Lady Vixen by Shirlee Busbee

prey like a hawk. When the first warning shots were fired,
she had felt a quiver of youthful terror, but then the blood of other sea
fighters flowed in her veins and eagerly, her topaz-brown eyes sparkling with
adventure, she joined the fray, willing and almost impatient to do her share.
When the Captain had noticed her slight figure dashing about the smoke-filled
decks, he had harshly ordered her to one of the cabins and out of danger.
Fiercely she had demanded that she be returned to the deck, but he would not
allow it.
    Moved
perhaps by the obvious youth of the boy, Saber then designated Nicole as his
personal servant. There were sneers and sly remarks about Captain Saber's "pretty
boy," but Nicole, too aware of the danger, for once wisely held her tongue
and pretended not to hear... or understand their meaning.
    Once
she became the Captain's servant, much of the danger of discovery was
alleviated for he, with the same amount of indifferent concern he would bestow
upon a forward puppy, had ordered her to sleep in a corner of his cabin. And so
indignantly she had strung her hammock in the corner farthest away from the
now-not-so-worshipped Captain Saber and with little enthusiasm saw to the task
of keeping his cabin, as well as his gear, in excellent condition.
    Her
disappointment in her new status was obvious, and the darkling looks she cast
his way, as she busied herself doing his commands, seemed to afford him a
certain amount of wicked amusement. And often he chided his erstwhile cabin boy
for lack of gratitude: "You know, young Nick, I could name a half dozen
boys below decks at this very moment who would be delighted to be in your
shoes—and do a better job to boot!"
    Nicole's
unruly tongue moved her to speak unwisely, as well as disrespectfully, and she
received a sharp box on the ears that left her head ringing for an hour. But
the Captain's point was well taken and she resigned herself to the monotonous
task of caring for his personal effects. Muttering under her breath that she
would have been better off as a parlormaid, Nicole gritted her teeth and set to
work. But relief from this trying set of affairs was in sight, although, again,
it wasn't precisely what she would have wished for. When he discovered by
accident that his ungrateful cabin boy could also read and write, a
circumstance that made him take a more appraising look at the boy, he promptly
put him to use in compiling legible lists of the plunder they captured. Eventually
the disgruntled Nicole found herself not only his personal servant but his
secretary as well.
    In
her calmer moments she realized that had she been left with the rough crew of La
Belle Garce, it was doubtful her sex would have remained a secret for long,
certainly not for five years! But as the Captain's property and secretary she
was removed from close association with the men. As for the Captain, himself,
as long as she obeyed promptly, he never wasted a second glance on her. But she
sometimes wondered if he suspected her secret, and turning over on her side she
faced her companion and asked abruptly, "Allen, do you think Captain Saber
knows that I'm a girl?"
    "God
in heaven, I should hope not! Your life wouldn't be worth last year's
scuttlebutt, if he did," Allen answered with unnecessary promptness.
    Looking
at his dark, open face, the brown, curly hair moving slightly in the soft
breeze, Nicole questioned again his reasons for joining Captain Saber's crew.
    Allen
Ballard was an enigma to Nicole. He had joined La Belle Garce after
deserting the British Navy less than a year ago, and she often puzzled over his
reasons for doing so. She knew little about him, but from the neatness of his
clothes and his beautiful manners, it was obvious he came from a much better
background than the majority of the crew. His air of assurance as well as his
manners and dress, indicated that he must have been an officer, so it wasn't
surprising that Saber had chosen him as second-in-command for this