Read The Swashbuckling Yarn of Milady Vixen for Free Online Page A

chocolate you cannot resist.”
    Vengeance is a fine thing, but often those gripped by it will take it too far. The red mist of righteous indignation can cloud the vision like the blinders on a horse. Too often men and women ride willy-nilly down this cruel road only to find there is nothing but death awaiting them at the end.

Foreplay on the Forecastle!
    The two ships rocked and rolled against one another like two lovers embracing at the height of passion. The creaking of the wood, the thudding of their sides against one another and the snapping of their sails sounding across the water were like the cries of a lovemaking couple. Above this all, overpowering this lovely sound, the rude din of battle was roaring.
    Upon the forecastle two pirates stood back-to-back, locked in mortal combat, keeping at bay the dozen determined red-coated soldier-mariners armed with cutlasses, sabers and bayonets. Their opponents were not so obliging. Muskets roared, spitting out smoke and lead. The screams of the dying and the hoarse shouts of the victors rang out everywhere. The dark-skinned woman’s rapier flashed like lightning, while her companion’s cutlass crashed like thunder. Bright blood flew through the air to splatter hotly onto the deck.
    “One more prize,” Ginger Tom yelled without looking. “What harm can it do?”
    “Shut up and fight,” Milady Vixen snarled at his sarcasm.
    Flicking the tip of her blade through the eye of a lunging Marine, she grinned in a feral manner. Her foeman hit the deck hard with a thump, and blood splashed onto her black boots. She was in her element.
    “I told you this was a trap!” the first mate stated.
    “Can we pick a better moment for this conversation?” she answered tightly.
    The pirate craft had spotted a fat prize from the ports of Gaston wallowing through the waves and pounced upon it like a cat does a mouse. However, once bitten into, the taste wasn’t to the eater’s liking. Like Queen Anne’s cherries, what had squirted forth from the cargo hold wasn’t what the pirates had expected. Rather than a terrified and craven crew, the Sea Fox ’s hardies had discovered the ship, like the aforementioned candies, held a hidden surprise. This cargo ship was overflowing with seamen.
    Are you blushing? Dear me, child, it’s an expression—what a dirty little mind you have! I pray you to quell your reaction. All better? Very good; let us continue.
    Two secreted squads of Gastonian Marines quickly laid low a goodly portion of milady’s cutthroats, and now the struggle was both epic and desperate. The rapid boarding and even quicker fight that had been at the forefront of the pirates’ minds had turned into a grisly reality. In short, Milady Vixen’s reputation had bitten her on the hindquarters. Whether or not they would survive the injury had yet to be seen.
    The red-coated soldiers had them hemmed in good and proper when monkey cannon upon the poop deck shocked all into silence and statue-like poses. Beside that small weapon a dandy stood, stroking a long, curling mustache like he was surveying some grand ball at court.
    “Hold, all of ye!” he sang out in a manly tone. “Put up your arms!”
    Lowering her needle-like sword, Milady Vixen stared at this strange being as if he were some sort of mythical mermaid. Her rogues moved like sleepwalkers toward the forecastle while the red-jacketed Marines picked up, loaded and trained their black powder weapons upon the stumbling lot. Wiping her rapier on a dead man’s coat, Vixen rammed the weapon home in its sheath.
    “I do say we have caught a princely prize,” the man shouted. “Setting our trap, I would never have thought our bait would attract the most bloodthirsty of buccaneers.”
    He strode off the poop, down the stairs and toward Vixen’s position. Graceful, he walked as if he had not a care in the world, safely waltzing in his stronghold.
    A floppy hat sat at a comical manner upon the deep black curls of his head. A pair