"No," Smokey began, "but it"s a long story and I--"
"I have time," Dallas cut in.
Smokey nodded "First of all, I"m sorry I kicked you. That was terrible, and I only hope you can forgive me."
"Were you afraid of me, Smokey? Did you think I was going to force you to do something against your wishes?" Dallas*
face and voice were so pained that Smokey nearly cried.
"No, Dallas, no!" Smokey"s hand went to her mouth in horror. "Itwasn"t that at all. I just panicked out offearforyou. I acted without thinking."
"Fear for me?" Dallas" face was now a mask of confusion.
Smokey took a deep, calming breath and began to share.
"We were running behind schedule as you might have already guessed, or we would have been out of London before you arrived. We really should have rushed on, but I knew we wouldn"t be back for some time and I wanted to see the folks at Clancy"s.
"I left the back room long enough to take care of a personal need, and when I came out of Meg"s private rooms, a man grabbed me. I fought, but he held a drug-soaked cloth over my mouth. Everything went black, and when I woke up I was on a ship."
The hair stood up on the back of Dallas" neck, and fear pounded in his chest. He shifted in his chair, his face intense as he waited for her to continue, "There was no one with me, and I was lying on the bed The room was rife with lewd art and paintings, but I wasn"t given much time to look around When the door opened, a man came in." Smokey wondered how detailed she should be.
She would be horribly embarra.s.sed to repeat all the pirate had said "The man was Haamich Wynn."
"The pirate?" Dallas broke his silence.
"Yes. He told me that my capture was deliberate and that he wanted to get to know me better. He insisted that I put on that red dress."
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A flicker of skepticism lit Dallas" eyes, but Smokey, thinking she had imagined it, kept talking. She was babbling slightly, and some of her facts were getting muddled "I noticed some fencing swords on the wall, and I told him I would fight him. He agreed to set me free if I won. I"ve never done such a thing before but I cut his face. He actually fainted at the sight of his own blood. I tied him up and ran away.
"I ran from the ship, but my escape was immediately noticed, and his men came after me. That"s when I ran into you. I was afraid of your being found with me, so when you wouldn"t let me go, I panicked." Smokey ended with a small shrug and noticed that Dallas looked almost angry.
"I"d heard that Haamich Wynn was a huge man."
"He is. As big as Da.r.s.ey, if not bigger."
"And you want me to believe that you had a duel with him and won?" Dallas could no longer hide his doubt.
Smokey"s whole body stiffened at his tone. She stood, her entire being radiating anger.
"I apologized for kicking you, Dallas, but I did not owe you an explanation."
Dallas stood also. "No, I guess you didn"t, but there are some things that bother me. I"d like to get the entire picture."
"No," she told him. She could see that she had surprised him. "I"ve told you all I"m going to, and if that isn"t good enough, then that"s too bad. As I said, I owe you nothing, and I might add that I don"t deserve your judgment."
"I"m not judging you." Dallas fought to keep his voice even.
"So you believe me?"
Dallas hesitated, and it cost him.
"Get out, Dallas," Smokey told him, her voice low with fury. "Get out and do not come back, not until you"re ready to apologize for believing me a liar."
"Smokey, if you would just tell me again how you came to be in the dress, I--"
"Get out." Smokey"s voice was whisper soft, and Dallas knew he would have to give her some time.
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It was on his tongue to apologize, but he felt so muddled at the moment. With regret he moved toward the door. Knowing that he"d handled the situation very badly, he looked back, but Smokey was already leaving the room. He noticed that she did not even turn as she strode back toward the kitchen.
Q/w/fQmie a twenty-four hours later the Aramis set sail with a full crew. Da.r.s.ey was at the helm when Smokey came topside to check on the men.
"I want answers, Da.r.s.ey," she told him as she stood next to the older man. "I won"t be home until I get some."
Da.r.s.ey, having already read her motive for leaving Willa"s, only nodded.
"You might be asking for trouble," he told her, his face and voice calm.
"Well, I"ve never been afraid of trouble," she said logically.
"And since I can"t go on as I am, wondering and upset, I think I"d best do what I can."
Da.r.s.ey only nodded. The old sparkle was back in her eye.
He knew that she had prayed constantly while they had been home, but he also recognized as Smokey just had, that she had been hiding. Now she was facing her fears and acting with the good sense she normally had If she had wanted to head out and trade in southern waters as she had originally planned, Da.r.s.ey would have been all for it. But now she needed to fit together the pieces of this puzzle, and Da.r.s.ey understood that just as well. He prayed for her and her responsibility as captain of their vessel. He also prayed for 166.
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Dallas, who was certain to come looking for Smokey again and find her gone.
"She"s not here," Willa told Dallas the afternoon after Smokey left.
"When do you expect her back?" Dallas asked, never dreaming that she was on her ship.
Willa was as unflappable as ever when she answered. "It could be weeks, but I"m thinking it probably will be months."
"You mean she"s left on the Aramisr Dallas asked in astonishment.
"With Da.r.s.ey and the whole crew. I"m not sure how much trading they"ll do, but Smokey needed to find some answers."
Distracted, Dallas ran a hand through his hair and stood in frustration. He turned to leave, barely remembering to bid Willa goodbye.
Willa shut the door and then watched from the front room window. "That Da.r.s.ey"s got me to answer to when he returns!
Why didn"t he ever tell me that Dallas was in love with her?"
"He"s good, Da.r.s.ey; I"ll give him that," Smokey told her first mate some seven weeks after they had set sail.
Da.r.s.ey could only shake his head. Their search to know more about the pirate Haamich Wynn reminded him of the night that Smokey was taken. One dead-end lead after another.
They had been to London, France, the Netherlands, and even up into Norway and Sweden, and had still come up empty. They weren"t discouraged, but more curious than ever.
Smokey was wondering if this wasn"t G.o.d"s way of telling her to let the matter rest. She was quite certain of this and praying about heading home or doing some trading when the weather stepped in and answered for her.
A storm hit hard and fast, and the Aramis and her crew found themselves stranded just off China Island making repairs. They had plenty of stores to survive, as well as to fix the ship, but it was going to take time. Time that Smokey would rather have spent doing something else.
When Smokey did not turn up in the first two ports Dallas visited, he knew he would have to go back to work. He simply did not have the finances to keep searching for her. He was able to trade and deal with great profit in the days that followed, but he never stopped looking for Smokey or asking every merchant he met about her.
Never had he had so much to say to someone. How could he have treated her that way after all she had been through?
The story seemed outrageous to him, but he had been around long enough to know that didn"t make Smokey"s words false.
Had he stopped and thought about that rather than verbally attacking Smokey in her own home, he might have her with him now, rather than having to confess his anxiety to the Lord with nearly every breath he took.
"Ready for me to take her, Cap"n?" Dallas" first mate asked, effectively breaking into his thoughts.
"Sure, Cliff. I"ve set a course for China Island. Well dock there tonight and head out in the morning. We"re not due in Denmark for over a week."
"Aye, aye, Cap"n."
Dallas headed to his cabin to check the charts and work on his books. His heart and mind dwelt on Smokey again, and 168.
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how much she meant to him. After just a few minutes though, he forced his mind back to the business at hand Smokey would ask herself for years to come how they got the drop on them. It might have been the stealthy way they approached, or the fact that the entire crew had been concentrating on the repairs, or possibly a combination of the two.
Nonetheless, the facts remained Night was falling fast on the second day of repairs when Smokey heard a knock on her door. She called entrance and froze in her desk chair when Haamich Wynn walked in, looking and acting as calm as ever.
"Did you really think I would give up on you, my dear?"
the pirate asked, seeming genuinely glad to see her.
"Come on, Smokey," he went on smoothly. "Come topside.
I have a few things I want you to say to your men."
Standing on legs she was sure wouldn"t hold her, Smokey moved out the door. She couldn"t repress a shiver when she felt Haamich close behind her. Her heart pounded as she prayed Her only fear at the moment was for the safety of her men.
"Cliff sent me down, Cap"n," the bos"n told Dallas some hours later. "He said you should come up right away."
Dallas left his cabin without question. He took the gla.s.s from Cliff"s hand the moment he was up top and looked in the direction Cliff had been gazing. His heart plummeted over what he saw.
The light of the full moon clearly displayed the Aramis, but anch.o.r.ed beyond her was another ship. There was nothing patently obvious to warn Dallas that the Aramis was in trouble, but the fact that neither of Smokey"s flags were flying caused him to believe that something was amiss.
He handed the gla.s.s to his bos"n and spoke quietly to Cliff.
Just minutes later the two men left the ship in a longboat, moving silently toward Smokey"s ship and praying that they could be of help.
Smokey"s eyes moved over the deck of her ship. She knew she had never been so helpless. Da.r.s.ey and Robby, the biggest men of her crew, were already bound The rest were scattered around under close watch of the pirate"s men, who seemed to be everywhere.
They were a scurvy lot, Smokey concluded swiftly, without a trace of moral fiber to their names. Of course, she asked herself, ufoat should I have expected after meeting their captain?
"Now," Haamich Wynn spoke expansively, "let"s get right down to business. I regret that we have been parted this long, my dear, but you"ve been moving around so much that I couldn"t get ahold of you."
"You"ve been following us," Smokey stated with anger.
"My dear," the pirate spoke as though addressing a child "I told you I want you, and I will have you."
"For a man who lost during our last encounter, you"re awfully quick to claim your victory now!" Smokey spat the words, and Haamich Wynn laughed "That"s one of the things I love about you, my dear--your honesty. But alas, I am honest too. I freely admit that I was foiled last time. So now attend to my words, Smokey, because I will not be thwarted again.
"Now," he said, becoming businesslike at once. "Line your 172.
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men up and tell them that I am their new commander. I"ve seen what this ship can do, and I want the Aramis as well as you."
Smokey was so thoroughly shocked that she could only stare at him. His back was to the wheelhouse and even though Smokey"s peripheral vision caught some movement there, she was too stunned to move or speak.
"Tell them, Smokey." His voice was now deadly soft.
"Unless you do as you"re told, Til give you to my men right on the spot. They like a woman who fights, only this time you won"t have a blade."
Smokey began to tremble. She knew there would be no escape this time. With a heavy heart she turned her back to the pirate.
"Line up, men." She spoke softly, but all were able to hear.
Even Robby and Da.r.s.ey, hands bound behind them, moved into place.
Smokey"s eyes roved over them and then paused and blinked when she saw that Dallas was lined up with her men.
She forced her eyes away from his intense stare, a stare that seemed to be trying to tell her to trust him, and spoke.
"There has been a change in command." Smokey"s voice remained soft. "Your new captain is Haamich Wynn."
"Very nicely done, my dear." The pirate"s voice was delighted.
"Now you just head down to your cabin, and I"ll join you in a moment."
Smokey turned, her chin thrust forward, ready to fight.
She was trembling from head to foot, but the thought of going to her cabin and submitting to this man made her furious.
"Ready to fight me, Smokey?" The pirate"s voice had turned mocking. He turned to a man at his side. "The biggest man-- Da.r.s.ey, I believe it is... cut his throat."
"No!" Smokey shouted. No one moved They all watched as she took a deep breath and moved toward the companionway.