Where are you, Anne Bonny?
Daniel Lance Wright
Excerpt Heat Level: 3
Book Heat Level: 3
Buy at www.roguephoenixpress.com
"Had you fought like a
man you’d not be set to die like a dog on the gallows," Anne Bonny
whispered. The convicted lady pirate couldn’t bring herself to lift her eyes to
connect with Jack Rackham’s through the black iron bars. She feared giving in
to romantic leanings. Eventually she did, pulling her gaze from the rough
cobble stones of this St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica prison floor and glanced
beyond the vertical bars of the cell. Jack’s silence attracted her attention
faster than a scream would have.
As her eyes connected,
"Stand straight, man! Don’t be cowering. Ya hear me Jack? Replace that
jelly in your back with a stiff spine."
Anne attempted advancing on
the cell door to get into Jack’s face with her warning but was yanked to a
standstill by the leather bindings at her back.
The hulking guard holding
her burst into bellowing laughter, releasing a spray of spittle into the side
of her face. "The talk I’ve heard was not a’tall exaggerated. My God! You are
an evil woman. This is the thanks you give Calico Jack? He’s about to have his
neck snapped by the hangman’s noose, and he had the decency to offer the
magistrate his life in exchange for yours. Now, he begs for your presence as
his final request. How cruel can you be?" He slammed Anne’s head into the
bars, her face forced between them.
"Please, don’t hurt
her," Jack said. "She meant me no disrespect."
Unable to resist, hands
bound, she could only stand, awkwardly leaning into the bars, face distorted.
Jack kissed her forehead
then her lips. "I’m sorry, Anne."
"Me too, Jack."
"Nay to that; it’s my
fault... all my fault we’re in this mess."
"Aye. That be true
enough. Still, I don’t wish to see you dead." Smashed against the bars,
she strained to look back at the smelly sweating source of her discomfort,
wanting to spit in his face.
The guard shook her hard.
"Calico Jack must be daft or the devil guides your tongue," he said,
still laughing. "You talk to him as if he’s a bastard street urchin."
Finally, she was allowed to
push away from the bars and stand straight. "He knows the mistake he made
now that he’s sobered and thought on it." She raised her shoulder and
pressed it against her cheek wiping away the guard’s disgusting salivary spray.
Angry lips relaxed.
"Now, if you’d remove these leather restraints, I’d enjoy showing you how
a woman can pleasure a strong man as yourself. My loins tingle each time I get
the full look at you." Come a bit closer so I might clamp my teeth onto
that ghastly lip and rip it from your face. She stepped closer but still at
arm’s length and relaxed her jaw, tongue dancing over parted lips. She looked
longingly into his eyes.
Becoming mesmerized, he
pushed his face toward hers then lucidity snapped into those dulled eyes.
"I think I’d have a better chance of enjoyment…and of survival, stepping
into a cage with an unrestrained she-devil." Holding her arms above the
elbows, he spun her around shoving her toward the jailhouse door.
For an instant she came face
to face with her captor smelling the stench of his foul mouth. Twisting her
face into a queasy grimace, she kept her head turned away. But, even the rancid
smell of all his recent meals couldn’t erase the other disgusting
aroma--unwashed human flesh within the confines of a crude tropical prison. The
oily odors triggered a reflex to pull only enough air to stay conscious.
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