Read The Swashbuckling Yarn of Milady Vixen for Free Online

“I could take to the sound of that.”
    That was how she got her infamous moniker. Soon the seafaring world would tremble at the very mention of her name. On that bloody deck a legend was born.
    Standing at the wheel, she took a lungful of air; savoring the salty sweetness of it, she watched the ship sail past the dock. Just beyond where the hawsers had been tied, her mother waved goodbye, arm-in-arm with the former master of the vessel. As she pulled her gaze back to the horizon, the newly rechristened vessel—and its renamed captain—headed back out to sea. The brigantine sported a new flag flying atop her tallest mast, a red fox’s head with its jaws agape biting into a crown. Along the prow of the eight-foot privateer, the crew had lovingly carved the name The Sea Fox , and this same crew had sworn upon their sword hilts to serve her faithfully. Or at least until she proved unfit for command, whichever came first.
    “’Tis a fine day, is it not?” Her new first mate grinned.
    “Why, Ginger Tom, I cannot find it in my heart to disagree with ye.” She smirked. “I have a lusty crew, a wind at my back and a good ship under my boots. What more can a girl ask for?”
    “Where are we headed?”
    “I have business with the King of Effingham. I feel we should tug his whiskers a bit by sinking a few of his smaller vessels. I heard the fluets are running this time of year betwixt Gaston and Effingham.”
    “No doubt escorted by a schooner or two.”
    “Aye, but where be the fun without the risk, Tom?”
    The redhead just laughed.
    Just a brief note, so you understand a bit of this nautical jargon. A fluet isn’t something you play with a drum accompaniment. It’s a ship, a three-hundred-ton cargo vessel with two masts. It was a cheap vessel to build and often carried a crew of twelve or more. A schooner, however, held up to seventy-five men and carried cannons, and was a typical fast prowler of the waves. But back to our tale, before I bore you with such technical details and you lose interest.
    “I don’t mind tugging Effingham’s beard, but there’s a prize on your head already. Or have you forgotten?”
    “I aim to get it raised to some indecent amount ere they catch me.”
    “You’re dicing with the Devil, you know. We make one slight mistake and we’ll all be fitted for hempen halters.”
    That means a hangman’s noose; just thought you’d like to know.
    “We can outmaneuver the schooners or just pour enough shot into them to send them to the briny deep,” Milady Vixen said. “Nothing worth having isn’t worth a little trouble, aye?”
    “Trouble can be avoided, Vixen. Seeking it out is a foolhardy enterprise.”
    “You never stop worrying about me, do you?”
    “Of course not; I owe you my life, don’t I? A poor coin I’d repay you in if I didn’t try to bash some sense into that thick skull ye have.”
    “You say the sweetest things.”
    He blushed to the roots of his already red hair, and this made Vixen laugh even harder. Laying a hand upon his shoulder, the new privateer commander eased some of his discomfort.
    “Come, let us not tarry, for booty awaits us.” Milady Vixen laughed.
    * * * *
    I will not bother to tell you the red-handed deeds and rude battles that occurred during the next six months. However, suffice it to say the newly christened vessel quickly became the scourge of the seas. In a scant half year, the very name and flag of the Sea Fox struck bone-rattling fear in every honest sailor’s heart. The tales told by the survivors—for Milady Vixen left enough to do exactly this—made the blood run cold in the telling. Most captains, seeing the red fox’s head upon the snapping banner atop the main mast, simply struck their colors and gave up their cargos. Stories of the commander of the Sea Fox never failed to exclude the hatred she bore toward those who sailed under the Effingham flag.
    “She is cruel as she is beautiful,” one mariner stated. “A bit of poisoned