Lord of Devil Isle Read Free Page A

collected.”
    “Even now?”
    “Especially now. Imagine how impressed the gentlemen who are coming to our rescue will be when they see how graciously you face difficult circumstances,” Eve said. Lieutenant Rathbun had schooled them in decorum all the way across the long stretch of the Atlantic. Perhaps the lessons would come in useful now. “And keep your feet and legs as still as possible.”
    “They can’t see my legs,” Sally protested.
    “No, but if your head is bobbing around they’ll know you’re kicking up your feet like a light-heeled trollop. And it will be quite as bad as if they could see them. Look at Penny.” Eve nodded at their quiet friend. “She’s being perfectly still.”
    The boat was drawing closer. The master growled an order, but the wind carried away his words.
    The dorsal fin reappeared behind Sally and Penny’s eyes flared with alarm.
    “Quiet, Pen,” Eve urged as the shark circled.
    Penelope sucked in her bottom lip and worried it in silence.
    The moon ripped through the clouds, silvering the black water. The shark glided by again. Its lidless eye flashed feral over rows of jagged teeth. It was closer onthis pass. It seemed to be studying them, trying to decide what to do. Eve could almost hear its fishy thoughts.
    Is they nice? Is they tasty? Shall we give ’em a nip then, ducks, just to see for ourselves?
    The shark’s imagined voice sounded like that disgusting bloke from Cheapside, the one whose unwanted attention she’d fended off during her nightmarish weeks in Newgate. She shook away the evil fancy.
    Someone from the small boat shouted to them, but Eve couldn’t yank her gaze from the monster. The sleek body was twice as long as she was tall.
    Merciful God, it’s big enough to swallow us whole.
    White-knuckled, Eve gripped the hatch cover till her nails bit into the wood. Why hadn’t she grabbed up something useful before she leaped into the sea? Like maybe a pike?
    Sally caught sight of the shark and began to shriek like a lost soul.
    “Suffering Christ,” Nick muttered, then shouted. “Put your backs into it, men.”
    He hadn’t given up a prize vessel just to see these stupid women butchered before his eyes, but the shark wouldn’t wait much longer.
    “Must be the same big bastard we seen off Spanish Point, Cap’n,” Tatem said. “There ain’t another un’ like that in these waters, or I’ll hope to shout.”
    Nick drew his pistol and tried to track the course of the fin around the women. The beast was so close, he couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t hit one of them. The hysterical blonde invited attack with her flailing and screaming. One of the others grabbed her and clamped a hand over her mouth.
    “At least one of them has the brains God gave a goose,” Nick conceded.
    He aimed his weapon at the circling shark, gauged the distance and allowed for lead time. He squeezed the trigger, but instead of a sharp report, his pistol gave a disappointing click. The rain had wet his powder thoroughly.
    “Damn.”
    There was no help for it and no way he’d order one of his men to join him in what he was planning. Lunacy was a dish best eaten alone. Nicholas yanked off his boots.
    “Take the tiller, Mr. Williams,” he ordered. “Tie off the line and make ready to haul away on my signal. Tatem, stick a harpoon in him if you get half a chance.”
    “Aye, Cap’n.”
    Nicholas looped one end of a rope around his waist, thrust a dagger between his teeth and dove into the surging sea. Once his sleek head broke the surface, he closed the distance between the pitching jolly boat and the women in a handful of powerful strokes.
    When he surfaced beside them, he pulled the knife from his teeth and unfastened the rope, kicking to stay afloat. The shark passed slowly, eyeing him with a pitiless stare. He didn’t dare look away until it disappeared, dissolving in the black water. Nick knew better than to feel relief. It would be back. Probably when least