The Ship of Blood and Curses by Mary Raven EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Mary Raven
- Language: English
- Genre: Romantic Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
The frigate sped toward them in a thirty-knot tailwind, the black flag
flapping from the main mast. Pirates! Twenty-year-old Hannah’s
stomach tightened as the rogue ship chased them.
An icy breeze blew her hair across her face and chilled her bones. She
shivered. “There’s something not right about that ship, Sally. I can feel it.”
She looked up. “Our sails can barely catch the wind while theirs are at full
sail.”
Hannah’s maid, and constant companion, bit her lip and stared, her eyes
wide at the pursuing frigate. “Aye, Miss. It’s as if the devil himself is
commanding that pirate ship.”
“Miss,” Sally whispered as if she were afraid the pirates could hear her.
She bit her lip and stared, her eyes wide at the pursuing frigate. “What if
they overtake us?”
“We haven’t lost yet, Sally.” She patted Sally’s hand and hoped her
voice sounded braver than she felt.
Hannah prayed they would be mistaken for cabin boys. She prayed the
bindings restraining their breasts, and their drooping breeches that hid their
curves, were convincing. She prayed they would escape her father’s
warning of the rape and torture of female captives.
A cannonball sailed through the air and smashed into the Dolphin’s
second mast, splintering wood. Hannah winced and shielded her eyes. Sally
clutched Hannah’s arm, digging her fingers into her flesh, and screaming.
Large holes shattered and ripped the topsails of the Dutch flute ship.
Fragments of wood crashed into the black sea, splashing water onto the
portside. The smell of burning wood ignited a stream of heat down
Hannah’s spine. She coughed and her eyes burned.
The pirate ship’s long gun fired. Canister shots flew through the air. A
sailor shrieked. Blackened and bloody, he twirled around on the deck and
fell over the side into the dark ocean.
Tears blinded Hannah’s eyes. She wanted to help him, but she was
trapped in her own fear.
The frigate pursued the slower Dolphin through the black smoke. The
flute sailed at twenty knots—her top speed—but the frigate skipped across
the moonlight water, closing the gap fast. Cannons fired. Bar shot flew
through the air, knocking three men into the water.
Screams of pain, cracks of guns, and splitting wood filled her ears.
“Hannah,” her father yelled. “Get below deck. Now.”
Ignoring her father’s order, she gripped the railing with her sweaty
palms and waited, praying they could outmaneuver the pirates.
“Make ready the guns,” the Dolphin’s boatswain, John Vane ordered.
His brown hair had fallen loose from his queue and spilled over his broad
shoulders.
At over six feet tall, John never had to repeat an order.
He unsheathed his cutlass, his hazel eyes trained upon the enemy.
The Dolphin’s gunners were surprisingly synchronized.
Men rammed cartridges down the cannon, packing the charge tight into
the chamber. Other crewmen rolled the cannonball down the muzzle. Hemp
rope was stuffed in to keep the cannonball from rolling out. After priming
the cannons, the men waited for a rolling wave and John’s order
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