Author: Kristy Tate
Category: Young Adult
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/kristy-tate/page,10,583699-the_pirate_episode.html
Then she heard something. A tune. Someone was singing a Led Zeppelin song about the seaside.
Cami picked up her skirts and ran again, but this time she knew where she was headed.
A few steps later, a hand on her arm stopped her. The vice-like grip pulled her against a flabby belly. She knew it was Bellmont before she saw him from his concoction of smells: tobacco, leather, ale and an unwashed red coat.
The moonlight bathed the night in shadowy grays, but she saw Bellmont’s face was an angry mottled red, his nose a bulbous mushroom.
“Got no one to protect you now, hey, girlie?” His words slurred together.
Cami braced her feet and tried to tug her arm away. She knew if she freed herself from Bellmont she could outrun him, although her skirts would make things difficult.
With one hand closed around her arm and another entangling her hair, Bellmont angled his face toward her, his lips puckered for a kiss. Revulsion swept through her. She stamped her foot, aiming for his toes, but missed and stomped on dirt. His face loomed, inches from her own, before he sagged against her and tumbled limply to the ground.
Cherise stood behind him, a bloodied rock in her hand. She looked both beautiful and dangerous.
“Th-thank you,” Cami stammered. She nudged Bellmont with her foot. He didn’t respond. “Do you think he’s dead?”
Cherise swayed on her feet. “What should we do with him?”
Cami didn’t know what the punishment for killing a British officer might be, but she guessed being a black woman wouldn’t lessen the sentence. She dropped to her knees, hating the thought of touching the man, but forced herself to pick up his wrist.
She couldn’t find a pulse. Leaning closer, she placed two fingers on his throat. His eyes flickered open. Cami bit back a scream. His eyes rolled back in his head.
“He’s alive,” Cami whispered. She stood and glanced up and down the deserted street, not knowing what to do with him.
Cherise squatted and began unbuttoning the man’s coat.
“What are you doing?” Cami asked.
“This might prove useful,” Cherise said, tugging on the coat, making Bellmont’s head bang on the ground.
Cami felt sick when Cherise went to work on the man’s belt buckle.
CHAPTER 8
With Bellmont’s clothes rolled up and tucked beneath Cherise’s arm, Cami and Cherise climbed the hill.
The Led Zeppelin song had faded long ago, but Cherise knew the way to the jail. It stood on the crest of a hill near the gallows. Cami realized she’d walked right past it moments ago. The building was indistinguishable from its neighbors, except for the bars on the windows.
“Joel?” Cami tried to whisper-yell through the window that was about six feet off the ground.
“Cami, is that you?” His voice floated through the window.
Relief whooshed through her, and not just because he was one of the smartest people she knew and she thought he could get them home, but also because she had worried he had been killed by the British, eaten by sharks, or drowned.
“Joel!” She tried jumping to see through the window.
Moments later, she heard scratching, like something heavy was being dragged across the floor. Joel stuck his head up to the window, but she could only see his face from the nose up.
“We have to get you out of there,” Cami said.
“Where is the Captain?” Cherise asked.
“He’s with me,” Joel said, “but he’s not well. He was pretty cut up in the fight for the ship and it looks like some of his wounds are infected. He needs antibiotics.”
“We’re what—a hundred years before Madame Curie?” Cami asked.
“He must visit el santero,” Cherise insisted.
“What’s that?” Joel asked.
“I think it’s like their medicine man,” Cami said.
Cami read the suspicion in Joel’s eyes. “Hey,” she told him. “If we can believe in time travel and the Witching Well, we can believe in el santero.”
Joel’s eyes flashed with an idea. “I have the water bottle from the Witching Well!”
“Why didn’t you use it to go home?” Cami asked.
“I didn’t want to go without you,” Joel said.
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Cami said, warming to him.
“Besides, there’s no guarantee the water will take us home,” Joel said. “For all we know, we could drink it and end up being chased by dinosaurs.”
“Don’t you think it’s amazing we ended up coming to the same place and time?”
“Don’t you think the whole thing is amazing?” Joel asked.
“Let’s just drink the water, hold hands, and pray we stay together,” Cami said.
Cherise made a small harrumphing noise, reminding them she was still there.
“We have to save Phillip,” Joel said. He must have read the hesitation on her face, because he added, “It’s the grandfather effect.”
“The what?” Cami had to ask, even though she wasn’t in the mood for one of his lectures.
“The grandfather effect. It’s a theory that if a time traveler goes back in time and kills his grandfather before his grandparents meet then the time traveler is never born. But, if he was never born, then he is unable to travel through time and kill his grandfather, which means the traveler would then be born after all.” He must have noticed the glazed-over look in her eyes, because he ended with, “If I don’t save him, it’s very likely I will never exist.”
“Oh.” Cami tried to imagine her life without Joel, and couldn’t. Not just because she didn’t want to try to get home without him, but also because he had played a starring role in all of her daydreams for most of her life. In every romance novel she’d ever read, he had been the hero.
“Although, there are other theories, such as parallel universes—”
She held up a hand, stopping him. “Can we take him back with us?” she asked. “If we got him proper medical attention—”
“No!” Cherise spoke up. “I do not know where you speak of, but the Captain must return to Île du Ciel.”
“She’s right,” Joel said. “It’s probably best to interfere as little as possible with historical events. Besides, I know he has to be in the Battle of the Bay. Our nation depends on it.”
“Isn’t that a baseball thing?” Cami asked.
“No, it’s a little-known 1782 Caribbean naval skirmish some historians say turned the tide of the Revolutionary War. Phillip La Fleur was a hero.” He flushed. “I only know that because my grandmother told me about him.”
“Here.” Cherise threw Bellmont’s clothes at the window.
Joel caught them. “What’s this?”
Cami explained while Joel tugged the clothes through the bars.
“What am I going to do with them?” Joel asked.
A plan of sorts formed in Cami’s head. “What if we give some of the water to the guard? He disappears, we steal the keys while you put on Bellmont’s uniform and carry Phillip to Cherise’s uncle’s house. She can summon this el santero person.”
“There are so many things wrong with this plan—” Joel began.
“Do you have a better one?” Cami put her hands on her hips.
“The guard probably has a family.”
“True, he might have children depending on him,” Cami said, reconsidering. “It’s not fair to just send him away.”
“I doubt he has young children. He’s old.”
“They trust the prisoners with an old guard?”
“I think he’s just filling in,” Joel said. “Anyway, he’s not the same guy that’s been here for the last ten days.”
“Give me the water bottle,” Cami said, her mind made up.
“How are you going to get him to drink it?” Joel asked, handing the bottle through the bars.
“I’ll think of something,” Cami said, reaching up and taking the bottle with the precious liquid. It was about a quarter full.
“Be saf
e,” Joel said.
Heading for the jail’s front entrance, Cami was glad to hear Cherise trailing after her. They pulled open the heavy door and found the guard sound asleep in a wooden chair, legs splayed out in front of him, arms folded across his chest, and head leaned back against the wall. His mouth was open, exposing his teeth.
It couldn’t really be this easy, could it? Cami wondered as she unscrewed the water bottle lid and crept toward him.
A hand on her arm stopped her. Cami glanced at Cherise.
Cherise nodded at the keys on a large brass ring secured around the man’s waist. . “I will get them,” Cherise mouthed.
“Arf!” the guard snorted and shifted in his seat.
Cami and Cherise froze.
When his snores resumed, Cherise took two more steps and dropped to the floor beside the man. Carefully, she tried to untie the key ring.
His eyes flew open, his hand automatically reached for the pistol in his holster, and he bounced from the chair.
With a silent prayer, Cami tried to splash water in his moving mouth.
“What the devi—” The man’s words faded away as he disappeared.
“Ha!” Cherise belted out a laugh tinged with relief. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know,” Cami said, glancing down at the bottle, gauging if there was enough left for her and Joel to get home. She carefully screwed on the lid, making sure it was tight while Cherise ran for the jail cell, keys in her hand.
Cami cast a glance over her shoulder at the empty chair, a twinge of guilt tickling her, but then she caught sight of Joel in the British uniform. He looked tall, handsome and strong. Cami ran to him, and he enveloped her in a brief hug.
“We have to get out of here,” he said.
“And save Phillip,” she added.
Cherise knelt by Phillip’s cot and took his limp hand in hers, devotion etched on her face.
“If you can each grab a leg, I’ll get his shoulders,” Joel said.
“I’m not sure how far we can carry him like that,” Cami said, shooting Cherise a worried glance. She knew Cherise was strong, but she was also pregnant.
“How far is your uncle’s house?” Joel asked Cherise.
“About a furlong,” she said. “But we must go to the mainland where there is an el santero. I do not trust my uncle. He will send us to the British if it would gain him a gold piece.”
“How are we going to do that?” Joel asked.
“It can be done,” Cherise said, picking up one of Phillip’s feet. “Come, let us go to the beach.”
Joel balked. Cami knew from the expression on his face that he wanted answers, an agenda, and a spelled-out plan that didn’t leave room for errors. She also knew he wasn’t going to get what he wanted. If there was one thing she’d learned in the eighteenth-century, it was that life wasn’t going to hand out guarantees.
She picked up Phillip’s other foot. “To the beach,” she said, echoing Cherise.
“Now wait a minute,” Joel said.
“We don’t have a minute,” Cami said. “For all we know, the guard is going to reappear any second.”
After a brief hesitation, Joel bent to pick up Phillip’s shoulders. “How far are we going?” he asked.
#
They passed through the dark, sleeping town without meeting anyone other than a few stray cats. The streetwalkers had abandoned their positions on the corner, and even the rowdy tavern had closed its doors and barred its windows.
Just when Joel thought they’d make it through town without any incident, a howling from behind jolted them. Cami and Cherise both dropped Phillip’s legs. Joel glanced over his shoulder to see a barrel-chested, gray-bearded man charging toward them, wearing only a strip of cotton tied around him like a loincloth.
“Who—?” Joel began.
“Major Bellmont,” Cami said. “I bet he wants his clothes back.”
Joel carefully set down Phillip and stood to meet Bellmont.
Cami lifted her fists and braced her feet. Cherise also looked ready to fight. Did Bellmont really think he could take on all three of them? He launched himself at Joel.
Moments later, Joel had him in a neck-hold. “We have to tie him up,” Joel said. “Take off his loincloth thing.”
“Ew,” Cami said, trying not to stare at Bellmont’s bulging eyes and purpling face. “Not happening. I won’t touch him….”
Cherise, who had dropped to the ground to cradle Phillip’s head in her lap, breathed out a puff of disgust but didn’t offer to touch the loincloth either.
Cami pulled up her skirt, ripped off the lace around the hem and handed it to Joel. “Here,” she said. “Use this.”
Belmont thrashed his legs.
Joel tightened his grip and lifted Bellmont off the ground. Bellmont gagged, wiggled like a fish on a line, and grappled at Joel’s arm.
“What am I going to do with him?” Joel huffed, obviously straining.
“Put him in the jail cell?” Cami suggested.
Joel grinned. “Good plan.”
“Wait, what if we go back and the guard’s there?” Cami asked.
“I will go and see.” Cherise stood, picked up her skirts and ran.
When she was out of earshot, Joel turned to Cami, making Bellmont swing between them. “Why do we trust her?”
“I think as long as we’re helping Phillip, she’ll help us. If he dies, we’re definitely on our own,” Cami told him.
Joel nodded. “Thanks for being on my team,” he said.
“Thanks for following me here.”
Bellmont made snorting noises and flailed his limbs, but Joel held him easily.
“You have to know I had no idea of the commitment I was making,” Joel said.
“But once you were here you could have gone home at any time. I’m glad you waited for me,” Cami said. “As soon as we know Phillip’s okay, we’ll drink the water.”
Hesitation flashed in Joel’s face. “We don’t know where the water will take us.”
“Or if it will take us anywhere.”
Cherise darted toward them. “The jail is empty.” She tried to catch her breath. “’Tis a good place for him.”
“Someone will find him in the morning,” Cami said.
“We will be gone by then,” Cherise assured her, as she sat by Phillip’s head and stroked his face. His eyelids fluttered, but he didn’t wake.
Joel motioned for Cami to follow him to the jail. They slowly climbed the hill. By the time they got to the jailhouse, Bellmont had lost his fight. He dangled limply from Joel’s arm. Cami held the door open for them, and Joel tossed Bellmont inside. He landed on the floor of the cell, clutching his neck and gasping for breath.
“You want to tell me about him?” Joel said, holding the cell door closed, just in case Bellmont had a resurgence of strength and tried to power through.
“Not really.” Cami found the ring of keys and locked the door with a click. “But he’s not a nice person, so you don’t need to feel guilty.”
“How did you get his clothes?”
Cami shuddered. “You don’t want to know.”
“Okay,” Joel said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close. “I’m glad you’re safe.”
“But we’re not safe,” Cami said. “I’m not sure we’re going to be safe until we get home.”
Joel fished in his pocket and drew out the water bottle. “That’s why I want you to drink this now.”
“What? No! I’m not leaving you!”
“Yes, you are. I need to make sure La Fleur survives, but you…you’re just a liability.”
“What?” This was as bad as when he called her a whore. “I can help you. I will help you.”
Joel folded his arms and put on his don’t-mess-with-the-teacher face. “And I will lock you in the cell with that man if you don’t drink this right now.”
“You can’t make me.”
“I carried that oaf here.” He pointed at Bellmont. “I carr
ied Fleur out there.” He swiveled his pointy finger toward the door. “Do you really think I can’t pick you up and put you in that cell?”
She swatted at his finger. “Oh, I know you can. I also know you won’t.”
He softened his tone. “Cami, please…go home. Be safe.”
“We don’t know that I will go home, remember?”
Frustration flashed across his face.
She touched his arm. “Wherever we go, we go together. When we drink, we’ll do it holding hands.”
“We should go now,” Joel said.
“We have to help Phillip,” Cami said. “Even if Cherise is carrying your ancestor and there’s no chance of the grandfather effect wiping you out of the universe, we still need to help Phillip. He saved both of us.”
“You’re right,” Joel said.
Cami trailed her hand down his arm and Joel caught it in his. Squeezing her fingers, he said, “Let’s go to el santero.”
She grinned. “I bet that’s something you never thought you’d say.”
They found Cherise and Phillip where they’d left them. Phillip didn’t look any better or worse, and he didn’t even flinch when Joel hoisted him over his shoulder, carrying him like a large sack of potatoes.
In a matter of minutes, they passed through the sleeping town and veered onto a path leading through a forest thick with trees, ferns, and lightning bugs. Sweat dripped down Cami’s face, neck and back. With each step, the humidity seemed to grow heavier. She kept glancing at Cherise, trying to read her, but Cherise’s expression never wavered from determined.
“Glad you know where we’re going,” Joel muttered more than once.
Insects chattered around them. Owls hooted, and frogs sang. It may have been Cami’s imagination, but she felt a hundred pairs of eyes follow her every step. Finally, the foliage cleared, and the beach came into view. The moon shot beams of light across the dark water.
“I thought we were going to the wharf,” Joel said.
“This is better,” Cherise told him, nodding at a canoe resting on the sand.
“We can’t all fit in that!” Cami said.
“She’ll carry us fine,” Cherise said. “I’ve taken this journey many times before. You will find I’ve secured all the provisions we will need. We’ll go to el santero’s village. She will help us.”