Pirate's Ransom

Chapter 15

***Note: The song below is not my intellectual property. The song entitled "The Female Smuggler" was found in the book Daring Pirate Women by Anne Wallace Sharp

When a knock sounded she was pulled from her thoughts. She supposed that her breakfast was being sent in and lifted herself off of Arus's bed and made her way to the door. She was thankful that her skeletal system had found itself and begun working again. She unlatched the door and was greeted with about ten scraggly faces. 

None of those faces were Charlie or Captain Arus. Her heart lurched. She tried to close the door, but a boot was wedged in at the bottom. Heart leaping to her throat she stumbled backward into the cabin and looked around for something to defend herself with. What did they want her for? Oh God, oh God, oh God. 

The dagger, so carelessly swept onto the floor by Arus still sat there. She dove for it feeling it's weight in her palm. Could she scream for him? She wasn't sure where they ate so she had no way of knowing if he would hear her. There really was little to no chance she could fend off ten men...especially not pirates. She was no hero.

Her mouth felt like it was filled with cotton it was so dry. She frantically tried to wet her lips in preparation for a scream but when she turned around she was greeted with numerous toothy grins...some not so toothy. Yet, they weren't threatening grins. Were they?

"What are you doing?" She asked, but it came out more as a squeak and raised up the dagger in a defensive posture. 

Numerous cheers rang out and joyous laughter. Her brows pinched together. What on earth?

Clearly they were up to something but what? As they inched closer with happy-go-lucky faces, as her mom called it, she relaxed against everything her brain was telling her to do. A few men moved around her and before she could react they placed hands behind her knees and she gripped shoulders as she was lifted high in the air. 

Isabella couldn't be more thankful for the storm that raged last night because it cleaned these men more than they probably ever cleaned and they needed a good scrubbing.

"Put me down!" Arms cradled her legs and held her up in a seated position. No one was hurting her so she didn't fight them but couldn't figure out what was going on. Were they going to drop her over the side of the ship? Had the Captain ordered it? Was he done with her? She mentally shook herself, no he still needed her.

She heard one voice sing, 

"O come list a while, and you shall hear,

By the rolling sea live a maiden fair.

Her father had followed the smuggling trade.

Like a warlike hero. 

Like a warlike hero that never was afraid."

What? 

Before she knew it they all began to sing along, the booming male voices chanted as they headed for the door, ducking down so she didn't hit her head. 

"Now, in sailor's clothing young Jane did go,

Dressed like a sailor from top to toe

Her aged father was the only care

Of this female smuggler.

Of this female smuggler who never did despair."

Some of the men had replaced the name Jane with her own but she wasn't a smuggler and her father wasn't either. Though he was aged. What was going on!