I sat back in the shadows and watched as my ship, The Wonder, was ransacked from top to bottom by these vermin. Who they were, where they came from and what they wanted I didn't know, but it's pretty obvious they picked the Wonder for a reason. I tore off some fabric from my shirt to tie around my bleeding shoulder, before slipping out of the shadows and making my way through the docks. There was nothing I could do now, but watch my ship as she was pillaged and plundered, yet there was still one member of my crew that was unaccounted for, and I needed to find her before she ran into this mess.

I thought about looking for my First Mate Latham, but the Lady needed to be found first. And more likely than not, Latham and the Lady would be together. While making my way up the street toward the town's tavern, I heard a familiar voice pleading to be let go. I saw coming around the corner, an injured Robert Lambert being dragged between two ragged looking men. He looked pretty bad off, bleeding all over himself and begging his captors for mercy. How pathetic was that? If you are going down, go down fighting damn it!

I slipped around the back of some crates and waited for them to pass me. Once the staggering three moved on past me, I made my move. A well thrown boot knife straight through the heart took care of one, leaving the taller one to deal with. He dropped Lambert down to his knees in the filthy street and turned at me with a pistol in hand. As he made to turn around, my cutlass made short work of his pistol hand, before a quick slice across his belly took him down to his knees. I ran him through one final time through his gut before pullin' my cutlass out and lettin' his retched corpse fall to the filthy ground.

I looked to my left to see Robert layin' down, holdin' his bleedin' arm and shieldin' himself. Couldn't figure that out at all...he was a grown man actin' like a little lady. Embarrassing.

"You can look now, sweetheart, it's over." He flinched when I kicked his foot and finally looked up at me. He looked around at the scene around him and seemed in shock. He looked up at me like he had just had the worst fight of his life. Ha, what a wimp.

"Get up sweetheart, we gotta go. And you and I need to have a talk." I grabbed his good arm and yanked him to his feet.

"Now you look at me. Who the hell are these people and where were they haulin' you off to?" I pulled him to the shadows of the docks and waited for an answer. He shook like a leaf in the wind and looked around us like the shadows were going to grab him.

"Th...th..they…they…they want…they want Alice! Captain Durnhelm wants her for ransom! They know she's here and they're lookin' for her! I don't know where she is, but they can't find her!" He cried out in a stutter, my worst fear in this whole mess.

It made sense after what happened at The Wonder. The attack seemed too well planned to be a random attack and there where too many other ships in the area that they could have pillaged for better profit. But that still left me with the problem of finding the Lady Alice before the kidnappers did.

I sighed with frustration,"Where's Latham, Robert, have you at least seen him?"

"I saw him leaving the tavern before they came and shot me. But I didn't see Alice." The look of shame on his face told me that Robert had a lot more to do with this than he was letting on. But I would have to deal with that later.

"Come on, we're goin' to the tavern. We'll start lookin' for um' both there. While we're there, you can tell me who this Durnhelm is and how you know about his plans for Alice."

I know that it's been awhile and this chapter is rather short, and I'm sorry for that. But thank you for stickin' with me! Reviews are welcome please, I like to know what my readers think. Thanks again!