The man charged at Teach, but Teach flipped him over his
shoulder and slammed him to the ground, the force of it shaking the house to its rafters. Clipping Teach’s ankle, the man pulled him down. The two wrestled and grappled, until Teach managed to catch the man in the stomach with his elbow. Moaning, the man rolled to his side. Teach reached down, gripped him by his hair, and pulled him to a kneeling position before delivering a crushing blow to his face. His opponent fell back and didn’t move again.
Teach heard a tread on the floor above and hurtled up the
shadowy stairs, his heart hammering. He’d just turned onto the landing when a shot rang out and the wood paneling near his
head splintered. Dropping down, Teach saw another man, equal
in stature to the first, fumbling to reload the pistol in his hand.
Jumping to his feet, Teach rushed at him and slammed him
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against the wall. The pistol fell harmlessly to the floor. “Where is she?”
“Don’t know who you’re talking about,” the man spat back.
Teach drove his fist into the man’s stomach. “Try again.”
“Bugger off!”
Once more Teach connected with the man’s middle. Doubled
over, his opponent barely managed to gasp his reply. “She’s—
gone. To—sea.”
“I don’t believe you,” Teach said, delivering a swift right to his jaw.
Blood dripped from the man’s lip where it had split. “She
is. I swear it.”
Grabbing the man by his shirtfront, Teach smashed his head
against the wall. “You were told to take her to the White Stag and then to the Deliverance. That ship still sits in the docks.”
The man stuck out his jaw, his lips pressed tightly together.
Teach felt his self-control slipping. “Tell me where she is,”
he growled, pressing his forearm against his opponent’s wind—
pipe. “Or I swear I’ll kill you.”
“You’ll—never—” the man gasped, his eyes bulging from
their sockets as Teach leaned all of his weight into his choke hold. “The Prov—i—dence.”
“She’s on the Providence?”
Nodding, the man drew in a deep breath as Teach released
the pressure slightly.
“If you value your life, you’ll take me there.”
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Giving Teach a surly scowl, the man’s gaze shifted, looking over Teach’s shoulder. Teach ducked, but it was too late, and a crushing blow was delivered to his head. As he staggered backward, the darkness swirled around him, and he sank to his
knees before falling forward, face-first.
“Sir! Sir, wake up!”
The earnest voice pierced Teach’s clouded mind. Stirring
in confusion, Teach cracked his eyes open. In the dark a young face swam in and out of focus.
“Are you all right, sir?” It was the young groom, David.
Teach’s ears rang. He rolled over, and white and blue sparks
obscured his vision as he attempted to sit up too quickly. His stomach felt as if it were caught in a vise, and the pounding in his head was incessant.
“Help me up,” Teach mumbled, cursing his body’s weakness.
David clasped one of Teach’s wrists with both hands. He
was surprisingly strong for one so small. Bile rose in Teach’s throat, but by the time he was on his feet, the room had stopped spinning.
“We have to find the Providence,” Teach said, moving toward the door. It was still dark out. He wondered how much
time had passed.
Stumbling down the stairs, David followed in Teach’s wake.
“That ship is gone, sir. It sailed out with the tide.”
Stopping abruptly, Teach turned and caught the young
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boy by his shoulders, preventing him from plowing into Teach.
“What?”
“I did as you said and told the woman the master knew about
her plans. Then I came back to see if you needed help. The two men were leaving. I heard them mention the Providence. Since I couldn’t wake you immediately, I went to the docks. The ship had already left, sir.” Even in the dim light, Teach saw that David’s chin quivered, and his eyes filled with tears.
Anne was gone.
An animal sound ripped from Teach’s throat, and he
slammed his fist into the wall. “Do you know where it was
headed?” Teach asked, his voice rough.
“To the West Indies, sir.”
Taking a steadying breath, Teach closed his eyes briefly
against a wave of fury. Anne was unaccompanied, bound for
foreign seas. In his own travels he’d witnessed many women,
alone and destitute, suffer indescribable harm and degradation.
The thought of Anne suffering like that was nearly his undoing.
“What do you plan to do, sir? Can I help?”
“I’m going after her. And if anyone dares harm her, I will
have my revenge.”
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C H A P T E R 3 6
Anne
The floor of the small dank cabin crawled with movement,
and the sound of hundreds of tiny legs scurrying across the
boards made the hair on the back of Anne’s neck stand up.
The Providence was teeming with rats and cockroaches, each creation vying for precedence, and clearly outnumbering the human cargo on board.