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Malloy, the butt grazing his head. He cursed her and his hand found her wrist, twisting her arm until she cried out in pain. He seized the pistol and tossed it behind him to the deck.
    "You bitch, you did have a gun," he said.
    He gripped her ankle and pulled her down so she lay full-length on the bunk. His hands went up her body beneath her gown, closing on her hips and pulling her to him. When his chest brushed against her breasts, she knew he was naked. She screamed, fighting him, clawing at him. He laughed and grabbed the open front of her nightgown so that the thin cotton tore. A moment later her entire body was bared to his hands. Those terrible huge hands.
    "I've waited a long time for this," he said.
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Alitha stopped struggling. I must think, she told herself desperately. I can't outfight Malloy--my only hope is to outwit him.
    His fingers slid roughly up her leg to her inner thigh and, though she felt her flesh shiver in revulsion, she forced herself to lie still. He pushed her thighs apart with his hands and knelt on the bunk between her legs, his hands going to her breasts.
    Her breath came rapidly, not with desire but with fear. Every touch of Malloy's enormous hands made her cringe. How could I have imagined wanting this man to hold me in his arms? she wondered. She wanted to hurt him. Yes, to kill him if she could. Still she made no move to defend herself. Though her tense body quivered, she lay before him as though defeated and helpless.
    Malloy's hands left her breasts and she felt the mattress shift under his weight as he leaned toward her. His lips touched her breast. When his tongue circled her nipple, she gagged. Swallowing, she raised her hands and put them on his shoulders, her fingers kneading his flesh in the briefest of caresses—she couldn't force herself to do any more to make him lower his guard. She heard Malloy draw in his breath.
    With all the strength she had left, she shoved against his shoulders with both of her hands, at the same time hurling herself away so she fell backward from the bunk, her shoulder slamming heavily on the deck. Malloy grunted in surprise and she heard him scrambling to his feet. She rolled sideways until her leg struck the sea chest, and then she was on her feet plunging toward the cabin door.
    Malloy was there ahead of her. Catching her by the arm, he held her as she struggled, then forced her back step by step, his strength overpowering her. She felt the edge of the bunk pressing against the backs of her legs.
    A pounding came from the passageway outside the cabin. Malloy hesitated and, with both of them frozen in surprise, they listened. A voice called out.
    "Captain. Captain Malloy." Linton? Yes, surely it was the bosun.
    Malloy's hand closed over Alitha's mouth. She heard more pounding, as though Linton had gone from Malloy's cabin to her father's.
    "Captain, Captain Malloy," Linton called again. "Surf to starboard, Captain."
    Malloy cursed, shoving Alitha from him so she fell back across her bunk. She lay exhausted, feeling pain stab her shoulder while she listened to Malloy searching in the dark for his clothes. Only after several minutes did she hear the cabin door bang open and then close.
    "I'm coming," Malloy shouted to Linton from the passageway.
    Surf! The storm was sweeping the Yankee toward the California coast. Alitha had been so numbed that at first the meaning of the bosun's words had almost escaped her. Above the sound of the wind and waves, she thought she heard a distant rumble like the roll of thunder in the mountains.
    She pushed herself from the bunk, hurriedly slipping a chemise over her head. Taking the first dress her searching fingers found, she put it on, then slid her feet into slippers and ran from the cabin. She climbed the companionway, having to stop and cling to the railing as the Yankee listed precipitously to port. The ship shuddered, righted herself, and Alitha climbed the rest of the way to the