Or so she thought.
“Who are ye?” The girl’s eyes narrowed as she shifted her aim to Fraser. “Speak now, or he dies next.”
“My name is Elspeth MacLauchlin.” She ignored the tear that rolled down her cheek. What if she were wrong? What if she only saw what she wanted to see? She began inwardly praying as she continued talking. “I once had a daughter that looked just like ye. She was taken from me when she was a wee lassie…taken from a small village on the eastern shores of Scotland.”
“MacLauchlin,” the girl murmured. Her arrow remained notched, but the intense look in her eyes lessened. “Why are ye here?”
Though tempted to keep questioning her she got the sense the girl would have her answers first. That she possessed an overly cautious nature and a stubborn disposition. Two personality traits she more than understood and respected.
“I’m here…” Elspeth gestured at Fraser and Douglas. “We’re here to protect my people and kin from the man ye just killed.” She pointed back the way they had come. “They live down there but once resided on the eastern shores of Scotland.” She cocked her head. “Might I tell ye our story, child? Might I share?”
The girl considered her for several moments. Her every feature bespoke the little girl she had lost all those years ago. The same sparkling eyes. The same curly hair.
“Aye, ye can share,” the girl finally responded.
So she did, recounting everything that had happened that fateful night.
“I called to ye over and over,” she managed in closure, her voice thick with emotion. “I said Aileann MacLauchlin, ye stay strong.” She shook her head and wiped away another tear, lost in the horrific memory. “I called out to ye to always stay verra strong no matter what.”
Silence fell as her words lingered. As she continued to pray. Please let this be her. Not a desperate mother’s misguided mirage of hope.
Let her say what I want to hear. Let this be real.
At long last, the girl finally spoke. And thankfully, by the grace of God, her every word tore away the years. Every syllable marked the closure of an unending nightmare.
“Aye,” she whispered as she slowly lowered the bow, her voice wobbly. “And I did…I stayed strong.” Her eyes remained with Elspeth’s. “’Twas that voice in the night, your voice, that got me through ever since.”
Elspeth nodded as more tears fell, muted for a moment as her daughter’s words truly sunk in.
“I’m so verra glad,” she finally managed softly. “Because ’twas your memory that did the same for me.”
Though Aileann had lowered her bow and closed the distance, she still kept a wary eye on the men.
“God above ’tis really ye,” Elspeth whispered as her daughter stopped in front of her. “’Tis really truly ye.”
Now that she was close, she could see the moisture in the girl’s eyes. The sharp intelligence. More than that, mayhap recognition.
“I was told my parents died,” Aileann murmured. “Yet here ye stand…the lass from my dreams…”
“Your da did die,” she said sadly. “But not me, lassie. Not your ma,” she whispered. “I didnae die and stand before ye now.”
The moment stretched as her daughter considered her before she finally murmured, “I do…I remember ye.” Though strength remained in her steady gaze, the vulnerable little girl was in there too. The fear and long, lonely years. “I remember ye, Ma.”
Based on the tears in her eyes, she truly did. She remembered.
“I’m so glad to hear it, Aileann,” was all Elspeth was capable of saying before she pulled her daughter into her arms and held on tight. Tears fell, but she barely felt them. All she could feel was her baby girl back in her arms. A long lost dream come true.
“Those that took me called me Ceit, but now I am Cullodena,” the girl said softly, emotion obvious in her voice as they embraced. “We all took new names when we began our lives here.”
Though she never wanted to let her go, Elspeth finally pulled back and wiped away her tears. “Cullodena is a verra bonny name.” She offered a warm smile as she brushed a tear from her daughter’s cheek. “Did ye pick it yourself?”
“Aye,” she replied. “For the broken mossy land I so enjoy.”
Though Elspeth had many questions, endless questions, she would wait rather than overwhelm her.
“I would like to see this mossy land.” She kept smiling. “And I would like to meet your people.”
She proceeded to introduce Fraser and Douglas, who, as it happened, Cullodena had known from afar.
“’Tis so good to see ye again, Niece.” Douglas embraced her, his emotion evident. “Ye were sorely missed.”
Cullodena only nodded, her eyes lingering on him before her attention returned to the shore. “Ye got them all, aye? André’s pirates that were making this land their own?”
“Ye knew his name then?” Elspeth said, surprised.
“Aye,” she confirmed. “I have watched all the comings and goings around here for years.” Her eyes went to Fraser. “From Captain MacLomain with the lass carved into his prow to the other pirates roaming these shores.”
She could tell by the way her daughter looked from Fraser to her that she recognized the woman on the prow as Elspeth. She also realized, much to her shock, that her daughter did not particularly fear pirates.
“Aye, we killed all of André’s men,” Elspeth replied to Cullodena’s question. “His crew are gone now.” She looked at her curiously as she gestured to the dying fire nearby. “Did ye light that?” Her daughter was no doubt a clever girl if not a risk-taker. And she had made it clear she watched everything closely. Perhaps even the battle they just fought and who might have survived it. “Mayhap ye lit it on purpose to lure André this way?”
“I did light it.” Cullodena nodded. “And aye, ’twas to lure him this way.” Her look was very matter-of-fact and her tone nowhere near sorry. “I saw an opportunity, and I took it.” She frowned at André’s broken body. “I’ve seen what this man is capable of.”
“’Twas verra dangerous for ye to do,” Elspeth murmured. “Ye could have been hurt.”
“But I wasnae.” Her eyes returned to Elspeth. “Nor were ye.”
“Och,” she began, but Fraser came to her daughter’s rescue and spoke first. “Ye cannae fault the lassie for being so much like her mother, aye?” He winked at Elspeth. “Courageous if not trying at times.”
She supposed he had her there.
Cullodena’s eyes went from Fraser to his ships bobbing in the harbor. “Though I didnae trust getting too close, I always knew ’twas a good thing when those ships arrived.” Her eyes went to his. “That ye were seeing to your people.”
“Your people, lass,” he said softly. “They are verra much your kin.”
“Fraser and his men are friends, not foe,” Elspeth assured before she explained all he had done for them before they arrived on these shores. “We are here to protect and help ye and yours any way we can.”
Cullodena’s sharp eyes returned to Fraser. “Yet many pirates come here for other reasons.”
Fraser’s brows swept up at her vague implication. “Such as?”
“I think ye know.” Her eyes went from Douglas to Elspeth. “I think ye all know.”
It seemed her daughter was knowledgeable about her kin’s history.
“Ye know about it, aye?” Elspeth murmured. “Ye have heard of the MacLauchlin treasure.”
“Verra few in these parts havenae.” Cullodena watched them closely. “So are ye here for treasure too then?”
Elspeth met Fraser’s eyes before she looked at her daughter again. It was time to come clean. So she urged her to sit on a rock beside her then shared everything from the very beginning. She left nothing out. From she and Fraser falling in love to her kidnapping, then the years since.
After she finished, Cullodena eyed Fraser for a long moment. “So ye became something ye disliked so much to find my mother?” Her eyes drifted to his sh
ip again as she whispered, “I heard tale that ye sought to avenge the lass that sat on your prow and I always wondered who she was. What sort of person inspired such passion.”
“Now ye know,” Fraser murmured. “I would have become a pirate several times over to save your ma.”
She nodded, as her eyes returned to him then took in Elspeth’s outfit with a small smile. “It seems many have embraced the ways of a pirate to see justice served.” Her eyes fell to André whose blank, lifeless eyes stared at the sky. “To see men the likes of him no more.”
“Aye,” Elspeth agreed. “He is but part of your past now, lassie.”
“Good.” Cullodena gave him one last disgusted look. “I am verra happy I was part of his demise.” Her eyes met Elspeth’s. “For all he has done to us and our kin.”
“Aye, my lass.” She nodded. “And whilst I dinnae like ye putting yourself in harm’s way, I’m thankful for your brave actions.” Pride lit her eyes as she gazed at her daughter. “Ye are verra talented with the bow.”
Her daughter grinned. “Thank ye.”
Confident enough that their reunion was going well, curiosity won over, and she asked a few more questions.
“How did ye end up here, Cullodena? So far from your original home?” She shook her head, baffled. “How did ye end up on what was once MacLauchlin land?”
So she told them.
Apparently, one of Estienne’s men had snagged her to give to a lass he was wooing. A woman desperate for a child of her own. By the sounds of it, though not right in the head, she had not mistreated Cullodena. Still, her daughter led a poor life surrounded by vagrant pirates that came and went. A life where she needed to learn to fight and protect herself if she hoped to survive.
“The lass who called herself my ma protected me the best she could but ’twas still wise to be on guard,” Cullodena explained. “When sickness came to the village, and she died, I knew I couldnae stay on any longer.” She shook her head. “So I gathered up those who wished to travel with me and headed this way. The MacLauchlin name was all I had to follow thanks to your words that night.”
Thank the good Lord she had said them then.
“Did the woman who called herself your mother have a sister?” Elspeth asked, thinking back on André’s wench and her assurance that Elspeth’s child was dead.
“Aye, actually,” she replied. “A coarse woman with a sympathetic heart in the end.”
When Elspeth looked at her in question, she continued. “She never seemed to have much use for me but before I fled she embraced me and told me to be strong just like ye had. She said I had a chance at a new life. She swore she would say I was dead.” She shook her head. “No matter who asked or who they said they were.” She kept shaking her head. “’Cause no one was to be trusted.”
Elspeth nodded, never more grateful to anyone in her life than she was to that woman. Some mothers might get angry that they weren’t told their daughter was alive but she knew better. She understood the life of pirates and most especially the tyrant André had been. Had he found out about Cullodena everything might have gone very differently.
“Well I’m grateful she looked after you in the end,” Elspeth said softly, brushing a lock of hair from her daughter’s forehead like she used to when she was little. “It must have been quite the journey across Scotland for ye.”
“’Twas not so bad,” Cullodena said. “I’ve always been good in the woodland and know how to survive.”
“Just like your great-great grandmother who first led our ancestors to the east coast,” she murmured as she embraced her again, so grateful to have found her. It was a miracle she had survived. A blessing, actually, that she had not suffered a far worse fate. But then it seemed she had angels along the way.
“Might I meet your people?” Elspeth asked as she pulled back. “Might I see where ye have been living?”
When Cullodena hesitated, her eyes flickering back to Fraser, he said, “I will stay behind if ’twould make ye more comfortable, lass.”
Wise beyond her years, she eyed him for another moment before she shook her head. “Nay, ye are a different sort, Fraser MacLomain.” Her eyes flickered from Elspeth back to him. “The sort I’d be glad to call kin.”
Elspeth could tell by the relieved look in Fraser’s eyes when he nodded, that her words meant a lot. They meant a lot to her as well.
Her daughter stood, and whistled, the sound almost identical to a bird. Moments later, having been in hiding, a few people appeared through the woods. Cullodena made brief introductions before she took the newcomers aside, spoke softly then returned to Elspeth.
“My friends have agreed to welcome all of ye.” She started into the forest. “Follow me.”
They remained in the woods for a short time before they entered a cave that seemed to wrap back the way they had come. Though not as steep, they proceeded to go downhill through a mix of wider caverns and smaller tunnels. Essentially, they were heading for the shore again. Where they came out was cushioned by cliffs and remote enough that it was hidden from the ocean.
“I know this place,” Fraser commented as his eyes went to a waterfall off to their right. “I came here often as a child.”
“Aye then?” She grinned and teased him. “And just think ye might have been close to a long lost treasure.”
“Aye,” he murmured as he took her hand and looked at her with adoration. “Treasure now found.”
Warmed by the affectionate light in his eyes, she was about to respond but stopped short as a small community of people appeared.
“Am I seeing correctly?” she said softly, not referring to the people.
“Ye are,” Fraser murmured as they stared at a stone peeking out of a flat overgrown area. A rock the exact color of Elspeth’s stones. A rock they realized sat on what must be an old foundation.
They smiled as their eyes met.
Against the odds, they had found what they were looking for.
They had arrived at the ruins of MacLauchlin Castle.
Chapter Seventeen
As it turned out, Cullodena and the handful of people traveling with her had made their homes in the various caves around the castle ruins. In truth, Fraser was amazed they had not been discovered up to this point. It spoke to their discretion and cunning.
Yet despite their cautionary way of living, they proved more receptive to welcoming him and Elspeth than he expected. But then, as they soon discovered, their love tale was now legendary. As was how he once saved a small village on the eastern shores of Scotland.
So Cullodena had known this all along. Who he was. That he could be trusted. Yet she still felt him out. Just as she did now while they sat together around a small fire. “What would ye do if ye found the MacLauchlin treasure, Captain MacLomain?”
He didn’t have to consider that long.
“I would see enough go to the crew of The Sea Hellions for fighting on behalf of Elspeth and me,” he replied. “Then the rest would go to protecting ye and your people. All of your people.” He eyed their surroundings. “Mayhap by rebuilding your castle here or closer to my kin.”
“Are your kin pirates like ye then?” she asked.
“Not nearly.” He chuckled. “But they are verra powerful and good allies to have.”
“Do ye miss them?”
“Aye.” His eyes went to Elspeth. “But I’ll see them again soon enough.”
“So ye’ll be leaving us then?” Cullodena’s gaze fell to Elspeth’s ring. “When ’tis clear ye are set to marry my ma.”
“I will be wherever she is,” he assured, squeezing his lass’s hand. “Which I imagine will be both places on different occasions.”
He could tell by the warmth in Elspeth’s eyes that she liked the sound of that. He also saw that she was finally ready to see if there was anything to be found at the end of a longstanding family vendetta.
“Might I use the stones then, Daughter?” Love shone in Elspeth’s eyes as they turned back to her daughter
. “Might we at long last see where they lead?… if they lead to anything at all?”
Cullodena looked back and forth between her and Fraser before her eyes went to her people. “What say ye, friends? And consider carefully. Because if they find something, our lives will change forever.”
The girl closest to her leaned over and squeezed her hand. “I think it already has.” She looked at Fraser and Elspeth. “For the better.” Then her eyes returned to Cullodena. “I think some part of ye always hoped the treasure might bring kin your way…that some good might come from that terrible night ye lost them.”
Cullodena’s eyes grew moist before she nodded then looked Fraser and Elspeth’s way. “Aye, then.”
Elspeth smiled at her daughter before she looked at the sky. The sun was just beginning to set, but a bright star in the north was already visible. That had to be it. So she lined up the stones on the castle ruins just as she had on his desk. Almost immediately they saw the landmarks pieced together by the marks. The jagged archway below the star, then what lay beyond.
“A stretch of broken mossy land,” Elspeth whispered as her eyes went to her daughter’s. “Just like your name…your favorite spot.”
“Aye,” Cullodena said softly as she urged them to follow her in that direction.
On the other side of the archway, they found a unique spot vulnerable to the elements. A waterfall poured down a sheet of rock into a muddied pool tucked back under a wedge of mossy rock. Bereft of sunlight, the only thing the area offered was a vantage point of the ocean that he knew would be hidden from ships. All and all, it was by no means a spot he would think a young girl would enjoy let alone favor so highly that she named herself after it.
But then, like her mother, Cullodena was no average lass.
A fact she soon proved.
“I have stood here often and watched the sea,” she murmured, nostalgic. “I always knew that it would be a pirate that reconnected me with what I lost so long ago.” Her eyes went to Elspeth. “That it would be the verra beast who stole my life that would someday return it to me.” Her voice softened. “Or should I say ’twas a hero who returned it to me.”
The Seafaring Rogue Page 14