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“Half?” The tiny glands under Spence’s tongue squirted with more than casual interest. And, looking at the hard gleam in Dante’s eyes, he saw no reason to doubt the man would, indeed, pay the price gladly.

The Talon would be doubly burdened and moving slower than a snail, taking longer routes around known lanes of shipping in order to avoid being set upon by scavengers.

Two weeks of plodding could be made up in a few days of spirited sailing with the wind in their teeth.

“Beau?”

She looked at her father, amazed he was even considering the possibility. “What if the zabras did make it back to a Spanish port? What if there are a dozen ships out there right now hunting for a wounded privateer?”

Spence pursed his lips and had to acknowledge the threat. The Spanish coast was less than two hundred leagues off the starboard beam, and if they had indeed sent out hunters …

Something else the Frenchman had said caused Spence to frown and turn to Dante again. “Ye said yer mission was not yet finished after ye left Veracruz. What more were ye plannin’ to do?”

Dante drew a deep breath and avoided catching Pitt’s eye. “We were planning to make a small detour past the harbor at Cadiz.”

Spence’s chair thumped forward and he shook his head as if to clear water from his ears. “Cadiz? Did ye just say Cadiz?”

Dante smiled grimly. “That was the same response Bloodstone gave me. He wanted no part of it, either, and was planning to separate from us once we veered east.”

“Why, by God’s grace, would ye want to veer anywhere near Cadiz and risk the charred toes and crimping irons of Philip’s Inquisitors?”

“Pitt,” Dante said on a rum-laced sigh.

“Pitt?”

“A damned efficient fellow. Too efficient at times. While most of my men were busy picking the treasure house at Veracruz clean of anything that glittered, Pitt was bending over a packet of letters and documents waiting to be included in the next flota to Spain. He thought they might provide the Queen and her councillors some interesting reading.”

Dante held out his cup for another splash of rum.

“As you must know yourself, over the past year, every ship that leaves an English port sails under orders to keep their eyes and ears open. Although Drake and the other sea hawks have been warning Elizabeth to prepare for an invasion from Spain, without any real proof of Philip’s plots, she cannot justify emptying the treasury to build more warships.

She is stubbornly determined to find some way to negotiate a lasting peace, despite every logical sense and argument telling her she should be adding to England’s pitifully small navy, not tying their hands behind their backs. ”

Spence felt a chill run down his spine. “Are ye sayin’ ye have such proof?”

“I have more than rumor and gossip. I have letters from the governors of Panama and Mexico applauding the King on his choice of Don Alvaro de Bazan, Marquis of Santa Cruz, to lead the invasion fleet. I have documents that read like a list of supplies and provisions the governors will be able to provide, as well as an estimate of a million ducats’ worth of gold that will be available before spring to pay for the army.

Of course, he may have to amend that estimate somewhat now, but there are other lists, other provisions promised in such quantities as would suggest the rumors we have been hearing are all true. Philip is preparing for war.”

“And you were planning to stop him by sailing into Cadiz and spitting in his eye?” Beau asked wryly.

“I was planning only to sail past the harbor and see for myself what strength he has hidden there. Cadiz was mentioned prominently in nearly every document, as was Cantabrico and Lisbon. Frankly, I have no idea where Cantabrico is, and Lisbon is too well protected, the harbor being enclosed and well fortified. Cadiz, on the other hand, is far enough south and too deep in Spanish waters for them to even dream of an Englishman sailing down their throat.”

“No more probable than an Englishman sailing into Veracruz and making a withdrawal from the King’s treasure house?”

Dante actually smiled up into the amber tiger eyes. “Exactly so.”

Spence grumbled deep in his chest. “Still an’ all, do ye not know what they do when they catch an Englishman, or do ye just not have any particular love fer yer nether parts?

It’s torture, lad, with hot irons and wooden racks and red-hot faggots thrust up yer arse; all done in the name o’ Catholic purification.

Afterwards, if ye survive, it’s into a galleass with ye, chained to an oar till ye die or the ship sinks. ”

“I am well aware of the fate of captured crews, Captain, but I am also well aware of the fate that awaits England if Spain has a thousand ships to send against us.”

Spence had no retort and Dante’s gaze traveled beyond the rim of his cup, lifting to Beau’s stubbornly set chin and firm, bow-shaped lips.

“I thought you relished a good challenge, mam’selle?”

“If it is a sane and sound one, I usually do.”

“Of course,” he mused, “if you are simply not up to it…?”

“You obviously weren’t.”

Dante scraped to his feet, looking for all the world as if he ached to have his hands around Beau’s throat again.

“You have a singularly sharp tongue on you, mam’selle, and you seem bent on testing its edge on my patience.”

“You have a singularly sharp arrogance about you, m’sieur, and you seem to think that because you are who you are and you have been so grievously maligned, it gives you the right to treat others with contempt and disregard.”

“Only those who deserve it,” he snapped. “You seem to have conveniently forgotten you held a knife to my vitals and threatened to blow a hole through my chest. Such refined behavior warranted a little disregard, in my opinion.”

“You seem to have forgotten you held a pistol to my head first and threatened me with rape. Hardly an honorable accounting of yourself.”

“It was hardly an enthusiastic threat,” he countered evenly, his gaze sliding down the tautly held length of her body. “Or delivered with much conviction.”

“Scarcely any conviction at all, Captain. I have encountered more substantial threats from boys.”

“I’m sure you have. Youths and weanlings, no doubt, who find the dirt under your nails most appealing.”

Beau’s cheeks flushed crimson and he started to raise his cup in a salute to his own wit.

He never quite completed the maneuver, for the cup slipped out of his fingers and splashed the remaining drops of rum down the front of his shirt.

Dante blinked and stared at the splatters for a moment, his face contorted with surprise and not a little shock as he started to pitch forward, his legs turning to jelly beneath him.

Spence caught him up under one arm. Beau, who was closer than Pitt and reacted instinctively, propped him by the other.

“Indies Gold,” Jonas said, wobbling none too steadily on his own feet. “Knocks yer ballocks down to yer toes if yer not used to it—or if ye haven’t had any solid food in yer belly.”

“I’m sure he will thank you for the excuses,” Beau muttered, struggling to hold her balance under the weight of the muscular shoulder and arm. “If not the swollen head and rancid tongue he’ll have come morning.”

“Now, daughter—Christ, he’s a heavy bastard—show some Christian charity. Ye heard all he said, did ye not? Fer all his bluster, he’s a brave man. An’ ye know yerself 't would be a worthy challenge to see if we could catch up with the cowardly whoreson bastard.”

Beau glared at her father and could see he had already absolved Dante de Tourville of any blame for his churlish behavior.

“You might call it brave to face six ships alone,” she pointed out. “I would call it reckless and foolhardy. As for chasing after Victor Bloodstone …”

Dante’s dark head swung loosely around, seeking her voice. His face was hanging between his shoulders, level with her chest, and as he opened his mouth it pressed against the soft cushion of her breast.

“A woman at the helm of a ship,” he muttered. “ Another at the helm of England’s destiny. What next, I wonder. Petticoats in the yardarms and breeches in the kitchen?”

Beau cursed and jerked away, leaving Geoffrey Pitt to scramble and catch his captain before both Dante and Jonas Spence found themselves in a heap on the floor.

“You’d best get this drunken lout to bed before he feels my knife on his vitals again,” she directed Pitt crisply.

“And tell him from me that he is to touch nothing— absolutely nothing —in my cabin or when I do run him up Bloodstone’s arse, it will be from the spout of one of his own damned cannon. ”

“I … will be most happy to convey your message.”

“You may convey this as well,” she said, throwing the blur of steel that was her stiletto, embedding the point in the tabletop.

“Unless my eyes deceive me, there are creatures in his beard and in his hair. They had best not find their way into my bed or belongings, or I will come for him myself and scrape him bald. What is more, there is a bar of lye soap on the gallery ledge. You might consider using it yourself, Mister Pitt, unless you share your captain’s affection for his own filth. ”

“Er … not at all, Mistress Spence. But in Simon’s defense it must be said we were hardly concerned with cleanliness.”

She planted her hands on her hips and glowered. “I am not anyone’s mistress, Mister Pitt. On board this ship, I am just Beau. Or Mister Spence, if your tongue has trouble with simpler things.”

“The simpler the better,” he avowed, refusing to take offense at her tone. “For I would indeed have trouble addressing you as Mister.”

Beau cocked an eyebrow warily, wondering if he was mocking her or if he was truly so magnificent a fool as to think a charming smile and twinkling green eyes would make him seem less of an ogre than his black-souled captain.

Mocking, she decided, and with a parting curse she scowled her way out of the cabin.

Balancing Dante on one shoulder and carrying a lit taper in his free hand, Pitt shuffled into the dark cabin next door.

He propped De Tourville against the wall and searched out a lantern, glancing around as he did so, wary of disturbing the slightest mote of dust. Not that there appeared to be any to disturb.

The cabin was neat and clean, devoid of the mustiness and clutter that warmed the atmosphere in Spence’s cabin.

The walls were bare planking, the berth was high and narrow and looked as comfortable as a coffin.

Most of the free space was taken up by a large chart table positioned to catch the best light from the gallery windows.

There was a storage bin holding rolled charts and maps, a bookcase neatly stacked with volumes held in place with leather strapping, a sea chest, and a small desk weighted down under various navigational instruments.

Dante’s eyes opened a slit. He was not entirely drunk, which Pitt had already deduced, but neither was he completely without a strong whirling sensation in his head.

“You have that disapproving look in your eye again,” he said to Pitt.

“It was a cheap way to end an argument. Were you afraid she was winning?”

Dante swore and rubbed his temples. “I was not in the mood to justify myself to a woman.”

“No? You seemed to be in the mood for something. Your tongue was sharper than I’ve seen it in a long time.”

“I said nothing she did not deserve.”

“Mmmm. Just enough to stir her blood into helping you chase Victor Bloodstone to ground. Do you think she can do it? Do you really think she can pilot this ship?”

“If she can’t, she’ll find herself accidentally fallen over the side one dark night.”

“Your usual subtle solution,” Pitt remarked dryly. “Of course, you could always try something a little less drastic and work some of your immeasurable charm on her.”

“To what end, pray?”

“Well, she is a female and soft in all the right places.”

“I have no desire to bed a she-cat.”

“When did your tastes become so refined? Unless you have suffered some holy revelation, you are normally content to bed everything that walks and breathes.”

Dante glared at Pitt, then the door. “Haven’t you a canvas sling waiting for you somewhere?”

Pitt grinned, nonplussed. He acknowledged his dismissal with a tug on a tawny forelock, then set the stiletto on the desk in plain view. “I presume you would prefer to slit your own throat rather than tempt someone else to do it?”

Dante snarled and looked for something handy to throw, but Pitt was already gone, his laughter muffled by the closing door.