“This isn’t at all how I planned to tell you. Rowan, how long have I been aboard this boat?”
“About two moons.”
“You’ve been with enough women to realize I should’ve been indisposed to lovemaking twice already, but I haven’t.” Caragh waited to see if Rowan caught her meaning, but he was still looking at her with the panic of not being able to make her feel better. “Rowan, listen to what I’m trying to tell you. I haven’t had my courses since before I met you.” Rowan’s gaze shifted to her middle, then looked back up at her. “Aye, I believed I was with child, and then this brief adventure in vomiting seems to confirm it.”
“A bairn? Our bairn?” Rowan looked amazed, baffled, and frightened all at once.
“Aye, our bairn.” He reached out a hand but snatched it back. Caragh laughed as she pulled it towards her and then placed it on her still flat belly. “I won’t break. I might be sick from time to time, but I’m not going to fall apart.”
Rowan swallowed several times as he took in what his wife said. He nodded, but he’d already made up his mind. He would meet with Argyll’s representatives and then make some serious changes.
Chapter Eighteen
Over the next four days, Caragh spent more time asleep than awake. It became impossible for Rowan to avoid explaining to Ruairí and Senga why Caragh wasn’t making an appearance. Senga clapped her hands and giggled as Ruairí looked as stunned as Rowan was sure he had. It surprised him when Ruairí pulled Senga in for a long kiss and made their excuses to return to their own ship. Rowan suspected his cousin, who never liked to be outdone by Rowan, had his own plans.
They’d only made it as far as Greenock–after stopping in Inverkip–when Rowan had the crew drop anchor. He sent Skinny over to Ruairi’s ship to say they would anchor there until Caragh was no longer getting seasick, even on calm water. Ruairí wasn’t pleased by the delay, sitting in an open and unprotected part of the river. But Senga calmly reminded him it might be her one day that needed a respite, and that she doubted Ruairí would force her to sail, so why should they force Caragh?
As they neared a sennight without moving, Rowan accepted they could keep neither Ruairí nor the Earl of Argyll waiting. While it would annoy Argyll that Rowan didn’t appear in person, receiving his money through Ruairí would satisfy the man. Ruairí and Senga came to visit Rowan and Caragh before they left. Senga kept Caragh company when Caragh didn’t improve enough to leave her bed. Ruairí and Rowan stood together on deck.
“Women have bairns every day, and she’s a sturdy sort.” Ruairí offered.
Rowan shot Ruairí a withering look to which Ruairí raised his hands in surrender. “She’s not just any woman. She’s my woman. I don’t give a damn how many bairns other women have had. I care about how Caragh feels, and there’s nothing I can do. Just wait. You’ll get your due, and you’ll feel as helpless as I do.”
“Then go back down to her. Senga and I will sail to Glasgow and deal with Argyll. We can meet again in two moons near Canna. We’ll decide then whether we go to Barra.”
“Agreed.”
The cousins embraced, then Rowan returned below deck while Ruairí waited for Senga by the stairs. Rowan sat beside Caragh, who spent more time bent over the chamber pot than anything else. He felt guilty for how miserable she felt, but she tried to smile when ran his hand over her shoulder. She pushed herself further onto the bunk and patted the mattress beside her. Rowan paused for only a moment before he laid down. He waited to see what Caragh wanted, as he didn’t want to jostle her. She rolled towards him and wrapped herself around him. He smelled the mint that she now chewed throughout the day. It was one of the few things that eased her stomach. For the hundredth time, he wished there was something he could do for her.
“Rowan, I’ll be fine. You’re whittling over something that can’t be changed. We must simply wait it out. I can remember my mama being ill when she was carrying Eddie. She told me she was ill with all of us, so it’s no surprise I am. You don’t have to play nursemaid to me.”
“And if I want to? If I like it?”
Caragh smiled meekly. “Then who am I to stop you?”
* * *
It was the middle of the night when a sailor sounded the first alarm. Rowan was out of the bed and pulling on his clothes before Caragh even stirred. He looked out the porthole but saw nothing.
“What is it? What’s happened, Rowan?”
“I don’t know, but that was the alarm that we’re being attacked. Stay here, Caragh. Do not disobey me. Lock and bar the door.” Caragh looked around as if she’d never been within the cabin before. “Caragh, I need you to do as I say. I need to know you’re safe down here. Come lock and bar the door.”
She climbed from the bed and followed him until they reached the door. He turned and offered a soft kiss as he rested his hand on her belly.
“I love you both with everything I am,” he murmured against her forehead. He turned to leave, but Caragh placed her hand on his arm.
“You can’t leave without me telling you the same. I love you, Rowan, more than I even knew possible. Come back to us.”
Rowan nodded once and slipped through the door. Caragh locked and barred the door, then returned to the bed where there was nothing to do but wait. Rowan dashed above deck as hell was breaking loose. Two cog ships had pulled alongside them, one to starboard and one to port. The flat-bottomed boats had tall sides that made it difficult for Rowan’s men to hop over. The boats both had full crews and additional men. It was only moments later that Rowan’s boat was overrun. He fought any man who came within reach of his sword or knives. He positioned himself before the stairs leading to his cabin, and several of his men recognized his strategy. They came to fight along with him, and the battle seemed to be shifting until the hull vibrated so strongly that Rowan lost his footing.
The Lady Grace listed to starboard as Rowan realized they’d fired a cannonball in close proximity. His heart stalled as he worried about whether the artillery barreled all the way through to the cabin, where he feared Caragh was trapped or dead. He forced himself to his feet and bolted down the stairs. He was nearly to the door where he noticed there was no damage, when a searing pain rattled his head. He tried to take another step, but another blow landed on the back of his head, causing him to lurch forward as everything faded to black. As his face hit the floor, he heard a voice that would haunt him forever.
“I have the keys, now get the whore.”
Rowan didn’t recognize who spoke, but he knew who the man wanted. He was powerless to save Caragh and their unborn child.
Caragh fell back against the wall as the boat heaved to one side. It made her want to heave herself. She managed to sit up as the door slammed open, but it wasn’t Rowan who stepped through. Caragh had never seen three men more menacing than the ones who crowded the threshold to the cabin. She’d already put her boots on in case she needed to evacuate, so she reached to pull one of her dirks from the sheath. The first man through the door lunged for her, and she thrust her dirk into his throat just before his hand closed around hers.
“The bluidy bitch killed him.” The other two men stared at each other, aghast, before each took one of her arms and pulled her from the bed.
“Rowan! Rowan, help me!”
“Caterwaul all you want. Your man is dead.”
Caragh ground her feet into the planks and pulled back, making herself dead weight against the men’s forward propulsion. She thrashed and kicked as she tried to keep them from dragging her out of the cabin. She screamed again when she caught sight of Rowan laying on the ground with blood oozing from a gash across his head.
“Keith! Skinny! Help me! Help Rowan!” Caragh screamed over and over as they dragged her above deck, but she couldn’t see Keith or Skinny. She scanned the deck and spotted dead bodies belonging to the Lady Grace’s crew along with some she didn’t recognize.
“Shut her up!” called a man from the ship on their starboard side as her captors hauled h
er towards the rail. They lifted her and swung her like a sack of potatoes until she flew and landed in a heap on the strange ship. She tried to stand, but a sharp pain in her side caused her to lie crumpled on the deck. Two enormous men lunged toward her and surrounded her. She waited for more pain, but when it didn’t come, she opened her eyes to discover Skinny and Keith protecting her.
“Sink it! We have the woman, and the others can have the cargo. We have what we came for.”
“No!” Caragh wailed. She tried to rise to her feet, but Skinny pressed her back down and shook his head.
“He wouldn’t want you dead because of him.”
“And I don’t want to live without him.”
“It’s not just about you, is it, lass?” Keith whispered.
Caragh bit back a sob. She knew he was right. She had to think about her child, but life seemed bleak without Rowan by her side. She couldn’t hide her sobs when she caught sight of a torch thrown onto the deck of the Lady Grace. The flame wasn’t large at first, but the canvas it landed on caught fire as soon as it made contact.
“Rowan,” she whispered. “Rowan.”
Skinny and Keith tried to shield her, but she pushed away their hands as she came to kneel. The boat they were on was already underway, the gap between it and the Lady Grace growing. Caragh felt the black closing in from the corners of her eyes. Stars danced before them before everything went dark.
Chapter Nineteen
Rowan was sure he heard Caragh calling his name. He reached back and touched a sticky liquid through his hair. He knew without looking that it was blood. He pushed himself to standing, but nearly collapsed when he saw the door to his chamber standing open.
“Capt’n, you must hurry. They’ve torched the deck, and they have her. They have your wife.” One of his crewmen pulled on his arm. Rowan spun around with a roar, and the man jumped back.
“Who? Who were they?” Rowan forced one foot in front of the other despite the pounding in his head. He climbed the stairs and surveyed the destruction and death. A fire blazed at the aft. He looked around and caught sight of ships sailing away in opposite directions. They knew he had no idea which boat carried his wife, so he had no idea who to follow.
“It was that bitch Alane. She done this.”
Rowan turned to find his cook, Jim Bones, hobbling towards him. “How can you know that?”
“I heard a couple of them speak. Heard them say your mistress was paying gold to do away with your wife. They said more, but I don’t think you want to know.”
Rowan’s face made the men want to run. They weren’t looking at the captain they respected, and who’d changed so much since his pretty little captive made him fall in love. They were looking at the merciless pirate who earned the name Blond Devil for the number of men he sent to Hell. He was unrecognizable as the man they’d gotten used to in the past two months. Instead, he was the one they remembered and feared.
“Put out that fire and check the hull for damage.” He looked again at the bodies strewn on the deck. “If you’re alive and don’t want to find yourselves in Davy Jones’s locker, you better find a way to get to your feet. Any bodies left on the deck go overboard. If you’re alive, you work, or I will kill you. My man or not.” Rowan barked orders as he watched the ship Jim Bones pointed toward. It sailed west, and Rowan would put money on it sailing towards Oban.
Caragh stayed hidden behind Keith and Skinny, along with two other men from the Lady Grace. The men who sailed the ship on which she was a prisoner took no interest in her, and she was relieved. She’d feared they would beat and rape her, but the men seemed to be more interested in returning to wherever they came from. None spoke near her or the others from Rowan’s ship. Skinny was the one who deduced who had ordered her capture.
“Lass, you made a powerful enemy when you humiliated Alane. No one else knows about you, so who else knew you were there to be taken? It wouldn’t be any of your people, would it?”
Caragh shook her head. She was aware there were many in her village who would see Rowan dead and his ship burned, but none of them had the means to orchestrate the attack she had just survived. She knew Skinny was right. She’d caused this. “If I hadn’t been so petty and jealous.”
Keith laughed mirthlessly. “It’s those same feelings that have us trapped here. Alane’s pettiness and jealousy are the culprits.”
“May be so, but Rowan is dead, and I’m to blame,” Caragh’s voice broke.
“You don’t know that, lass. You didn’t see the ship sink.”
“But I did see him lying on the ground with his head bleeding.”
“There’s no certainty that killed him. You saw Ruairí not long after the attack that nearly killed him. Survived to tell the tale.”
Caragh remained quiet, but her mind leaped to the story Rowan told her of how his father died. A gash to his head. Caragh gagged at the irony that Rowan might die from a similar injury.
“Lass?” Keith whispered.
“I’m fine.”
Caragh spent most of the next seven days dozing whenever possible, but she never allowed herself to fall into a deep sleep, even with Keith and Skinny watching over her. She fought the nausea until they sailed through Corryvreckan with its strong currents and eddies. She spent the last day leaning over the rail, dry heaving, since their captors only gave them a couple of bannocks and dried beef each day.
“What’s the matter with the wench? Why’s she ill all of a sudden? Did she bring a sickness aboard this boat?”
“No. She just don’t handle rough water well.” Keith said as little as he could. No one would inform their captors that Caragh was with child. None of them wanted to imagine what they would do with that information.
They sailed into the docks of Oban in the middle of the night, but Caragh recognized it immediately. She didn’t need anyone to tell her who she would meet next. The woman who concocted the plan to rain down misery on Caragh’s life stood waiting for them to disembark. She watched as Caragh tried once more to fight free of her captors, but she was outnumbered and weak from the voyage. Alane walked in front of her as two men held her arms twisted behind her.
“Where is that spirit you possessed? You seem rather dull compared to the last time I saw you.”
Caragh stared at Alane, loathing her as much as she had Rowan when he first pulled her aboard the Lady Grace. She felt a vice close around her heart as she thought about Rowan. She pooled saliva in her mouth, just as she had that night in Rowan’s cabin, and spat on Alane’s face. The woman lashed out and slapped Caragh, but Caragh expected it and was ready. She kicked out her leg as Alane swung and used the woman’s own momentum to knock her off-balance.
“You shall pay for that.”
Caragh was sure she would, but there had been satisfaction, albeit brief, in lashing out at the woman. They pushed her and the other captives into the back of a wagon that drove past The Waiting Arms and left the town. It continued north along the coast until it made an unexpected turn inland. Caragh nearly slid across the wagon, but Skinny and Keith once again propped her up and protected her. She recognized she owed a tremendous debt to the two men, and she was determined to make it up to them when–not if–they made it out of this ordeal alive. The wagon rolled over uneven ground as it made its way towards the mountains near Oban. Caragh nearly cried when she glimpsed the entrance to the cave. She never wanted to enter another cave in her life. Nothing, other than meeting Rowan, had ever gone well for her in a cave. She watched her brother and friends die in a cave, and now she might die in one, too. Before she could prepare, enormous hands pulled her from the wagon and threw her to the ground. She curled into a ball to protect her belly. The kicks to her ribs and back knocked the wind from her as she tried to curl up tighter. She listened to the men from the Lady Grace yelling and the scuffle that broke out as they hauled her to her feet, only to have a fist driven into her jaw. Her head snapped back as stars once more danced before her eyes. She let her body sink into dead weight,
hoping to throw her attackers off-balance. One stumbled, but it didn’t stop the other from grabbing a fistful of her hair and yanking down as he smashed his fist into her cheekbone. She was positive it had shattered, considering the pain that burst through her head. Her ears rang as the man threw her once more to the ground. She tucked her legs in just in time for more boots to land against her kidneys and ribs. She felt a bone crack and a piercing pain below her ribs. She wheezed and coughed before moaning from the pain. She forced herself to be quiet and not move. She prayed they’d think she was dead, or at least unconscious. She barely breathed as she waited. The cavern grew quiet, but she still didn’t dare move or open the one eye she thought she could still blink. She strained to hear what was happening around her, but the ringing in her ears hadn’t stopped.
“Is she dead?” Caragh recognized Alane’s voice as it moved towards her.
“Not yet, but she will be soon enough.”
“Good. Finish her. Cut off her ring finger and send it to Ruairí with her ring and my regards. Let him know I caused his cousin’s demise, along with that of the whore who thought to take him from me. Ruairí always was the smarter of the two. He’ll know not to cross me. Make sure he knows I shall expect him to uphold his agreements with me, or the same will happen to his bonnie little wench.”
Alane’s voice faded as Caragh’s ears stopped ringing, and she heard the crunch of the woman’s boots leaving the cave. Caragh reached along the ground with her arm beneath her. She pulled the other dirk from her boot and waited. She struggled to breathe, but there was no way she would let anyone cut off her finger, at least not without a fight. She didn’t have to wait long until a man kicked her once more, then lifted her hand. She fought to open her eye, and once she was sure it wasn’t one of Rowan’s men come to help her, she rolled and stabbed her dirk into the man’s groin. She pressed it into him until the hilt wedged, and she pressed down on the handle as it sliced through the man. He reeled back, and she jerked the blade loose as he fell. Another man rushed to her, but a colossal body collided with him. She watched as Keith rolled on the ground with her would-be assailant. She tried to move, but the effort to stab the man had drained her of any remaining strength. Unconsciousness claimed her yet again.
The Blond Devil of the Sea: The Highland Ladies Book Three Page 14