realized what he meant. The audacity of the man! Oh, she would speak to the captain about him at once! Surely the captain wouldn’t countenance such overtures made to a perfectly respectable woman!
    “I’m not moving until you vacate this deck,” she retorted. “Leave now or I shall tell the captain what you’ve been up to!”
    An ugly frown beetled his low brow. He set down the candle he’d been carrying, then clasped her arms with two hammy fists and lifted her off the hatch. “You ain’t tellin’ nobody nothin’. I’ll say you lied and the first mate’ll back me.” He dropped her behind the hatch like a sack of meal, then bent to open it.
    She refused to give up, especially with Ann Morris’s mournful words about forced whoredom still ringing in her ears. After regaining her balance on the rolling deck, Sara shoved the hatch door closed again with her foot. This time the wretched sailor drew back his hand as if to slap her.
    But a voice from the steps behind him arrested him. “Lay a hand on her, matey, and you’ll see stars, you will!”
    Both Sara and the sailor turned to the steps in shock. They hadn’t noticed the man who’d climbed down from the top deck and was now rounding the steps, his flattened hands held in front of him like knives.
    Sara groaned. It was the monkeyish sailor who’d spoken to her on deck this morning. Wonderful. Now she had two oafs to deal with.
    “This ain’t none of y’r business, Petey,” the sailor with the rotting teeth spat. “You go back up where ye came from, and leave me and the miss to settle our tiff.”
    The man named Petey drew circles in the air with the edges of his hands. “Get away from her or I’ll lay you out.”
    “Lay me out? A scrawny little thing like you?” The sailor shook his fist in the air. “Get on with you, and leave me and the chit be.”
    What happened next came so quickly that Sara could scarcely believe it. One minute the two men were facing each other. The next minute the sailor who’d accosted her was flat on his back unconscious, and Petey was standing over him, locked in a strange stance.
    When Petey lifted his gaze to Sara, she whispered, “Good heavens, what did you do to him?”
    He relaxed his peculiar stance, his face shadowed in the candlelight as he scooped up the keys that had been thrown clear of the other man. “I learned a few tricks about fightin’ when I was in Chinese waters, miss. With me bein’ a little man an’ all, I figgered I’d best learn what I could. A little man can fight the Chinese way as easy as a big man.”
    She shut her gaping mouth, a sudden fear overtaking her. If Petey could send a hulking sailor unconscious in two seconds flat, what could he do to her?
    Still, he had come to her rescue, hadn’t he? She forced a cordiality into her tone that she certainly didn’t feel. “I see. Thank you, sir, for using your…unusual tactics on my behalf. And now, if you’ll excuse me—”
    She moved toward the steps, hoping to get away before he decided to claim some unsavory reward for his help.
    But she wasn’t fast enough. “Wait, miss, I gotta have a word with you. I been tryin’ to talk to you all day—”
    “I can’t imagine what you could have to say to me,” she muttered as she hurried up the steps to the maindeck.