Damon patted her derriere and stood up to whisper in her ear, “I was right.”

God, yes, he was. She turned around, reached for him, and got in one good kiss before they both heard the cabin door open and Jeremy calling her name. Damon quickly helped her straighten her clothes and led her back to where Jeremy could see them in the light from the lantern by the cabin door.

“We thought we heard a whale splash and tried to spot it,” she told her brother.

He’d come to the top of the steps outside the cabin and gave her a doubtful look, then grumbled, “No touching, and stay out of the shadows,” before he went back in the cabin.

Jacqueline growled under her breath. Her brother had become a mind reader, so uncannily on the mark with his timing. Every single time she and Damon had found an empty spot for some privacy this week, Jeremy would either show up or start shouting her name and looking for her until she showed up. He’d even climbed up to the crow’s nest the night she and Damon had snuck out of the cabin, thinking Jeremy was asleep when he wasn’t. Quite embarrassing, that, how quickly she’d had to fix her clothing before her brother peered over the side. But mostly, he just didn’t leave them alone together. As chaperones went, he was the worst ever. But tonight they’d managed a few private moments. It just wasn’t enough!

Damon was softly chuckling beside her. “I’m beginning to regret giving him his freedom.”

“It was a wise decision and it worked out beautifully. Even though he is being aggravating now.”

“Yes, he was the perfect foil to win the day with only bruises instead of bloodshed.” Then Damon took her hand and brought it to his lips before he gave her his form of an apology for his mention of marriage earlier. “I’m still getting to know you, Jack. So some teasing you enjoy, and apparently, some you don’t. Can we go back to enjoying the evening now that the stars are out?”

Mollified, she smiled and reached up to touch his face. “Thank you for what you did for me. I wish we could have more fun together.”

The sky was pretty, black and star filled—and cloudless. Just one cloud would herald some wind returning, but the calm continued unabated.

“I could just take the beating your brother promised.”

“Don’t you dare. That won’t get him to vacate the cabin.”

He took her hand. “One more circuit of the deck before—?”

He didn’t finish. The horribly loud sound of a cannon being fired drew them immediately to the back railing on the helm’s side. But they hadn’t been fired upon. It had just been a warning shot to get their attention. Jack saw a dozen longboats heading their way. They would already have seen them if they had really been looking for a whale behind the ship!

“It looks like our father is paying us a visit,” Jeremy smirked, coming up behind them.

“You failed to mention he sailed with a bloody fleet,” Damon said accusingly.

“Anderson ships and a few extra Father brought as well. He has no intention of letting Lacross escape justice this time. But what difference does it make that we didn’t mention it when you intend to parley with him?”

“He’s right, Damon,” Jack said. “Father’s coming with more help than you expected should please you.”

“He’s rowing over with an army, which means only one thing. He intends to take my ship. There won’t be any incentive for him to parley after that.”

He was right—unless Damon held them at gunpoint again. But he wouldn’t do that. She was sure he was going to put his trust in her and Jeremy to keep their father from killing him. Jack bit her lip. That wasn’t the best plan of action considering Jeremy still had an ax to grind.

Chapter Forty-One

JAMES STOOD ON THE main deck of Damon’s ship, not far from the ladder he’d climbed up. His men were searching the rest of the ship and had already told him prisoners who appeared to be pirates were in the hold. Jacqueline was clinging to his side, where she’d launched herself the moment he’d stepped aboard, she was so happy to see him!

She hugged him again before saying, “We stowed away.”

“We did nothing of the sort,” Jeremy corrected.

James leaned down and kissed the top of Jacqueline’s head and clasped Jeremy’s shoulder. “I’ll have an accounting from you two later. Which of those two do I need to have a talk with?”

James was staring at Damon and Mortimer, the two taller, better-dressed men among the sailors forming a line for inspection across the length of the deck. Although her father cut a forbidding figure, wearing the ship garb he preferred—billowing white shirt open at the neck, tall Hessian boots over black pants—he didn’t seem angry. Maybe he was a little annoyed because he’d come over for a fight but didn’t get one since Damon had directed Mort to hoist a white flag and James and his men had climbed aboard without hindrance.

“That would be me.” Damon stepped forward.

James slowly approached him, and no part of his expression warned that his fist was going to connect so brutally with Damon’s gut, but it did. Once Damon was bent over from that, it was easy for James to follow with an uppercut to the chin.

It happened too fast. Jacqueline screamed, “Father, stop!”

Mortimer snarled, “Bloody hell,” at the first blow and started to interfere, but five of James’s crew were suddenly yanking him back in line, and James didn’t even spare him a glance.

But Jacqueline pushed past her father and dropped to her knees by Damon’s head and tossed back accusingly, “If you’ve broken his jaw, he won’t be able to talk to you!”

“We just had a good talk,” James replied. “When he wakes up, we’ll have it again.”

She growled in frustration at that answer, but her hand was gentle as she patted Damon’s cheek to awaken him. James frowned as he watched her and demanded, “Is that, or is it not, the pirate you named Bastard?”

“It is,” Jeremy answered for her. “But we formed an alliance with him.”

“I gathered something of the sort, since I saw you and your sister on deck without restraints. Which is the only reason he’s still breathing.”

“I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that, but I thought you’d hear him out first.”