The Bastard Girl (The Bastard Girl Series, Book #1)

Chapter 19~ The Fancy

Chapter 19~ The Fancy

Only an hour had passed from the moment Thomas Tew became no more to when I'd been transferred aboard the Svarn Aatank for the second time. Captain Gazsi Maut had not made any attempts to interact with me, and I had to admit how grateful I was for it. Of course, Edmund had no real clue why I was acting so paranoid and cautious but blamed it on the fact that I'd just shot a man in the head and watched his guts spill out before me.

I hadn't felt so conflicted. And questions still faced me. What did this capture mean? That right after escaping Thomas Tew's treachery, I was to be subjected to the dangerous will of yet another of my father's enemies? And how was Captain Maut even here? I last recalled him in his hysterics when I escaped their kidnapping back in Cape Town. However, there was the possibility of such a chance encounter.

It didn't take long for me to piece together the events of that night. Reportedly, an Indian ship slipped through in the night while we were on the way to meet my father in the Mandab Strait. Tew, antsy for any sort of conflict, attacked the ship without another thought. The loss was bloody. After Maut's ships' sister vessel, the Fateh Muhammad was attacked, it didn't take long before the Svarn Aatank made its arrival.

Edmund shook my shoulder and pulled me away from staring at Captain Maut.

"Constantine, we need to go," he said. We were roughly shoved along the line of survivors. Each of us was loaded into the cargo hold of the ship which reeked of rum and the stomach-churning sap of sugar. The amount of space was nerve-racking. And in no time, I was stuffed into the pit alongside the sweaty masses of men. I could only breathe through my mouth and even that became horrifyingly difficult as the air began fading away. And quick.

I was an animal in a pen being prepped for slaughter. And any movement that a person made rippled through the crowd and ended up crushing someone against a wall.

It must've been hours that passed.

In a stroke of luck, the upper hatch opened. Like an ocean wave, the crowd of slaves and Tew's crew heaved an upward stretch, desperate to escape. The Indians atop, however, were vicious and prepared. They struck the crowd with whips and deafened us with shouts and threats.

"Where is she?!" they cried, "Where is kameene ladakee?"

Stay hidden, I thought to myself, The misery here is better than anything Maut has in store.

So, I pressed myself against the wall and lowered my head, for there was nowhere to go. But, there was no hiding from Rathbone.

"Here!!" the pirate hollered, yellow hatred in his eyes. In seconds, I was being strangled up to the front of the crowds, Edmund's name on my lips and mine upon his own. Our fights were futile. My eyes met the blackness of the night. The bright moon had become the only sun I knew. It shined a path straight to the captain's quarters.

"Let me go, you bastards! No!"

I squeezed my eyes shut tight and tried to picture someplace better—the beach, Dover, anywhere with my mother. All I needed was a happy fantasy.

"Ah, yes, Ms. Every, we meet again."

When my eyes opened again, I was in the presence of Gazsi Maut and his first mate. Nothing had changed about the sickeningly gorgeous quarters. But, now, the eyes of the painting wives burned holes through my skull.

The sight of Maut filled me with more anger than fright. This was the devil that defecated on my memory of my mother and spat it back to me. And that was purely unforgivable.