The Highlander's Pirate Lass (Brothers of Wolf Isle)

by McCollum, Heather

  “Thank you,” Eliza said, giving Hester a kiss too. “I hear they have kittens at Grissell’s place.”

  “Aye, white and black kittens,” Muriel said and clasped her daughter’s little hand. “We will have fun and bake some biscuits. Grissell loves biscuits.”

  Eliza turned to her new crew, each of them watching her with stern expressions. She nodded. “Everyone dress for sea and find your weapons.” She looked at Liam. “Perhaps Jasper can find you a dagger and sword.”

  Jasper frowned but nodded. He turned to stride toward the castle, and Eliza waved at Liam to follow him. Liam looked unsure. She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Do not kill him, Jasper. We need six sets of hands to sail the Calypso.”

  “I will try my best,” Jasper said over his shoulder, making Liam glance back at Eliza.

  She shrugged. “He said he’d try his best.” She flipped her hand after him to get him moving and turned to Alice. “Our clothes?”

  “Fresh and up in our rooms,” she said.

  They strode toward the castle, Beck’s castle, to ready to take Beck’s ship. She rubbed a hand against the hollow feeling in her stomach. What would he think if he returned to see his ship missing? I might be back before then. Not if he returned on the morrow, but there was no helping it. She must do everything she could to save Captain John, her crew, and her brother, Peter. Even trading yourself for him?

  Maybe.

  …

  Beck threw his energy into pulling on the oars as questions and curses churned in his head. Why was Eliza rowing back over to Wolf Isle with bloody Liam? Wasn’t she having her woman’s monthly and not feeling well? He glanced at the packet of raspberry leaf brew he’d obtained from the apothecary on Mull when he’d disembarked the Beast before it sailed.

  After snapping at his brothers over and over as they prepared to leave, Adam had taken him aside and basically thrown him off Tor’s ship. I’ll tell Cullen ye were detained.

  I need to be with her.

  I can tell. We all can.

  I am not breaking things off with her.

  I see that.

  No matter what the bloody curse says.

  Then go.

  When he couldn’t find Eliza in Aros Castle, he’d walked back through the village and spotted her rowing with Liam across the narrow stretch of water.

  “What the bloody hell is she doing?” Muscles straining, Beck threw his weight into the oars, battling the choppy waves. It had taken him a quarter hour to find another rowboat to borrow.

  Maybe Eliza just wanted to return to Alice and her children with news about their Captain John, but Liam’s presence worried him. Liam Maclean had been shunned after his traitorous dealings two years ago. Why he remained on Mull was a mystery, but Liam continued to try to convince people that he was, in truth, honorable. Had he convinced Eliza to help him do something foolish?

  Ocean spray coated Beck’s face as he rowed through the white caps that had kicked up with the growing breeze. Stroke. Bloody hell. Stroke. Damn, I should have stayed. Stroke. Did she lie to me? A small thought bored into him. Is Eliza leaving? Her farewell had sounded final.

  “She is just going to Gylin,” he said, and the words made his stomach untwist somewhat. Captain John was on Wentworth’s ship, and the Devil’s Blood had lost a mast in battle and needed numerous repairs. Nay. Eliza wasn’t going anywhere.

  He pulled in deep breaths as he rowed until he hit the beach. The power in his rowing propelled him high enough that his boots stayed dry when he jumped out, dragging the boat ashore. He jogged past the tethered Macquarie boat toward Gylin. The portcullis was down, and no one was in the bailey except for Whisky and her pups. They barked as he yanked open the unlocked door in the wall, nearly shattering the old hinges. The dogs ran on his heels across the bailey as if this were a game.

  “Eliza!” he yelled, running into Gylin. He stopped in the great hall to listen. Vacancy permeated the air as the dogs’ nails tapped across the stone floor. He took the winding steps two at a time to reach the floor where Eliza shared a room with Anders. Throwing the door open, he stared at the trunk, its lid flipped open. He closed his eyes and exhaled. She would have taken it with her if she’d left for good.

  After striding down the hall, he descended the stairs quickly. “Eliza? Alice? Jasper?” he called, his voice booming, but silence was the only answer. Where was everyone?

  Go after Jandeau now, before Captain Wentworth can sail away. Trade Jandeau for Captain John.

  Beck sucked in a large breath, his hands curling into fists. He straightened as Eliza’s words caught at his pulse. “Bloody foking hell, Eliza,” he said, his voice more like a growl. She was going after Jandeau without him. And she was going on the only ship available to her—the Calypso.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Eliza jumped up to the upper deck of the Calypso. The carrack ship was less than a year old and still smelled of new wood and polish. Beck’s pride and joy. She grimaced and pushed her remorse away.

  Must save John. And her crew. They had taken her in, protecting her from the age of twelve when she’d swung aboard in John’s arms, Jandeau snarling behind him. Kofi had immediately picked her up in his large, tattooed arms. His murderous face had made her nearly piss herself. But he’d met her terrified gaze with kindness in his eyes, the white around his irises seeming so bright in his dark face. I had a daughter once, he’d said. You are safe with me.

  From that day on, the large man had stepped between her and any man who wished her harm. And now Kofi, John, and the rest would swing by the neck because they’d sought Jandeau to find Peter. Peter. Her baby brother. She’d abandoned him, and now they were paying for her selfishness.

  The cold spring breeze blew against the heat in her cheeks, and she was glad she had her long wool and leather captain’s coat that John had given her last Christmas. She grabbed the smooth handle of the whipstaff that was tied to the tiller below deck, which, in turn, worked the rudder under the ship to steer it. “Pip, up the ratlines on the main mast. Liam, unfurl the mainsail,” she called out and looked to Jasper who stood next to her. “I need your strength on the relieving tackle to help me steer this beast from shore.” It helped the rudder maneuver with better accuracy.

  “Anders,” she called, “unfurl the foresail and raise it on my mark.”

  “Alice, untie the ropes so we can raise all the sails when I say.”

  And that was it, only six of them to guide this ship away from the shallows surrounding Wolf Isle. She’d stood beside Captain John for years, studying his every move, believing one day she would have a ship of her own. He had even let her steer the Devil’s Blood from time to time. She will be yours someday, he’d said. Her heart squeezed at the memory. But this was different. This was Beck’s ship, and she must meet Wentworth and conquer Jandeau to save everyone she cared about. Except Beck.

  She touched the pendant she wore under her tunic. The hardness of it reminded her of the strength she’d seen in her mother as she fought Jandeau’s men to the bloody end. Jandeau. The devil himself. “I will see you on the end of my blade,” she murmured, watching everyone scurry to do what she’d asked.

  The wind had picked up, which was good, but it made pulling away tricky. “Liam, raise the foresail and then the mainsail.” Anders ran to help him. As the sails rose, she felt the ship tug under her, making her heart race. The dock ties were undone, the anchor raised, and the sea and wind were working together to pull the Calypso away from her berth.

  This is going to work.

  “What the bloody hell are ye doing?”

  Beck’s voice boomed from the hatch behind her that led to the captain’s cabin. She jumped, turning to see him already halfway out, using his immense arms to propel himself onto the deck.

  “Ye are stealing my ship!” He answered his own question, so she turned back to face the bow despite not b
eing able to draw a full breath. He’d come back from the wedding for her.

  “Anders, raise the mainsail completely,” she called.

  “Nay!” Beck yelled, coming up next to her. “And ye stay right where ye are, Jasper,” he said, his arm out toward him. Jasper kept his hands wrapped around the lines.

  “Stad! Stop! All of ye,” he yelled and continued in a mix of heavily accented English and Scots Gaelic, his anger making his words warble together like the violent rush of water over rocks.

  He grabbed her arm, and she turned to face him. The sun, breaking through the clouds, made the gray in his eyes seem almost blue. Everything about his face was hard and determined. A drop of water slid down his forehead from his hair.

  “You are wet,” she said.

  “Because I had to foking swim to my ship that was pulling away from my dock. My ship!”

  She glanced at the hatch. “You came through your cabin.”

  He shook droplets from his head. “Up through the damn jakes.”

  Her mouth dropped open. He’d climbed up the side of the ship and punched out the hole that he pissed through. She was sorry, sorry for all of it, especially the hard look of betrayal on his face. But she couldn’t give in to any of that now. She turned back. “I have work to do,” she said.

  He looked out where she was steering. “And ye are going to run my ship aground.”

  “Then help me,” she fired back.

  Beck drew a full breath through his clenched teeth. “Anders, raise the mizzen sail,” he called and looked to Jasper. “Get ready to pull. We must get around the boulders up there just under the surface.” Jasper nodded once and coiled the thick rope around his arms, planting his boots on the deck.

  “Pull!” he yelled, and Eliza turned the whipstaff as far as she could so the wind would catch and blow them out. Jasper pulled, too, helping the tiller below deck turn as tightly as possible. Beck took off in a run, jumping down from the upper deck to help Liam and Alice unloop another thick rope. “Raise the top sails!” he yelled. He grabbed the lines, pulling with Alice and Liam to raise the higher sails that Pip had untied before sliding down. The wind snapped the sails over, pulling the Calypso away from the land, the deck tilting at a sharp angle. All Eliza could do was work with Jasper to hold the tiller as far over as possible. She watched Beck run across the deck to look over the side at the water below. The tide had gone out farther than was safe.

  He grabbed a long, thick pole that lay inside the gunwale. Throwing it over, he aimed it farther up the ship. “Liam,” he yelled, and the man ran to him. The two of them pushed down against the pole, even rising up off the deck with their full body weights to push away from the rocks below.

  The sound of the ship’s hull scraping against rock vibrated dread up Eliza’s back. “Dammit,” she said, the word coming from between gritted teeth. Would she tear a hole in the hull, sinking the ship before she could even get out to Wentworth?

  Beck and Liam lifted the pole back up and placed it again, repeating the push.

  The wind snapped at the sails. “Boom about!” Eliza yelled, and Pip, Anders, and Alice all ducked as the boom swung with the wind, catching it fully and making the ship list harder to the side. Everyone braced themselves.

  “Haul on the line to the main mast, Alice,” she called, to make the sail tighter. They were all working together. Even Pip was leaning over the rail, yelling to Beck about what she could see.

  Lord God, don’t let me destroy Beck’s ship.

  Time moved forward with the pounding of her heart, and the ship tilted away from the land, the bow pointing toward the open sea. “West,” she called, and continued to hold the whipstaff tight in its turn.

  Beck dropped the pole along the deck, his stride closing the distance between them. His face was red with anger, and he jumped back up onto the aft deck.

  “You can let up, Jasper,” she said, and the man uncoiled the tackle rope. As Beck stopped before Eliza, Jasper strode down to the lower deck, leaving her there with a fuming Highlander.

  “Ye stole my bloody ship,” he said, the words grinding out.

  “You wouldn’t help me,” she said, looking past him.

  “Help ye with what? Saving Captain John?”

  “Aye!” she yelled, her eyes flashing with her own fury. “By meeting Wentworth.”

  He stared at her as if she were mad for a moment. “Ye said ye were ill. Ye lied about having your monthly flux?”

  She stared straight ahead.

  “Dammit, Eliza! Are ye with child?”

  Her gaze snapped to him. “How in hell would I know that? We were just together two nights ago.”

  “Mo chreach,” he said, his hands raking up through his hair to grab his neck like it pained him. He looked out to the water, dropping his arms. “Where are we going? Ye said to meet Wentworth. For what purpose?”

  Liam cupped his hands from below. “To kill Jandeau.” Dammit, they could all hear their conversation.

  “To catch Jandeau and to trade for Captain John and the crew,” Anders called right after him.

  Eliza turned her gaze to Beck. As if he felt it, he met her stare. Let him see the truth in her eyes. “And to save my brother,” she said.

  “Your brother?” The furrow between his brows deepened. “He is alive?”

  She nodded and looked back out as they followed Wolf Isle toward its end. “Captain John found out that he still lives. Peter was given to a woman in port to raise, and Jandeau has reclaimed him.”

  “And Wentworth wants him,” Beck said, following the logic.

  “More than he wants to take Captain John to London,” she said. “But if we don’t capture Jandeau and save Peter, the deal is off and my family hangs.”

  “Jandeau won’t surrender your brother easily.”

  “Nay, he won’t, but there is something he wants more than Peter.” She looked at the strength in his face. “Me.”

  Beck grabbed her upper arms, holding her there as he pinned her with his stare. “I will never let that happen.”

  The tone was fierce, like an oath, and she swallowed. “I should have saved Peter when he was a babe. Instead, I did not even ask if he was alive. I let Captain John rescue me without mentioning that I had a brother who might still be on board that demon ship.”

  “Ye did not know, Eliza. How could ye?”

  “I bloody well could have asked,” she said, yanking herself away from him to focus on the horizon and the end of Wolf Isle.

  “Eliza,” he said, his voice stern, but with a tinge of kindness that made the pressure of tears tighten behind her eyes.

  “I am going to right my wrong and save my brother and Captain John and my family,” she said. “I wish that I had not had to steal your ship to do so.” She glanced at him. The wind ruffled his light-brown hair around his rugged features. “But I would do so again to save them.”

  “Sail ho!” Pip yelled from where she’d climbed up to the main topcastle. She pointed west.

  Eliza let out a breath in relief. Her uncle had kept his promise. “Wentworth,” she said, sliding the whipstaff to angle toward the English ship. It was large, a gunner for certain. No wonder the Devil’s Blood had been crippled.

  “We are not done discussing this,” Beck said.

  Beck jumped down to the level below her to disappear into the captain’s quarters. The sails caught the wind as they moved past the edge of the island, and the familiar feel of sailing fast with the wind made her inhale. The cool breeze, free of gun smoke, free of the taint of land, was sweet. The ship crested and dipped with the waves as they cut through them toward Wentworth’s ship. This was what freedom felt like to Eliza—except now her freedom felt weighted down with remorse.

  “His man is signaling to pull alongside,” Pip yelled from above.

  “If you see the Bourreau, get down,” And
ers called up to her. He was right. Nothing spurred Jandeau’s men to attack faster than seeing a beautiful child to take.

  Beck strode back out of his quarters, having traded his soaked Scotsman’s plaid for sailor’s clothes. He leaped up to stand beside her but did not tell her how to steer his ship. Instead, he watched, hands clasped behind his straight back, legs braced easily.

  The wind was steady, so she was able to guide the Calypso toward the English ship. “Furl the sails,” she called, and everyone on the decks scrambled to lower them. Beck joined them as she steered. His trews hugged his narrow hips, showing the tightness of his arse under a short leather jerkin that he wore over a white tunic. His short hair shifted in the wind, and he called orders to Anders, Alice, and Jasper while Liam caught the mainsail below, wrapping it along the boom.

  Eliza felt the drag of the water as she steered toward where Captain Wentworth stood on his deck. Her breath caught as she saw Captain John standing next to him. They both watched her approach. At least ten sailors held poles ready to push the Calypso away if she slid into them, but the wind cooperated to allow Eliza to guide the boat alongside, nearly end to end.

  Captain John gave her a small nod of approval, and her heart swelled.

  “Your captain knows quite a lot about our mutual enemy,” Wentworth yelled across, his face grim. “He will be coming across to help you with some of my men while I hold the rest of his crew here.” John would make this work.

  Wentworth’s men swung across first, and then Captain John. His boots landed with a deep thud on the deck. Before the rope had even slid back, he strode across the deck toward Beck. John’s fist came around.

  “Beck!” Eliza yelled.

  She stared openmouthed as Beck caught the swing of Captain John’s arm, throwing him back, his fists rising to defend himself. Younger by at least ten years and full of muscle, Beck did not return the attack.

  “What the hell!” Eliza yelled down at John.

  “This is between a father and a reputed lover,” John yelled back without taking his gaze from Beck.