Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy (10 page)

“You told me that the pirates threw men overboard,” Alyson prompted. “But you did not see them fling anyone we know, did you?”

“No tae say ‘fling,’ ” Will said slowly and with audible reluctance.

“Did someone else
fall
in?” she asked, tensing, fearing for Niall.

Will was silent.

Behind her, Jake said with firmness that she had not heard from him before, “Tell us what you saw, Will. If it was dreadful, ’tis better for us to know.”

“It… it were Ciara,” the boy said, turning at last to look at Alyson, his misery plain to see. “She… she did fall, I think. Sithee, the ship they wanted her on were no the one that they’d said
we
should board. I think she were afeard tae get on t’other one by herself and afeard for ye, too, m’lady.”

Alyson swallowed hard and pressed her fingernails into the heels of her hands to give herself something else to think about. She did not want to lose her composure before Will and the men.

“Did she fall between those two ships?” Jake asked the boy.

“Aye, she did,” Will said, nodding. “The pirate ship were lower than what the
Maryenknyght
were. And they’d put a plank from railing tae railing. I’d no ha’ wanted tae walk across it m’self, and ye could see she were scarified. Them louts wouldna help her, neither. They just laughed and told her tae go. Then one o’ them gave her a wee push. No tae make her fall in, I think, only tae make her get a move on. But wi’ the down-slope and all, she lost her balance.”

Jake said quietly, “They could not have done much to save her after she fell, my lady. Likely, had they tried to lower a rope and pull her up, the two ships would have crushed her between them. Drowning was a better way to go.”

She knew that he meant to ease her distress. Instead, his words drew horrible images in her mind that seemed to loom and recede, each fighting others to inflict itself on her: One was of poor Ciara sinking, terrified, beneath the waves; the other of Ciara with two great ships flinging themselves at her from either side.

Bile rose in Alyson’s throat. Shutting her eyes after placing each foot on the next step, as if she could thereby banish the gruesome images, she concentrated on breathing deeply in and out, then opened her eyes and continued upward, still breathing deeply, until she could trust herself to think properly again.

“What about Niall, Will?” she asked at last, knowing that she had to learn all that she could. Otherwise, her imagination would exhaust itself, and her, suggesting increasingly horrible answers to her questions. “Did you see him or Sir Kentigern?”

“Aye,” the boy replied. “We saw them straightaway when them louts what captured us in your cabin took us topside. Niall and Mungo boarded the lead ship—the biggest one—with Orkney. He were a-talking tae the captain o’ that ship when them louts hustled me and Jamie on tae the deck from the ladder. They pushed us right tae that ship. And when their captain saw us…”

He paused and glanced back at Alyson.

Jake said, “What did the captain do, Will?”

In the brief second before Will replied, Alyson felt the tingling shiver again.

Will said, “Their captain said…” Clearing his throat, he added in a gruffer voice, “ ‘Nah then, what ha’ ye got there, lads? Be that no the young heir tae the Scottish crown? Ye do be Jamie Stewart, d’ye no, laddie?’ ” Looking back again but past Alyson at Jake this time, the boy added in his customary voice, “Ye dinna think Orkney told him about our Jamie, do ye, sir?”

“I do not,” Jake said grimly.

Alyson agreed. No Sinclair Earl of Orkney would betray his prince.

Jake knew that he had spoken harshly, but Will seemed to accept his words as assurance. And so they were where Orkney was concerned. Jake was certain that while the young earl might identify himself as one who could gain the pirates an enormous ransom, he would not identify James for any reason other than to save the boy’s life. If the captain of that so-called pirate fleet had known Jamie on sight, then that captain must have
expected
to find Scotland’s prince aboard the
Maryenknyght
.

Silence prevailed until they reached the top of the harbor path and as they followed it up a gentler slope in the deepening darkness. The wind had eased, but when they reached the crest, Jake saw from the village lights that Flamborough was larger than he’d expected. He recalled another detail from his rutter that he’d barely heeded at the time but which now seemed much more important.

“Mace,” he said, “the Danes dug a dyke hereabouts to divide this headland from the mainland. It is west of the village and runs all the way across the headland north to south, and boasts only two crossings. One lies nearby. I want to know where it is before full darkness and before we risk entering the village.”

“It looks as if there may be a crossroad o’ sorts ahead,” Mace replied.

It proved to be no more than a cart path, but they followed it. Although Jake feared they might find themselves without light before they found the dyke, they soon saw widely scattered lights in the distance. Shortly afterward, they came to a wooden bridge over a chasm of a depth that
astonished him. The thing was at least fifteen or twenty feet deep, its sides far too steep to scale easily.

“That looks to me like an alehouse across the way, sir,” Mace said. “I’m thinking we’d be wiser tae stop there than tae turn back tae the village from here. I can hear her ladyship’s teeth a-chattering.”

Jake said, “ ’Tis a good notion, Mace. It does occur to me, though, that anyone inside is likely to know us for Scots straightaway from our speech if nowt else. Truce or no truce, I distrust the English.”

“Aye, sir, but if them pirates release the
Maryenknyght
’s crew or her passengers in Bridlington and they try to head back toward Scotland, they’ll likely pass by on the other side o’ this dyke, will they no?”

“They will, aye,” Jake agreed.

“Then nae one in that alehouse now be likely tae know us or do us harm.”

Alyson said quietly, “If I might add something, sir…”

“Aye, sure, lass.”

“I’ve heard that Borderers’ accents are similar whether English or Scots.”

“That is also true,” he said, feeling his usual confidence surge back.

Accordingly, they crossed the bridge and entered the alehouse through a door flanked by burning torches that lit up a sign overhead, in the shape of a blue pig.

Inside, the air smelled of good food and burning peat, with an added tang of unwashed men. A man stepped forward, saying, “Ah be t’ taverner, Sam Metlow, and Ah bid tha welcome t’ Blue Boar,” he said. “Coom by yon fire and be warm.”

To Jake’s astonishment, Alyson said in the same accent
and cadence as the alemaster, or taverner, as he called himself, “We thank tha, good man, for tha kindness. We would ken if tha hast two rooms we might tak’ for the night.”

“Ah do, mistress. All o’ these lads be local. From whence dost tha coom?”

Chapter 5

A
lyson hesitated. Unsure of what to say, she glanced at Jake.

With a self-deprecating smile, he said, “Sakes, man, can ye no tell by the look o’ us that the sea swept us in tae yon wee harbor t’other side o’ that great ditch o’ yours? The waves shoved our coble over some rocks, so she’ll need new strakes and caulking afore she’s worth aught tae anyone. We canna linger, so mayhap ye’d consider taking her in place o’ our reckoning here. Sithee, I misjudged yon squall earlier and got separated from me ship out yonder somewheres, lost it in the storm.”

“Wi’ your
woman
and the bairn by ye?”

“She’s nae me woman but me widowed sister, Allie,” Jake said, revealing a gift for prevarication that delighted Alyson. “Married a chap from a place just north o’ Scarborough,” he added. “The poor mon dropped dead a month ago and left nowt for her, so I were a-fetching her home again. We’d headed north when yon squall hit us and fair shoogled our innards tae bits. Carried us past Filey when we tried tae avoid their reef, and we ended up here. ’Twas by God’s grace that we found that wee harbor, I can tell ye. I thought we’d be sped down tae the devil in
Hell. Ha’ ye a tub then, and a maidservant wha’ can help our Allie warm herself?”

“Ah’ll send me daughter up t’ her straightaway,” the taverner promised. “Tha’ll be wanting dry clothes tha’self then, too. If tha dinna be choosy, some o’ me lads your size will share their things till yours be dry.”

“Ye’re a kind man, Sam Metlow,” Jake told him. “Me sister will likely tak’ her supper in her chamber. The lad, me man there, and I will sup down here. We’ll share that second room o’ yours, too, if ye’ve pallets for me man and the lad.”

These arrangements being agreeable, the man’s wife soon bustled in. They followed her up a narrow stairway to two small chambers under the eaves.

“I’ll wait here wi’ me sister, Mistress Metlow, whilst ye hurry whoever be bringing yon tub and hot water for her,” Jake said, ushering the stout woman out.

Then, without so much as a by-your-leave, he shut himself in with Alyson.

She shook her head at him. “You, Jake Maxwell, are an outrageous liar.”

“Outrageous? I thought I told a fine tale.”

“You did, aye. But you should
not
be in here, sir.”

“I ken that fine,” he said more soberly. “But I want to know where the devil you picked up that Yorkshire accent you laid on Taverner Metlow.”

“From him. I’ve entertained myself since childhood by mimicking my elders and our servants. You must agree, ’tis a useful skill to have cultivated.”

He grinned, and his dark eyes danced as he said, “A devilish useful one. Will you have any trouble carrying on with it if we have to stay more than a day?”

“I’ve a good ear. It got me into trouble more oft than not when I was a bairn. I could ha’ said I coom fra’ the Borders had I heard ye speak so afore,” she added.

“Is that how I sound? I’d no notion I had such a high-pitched voice.”

“Now you are mocking me, and in troth, you should not. I can do it in French and Gaelic, as well. I might fail to use the correct words, because people of different regions call things by different names. But I can imitate whatever I hear.”

“You did seem to do so easily,” he agreed.

Deciding to take advantage of his agreeable mood, she said, “I did see two women in the common room, sir. I would liefer sup down there where it is warmer. Perhaps you might arrange to use that table in the nook by the fireplace. We should be able to talk quietly there without being overheard. I’d like to know what else Will saw whilst he was on deck.”

Having thought he’d insist she stay safely in her chamber, she had planned her arguments as they’d come up the stairs. To her astonishment, he said, “I doubt that you would freeze here with the heat rising from below. In troth, I thought you’d dislike supping in company with some of those louts in the common room.”

“I am confident that you and Mace can protect me,” she said. Recalling Will’s behavior earlier, she added, “Sakes, I’d not be astonished to find that Will could protect me by himself. He seems to be a most resourceful boy.”

“So is Jamie Stewart,” Jake said.

“He is,” she agreed. “Both of them are wise beyond their years.”

“Aye,” Jake said. “Jamie talks as if he were a man of
forty with years of experience in all things behind him. He is as different from his late brother, Davy, as flint is from tinder.”

“Before I met Jamie on the ship, I’d not met him before,” she said. “But, living in St. John’s Town, I knew Davy well. ’Twas a travesty, what happened to him! For the lords of Parliament to call
that
an accident—”

“His death was a shock to me, too,” Jake said, “especially coming on the heels of his mother’s death and that of Bishop Traill, as it did.” He put a finger quickly to his lips then, silencing the words that leaped to her tongue.

A rattle of the latch heralded the entrance of a young woman so like in appearance to the taverner’s wife that Alyson knew she had to be their daughter. She carried a colorful bundle of things under one arm.

“Ah be Lizzie Thornwick, mistress,” she said. “Me mum and da own this place, and Da said Ah should look after thee. I’ll set yon screen so tha canst get thy wet clathes off,” she added, moving to do so. “I’ve brung a robe and towels t’ dry tha some afore tha gets into t’ tub our lads be bringing up.”