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you are a maiden?  Why would you ever think you could best a man?  We may get away with this farce here under my protection, but you are still just a girl.  Even the strongest girl in the world could never be able to match the strength of a man.  Ever.  You could have been killed.”
    Charlie held her tongue.  He didn’t need to know she fought three men or that Morty had stepped in to save her or even that the last fight he knew about was not her most recent brawl before this one. 
    She also knew this was not the time to tell him that Morty knew she was female.
    “I am sorely tempted to have you flogged as soon you’re healed.”  Spittle formed in the corners of his mouth.  “If there is a next time, I will flog you myself.  Are we understood?”
    Charlie saw the anger in his eyes and knew that he spoke sincerely. Even if he had to clear the deck completely to hide her secret, he would do it and he would wield the cat and lay into her.
    “Aye.”
    “You are confined to quarters until further notice.”
    “But my watch . . . ?”
    “Until further notice!” he shouted.  “Without pay.”
    Charlie would have liked to mock that last part.  She rarely spent her pay.  She had saved a tidy sum; all but $50 was in a bank in Charleston.  What did she have to spend it on except alcohol, cigars, wenches and an occasional book?  Her father paid the bill for her uniforms.  Her food and lodgings were provided for her on the ship.  When they would go into the shops at their ports-of-call Charlie could not buy the things that interested her because her father would call them missish or girly.  She vividly remembered once when she was little, they were in a store and she looked longingly at a doll on the shelf when he placed his large hand on her head and turned her head away from the doll to a nearby wooden boat.  How she would have loved a kimono or a sari or jewelry.  While the men were busy looking at knives and pipes, she would surreptitiously look at trinkets made of ivory and jade.  Her favorite thing to do was go with the men who had wives and daughters and help them pick out the perfect gift to bring home.  But Charlie never purchased those things for herself.  And the things the men purchased were of no interest to her.  So her money went unspent.  She had been on the payroll since she became cabin boy at eight and a half.
    “They are going to think I’m weak if you take me off duty.  I was well enough to work ‘til now and suddenly I need bed rest?  You are mollycoddling me because I am a maiden.  If I were your son, you would make sure I worked injured so I would learn a lesson , but because I’m not, you’re babying me.”
    His brows knitted as he thought on her argument.  “Fine. But you are confined to quarters when you are not on duty.  You will be in your bed with the poultice on your back until Brody is satisfied you are better.”
    “Aye-aye.”
    “I am disappointed in you, Charlie.”
    Her face dropped.  This may have been the first time the words had come out of his mouth, but Charlie had felt them many times before.  She was a disappointment.  She would never be the son he wanted.
    “Is that all?”
    “You’re dismissed.”
    “Aye-aye.”

 
     
    3
     
    Jaxon Bloodworthy stood proudly on the quarterdeck of The Dragon’s Lair, amazed for the hundredth time at the speed of his new Baltimore clipper.  Her compact size and sleek hull were built for speed.  Her sails bowed out with wind upon her three masts.  Jax walked forward to the prow of his ship between the rows of jet-black cannons lining the railings of his ship, his limp making his stride uneven.
    In his quarters, locked up in the small safe , sat his second favorite new possession—his Letter of Marque and Reprisal issued by the United States Government.  It gave him the right, by law, to stop any British or French ship and seize the vessel.
    Absently, he rubbed his stubbled jaw only to become aware of