Jack stroked the side of my face with his thumb. “He found Bon and came aboard. He offered to join up with The Black Otter fleet. In Monica Joan’s honor.”
A veil of tears blurred my vision.
“She wrote about you. Daniel said, ‘I must meet this Redella’.”
Sentiment knotted my tongue. “Bon?” I sniffed back tears. “How is she?”
Jack’s eyes were soft. “I figured you’d ask after her, just like she asked after you.”
I studied my husband’s face and listened to his words. There was no jealousy there, anywhere.
“All for Redella, Bon told me as I lay sputtering on her deck. But she didn’t stop there. She loves you, she said, and anyone Back from the Dead Red loves doesn’t deserve to hang like a dog.”
A strange emotion weighted my happiness. Nostalgia, perhaps?
Jack continued. “I got a bit emotional myself. I grabbed Irish Bon up, once she busted me out of my metal coffin. I twirled her around the whole of the deck.” He chuckled to himself. “Half figured her to stab me in the back, but she didn’t. Thankfully.”
I shook my head. The image of Jack twirling Irish Bon anywhere was a laughable one. “I bet she gave you a cussing.”
“Even better.” Jack touched his hat. “Said she plucked this hat off a dead man’s head and had to make sure I got it back. Then—”
Jack flipped back his coat. Slowly, he drew his jewel-handled cutlass.
“Gave me this back, as well. And a griping to go with it.”
I let go a belly laugh as tears streamed down my cheeks. Only these tears weren’t borne of sadness. They were borne of happiness. “I can only imagine. What’d she say?”
Jack screwed up his face in jest. “Russian Jack Rackham,” he mocked in a bad imitation of Irish Bon. “If that damned sword wasn’t so flashy, people wouldn’t be wantin’ to steal it. Do you realize half my life I’ve spent recovering your damnedable blade?”
I couldn’t help myself. A fit of laughter doubled me over. I let go a whoop. “That sounds like Irish Bon all right!” My face ached from the smile that pushed my lips wide.
Jack continued when I finally stopped laughing. “By the time the pomp died down about my daring escape from the grips of death and it was safe to come back to shore, the first thing I did was come to find you.”
Cold stones fell in my gut. You came to find me and you found me. At the altar, about to wed another man.
“I heard about your impending wedding. Lucky for me, you chose to marry up with the richest man in Wales. News like that travels fast, even over the sea.”
I sucked in a breath and held it. Oh Jacky—
Jack ignored me. “And that’s how I came to see you now. At your wedding. To another man.”
I sobered at the twinge of hurt that colored his words. “Oh Jacky.”
I dared a look into my husband’s eyes. They twinkled.
“If you want to stay and marry the landlubber Red—you have my blessing.”
I cocked my head and stared at him as my hint of a smile faded.
Could it be Jack doesn’t want me anymore?
“You’d have a respectable life,” Jack explained. “More money than God. No sad memories. Perhaps even children, someday.”
Loreena Jacqueline. My empty arms ached with the memory of the night I became both a mother and a mourner. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head. “Please, Jack.”
His voice was soft. “God knows you deserve a better life than what I gave you.” His arms were around me in a moment. Cradling. Comforting. I melted into them at once.
Jack’s breath was warm in my hair. “I love you Redella. My only wish is that your life is a happy one.”
Chapter Sixteen
Aboard The Black Otter on the high seas
Where’s Cap?” Solo’s voice sounded oddly hopeful, though he had to have watched Rusty and me row back to The Black Otter from the shore. Solo stood in the middle of the deck and, in the tall black boots, he looked the part of a ship’s captain as he handed me Jack’s hand-me-down sword.
Tommy sat on the crates along the side, trimming his fingernails with his knife. Poison Lightning descended the ratlines and jumped to the deck. Red Legs stood close to Rusty, who still wore the cloak she’d worn on shore.
We stood there on the newly blackened deck as the blood red sails Rusty had expertly sewn fluttered in the breeze. Anchor was dropped, but the way the waves lapped at the side of the ship, it seemed even The Black Otter herself was ready to be on her way.
“There was a trap—” I began.
I glanced back toward shore. Thankfully, I could see nothing. The thought of Jack hanging in the gibbet caused an almost tangible pain in my gut.
“They laid a trap for me. At the base of the gibbet. Where he’s hung.”
Solo dipped his head. “Is there hope? If I—if we—go to try and bust him out?”
Rusty shook her head. “They said they were purposefully keeping Jack alive in hopes Red would try and rescue him.” Her quiet voice sounded even more meek than usual. “If you tried to rescue him, you’d all hang for piracy. Those of you who survived, would anyway.”
