Read Ill Wind and Dead Reckoning: Caribbean Pirate Adventure (Valkyrie) for Free Online

wasn’t, but the jam was delicious.
    ‘Oh, what’s this?’ I exclaimed.
    Klara smiled. ‘Mammee apple. It grows wild on the island, and Belinda makes the preserve.’
    ‘It’s delicious!’
    I cheered up a little. I may be marrying into a family of brutes who consorted with pirates, but I was away from Father and the food was exquisite. At home, it had been bland and boring – usually porridge or stewed rabbit.
    In the Caribbees I’d already found goat and mammee apple, what else was waiting for me to discover? I looked at the fruit as I ate, enjoying the tang of the preserve, but wanting to finish it so I could try the next new flavour.
    Klara busied herself about the room, pouring water into the basin, then taking and laying out another set of clothing for me to wear.
    ‘Where does Erik sleep?’ I asked her, suddenly thinking about my married life. Will I have to leave this room or will he join me here?
    ‘In the room below,’ she answered. ‘And Mijnheer Jan has a room on the same floor but at the other end of the house. There are two guest rooms between them, and another in the far tower.’
    It was the most talkative she’d been so far, and I realized she was relieved at my friendly tone after last night’s disclosures.
    ‘And where do you sleep?’
    In one of the huts beyond the trees, unless I’m . . . I’m . . . required at the house.’ She dropped her eyes and I pressed my lips together in disapproval. Then I realized I wasn’t being fair; Klara had no choice, she wasn’t to blame for the arrangements.
    ‘Well, I’m sure you’ll be spared those duties once Erik is married,’ I said. She glanced at me quickly and turned so I couldn’t read her expression.
    ‘Would you like the blue or the green gown this morning?’
    ‘The blue, I think,’ I said, watching her pile stays, petticoats and mantua on to the bed, and wondering what she wasn’t saying. I sighed and rose to dress.
    ‘Don’t pull the stays so tight, Klara! I’m still sore from wearing them like that last night!’
    ‘But Mijnheer Erik, he likes stays to be tight, Miss Gabriella. He always says he should be able to put both hands around a woman’s waist and his fingers meet.’
    ‘I don’t care what Mijnheer Erik —’ I sneered the name, ‘—says about ladies’ waists. He is not my husband yet, and he does not decide how I dress. Loosen it, Klara, it’s too tight!’
    She said nothing, but obediently loosened the ties.
    *
    Downstairs, there was no one about. I wandered into the drawing room, but there was nothing to do in there. I decided to explore my new home and crossed the hall to the other carved door – a nautical scene to complement the others.
    I gasped at the large room full of books I’d stumbled upon. I loved to read, but at home we’d only had bibles and prayer books; this library was a dream come true. I wandered about the shelves, looking at spines, and was dismayed to find only Dutch titles. Of course, why would the van Eckens have an English library?
    Disappointed, I crossed to the other door in the room and opened it.
    ‘What the Devil do you think you’re doing? Get out of this room! At once!’
    ‘Oh!’ I gasped at my welcome from my future husband. Jan was also there, but didn’t speak. ‘I’m sorry,’ I stuttered, backed out, and shut the door. I ran out of the library and out of that house, across the lawns and down the road. I’d never felt so humiliated and unwanted, not even at my father’s house.
    *
    I tried to keep my eyes averted from the hanging cage, but found it impossible. Despite my intention to give it as wide a berth as I could as I passed, my feet took me closer. I glanced inside and gasped. Two human skulls lay in a litter of picked-clean bones. I shuddered, had a living man been locked inside with the bones of a dead?
    I ran past a field of sugarcane, turning left up a smaller road that I hadn’t spotted when I arrived, wondering what could be up there, yet dreading