Pirates of the Storm (Stranded In Time Book 1) (11 page)

The third ship was much further away
than the second had been from the first. The distance seemed even
greater to Jeff and Jenny with the thought of some unseen predator
possibly stalking them from below. The moon was quite high in the
sky by the time they reached the ship and Jeff could see the glow
of fire as a sentry lit his pipe standing against the rail on the
near side of the ship. He turned to Jenny and motioned that they
needed to swim around to the far side of the ship where they would
be hidden better by shadows. When they finally made it to the
rudder, Jenny was pale and shivering.

“Are you all right?” Jeff asked with
concern.

“I’m just cold,” she
replied.

“OK, let me finish here and then you
can head back. I can handle the last ship myself”

“No. We should stay together. I didn’t
want to worry you, but whatever is out there brushed my legs two
more times on the swim over!” she said with fear in her
voice.

“All right, I’ll do this as quickly as
possible.” Jeff proceeded to place the wedges as before and the two
made their way to the final ship.

The last ship was a relatively short
swim and by the time they reached the rudder, Jenny was looking a
little calmer. “No more bumps on the legs?” Jeff asked.

“No, nothing since the
swim to the last ship,” she replied. Jeff set to work placing the
wedges. As the two gathered themselves for the long swim back to
the
Wandering Wench
, they heard activity above them at the stern rail. Jeff
pulled Jenny in close to the rudder as he carefully peeked out from
the shadow of the ship to see what was happening. He could see a
man standing at the back rail but it was too dark to see much of
anything else.

“What’s happening?” Jenny
whispered.

Jeff raised a finger to his mouth to
shush her and as the “Shhh!” came through his lips one direction,
liquid rained down on him and went the other direction into his
mouth. The foul taste of urine met his tongue and it was all he
could do to keep from gagging on it. Realizing what was happening,
it was all Jenny could do to keep from laughing out loud as she
clamped a hand over her mouth. Jeff pulled himself to the rudder to
escape the stream and sucked in a little saltwater to rinse out his
mouth. Jeff was now stifling a laugh and Jenny was still convulsing
silently as the stream finally stopped and they heard footsteps
leading away from the rail above. Jeff rinsed his mouth with
seawater a few more times as Jenny composed herself.

“Ready to head back?” he
whispered.

“I am ready,” she nodded.

“Let’s head straight toward the reef
to minimize the chance of being seen and then we can head up to the
ship once we’re inside,” Jeff suggested.

“Aye!” Jenny agreed.

After slowly putting some distance
between themselves and the Spanish ship, they picked up their pace
toward the reef. Jeff would periodically duck his head below to
scan the water for whatever had bumped Jenny earlier. He looked up
and could see the waves breaking over the shallow part of the reef
less than a hundred yards away when Jenny suddenly grabbed his arm.
“It’s back!” she said with alarm. Jeff quickly lowered his head and
scanned the darkness. Behind Jenny he could see the unmistakable
gray tail fin of a large shark moving off.

He pulled his head from the water and
said, “We need to stay calm and keep moving slowly toward the reef.
Try not to splash around.”

“What is it?” she asked, her eyes wide
with fear.

“A shark, but…” Before he could finish
his thought, Jenny took off swimming as fast as she could for the
reef.

“Jenny! Stop!” he said as he took off
after her. Just as he caught up to her, he got slammed sideways in
the water. Despite the intensity of the hit, Jeff didn’t feel any
sharp pains. He looked down at his body and was relieved to see
that he had not been bitten. “Bull shark!” he thought to himself,
knowing that they get their name for the tendency to ram their prey
before biting. He looked around in the water and saw nothing. Then,
from out of the gloom, he saw the shark coming straight for him,
jaws wide open!

Jeff reacted the only way he could and
he closed his eyes as he thrust his arms out in front of him to try
to ward off the deadly attack. He felt his hands slam against the
shark’s head as he was pushed through the water. He forced himself
to open his eyes and although he had a horrific view looking
through the shark’s gnashing jaws and down its throat, he found to
his surprise that his hands were effectively holding the shark at
arm’s length. His left hand was gripping the shark’s snout and his
right was clutching the outside of its lower jaw. The shark swam in
a wide circle, thrashing its head back and forth trying to dislodge
Jeff’s grip. He held on as hard as he could and kicked furiously to
keep his position at the surface so he could breathe. He knew that
this was a stalemate that he could not maintain for long.
Eventually the shark would shake him off and tear him apart. As he
stared into the shark’s mouth, the water suddenly filled with a
dark cloud. “Blood!” Jeff realized. But as far as he could tell, he
had not been bitten. Then to his left, he saw a silvery flash in
the moonlight beside the shark’s head. It was the blade of Jenny’s
knife and she was slamming it into the shark’s gills!

The shark continued to thrash
violently in the cloud of blood. As it did, it knocked the knife
from Jenny’s hand and Jeff saw it sink into the depths below. The
shark was wounded, but still dangerous and Jeff dared not let go of
it. Jenny quickly swam around behind him and wrapped an arm around
his waist as she reached down and pulled his knife from its sheath.
She pushed back and swam to his right and attacked the other set of
gills. Jeff could feel the shark beginning to weaken. Finally it
stopped thrashing and although he was reluctant to release his
grasp on it, the shark was starting to drag him down and he had no
other choice. As he let go, he half-expected the shark to spring
back to life and resume its attack, but to his relief, it slowly
sank into the dark water below.

Jeff and Jenny were too exhausted to
speak. Jeff motioned with his head and they manage to swim the
remaining distance to the reef. Jeff found a cut through the rocks
and they made their way to an area of chest-deep water where they
could stand and catch their breath. The two held each other tight,
both shivering with a combination of cold and adrenaline. When he
could finally speak, Jeff smiled at Jenny and said, “I thought you
were beautiful before, but I’ve never seen anything so sexy as you
stabbing that shark! Thank you for saving my life!”

“Oh, I didn’t do it for you, not
really,” Jenny replied, still breathing heavily, “I was planning to
use it for shark fin soup, but you let it get away! But besides
that, after finally finding a man to give me a good rodgering, I
wasn’t about to let you die just yet!”

“I see, you’re just
keeping me around for the sex,” Jeff replied. “That’s fine, just
use me as you wish - 17
^th
century,
21
^st
century, you women are all alike!” The two managed a weak
laugh together before Jeff said, “We should get back to the ship
while we still have the adrenaline keeping us going.” Jenny nodded
and the two headed towards the silhouette of the
Wandering Wench
that was
barely visible in the moonlight.

As they approached the ship, Jeff
reached over to get Jenny’s attention and whispered, “We’ll go
quietly to the stern so we can get you disguised again.” Jenny
nodded in agreement and they slowly closed the distance to the
ship. Jenny’s shirt and chest wrap were where they had left them
and Jeff unrolled the chest wrap. Getting the wrap and shirt on in
the water was no easy task, especially in their state of
exhaustion, but they finally managed to get Jenny dressed. She then
pulled out the pouch of ash and grease and Jeff rubbed some on her
face. He had her turn her head back and forth to look at the makeup
job in the moonlight. Convinced that she was ready to be seen by
the crew, the two splashed their way to the cargo net. Crabtree
peered over the rail with a flintlock in hand and saw the two
struggling up the net. “They be here!” he called over his shoulder.
“Men! Grab the net and heave-to!” Several of the crew ran to the
rail and started pulling the net up the side of the ship. As the
pair’s hands made it over the rail, they were assisted onto the
deck by several men.

The Captain approached, smoking his
pipe. “Well?” he asked hopefully.

“I think we were successful. The
wedges were holding fast when we finished at each ship and I would
guess that they’ll swell in the water and get even tighter before
morning,” Jeff replied.

“Splendid! You seem more than tired.
Did you have any trouble?” Coxen inquired.

“We were attacked by a shark, but
Robinson killed it,” Jeff said with admiration.

“Remarkable! Well done, Robinson!” the
Captain bellowed.

“Thank you, Captain,” she replied. She
turned to Jeff and said, “Were you going to tell him about your
drink of Spanish piss?”

As the Captain and crew snickered,
Jeff shook his head. “You had to bring that up, didn’t
you?”

“Aye!” she replied, trying to look
innocent.

“First water and now Spanish piss. You
do have some odd thirsts, Mr. Greene!” the Captain said to the
laughter of the crew.

“Let’s just say my mouth was in the
wrong place at the wrong time,” Jeff said with a laugh of his
own.

“Well, Mr. Greene, Mr. Robinson, I
shall look forward to seeing the fruits of your labors at first
light. But you must be tired. Please take your leave, change out of
those wet clothes, and try to get some sleep. We sail at
dawn.”

“Thank you, Captain,” they replied in
unison as they struggled to their feet and made their way to their
bunks. A few men followed them down to the crew’s quarters and
flopped into their bunks as Jeff slid off his swim trunks and
pulled on his pants. Jenny watched the others settle in before
turning her back and quickly removing her wet shirt and wrap as one
and sliding a dry set on. She was just as fast in changing her
pants and in a matter of seconds, she had managed to completely
change clothes without revealing any hint that she was a woman to
the others in the room. The two crawled onto their bunks and said a
quick goodnight to each other before both quickly fell
asleep.

Jeff awakened to the sounds of the
crew arising and making their way onto deck. Jenny was already gone
and Jeff stiffly pulled himself upright. He was very sore from the
evening’s adventures and he stretched a little before pulling on a
shirt and heading out on deck. It was still quite dark, but there
was a faint line of orange and red sitting low in the sky signaling
the approach of sunrise. Captain Coxen was standing on the deck of
the bridge, supervising the preparations. He spotted Jeff and
called to him. Jeff walked over and climbed the steps to the
bridge. “Good morning, Mr. Greene,” the Captain greeted him. “We
shall soon see how well your plan is going to work, but I trust it
will be a success.”

Jeff nodded, “I know it will work,
Captain. They can’t chase us if they can’t steer and they’ll need
men who can swim to have any chance of fixing the
problem.”

“Aye,” the Captain nodded, “and men
who can swim are a rarity in this age. Robinson is preparing some
food to sustain the men for the sail. You should go get some. We’ll
be setting sail within the hour.”

“Yes, Captain. I’ll do that.” Jeff
made his way down to the galley.

Graves and the other Stevens were
coming out as he reached the doorway. Graves spoke up, “Mr. Greene!
Robinson told us ye fought the shark with yer bare hands while ‘e
stabbed it!”

“I guess you could say that,” Jeff
agreed. “I was mostly just holding on to it as hard as I could to
keep it from biting me.”

“All the same. Good on ye mate!”
Graves said enthusiastically.

“Aye!” agreed the other Stevens as the
two continued on their way to the deck.

Jenny had heard the exchange and
greeted Jeff at the door. She looked past him to make sure the
coast was clear before grabbing the back of his neck and kissing
him passionately. As she broke the embrace, Jeff said. “Good
morning to you too!” She smiled and wiped some of her ash and
grease face paint from around his mouth before turning and leading
him into the galley and started fixing him a plate of nuts,
flatbread, and dried fish.

“Eat well,” she said, handing him the
plate. Jeff suddenly realized how hungry he was and he eagerly
gulped down the food.

“Thanks! I needed this,” he said with
a smile.

“Anything for the brave shark
fighter,” she said turning back to her pots as a few more members
of the crew filed into the small galley.

Crabtree poked his head through the
door. “Finish up quickly men. We be pullin’ anchor
soon.”

“Aye!” they acknowledged as Jenny
handed them plates of food.

Jeff finished his plate and turned to
Jenny and said, “Thank you for the meal Mr. Robinson. I’m not sure
what good I’ll be on deck, but I feel like I should probably get up
there.