Piracy

11. Losing Him

I had to cling to the railing to make my way steadily because the ship was pitching this way and that. As swiftly as I could, I made my way to the stairs leading to the lower deck, where I'd heard Abigail's screams. I dared not look up for fear of meeting the captain's eyes, or worse, the eyes of the enemy. I kept my focus keenly trained on the sounds of her cries, hoping they wouldn't stop.

I tore through the lower deck and halted in front of a door with her voice on the other side. I held myself back as I reached for the latch. I had to devise some strategy when planning to face a man of unknown size and strength, a man for whom killing was likely just another part of his job. 

Before I could think or act, the door opened, so I crouched into the shadows. A big fat enemy pirate came out, smelling to high heaven of something akin to rotten meat and heaven knows what else. He shoved poor, frightened little Abigail ahead of him. He must have threatened her with something terrible because she was no longer screaming. Sheer terror was in her eyes, but then she caught sight of me. I motioned for her to be quiet and not let on that she'd noticed me. Her face visibly relaxed and then I knew it was up to me to save her, but how on earth was I going to do that?

The swaying and tilting of the ship made it difficult to follow the large man who was creeping carefully through the lower deck, clearly watching to make sure he wouldn't be caught carrying off the young girl.

I followed in absolute silence for a few moments until I realized my only chance to stop him before he escaped up the stairs and into the storm was to use one of the weapons I'd tucked away in my clothing. The dagger had a longer blade and since I wasn't entirely familiar with anatomy, I trusted the length of the weapon to do enough damage at least to distract the man and grab hold of Abigail.

I drew the dagger out of the bodice of my dress without making a sound. With a surge of courage, combined with absolute rage, I plunged the blade into his back, causing an enraged scream to erupt from his mouth. He whipped around to find his attacker, but I slipped around the other side of his body, yanking Abigail from his grasp and sprinting away, the best I could in the dark with the motion of the ship.

I could hear the heavy man gaining on us with shouts of fury and pain. I screamed to Abigail, "Run! Run to my cabin and lock yourself in!" She took off ahead of me and scurried up the steep wooden stairs while I frantically looked for anything else I could use as a weapon since I assumed that the small pocket knife would only nestle itself into his mounds of fat.

As I launched myself toward the stairs, I grabbed onto the frame of the upper deck just as he caught hold of my dress. I clung tight to the wood and turned enough to see his face twisted in anger. Without even thinking, my foot flew directly to his nose and all I saw was a rush of blood before his hold loosened. I hoisted myself up onto the deck and took off towards the cabin, but I found that Abigail hadn't quite obeyed my instructions. About ten feet before the captain's cabin door, she had stopped and was staring at the enemy ship in horror.

"Papa!" She screamed.

I glanced over at the deck of the other ship. The last bit of daylight, along with the frequent lightning flashes, gained me a clear look at Captain Harry and Louis, back to back, fighting with swords against several vicious-looking men.

I picked up Abigail to carry her to the cabin in safety, but she screeched all the more loudly, "Papa!" Her shout pierced the chaos and both Harry and Louis glanced momentarily in our direction. The very brief distraction allowed one of the enemies to plunge a blade into Harry's side.

"Harry!" I screamed in horror, but I knew I'd already caused enough of a distraction, giving our men the obvious disadvantage. I dragged a screaming Abigail to the door and shoved her into the cabin. Just before I closed the door, I caught a glimpse of something I wish I hadn't seen - Harry and Louis both went tumbling from the enemy's deck into the turmoil of the sea.

I shrieked in fear, yet I refused to say anything to Abigail as I lowered the heavy beam across the door. There was no way they could survive the turbulent water, especially Harry with a stab wound in his side.

I held Abigail fiercely for a long time, both of us sobbing in relief.

Finally, I went to the captain's chest and dragged out a dry nightshirt for her and one of his long shirts for me. We quickly changed into the dry clothing and then climbed into my bed. I tucked the blankets around us and held Abigail as if she were my own child.

With every single bit of courage I could muster, I told her in a calm voice. "Don't you worry. Your papa is a strong fighter. He will be just fine."

"But Uncle Harry," she whimpered.

"He will be fine, too," I said with much more confidence than I felt in my aching heart. "Now you just try to sleep and I will stay awake to make sure you're safe until the storm is over."

I'd never told such an atrocious lie in my life, but I had no choice. I couldn't very well tell Abigail that her father and Uncle Harry had perished in the sea. I couldn't quite accept it myself just yet. I forced tears back as I held her close to my chest, hoping that she would be able to sleep. She eventually stopped trembling and drifted off. I was able to stop shaking as well, and thanks to the rum I'd drunk before I'd gone to her rescue, I was able to sleep a bit, still holding her tight.

Hours passed as I slept fitfully, finally reaching the point where I couldn't sleep at all as I tried to keep myself calm. I wanted Abigail to sleep soundly so that she could face whatever news the morning brought to us. I played out the scene in my mind over and over again, watching Harry get stabbed and then falling overboard with Louis.

The storm had finally dwindled down to a light, steady rain, but it was too late. I was sure there was no way for Harry and Louis to have survived amidst the chaos. Had anyone even noticed them going overboard? Maybe I should have gone back out to alert someone, but I knew I would have risked letting Abigail see her father get swept away or worse, letting her be abducted by another scoundrel.

My heart was sick with worry the rest of the night. As the first streaks of morning light penetrated the darkness, I pondered on what to do. I had no idea who was even left on the ship, but I hoped there would be friendly faces when I went to find out. I would first confer with the remaining crew as to what would happen now that Harry and Louis were gone. Then I would demand to be taken back to England, hoping they would have pity on me.

My thoughts grew even more dismal with the thought of telling Abigail that her father was gone. Then a rather pleasant thought occurred to me in the midst of the heartache. I would take Abigail with me when we returned to England and I would raise her as my own daughter. Surely we could find comfort in each other as we faced our grief.

I was certain the captain had a stash of wealth hidden somewhere; perhaps the others wouldn't notice if I helped myself to a bit for all of my trouble. And Louis would want his daughter well cared for, so I might even come right out and ask if I could be compensated in some way to help take care of her.

Abigail was still in a deep sleep, thankfully. I would wait til she awoke to leave the cabin so I could have her put down the barricade again once I'd left. It almost broke my heart to think that Louis wouldn't be bringing breakfast to the door, but I pushed any further thoughts of loss out of my mind as I dressed. I was just pulling on my shoes when I heard a commotion. I stopped to listen carefully to see what might be happening. I was faced with sheer terror when a loud pounding came from the outside of the cabin.

"Open this door at once!" I heard a voice shout.

-----------------------------------------------------

You are all so awesome! I've gotten a bit more of a quick start than I expected. If any of you have been with me from the beginning (I've been on here about 2 years, I think), you might remember that I had a few books of smut one-shots - one book was Harry and the other was Niall. Time to come out of the shadows and admit that those stories were published at one time on Nialls_obsession's page (She is a good friend here on Wattpad, just to clarify). I had thought about closing this account completely, but I came back to it because writing here is an outlet for me. Raise your virtual hand if you'd like me to publish those stories again.