Mudsills & Mooncussers (#multimedia)

Chapter 15

ILLUSTRATION:

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  

LAST WEEK, IN CHAPTER 14:

The bonfire loomed large and effective on the beach. Aaron and Joe stood together, tired and dirty, watching it helplessly. Lila stood over twenty feet beyond the fire, out of their reach, with the LeMat carefully trained upon them.

Lila referred to the rebuilt fire, "That's going very nicely," then said to Aaron, "Now, before you think to do something gallant but silly, I'll take that pistol beneath your coat."

Joe looked at him, amazed. He looked at her, apologetic, and carefully removed his Army Colt—which he flung into the soft sand at Lila's feet.

Joe looked at the sea and at the fire. She seemed to sniff the air and take stock of the sky and the breeze. She came to an undeniable conclusion and turned toward Lila. "There are ships out there! Right now! You can't do this. People might die!"

Lila brandished the LeMat for emphasis. "Don't come any closer, wrecker's brat."

Aaron, now knowing Lila to be Noah Lewis's killer, reached out to stop Joe, who was compelled forward by her deep revulsion. "Joe, don't—" he begged.

Joe was focused solely on Lila. "I don't care who you are or what you think you're doing, this is murder. You can't do this."

"It won't be the first time," said Lila, and she fired.

NOW, ENJOY THE NEWEST INSTALLMENT OF MUDSILLS & MOONCUSSERS.

~o~   ~o~   ~o~   ~o~   ~o~   ~o~   

Joe spun with the impact and fell, bleeding, to the sand. Aaron rushed to her.

"No!" he shouted. Frantic, he removed his coat and folded it beneath her head. He stripped the buttons from his shirt as he tore it off and ripped it into bandaging strips.

His back was to Lila, and his muscular torso formed a wall between Lila and Joe, but Lila was not interested. She was watching the reef, listening for the sound of a wreck.

Joe's right arm and shoulder were drenched in blood but as Aaron stanched the wound, he reacted to her left hand brushing his cheek.

He looked down into her eyes. She winked at him. Her fingers covered his mouth to stop his exclamation before he uttered it.

"My boot," she mouthed without sound.

"What?" he whispered.

"Knife. In my boot."

Aaron smiled. "I love you," he mouthed.

Joe closed her eyes.

On the Confederate flagship, the commander and executive officer, glued to the deck rail, stared forward into the blackness. The Rebel commander reacted and pointed toward the shoreline, where the superstructure of the U.S. Navy flagship was a shadow across the glow of Lila's distant bonfire.

"There they are! Prepare to fire!"

On the Union flagship, the helmsman looked skeptical. The Yankee commanding officer was standing at his elbow, looking far astern.

The ensign said, "There's something funny about that light, sir."

The commander spun around, alarmed. "What!"

Lila was only obliquely aware of Aaron's form stooped over Joe's body. Instead, she watched the sea, her LeMat still in her hand and one foot over Aaron's Army Colt in the sand. "Because I like you so much, Aaron, I'm going to let you live to see your Navy trapped on the reef just like I trapped you—with the help of the late Noah Lewis, of course. So, then you won't feel so bad. It should be a spectacular sight, too. 'The bombs bursting in air,' just like that ridiculous song."