The Pirate Bride. Shannon Drake

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СКАЧАТЬ in her flashing, quicksilver eyes, the gentle touch of her fingertips, and, most of all, the honesty in her every word and action. He could love her; really love her. There was more, as well, of course, which he could admit in his own heart. She would be the perfect mate for him. She was the only child of a respected and wealthy family. With her name joined to his, he could reclaim all that had once been his family’s, rebuild the Haggerty fortune. She was everything he could have hoped for in his life’s partner.

      He could not blame her for his own willingness to take this risk. He did not even blame her father, who merely wanted security for his only child.

      If there was any blame, it fell only upon his own shoulders.

      A mocking inner voice taunted him for a liar and a fraud.

      He had said that he sailed because he needed the money, but that wasn’t wholly true. He was always eager to sail the seas. Eager to find one man.

      And that man lived upon the seas, outside the law.

      Logan even claimed that he sought justice, not revenge, though were he honest with himself, he would have to concede that vengeance, too, was in his mind and heart.

      He should have carried more guns, he told himself now. He should have brought more men, but he needed men he trusted for the battle he hoped to engage, and such men were hard to find.

      Still, if there was any blame for his current predicament, it was his.

      These were dangerous times to sail the seas. When England and Holland had been at war with Spain and France, many so-called pirates saw themselves as fighting a righteous battle. In an English ship, he would have been at the mercy only of a French or Spanish ship. But when the combatants had come to terms in 1697, privateers littered the sea.

      Many had nothing to go home to.

      Many had no desire to go home. Waging war upon the sea had become a way of life.

      And many others saw that a fortune might be won if a man were brave, reckless and ready to risk his life.

      Never before had the Caribbean been so overrun with thieves.

      He rued fate and the wretched, greedy men who had lured him to go against his better judgment.

      Damn them, he thought.

      No.

      Damn himself.

      A man could not be led to such a place unless he chose his course.

      So much for common sense and strength of purpose. He had fallen. And his own reckless desires had damned these good men along with him.

      Here on the waves of the Caribbean, he would be the death of them all. They couldn’t outrun the pirate ship, and they sure as hell weren’t going to bring it down. He wasn’t a coward, but neither was he a fool. Lust and greed were about to kill him and, worse, all these good men.

      “M’lord Captain?” Jamie asked. “What is your command?”

      “We must rely upon this pirate’s honor,” Logan said, knowing he must sacrifice pride for the sake of his men’s lives.

      “What?” Jamie demanded. “Pirates have no honor.”

      “Aye, they do. More than many a supposed great man,” Logan said. “Send up the flag. Demand parley. I will negotiate with her captain.”

      “Negotiate?” Jamie protested. “There can be no negotiation—”

      “If not, we are dead men. Bring our flag to half-mast. I will deal our way out of this,” Logan said.

      “Deal with a pirate captain? He’ll skewer you through.”

      “Not if he wishes to keep the respect of his men,” Logan assured him. “For the love of God, man, we are running out of time. Do as I say.”

      Despite Jamie’s protest and the wary looks upon the faces of his men, in twenty minutes time they were broadside the pirate and not a cannon had been fired. Logan stood with his men, staring across at the handsome rigging of the pirate ship, while the crew of privateers stared at them, grinning, totally aware that they had the upper hand.

      Grappling hooks and strong rope bound them as tightly together as lovers locked in an intimate embrace.

      “Your captain, my fine fellows!” Logan shouted. “Where is your captain? I demand to see your captain.”

      “You demand?” one peg-legged man jeered.

      “Indeed. It is my right to demand negotiation, not even though you be pirates but because you be pirates. If you refuse me, you are cursed and damned, and well you know it.”

      He had counted on the superstitious bent of sailing men, and he had not been mistaken. The surly crew muttered softly and looked uncertainly from one to another.

      Then, through the crowd upon the deck, strode the captain, a slender young man, clean-shaven, with rich dark hair curled beneath a broad-brimmed feathered hat. His coat was red velvet, and beneath it, his shirt was white as snow. He was tall with features that belonged on a Greek statue rather than a rogue at sea. He wore great black cuffed boots, and despite the elegance of his countenance, he walked with assurance, and the pistols and knife sheathed at his broad belt meant business, as did the long sword that hung by his side.

      “Good heavens, men, don’t let this gentleman disarm you so quickly. He is cleverly attempting to save his own hide,” the pirate captain chided, stepping forward. “But not even because it is his supposed right to negotiate, but because he deems himself so clever, I am willing to take the time to have a word with the man.”

      “Whatever your reason, I appreciate it, good Captain…?” Logan said, waiting for a name.

      “My flag tells it all,” the captain said. “I’m known as Red Robert.”

      “You are an Englishman,” Logan said, as if to remind the pirate he had attacked one of his countrymen. Though the days of so-called privateering were behind them, many a sea robber still did not prey upon his own kind.

      “I am not an Englishman, I assure you.”

      Red Robert had apparently made his assessment already.

      His name, Logan reflected, was bandied about in many a tavern. It was one that caused even the brave to tremble, for the stories that went about were fearsome.

      He had not expected a man who looked so young. Then again, pirates rarely survived many years, at least, not at piracy. They were killed, or they took what riches they had obtained, changed their names and created new lives on distant islands or in out-of-theway towns.

      Logan spoke again, aware that he had to do so with a certain eloquence if he intended to achieve his goal of keeping his men alive, whatever his own fate.

      He took a step forward. “I, good Captain Robert, am Logan Haggerty, Lord of Loch Emery, with no emphasis on the title, for were it worthy of great land or riches, you’d not be finding me here upon the high seas. What I seek is the right of man-to-man combat.”

      “Hmm, СКАЧАТЬ