"That is a fine ambition." He smiled, then glanced down at Serina. "I wonder what becomes of this island now, with all of us on it."
"I will tell you." She shifted her musket. "We are going to bring these Ingles to their knees. Someday they will come to us begging." She reached up and kissed Katherine, then lightly touched Winston's hand. Finally she prodded Atiba forward, and in moments they were gone, through the trees.
"Hugh, I'm not at all sure I like this." Katherine moved next to him as they continued on down the hill toward the dugouts. Bartholomew was ahead of them now, leading the boucaniers. "I thought we were going to capture an island. But all we've ended up with is just a piece of it, a harbor, and all these criminals."
"Katy, what did you once say about thinking you could have it all?"
"I said I'd learned better. That sometimes you've got to settle for what's possible." She looked up at him. "But you know I wasn't the only one who had a dream. Maybe you wanted a different kind of independence, but you had some pretty grand ideas all the same."
"What I wanted was to take Jamaica and make it a free place, but after what's happened today nobody's going to get this island for a long, long time."
She looked up to see the river coming into view through the trees, a glittering ribbon in the early sun. "Then why don't we just make something of what we have, down there on the Point? For ourselves."
He slipped an arm around her and drew her against him.
"Shall we give it a try?"
*