Of Noble Birth Read Online Free

right.
Aunt Pauline might be her only hope. But what if the manager at
Fobart’s refused her and told Willy what she had done? What if she
didn’t make it to London in time?
    She shuddered at the memory of the beating
she’d received the last time she’d gotten the crazy idea to escape
her stepfather, but slowly, she nodded and gave the others a shaky
smile. Though the risks of their plan were great, it offered her a
chance at freedom. A very slim chance. “All right,” she said at
last. “I’ll try it.”
    * * *
    Nathaniel Kent strode boldly to the bow, his
good arm gripping a rope cable to help him keep his balance on the
heaving deck, the other arm hanging useless at his side. The thrill
of the chase surged through his body, heightening his senses and
causing his heart to pound within his chest. His quarry was close
to surrendering. It had to be. The merchant brig had tried to run,
but there was no escaping the sleek, fast-cutting Royal Vengeance , not on a day like this, when the sun
was high in the sky, the water as smooth as satin, and the wind as
steady as a camel plodding through the desert.
    Still, Nathaniel wondered why the Nightingale didn’t return their fire; he
knew she carried at least four thirty-two-pound cannons.
    “What’s going on?” Mystified, he turned to
Trenton, his lanky first mate.
    Trenton shrugged. “Damned if I can say. I
know we come as quite a surprise, but even the first ship we took
offered up a better fight than this.”
    “Still, I don’t see a white flag.”
    “Should we blast ‘em again?”
    Nathaniel thought for a moment. “Aye, maybe
a direct hit will convince them.”
    The deafening roar of cannon clamored above
the shouts of his men as four twenty-five-pound steel balls plunged
into the sea somewhere near the stern of the Nightingale, sending large, drenching sprays of
seawater across her decks. Smoke obscured Nathaniel’s view but soon
cleared, rising like the ascension of a million ghosts.
    “We got ‘er!” someone cried.
    A chorus of cheers resounded.
    Nathaniel glanced back over his shoulder.
His men were busy cleaning cannon muzzles so they could reload. He
doubted such action would be necessary. Since the invention of the
steam engine, pirates were a thing of the past, but the tales of
their bygone era were not forgotten. Any good sailor could recount,
and usually did, at least a dozen hair-raising stories supposedly
experienced by someone in his ancestral tree.
    Banking on the fear those tales engendered,
Nathaniel knew it would only be a matter of time before the Nightingale surrendered. He smiled,
enjoying the feel of the deck moving beneath his feet, the wind
rushing through his hair, even the smell of battle—especially the
smell of battle, for it brought him that much closer to his
goal.
    “There’s the flag,” Richard shouted,
pointing toward the other ship. As unpredictable as a wild boar and
twice as mad, Richard had been a member of Nathaniel’s crew for
less than a year. “We got the bloody bastards!”
    Nathaniel turned to look. Sure enough, a
white flag rippled wildly in the afternoon wind, hoisted high on
the brig’s main mast. “Good girl,” he murmured to himself. “Now for
your cargo.”
    Moving quickly, he headed to the side of the
ship where his men lowered a boat. He heard it splash in the water
only seconds before he climbed over the side and jumped in. Trenton
stayed behind to take charge of the Vengeance , but Richard and Tiny, a man the size of a
bear, came with him.
    Nathaniel listened to the rhythmic slap of
the oars hitting the water as Tiny pulled for the other ship. The
whine of voices from the Nightingale shifted on the wind. He couldn’t determine the words, but he could
guess that expressions of surprise and dismay were chief among
them.
    When they reached her hull, Nathaniel turned
to his men. “Are you ready?”
    “I’m as eager as a sailor with his first
woman,” Richard exclaimed. The barrel-chested Tiny