Teaser Tuesday!

I think this excerpt from The Escape needs a smidgeon of set up. This is the opening to the much ballyhoo'd (on this blog...since it took me friggin forever to write it) pirate attack scene. Maggie has been on the Lady Jane for a little over a week, posing as a crippled, stuttering servant boy. She has just caught a glimpse of a ship alongside in the early morning hours, its lanterns covered, hiding their approach in a thick fog bank. Hoyt is the ship's less-than-imaginative Midshipman.

Maggie sprinted across the deck towards the silhouetted figure of Hoyt on watch. She needed to get to the ship's bell and raise the alarm before the mystery sloop opened fire, raking their helpless deck.

"Hoyt," she whispered, looking up at the form slowly pacing the quarterdeck. "Hoyt, there's a ship alongside."

"What's going on?" Hoyt called, his voice echoing in the silence of the night. Maggie cringed.

"Sh!" She pressed a finger to her lips. "Hoyt, there's a ship alongside, lanterns covered. You need to raise the alarm."

"Toby?" Hoyt stared down at her like she'd just grown a second head. She saw his eyes look down to her right leg, seemingly cured of Toby's characteristic limp. "Toby, is that you?"

Maggie rolled her eyes; she didn't have time to explain. "Hoyt, just ring the--"

"Dispare!"

"Hoyt!" she screamed from the steps. "Ring the bloody bell!"

A half dozen gunpowder flashes sparked in the darkness off the larboard rail just before a blast of cannon erupted from the sloop. The Lady Jane heaved from the impact and Maggie lost her footing on the stairs, landing in a heap of coiled rope. Splinters dislodged by the cannon shot ricocheted through the air like volley of arrows and the resulting screams told her that several crewmen had fallen victim.

The broadside seemed to stir Hoyt to action and he grabbed the bell's clapper, lashing it furiously back and forth.

Great. Good timing. As if the whole crew didn't realize they were under attack.

"Ataca!"

A flurry of grappling irons tore through the cloud of powder smoke, catching the running gear of the Lady Jane as she recoiled from the broadside. With a howl that froze Maggie to the deck, the boarders leapt over the locked gunwales of the two ships, pistols and cutlasses at the ready.