Read Sparhawk's Angel for Free Online

spoken to his so-called captain!"
    Cole laughed. "Oh, aye, how he'd like to hear that! Nickerson Sparhawk a so-called captain!"
    "Well then," snapped Rose, "I'll oblige us both and tell the man so to his face!"
    "Ah , Miss Everard, don't!" pleaded Richards, his spirit suddenly gone. "Don't sully yourself quarreling with the likes of him!"
    Rose sighed impatiently. "I am not quarreling. I'm merely attempting to retrieve what by rights belongs to my family, and I can do that only by speaking with this Mr. Sparhawk."
    "Let it go, miss!" Richards begged, his flag forgotten beneath his arm. "The man's Black Nick Sparhawk, and he's captured a score of ships if he's taken a one! There's not a more wicked, desperate Yankee sailing these waters, miss, and we'll all be lucky if we get clear with our lives!"
    Rose looked at Richards's flushed, frightened face and frowned. She supposed she should be as terrified by this
pirate
as Captain Richards seemed to be, but somehow she found it difficult to be frightened of a grown man who let himself be called such a ridiculously schoolboy
nom de guerre
. For all love, she thought with disgust, if
he
fashioned himself Black Nick, then why didn't
she
start calling herself White Rose?
    Slowly she shook her head, sorry to distress Captain Richards but determined to do what she must. "Forgive me, Captain, but I feel I have little choice but to speak to the man."
    Cole laughed again. "You'll have the devil of a time doing that, miss, with you here and Captain Sparhawk—" he waved "—there."
    "Then he must come across here to me, to the
Commerce
," she answered promptly. "Unless, of course, he's too much of a coward."
    "Oh, you'd find him brave enough," Cole said softly, the expression in his eyes changing subtly as he watched for her response. "But what of yourself, miss? If you wish so much to speak to Captain Sparhawk, would you be willing to go across to him?"
    "Damn your impudence!" cried Richards. "I won't allow it!" Roughly he shoved Rose to one side and lunged at Cole, his fist tensed and ready to strike. But he never reached the lieutenant; he didn't even come close. In the first instant he'd begun to move two of the American sailors had jumped to stop him, each seizing one of Richards's arms to drag him unceremoniously backward. As he struggled against their hold, his boots scrambling against the deck, one of the Americans flipped the pistol in his hand and raised the butt to hit the older man's head.
    "
No!"
shrieked Rose. "Don't hurt him, please! He was only trying to protect me, that was all!"
    The sailor stopped, looking to Cole, whose infinitesimal nod was command enough to spare the English captain.
    But not Rose. "So tell me, Miss Everard," he said again, his eyes cold and all traces of his earlier good humor gone. "Do you wish to speak to Captain Sparhawk so much that you'll go to him, or shall you stay here and keep silent?"
    Her heart pounding at the sudden violence, Rose stared down at the deck, struggling to sort her thoughts. Because of her impulsiveness, Captain Richards had suffered, and would suffer more if she unwittingly erred again. Yet beyond Cole's shoulder she could see Lily's familiar face on the figurehead to remind her of why she'd spoken in the first place.
    Lord help her, she only wanted to do what was right!
    Slowly she bent to gather the English flag from the deck where Richards had dropped it in the scuffle, folded the faded fabric into a neat packet and held it out to Richards, his eyes still pleading with her in silence. As she'd hoped, the sailors released his arms so he could take it, and with a last, troubled smile for the
English captain, she turned again to the American lieutenant. Her father, she knew, would expect no less.
    "What I have to say to Captain Sparhawk will not wait, sir," she said, her voice sounding far too loud and brittle to her own ears, "and I'll be much obliged if you will take me to him directly."
    She'd only wanted to do what was