Amelia and the Captain Read online

  She nodded. “You too.”

  Minutes later a drenched Amelia raced back to the cabin and banged on the cabin door. “Captain wants us to tie ourselves down!”

  Fear dominated eyes. Tears rolled down Bunny’s cheeks. “Can’t we go above and all be together when we go dow—”

  Amelia cut off Bunny’s words. “I know the captains will hate it, but I don’t want to drown in the bottom of this boat. Let’s go.” The young woman broke and headed for the door.

  Ria and Bunny followed close on Amelia’s heels.

  The women poured out and held tightly to one other as they made their way along the slippery walkway. Rain blinded Amelia, who grasped Pilar’s hand tightly and led the way.

  As they reached the galley, a violent gust of wind nearly blew her off her feet. “I have to see about Izzy and Henry. Someone go after Niles and Ryder!”

  Screaming, Pilar clutched tightly to Amelia’s skirt as the two women fought to retain their footing. Thunder crashed overhead, and the boat rolled on the heavy waves. Above, in the pilothouse, Amelia could hear Morgan shouting to her.

  “We’re coming up there!” she shouted back.

  A fierce gust shattered the row of galley windows as the others scrambled up the steps.

  Gasping, Pilar grabbed for Amelia and pointed to the old curtains being whipped to pieces in the wind.

  “We can’t do anything about them,” Amelia called. “They’ll be taken down soon anyway.”

  Breaking away, Pilar ran to the galley steps and began to climb them, seemingly intent on rescuing the tattered fabric. Pilar had once said that she was taught never to waste anything. Nothing.

  “Pilar, no!” Amelia shouted. The wind and rain were ferocious now, battering the old boat violently. Old curtains were not worth a life.

  The young woman climbed the ladder and burst inside. Following her up the steps, Amelia slipped, slashing her knee open as she tried to reach her.

  Pilar jerked down a curtain, but the old boat was rocking back and forth so violently, it was impossible to keep her footing. She fell, tumbling to the wall.

  “Leave them,” Amelia shouted, trying to pull the young woman to her feet. “The new ones are nearly through!”

  “No! To be wasteful is sin!” The two women battled the wind to save the curtains. Hail began to fall, tiny spheres at first, and then vicious ice pellets rained from above. The sky turned a peculiar greenish color. Amelia lost her balance again and skidded across the floor of the galley.

  Crawling back to Pilar, she latched onto the hem of her skirt, trying to pull her away from the broken glass.

  “We have to go, Pilar! Leave the curtains!”

  Another heavy wave hit the boat, tipping it sideways. Both women screamed.

  They clung together, and Amelia’s heart sank as wave after powerful wave swamped the boat. They were going to drown if they didn’t get to higher ground.

  Locking hands, Amelia started to crawl, prepared to drag her friend to safety. Pulling the young woman out of the galley, Amelia dragged her down the steps as the storm raged.

  Muddy waters lashed the decks with vengeance when Amelia began inching her way to the pilothouse steps, dragging Pilar behind her. By all that was holy, she wasn’t going to give Morgan another thing to worry about. He and Captain Jean Louis had enough trouble trying to keep the boat afloat, and she was quite certain the two men didn’t give a fig about hangings.

  When she realized what she was thinking, she squealed, lifting her face to the storm to let out a gleeful shout. By golly, she did have it! She didn’t know where or when she’d gotten it, but she had it now! Responsibility. Integrity. How sweet it was!

  Her joy was short lived as she felt wave after wave crash against the sides of the boat. Water and hail were coming from every direction as the two women struggled down the steps, trying to hold on to each other.

  “Don’t let go of me!” Pilar screamed, hysterical now.

  “I won’t…” Amelia bit her lip, tightening her hold. “I’ll hold you! We need to get to the pilothouse quickly.” The people aboard now held a snug place in her heart, and if the boat went down, she wanted to go with her new family.

  Wind and lightning pounded the boat while another wave surged. Suddenly Amelia and Pilar were catapulted through the air and swept over the railing.

  When Amelia hit the water, her breath was momentarily knocked out of her.

  Waves crashed over her head. The muddy Mississippi had become a dark, churning demon as thunder and lightning rolled across the sky.

  Morgan fought the wheel and helplessly watched the events taking place below him. Even as he shouted to Amelia, he realized she couldn’t hear him. Why were she and the others fighting their way to the pilothouse? Hadn’t he distinctly told her to keep the others below? His breath caught when he saw a wave hurl two of the women overboard.

  Jean Louis motioned him toward the women, and the captain took the wheel. Morgan felt a wave of panic as he raced to the lower deck, shouting Amelia’s name.

  Thrashing about in the water, Amelia called for Pilar, straining to catch a gasp of air. “Pilar! Pilar!”

  A wave engulfed her, taking her under again. Surfacing, she spat out a mouthful of dirty water. She couldn’t see anything but black, rolling water with a glimpse of a pale green sky. Hail beat down amid bursts of thunderous explosions.

  Lightning split the sky. Amelia spotted a boat in the distance.

  The Mississippi Lady! “Here!” she shouted, waving. “Over here!”

  She cried out for Pilar again, struggling to swim against the swift current. It was useless. She was a strong swimmer, but the water’s pull was too strong.

  Her head slipped under.

  The boat drew closer, angling alongside the figure thrashing about in the water.

  “Can you swim to the boat?” Amelia heard a male voice call.

  Wiping the water out of her eyes, she tried to focus. Where was the voice coming from? Pilar? Dear God, where was Pilar? Pilar couldn’t swim!

  “Over here!” the voice shouted.

  “Morgan?” Was it Morgan’s voice calling to her? Had he seen her go overboard? Hope sprang to life within her, and she began to thrash through the water, trying to reach him.

  “Morgan?” she shouted.

  “Over here! Swim to the boat!”

  Blindly, she struck out in the direction of his voice, fighting the wind and the rain.

  “That’s good,” the voice encouraged. “Just a few feet more!”

  Gasping for breath, Amelia swam harder. She’d swum often with her sisters, Abigail and Anne-Marie, but they had never attempted to swim in conditions like this.

  “Where are you?” she gasped.

  “You’re close, very close!”

  Amelia reached out, grasping at thin air. “Where? Where? I can’t see you!”

  “Just a few feet more!” the commanding voice urged. “Come on, you can do it!”

  With every ounce of strength left in her, Amelia battled the elements. Twice, heavy waves swamped her, but she surfaced with a new vengeance. “Pilar! Where is Pilar?” she called, her voice weaker now.

  “She’s aboard!” the voice shouted back.

  Relief flooded Amelia. Thank You, God, oh, thank You, God! Pilar is safe. They would both be saved.

  Blindly extending her hand, she prayed there would be a force to meet her.

  Strong fingers gripped her arm, lending her the strength she needed to push through the last few feet to the boat.

  She wanted to cry out when she felt his hand close over hers. For all their differences, he cared. Morgan cared whether she lived or died. She understood that he had thought enough of her to risk his life to save hers. Oh, Morgan, you do care, she thought when she was pulled from the water.

  Someone threw a blanket around her shoulders as she wiped the muddy water from her eyes, gasping for breath.

  “Oh, Morgan—” Her voice died an instant death when her eyes began
to focus.

  It wasn’t Morgan standing before her. It was Austin Brown.

  With a wicked smile, Théodore Austin Brown raked a lecherous look down her trembling body. “Hello, lovey. Terrible storm, eh?”

  Eleven

  Amelia stared into her enemy’s sinister black eyes. No, not now! Not when they were so close to victory.

  Trailing a long, slender finger down her muddied cheek, Brown glared at her, his lips curled with contempt. “Surely you didn’t think you and that reckless, misguided young Union officer could outwit me, did you?”

  Her eyes searched her surroundings. “Pilar. Where’s Pilar?”

  His brows lifted questioningly. “Pilar? Why, I don’t believe I’ve seen your friend recently.” He threw his head back and laughed. Then, just as quickly, his eyes turned dangerously cold. “I fear the little fishes will be feasting on her about now, dear one.”

  Flying at him, Amelia struck out, pummeling him angrily. He had lied to her! He had made her believe Pilar was safely aboard.

  Enraged, she struck at him over and over, but his amusement only increased. “You little fool! You and Kane thought you were so clever,” he sneered. “You thought you could escape me.”

  Grasping her roughly by the shoulders, he shook her until her teeth rattled.

  “Fool!” he shouted above the rain and the thunder. “Silly, mindless fool! No one escapes Austin Brown!”

  A shot rang out, and blood spurted from Brown’s shoulder. Stunned, he momentarily released his hold on Amelia.

  Whirling, Amelia broke from him and raced toward the railing as a hail of gunfire sprayed the boat.

  “Seize her!” Brown shouted.

  Men sprang forward to grab her, but Amelia scrambled over the boat’s railing and dove back into the churning water.

  Gunshots peppered the air over Amelia’s head as she thrashed about, her eyes searching for the Mississippi Lady.

  “Here!” Faith’s voice came to her through the din of rain and gunfire. “Over here!”

  Swimming toward the voice, Amelia felt herself becoming disoriented. Thunder and lightning raged overhead.

  “Here! No! You’re going the wrong way!” Faith shouted.

  “Come on, girl, look where you’re going!” Ryder shouted. “Over here!”

  Ria’s voice joined in. “Follow the sounds of our voices!”

  Shots volleyed over Amelia’s head as the occupants of the two boats fired on one another.

  Diving beneath the water, Amelia swam as hard as she could. Her head pounded and she thought her lungs would burst, but she swam on.

  Surfacing periodically, she took deep gulps of air as her eyes frantically searched the turbulent waters.

  A flare suddenly illuminated the sky, and she cried out with relief when she saw the Mississippi Lady only a few feet in front of her. With a desperate effort, she reached out and felt a hand latch onto hers, an incredibly strong hand that pulled her safely aboard.

  This time it was Morgan’s arms that enfolded her, holding her tightly as she clung to him.

  “You are putting gray hairs on my head,” he whispered gruffly.

  Lifting her mouth to his, she succumbed to his kiss as shots whizzed over their heads.

  “Oh, Amelia.” Bunny rushed up to hug her as Morgan turned away and began firing on Austin’s boat again.

  The women ducked behind the galley, taking shelter as Morgan, Henry, Niles, and Ryder kept up a steady rain of bullets directed at Austin Brown’s boat.

  “Girl, you had us worried sick,” Mahalia told her as the women huddled together tightly.

  “I’m fine, but Pilar—” Amelia broke off in a sob, and her heart shattered at the thought of losing the young woman. She had trusted Amelia to save her, and Amelia had failed.

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  Amelia glanced over to see Pilar grinning back at her as she tried to get warm beneath the blanket Elizabeth was holding.

  Climbing over Ria, Amelia threw her arms around Pilar’s neck, and the two women embraced.

  “I thought—”

  “I know. I thought you were too!”

  Captain Jean Louis opened a window in the pilothouse. “Hang on, ladies—we’re going to make a run for it!”

  Thunder rent the sky as the captain took his place at the wheel. The others continued to fire when the old boat surged into motion.

  Crouching low, Amelia made her way up to the wheelhouse.

  “What can we do to help?” she asked as she entered, quickly closing the door behind her.

  Captain Jean Louis swung the boat around slowly. “Lighten it up!” He shouted the order once more, and the men below began pitching cotton bales over the side.

  The women raced to help. Amelia knew that the captain was sacrificing precious cargo for their safety. She whirled around and went to help. Two by two, the women hauled heavy bales to the railing and then pitched them overboard.

  Amelia broke away and raced to help Morgan, who was now shoving wood into the old boiler. Niles and Henry worked feverishly at his side. The old boat began to pick up speed as the fire burned hotter.

  “Amelia, go to the kitchen and get all the bacon sides you can find!”

  Wheeling, Amelia ran to do as Morgan asked, wondering why he wanted bacon at a time like this. Even she didn’t want bacon at the moment.

  “Sure would like to have a peck of pitch and pine knots right about now,” Niles hollered.

  In a race like this, all was fair, even though using highly combustible fuel such as bacon sides, pitch, and pine knots wasn’t the safest thing to do.

  The two boats whipped along in the storm with Austin Brown and his men in hot pursuit of the Mississippi Lady.

  With cotton bales disposed of, the women ran to help feed the boilers. Pilar and Hester relieved Amelia as she returned from the galley with an armload of bacon sides.

  Working as a team, the women broke up chairs and crates and anything they could find to fuel the boiler. Black smoke and sparks belched from the paddle wheeler’s tall stacks as the two boats raced neck and neck.

  Peeling off his shirt, Morgan tossed it aside. Sweat mingled with rain in heavy rivulets down his muscular back, bringing on a sheen that accentuated every ridge and valley of his powerful chest and back. For a moment Amelia stood and stared. Male workers at the mission had never removed their shirts.

  Morgan glanced her way and grinned. “I suppose you’ve ‘never in your life had so much excitement,’” he mimicked, echoing her now familiar phrase.

  “No, and I hope I never will again!” she assured him, feeling a flush of embarrassment that she’d been caught gawking at him.

  Frowning, she stepped aside when Elizabeth approached. Morgan tossed Elizabeth his rifle and bent to shove more bacon into the boiler.

  Amelia stepped away, feeling helpless. There was nothing she could do. Elizabeth seemed as natural with a rifle in her hands as Izzy did holding a mixing bowl.

  Elizabeth suddenly lowered the rifle and motioned for Amelia to come to her. Hurrying to Elizabeth’s side, Amelia accepted the rifle, grasping it tightly, as Elizabeth positioned it on her shoulder. Elizabeth shouted above the din, “This thing will kick like a wild mule.”

  “I don’t mind!” Amelia had never shot a rifle before, but she was eager to do anything she could to help defeat Austin Brown.

  Standing behind her, Elizabeth steadied the rifle, saying firmly, “Easy now. Squeeze the trigger real slow-like.”

  Amelia took aim and squeezed. The gun exploded, rocking her backward on her feet, but the kick it gave her was exhilarating.

  “Again,” Elizabeth encouraged, and Amelia fired off a second round.

  The two ducked as the volley was returned, peppering the deck of the boat. The men aboard the Mississippi Lady were doing everything short of tying down the safety valve, which was too dangerous to consider. No one wanted to be reckless enough to explode the boiler.

  Amelia popped up and fired again.
“You know, Elizabeth. You’re not so bad.” She squeezed off another round.

  “Well…” Elizabeth reached for a box of cartridges. “You take some getting used to, but once a person clears that hurdle, you’re not so bad either.”

  “Faster!” Austin shouted. “You fools! They’re getting away!”

  The crew shoved wood into the boiler, sweat rolling down their backs. Austin clasped his bloody shoulder and paced the deck amid the thunder and lightning, his eyes searching the stormy night. His prey was within reach if these fools would only work harder!

  “Faster!”

  “We’re doing the best we can!” a man shouted back.

  White steam boiled from the stacks as the boat cut through the turbulent water.

  “Not everything! Tie down the safety valve!” Austin shouted.

  “But boss—”

  “Tie down the valve!”

  The pace remained frantic aboard the Mississippi Lady. The women worked alongside the men, piling more fuel into the old boiler. Amelia knew that at any moment the boiler could blow to smithereens. The crew labored at a feverish pace.

  Wiping sweat and rain from her eyes, Amelia handed Morgan another pile of kindling. “The last of the galley benches,” she shouted.

  The two boats snaked around another bend in the river.

  Elizabeth and Morgan worked side by side, she supporting his every move. When Amelia was caught staring, she noticed Elizabeth call Morgan’s attention to the moment.

  Pausing, he and Elizabeth shared a silent exchange.

  “Amelia,” Morgan called, motioning her to approach.

  Walking toward him, her eyes locked with his. Her heart hammered against her ribs painfully. He was going to confirm her worst fears, that as soon as this was over, provided the good Lord allowed them to survive, he and Elizabeth would go to Washington. In the midst of chaos, he intended to add more. Elizabeth would warm his bed and have his children and live on the apple farm Morgan was so certain no woman wanted.

  That wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen to Morgan Kane, but it was the rottenest thing that could happen to her. Elizabeth had known love once, and Amelia shouldn’t begrudge her finding it again. She just wished Elizabeth’s infatuation was with someone other than Morgan Kane.