Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [58]
“No, we won’t.” Raleigh fought with the sail, a single, too-small square of canvas in comparison with the vessel behind them. “We’ll go aground and lose the boat.”
Of course they would. Tabitha knew that. She had lived by the sea all her life. They didn’t want to ground a boat, not even on sand.
And the sloop had guns. Only fourteen she could see, but that was fourteen too many, too dangerous, too overwhelming.
“Where?” She cried out, scanning the coastline. “Where should I—”
The smack jerked like someone stumbling over a rock on a path. A crack like small arms fire resounded over the deck, and the sail caught the wind, rode up the next wave, and settled into an even bow-to-stern pitch.
“Praise God,” Raleigh shouted.
But the sloop still gained on them, faster, with more men to manipulate her sails.
“Head north by northwest,” Raleigh directed, still struggling to secure the sail.
Tabitha glanced at the compass mounted above the wheel. They were headed due west, straight for shore, close enough now that she saw people standing on the beach to watch. As she leaned on the spoke to force the rudder around three degrees on the compass, she turned her head to view the sloop. In moments it should run aground.
Its commander wasn’t that foolish. He too had adjusted his course and ran on a similar heading, parallel to theirs. With its greater speed, the sloop drew ahead of them, close enough for Tabitha to see the rude gestures many of the sailors on the enemy deck made, before the vessel dipped her Union Jack in an insolent salute, and she vanished around a headland, only her towering masts visible against the horizon.
“She’s gone.” Tabitha sighed with relief. “She was only teasing us. I wish I understood her game.”
Raleigh joined Tabitha at the wheel, soaked with seawater and perspiration. “She’s a bit close in, even for the British.”
“Close in? Raleigh, you’ve been away too long. We’ve had British ships sail right up our rivers or into the Chesapeake and waylay our ships.” She squinted against the brightness of the horizon for a glimpse of the sloop. “I still see her masts. She must have slowed.”
“Or maybe she’s coming about to make another pass.” Raleigh’s lips thinned into a hard line. “Something’s wrong around here and has been since I got home.”
“It’s been longer than that.” Tabitha stepped aside to relinquish the wheel to Raleigh. “Should we come about too, and head back to your jetty?”
“We can’t.” He tilted his head like a hound sniffing the wind.
Tabitha understood. The light breeze from earlier had turned to a brisk wind, clearing the sky of the earlier haze, but blowing from the south. Tacking into the wind with only two of them would be difficult.
“It was always a risk,” Raleigh said. “Always is with only two people aboard. We’ll sail into that cove north of your house.”
The British sloop had headed in that direction.
She scanned the northern horizon but couldn’t be sure if she saw masts there or simply a cloud formation. “I’m willing to try.”
“No, it’ll risk hurting your hands. I can fetch the boat home with the Evans brothers or my father later.”
“But we don’t have an anchor.”
“Plenty of rocks.” Raleigh squinted at the compass. “We’ll tie up to one of those.”
“All right.” She laid her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry you lost your anchor.”
“Just another black mark against the British.” Raleigh covered her hand with his and smiled at her. Wind ruffled his sun-streaked hair, and his eyes were as blue as the sea around them. He looked young and carefree and so much like the youth she’d fallen in love with that her heart began to soften toward him.
“I’d like to come out with you again,” she said before she lost her courage.
“Tabbie.” He raised one hand as though he intended to touch her face.
A wave caught the starboard quarter, lifted the smack, and sent it slamming into a trough of the next wave. The bow yawed and the sail flapped. Their course altered too close to the shore.
“Never court a lady while in command of a vessel.” Raleigh laughed, a rich, heartfelt rumble in his broad chest.