by Pride, Mia
“’Tis the verra problem. She is wee and innocent. She doesnae ken the danger she puts herself in. My grandmother was fierce, as is Kat, but she kens how to command men. Kat only kens how to bring them to their knees. I cannae trust the lass.”
Juan cleared his throat and rubbed his beard. “Bring them to their knees?”
“Och, aye. Have ye not seen how the men look at her? She kens she is a beauty. Drives the men mad, she does. She is a distraction is what she is and I will kill any man who touches my wee sister.”
“What does this have to do with me, Mas—Tomas?”
“Naught. I am simply rambling. Nay, I called on ye because I need yer help. I have received a missive from the queen. War and conflict abound, and I am needed in two countries at once. Last time I checked, I cannae split myself in two.” Tomas grunted and shifted his stance, placing his hands on his hips as he watched his men load cargo onto one of his skiffs. “I trust ye with my life, Juan. And, I trust ye with one of my ships.”
Looking up at the large vessel wading in the water as it was loaded with supplies for a journey, Juan crinkled his brow and looked back at Tomas. “I am not certain what you are saying.”
“Juan. Ye have had my back since the day we met. Ye are a quiet, mysterious man. I ken there are things in yer past I dinnae ken, but I dinnae care. I ken who ye are as a man and that is all I need. As Governor of Connacht and one of the queen’s trusted men… as well as our… side ventures… I simply cannae be everywhere I need to be. I have offered to have a ship take ye home, and ye say nay. So, I will offer ye this: I want ye to be captain of this ship.” Tomas pointed at the large vessel. “Ye will have a full crew and ye will be me when I cannae be where I need to be.”
“Be… you?” Juan asked, shaking his head. Tomas was entrusting him with a ship? “I am but a slave, Tomas.”
“We both ken that is utter bollocks. I never met a slave in my life as intelligent and knowledgeable as ye. I dinnae ken who ye were, my mysterious Spaniard, but ye are nay slave. Ye are Captain Juan Alejandro Sanchez if ye wish to be. That is my wish for ye. Say aye.”
Looking back and forth between the vessel and Tomas, Juan thought about what he was being offered. An opportunity to sail the seas once again, to be a leader of men once again, to show strength, yet mercy, something that was not given on his last galleon. Most importantly, he was being offered an opportunity to be of use to Tomas, who had saved his life and worked tirelessly to help the people of Ireland yet balance his loyalty as an English knight and servant to Queen Elizabeth. It was time for him to do more, be more.
“Si. I accept. You put your trust in me and I shall not let you down.”
“Och, I ken that already,” Tomas said, waving away Juan’s vow. “Ye are helping me out. The queen is in a panic. There is war brewing up north in Ulster. Hugh O’Neill is causing more trouble with the queen’s Royal Irish Army once more, not that I blame him. I am finding it verra hard to remain loyal to both the queen and to Ireland. I must ride up north immediately and attempt to stop the madness before it is too late.”
“You are going to help the Irish, si?” Juan asked with a smirk.
“Without a doubt.” Laughing, Tomas smacked Juan in the back, then folded his arms across his body. “As for yer business, the queen is still paranoid about another Spanish Armada coming for her.”
Shaking his head, Juan looked at Tomas and frowned. “No. Spain is without resources. Our last attempt was blown away by a storm, as you know. My ship made it to Ireland and was blown to bits by your wife’s father. That was King Philip’s final attempt. He has too many enemies and not enough gold. He cannot put together another armada if he tried… and I doubt he will, for he is very old now.”
“Ye may be right, but I have also received word that our Scottish brethren, the Devils of the Deep, found a Spanish galleon in their waters and have captured it. They now hold the crew as prisoners at their stronghold. The queen heard news of this and believes more will arrive. She has asked me to go to Castle Dheomhan to find out why the Spanish were sailing near her waters. No English ships can get near the castle without being plundered, but I obviously can, being a… privateer for the queen,” Tomas winked.
Though it was well known he was a pirate, the queen had seen to her own interests and given Tomas privateer papers, making him legally allowed to take over enemy ships and claim their loot in the name of the queen. What she also knew, was that Tomas was related to the Scottish faction of pirates through his father. In fact, the “Savage” their first pirate lord, was his great-great-grandfather. This meant Tomas could come and go freely, and the queen took much advantage, as did Tomas on all sides.
“Ye want me, a Spaniard, to visit Castle Dheomhan, home of the Devils of the Deep, who are holding other Spaniard’s prisoner, to discover what is happening for a queen who would kill me on sight as the enemy, si?”
“Aye.”
“This sounded better when you simply were giving me a ship and a crew,” Juan grunted, doing his best to hide the real tension knotting his stomach. He had hoped never to see another countryman again. His face was one that would not go unnoticed by almost any well-traveled Spaniard. He would have to lay low and do what he could by avoiding any man that appeared higher in rank than a servant.
“I take it the Beast of the Bay is not afraid of a few hundred Scottish pirates?” Tomas goaded, clearly seeing the hesitation on Juan’s face.
Realizing he had gone rigid, Juan did his best to breath slowly and shift his stance. “Fear is no longer an emotion I own.” After losing his wife and child, there was nothing in this world that could frighten him. Let the queen draw and quarter him, send his severed head back to Tomas. With nothing to live for, he had nothing to lose. That made for a rather fearless, cold man. No wonder he had been named the Beast. He had faced more danger without batting an eye this past fortnight alone than most men saw in a lifetime.
“As I have noticed. I trust ye to do as needed and arrive back in one piece, aye?” Tomas seemed to understand the seriousness of the task. Of course, he did, for he had been present for every danger Juan had faced, as well. They had remained at each other’s side through it all… until now.
“Si. I shall do my best. If I perish…” Juan shrugged and flattened his lips. “So be it.”
“Ye need a woman, Juan. Someone to live for. Ye are too fearless. ’Tis worrisome.”
Tomas’ words hit Juan in the heart like the sharpest of arrows. He had had a woman once and look where that had left him.
“Living for nothing is how I live.”
“Verra well. I will leave ye to it. Get this ship ready for sea. The men already ken ye are their captain. Captain Beast, they call ye. I doubt a mutiny is in yer future. They all think ye are a devil.” Laughing, Tomas smacked Juan in the back and nodded, walking away from the dock.
Looking up at the sky, Juan took in the last clouds floating across the early August sky. A cold wind blew his hair, soothing his sweaty neck. He had not realized how much the risk of being seen had affected him. Death would be better than being forced back to Spain, to clean up the mess his true father had left, to be made to live a life he had never wanted.
Turning to his ship, Juan hopped up the rope ladder and jumped onto the deck, always enjoying the sound of his boots hitting the smooth wood floors, the rustle of the ropes holding the furled sails above him. Looking around, he saw men hoisting bags of grain while others rolled barrels of ale.
His ship. His crew. No longer a slave, and no longer… who he was born to be. Yet, as the smell of the salty sea hit his nostrils and a seagull called from the mast above, Juan was certain about one thing: he was where he was meant to be. And, he was the man to do what Tomas needed, for he feared no punishment, no God, no sword. There was no fate worse than anything he had already lived through.
Davy Jones had better watch his arse because the Beast of Clew Bay was ready to sail his waters.
Chapter Two
Slappi
ng the playing cards down on the rickety wooden table in the alehouse, Kat smiled and kicked up her boots, tilting her hat to the four burly men surrounding her. “That’s a quartet, gentlemen. Four of a kind. I’ll be taking this,” she scooped the coins across the wet, uneven table surface, placing them in her leather pouch. “Thank ye.”
“Ye are a sneaky lass. Ye said ye never played Primero before!” one of the men, missing more teeth than he kept, spat at her.
Shrugging, she stood up and shook her pouch. “Is not fooling yer opponents part of the game?” New crew members came through Clew Bay daily, believing her a foolish woman when she decided to join in on their hand, and slightly daft for being dressed as a man, which was just fine with her, if it resulted in her coin purse being heavy with Spanish gold.
“Ye wee bitch!” Another man quickly sat up from his seat, knocking over the chair. “Ye lied to us!”
“Nay, I fooled ye. ’Tis not the same. And I won, fair and square. Ye can be mad all ye want, but if I were a man, ye would not be so prickly about it. Afraid yer crew will discover ye were taken by a lass?” She smirked and turned to leave the alehouse, yelping when she felt a hand grab her arm and squeeze painfully.
“Give me the gold back, ye wee bitch, or I will take it… and ye.”
Spinning around, Kat looked into the muddy brown eyes of the toothless man and attempted to jerk out of his grip. “Let me go, ye… smelly codfish!” Stomping down on his foot, she shifted when the man roared in pain and released her arm, but she felt herself being grabbed from behind by another man.
“Ye think ye can take on all four of us?” a man snarled, pinning her arms behind her back.
“If ye touch me, ye will regret it, I assure ye,” Kat responded, feeling her panic rising. “Have ye nay idea who runs Clew Bay?”
“Ye trying to tell me ye are the Pirate Queen of Ireland,” one of the men said wryly and stepped into her space, lowering his face to hers. “I have always wondered what it would be like to have me way with royalty,” he snickered. Kat spat in his face but could not dodge when the man’s open hand smacked her across the face, causing her head to snap back. Things may have gotten a wee bit out of hand. She had done naught wrong. Men simply hated to lose out to a woman, but these four could not stand the loss.
The sound of a grunt followed by a gurgling sound made Kat gasp, watching the man who had slapped her fall to the ground in the alehouse as everything else went silent and the man holding her hands released her. Blood oozed from a knife wound in her assailant’s chest and when she looked up, she saw Juan hovering over her with a bloody dagger in his hand and fire in his eyes.
“You other men want to feel my blade in your chest?” he growled and lunged menacingly at the other men, who backed away slowly with their hands in the air.
“’Tis the Beast!” Toothless said, sounding as if he were saying “beef” through his intense lisp.
“We are not wantin’ trouble, mister… Beast. This lass here tricked us out of our gold!”
Juan’s eyes glanced at her and she shook her head, silently telling him she was no cheater. There was no honor to be had in playing unfairly.
“The lass won her money, money you were fools enough to gamble with. Now go before I saw your heads off and tie them to the stern of my ship!” Juan roared. “Touch the lass again and you will have no cocks left.”
Yelping and running into each other like idiots, they nearly knocked one another down as they scrambled for the door.
“I can handle myself, ye ken.” Kat straightened her hat and put her hands on her hips. How dare Juan think she needed a man’s help? Women may not be as strong physically, but they had their own wiles and defenses.
“Oh, si? Did you? My apologies,” Juan growled before taking her by the arm and dragging her away from the alehouse.
“Hey! What are ye doing? Leave me alone!” Kat kicked Juan in the shin, but he kept on pulling her away. When he opened the door, the bright summer sun blinded her, making her vulnerable. Feeling Juan take both arms, she was pushed against the side of a wall, opening her eyes against the light to see the Beast glaring menacingly down at her.
“You want to get yourself killed?” He pushed her harder against the wall and she felt her breath quicken at the real intensity in his dark eyes, like mirrors into his mysterious soul. She knew nothing about Juan except that she could trust him with her life.
“What do ye care?” she asked defiantly. “Ye only help me because I am Tomas’ sister! Other than that, ye dinnae care about me at all, do ye?”
“No, I do not. You’re reckless and stubborn, always finding trouble. You talk too much and think you can do whatever you want. But there won’t always be someone around to protect you!”
His words stung and she frowned at him. She did not care how he felt about her at all, but if he thought she needed a man to protect her, then he had no right to judge her, for he knew nothing about her.
“Then why are ye still standing here?” she huffed and pushed at his chest, dismayed when the man made of stone did not budge.
“I am not sure. I thought maybe I could talk some sense into you but, do as you will. Tomas is on his way north and I will be on a ship to Scotland by the morning, so you will be on your own here, Kat, and I wish you well. I do hope you are still alive when I arrive home. But after what I have seen today, I doubt it.” Tipping his head, he released her shoulders from his iron grip and turned toward the docks. Kat couldn’t help but watch his firm backside flex with every step, biting her lower lip. The mad was an arse, but he had a mighty fine arse, as well.
Tomas was heading north? She had caught wind of a battle brewing between that O’Neill man and some of the Royal Irish Army who fought for the queen… cursed traitors. Tomas was loyal to the queen to a point, because he had to be as a knight who vowed to protect her long before arriving in Ireland and finding his roots, yet he worked hard for the people of Ireland, trying to keep the peace and, these wars were making his life difficult. But, what did Juan mean about sailing to Scotland? On what ship? Under whose command? He was not a captain.
Feeling her leather pouch, anger flared when she heard no clink of coins. Looking down, she saw it had been untied and was now empty. “That thieving… Spanish… pirate!” she roared and stomped her foot. She was surrounded by pirates. Christ all mighty, her entire family consisted of them. But nobody pirated from the fecking granddaughter of the Pirate Queen!
Storming back to her grandmother’s castle, Rockfleet, Kat opened the door, banging it against the wall. “Where is Tomas?” she shouted.
Katherine rounded the corner with a frown on her face and her finger to her lips. “Shush! Ian is finally asleep! He nurses all day. My nipples feel like they have been attacked by a swarm of bees and I cannae stand it if he awakens and wants on the breast again.”
“Bleh.” Kat grimaced. Why must her sister by marriage share such things? “I willnae wake him, if only to avoid hearing ye speak of yer nipples ever again. Where is my brother?”
“He is gone. Left for Ulster. What is the matter?” Katherine sat down on a cushioned chair and kicked up her feet, yawning widely and closing her eyes. “I need some sleep.”
“His… whatever he is… Juan stole from me!”
“What did he steal?” Katherine asked softly, looking as if she were going to be asleep before her sentence was even finished.
“My coins! I was playing Primero with some of the men at the alehouse when things got a bit… rough after I won. Juan came along and stabbed a man to death… not that he didnae deserve it…” Rubbing her sore jaw, Kat sighed. “He believed he was a hero of some sort, then dragged me outside for a scolding, only to steal my hard-won coins!”
Katherine cracked open one of her eyes and smiled slightly, chuckling under her breath.
“What is so funny?” Kat asked, wishing she could simply run off and be away from her entire family who saw her as naught but a jest.
“Juan is a capable pickp
ocket. Sounds to me like he saved yer arse and taught ye a lesson about gambling and brawling. Ye are a lass, Kat. I ken ye were raised by pirates and ye are tough as nails, I will give ye that. But ye are stubborn and it will cost ye greatly someday if ye dinnae learn. Now, I am going to just… rest my eyes…”
Katherine’s words sat heavy in Kat’s stomach, echoing the same sentiments Juan had so very bluntly shared. Did everyone think she was just a loud, stubborn lass? Well… she was, aye. But she was more than that. She was brave and knew she had to fight for what she wanted in life. No man was going to do what was best for her. She had seen that enough with her grandmother and her own mother, Maeve. Men would take advantage if a woman was not strong enough and she would never be a victim… not again.
Looking at Katherine, who had also been mistreated by her English father before she met Tomas, she realized every woman around her had been used by men. Tomas was one of the few good men in this world and he took good care of his wife and child. Katherine had been fortunate to earn the love of such an honorable man, but Kat knew she would be on her own if she were to succeed in this life. It was too risky to put one’s trust in another human.
Tomas may be gone, but Juan was still here until the morning and he had her coins. She would get them back and show him who he was up against. She could fight and steal just as well as any man.
Nothing was more beautiful than the sun setting on the horizon, turning the sky a radiant pink and orange, mirrored on the surface of the still waters. It seemed the entire world was a medley of floral hues for as far as the eye could see. Sitting on a rock near the docks, Kat held her chin in her hands and watched the ships rocking slowly as men loaded the last bit of cargo for the day. Soon, the men would stop their work and move on to their nightly festivities of drinking, gambling, and chasing skirts, which meant Kat would be able to act.
Spending most of the day staking out the ship Juan was to set sail on and observing its crew, she had not yet caught a sign of who the captain would be, not that it mattered in the end. She simply had to get her gold back without being seen, then disembark the ship before dawn. The only way to do that was to catch Juan off guard, preferably while he slept.