Luck Be a Lady Pirate


 
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright © 2023 Catherine Stein, LLC.
 
 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. 
 
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 
 ISBN: 978-1-949862-42-3
 
 Book cover and interior design by E. McAuley:emcauley.com
 
 For notes on content please visit 
 
 catsteinbooks.com/content-notes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dedication
 
 To anyone who has ever wanted to be a pirate. 
 
 May you find your crew.
 
 1
 
 
 
 Savannah, Georgia
 
 September 24, 1906
 
 This was not the first time Catalina Navarro had found a pirate at her front door. Ordinarily, it happened on a schedule, when the visiting pirate had booked an appointment for her services. Pirates, Lina knew, were people like any other. Out of all her clients, they were often the most punctual and respectful. More women were finding careers outside the home these days, but Lina remained an oddity in the eyes of society. Pirates didn’t care, as long as she did her job.
 
 Today’s pirate had no appointment.
 
 In fact, today’s pirate had interrupted an important telephone call with a prominent psychologist. Lina’s insightful comments on the female mind and its complexity—neither more nor less inscrutable than the male—had been cut short by the pirate’s inconsiderate pounding. Now Dr. Goodfellow would go on believing women’s brains could be damaged by too much education and high thinking.
 
 Catalina glared at the woman standing outside her door. Of course it was her. Who else would barge into her life at so inopportune a moment but this chaotic vixen, with her avaricious gaze and her haughty manners?
 
 “Miss Redbeard.” Lina gave no nod or other gesture of welcome. “Why are you here?”
 
 “Where is the biomechanologist?” the pirate demanded. Her pale blue eyes blazed, like ice cold enough to burn your skin. They were irritatingly beautiful, those eyes.
 
 All of her was irritatingly beautiful, in fact, and it had nothing to do with typical cliches such as porcelain skin or flaxen hair. No, it was in the shape of her mouth—the way her lips could form an obnoxious smirk one moment and the sweetest of smiles the next. It was the uninhibited energy in her movements, as if a boisterous child wore the body of a grown woman. It was a face both so artless and so guarded Lina forgot to breathe every time she beheld it.
 
 “Where has she gone?” Redbeard snapped. “Answer me!”
 
 Lina blinked. Blast it all, she’d been caught staring. Usually she had better control over herself than this. It must have been the stress of the unexpected interruption.
 
 “You are looking for Dr. Taylor?” Lina guessed.
 
 “Oui. Dr. Nora. She repaired her house but no longer lives there. Where is she? Did she marry her giant grumpy man?” The pirate bounced on the balls of her feet. Her hands were clenched like she wanted to fight someone.
 
 “As a matter of fact, she did,” Catalina replied coolly. “I can give you her telephone—”
 
 “No. An address. Now.”
 
 And that was exactly the problem with the beautiful Miss Redbeard. She didn’t listen. She simply threw herself into situations and hoped they worked out. Under special circumstances, such recklessness was understandable. It had served Nora well when Redbeard had assisted in a shockingly dangerous infiltration of a villain’s experimental airship. As Lina understood, however, the pirate now on her doorstep lived that way all the time.
 
 She shuddered.
 
 “Nora is in St. Louis,” Lina began, only to be interrupted once more.
 
 “You know where? Her address? Her house?” The pirate tapped her foot impatiently.
 
 “Yes.” Lina drew the word out, debating whether it ought to be the last thing she said in this increasingly bothersome conversation.
 
 “Good. Brigid! Esme!”
 
 A pair of women in not-quite-matching blue uniforms sprang from nowhere to flank Redbeard. Each of them held a knife. Had they been lurking in the bushes this entire time? Waiting to intimidate her, probably.
 
 Well, little did they know, but Catalina carried a knife of her own. She wasn’t an easy woman to intimidate. And she certainly wasn’t rewarding this rudeness with Nora’s address. Especially since Nora would probably smile at everyone and invite them all in for tea. Knives didn’t deserve tea.
 
 “Bring her along,” the pirate captain commanded. “We will learn what we need when we are in the air.”
 
 The words made no sense until hands clamped down on both of Lina’s arms. Brigid and Esme hauled her down the stairs and into the street.
 
 “This way,” said the one Lina thought was Esme. Her tone was distressingly pleasant from someone brandishing a knife and digging her nails into Lina’s arm.
 
 “Is not far.” Brigid’s grip was like a manacle.
 
 “Damn you, you can’t kidnap me!” Lina shouted. Hopefully her neighbors would hear.
 
 Hopefully her neighbors would hear and do something to help instead of phoning one another to gossip about it.
 
 “Your information is necessary,” Redbeard said, sounding perfectly reasonable. She probably believed she was reasonable. She closed Lina’s door—perhaps the only actually reasonable thing she’d done today—and jogged to catch up with Lina and her captors.
 
 Three against one. It was hopeless. Lina couldn’t even slow them down by dragging her feet. The pirate women were too strong.
 
 “It is a matter of life and death,” Redbeard explained as the group hurried down the street. “Even the remaining journey may be too long. We must fly now, as quickly as possible.”
 
 Lina stumbled along, her arms