Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy (20 page)

“This is Coll, my lady,” Jake said. “He is my helmsman.” In Gaelic, he added, “Coll, this is Sir Ivor’s cousin Alyson MacGillivray. She and the lad there, Will, are the ones the pirates left aboard the
Maryenknyght
.”

“My faith,” the older man said in the same language, regarding her with respect. Turning back to Jake, he added, “She’s a brave woman to get on another boat after such an experience, sir.”

In Gaelic, Alyson said, “I should tell you I speak the Highland tongue.”

“Och, m’lady,” Coll replied. “I ken fine that I shouldna make comments about ye in a tongue ye might no speak. But I dinna speak Scot verra weel.”

“You need never apologize for a compliment, Coll,” she said, smiling. “In troth, I disliked getting in the towboat and dreaded the thought of sailing on another ship. But I ken fine that you and Sir Jacob will see me safely to Perth.”

“We will, aye,” Coll said, nodding earnestly.

“In you go, my lady,” Jake said. “Will has your bundle and can show you where to stow it. When we’re under way, I’ll return to fetch the lantern. We don’t keep them alight overnight.”

“I mean to go to bed, sir,” Alyson said. “But this must be your cabin. Won’t you need things from in here?”

“I will, aye,” he admitted. “I’ll fetch them now.”

He slipped past her, taking care not to brush against her. He had enjoyed the pleasure of talking freely with her as they’d walked along the cliffs and the shore. But he wanted to set an example of formality for his lads to follow.

Still curious about the galley, Alyson turned to look the length of it to its front end, or stem. A wide plank ran up the middle between the rows of benches—eight on a side—for the oarsmen. There had been only a few men in sight when she boarded, but they had increased in num
ber, and she realized that what had seemed to be bundles of clothing in the spaces between benches had, in fact, been sleeping oarsmen. Others appeared from elsewhere, doubtless from those hammocks in the hold that Jake had mentioned earlier.

She wondered if she should call him Captain Maxwell now that they were on his ship. She had enjoyed thinking of him as Jake.

He spent little time in the cabin. But he hung the lantern from a hook in the ceiling and opened the lantern’s other shutters.

“Might someone not see that light?” she asked.

His smile flashed, and he said, “I don’t care if someone does. We’re far enough out and low enough to the water here that we won’t attract pirates or other English vessels that might be patrolling this coast. Such vessels will be looking for ships of war, or merchantmen to seize. That is one reason Bishop Wardlaw wanted the
Sea Wolf
to follow the
Maryenknyght.
”

“You said you’d used one of Orkney’s ships before. Would it not have been easier to use that one again?”

“Wardlaw wanted to avoid all things Orkney,” he explained. “Recall that by then Henry was on the Bass Rock with Jamie. Wardlaw wanted to be sure we would not inadvertently draw the attention of anyone searching for them. But I must see to my duties, lass. If you need aught, send Will to me.”

He left, and the cabin seemed suddenly larger and emptier.

Will was looking around. “ ’Tis nearly the same,” he said, moving to pull up a trapdoor near a cunning little washstand attached to one wall. Above the washstand was
a round shuttered window. She saw another in the opposite wall, where an alcove contained a table flanked by two narrow benches.

“We could put things in here,” Will added, pointing to the space he had opened. “By daylight, we’ll be able tae see what’s what wi’ just the light through them portholes. Cap’n Jake’s clothes must be in them kists by the door.”

“I have an extra shift and another kirtle,” Alyson said with a smile. “I’ll hang them on one of those hooks yonder. But there are two beds in that end wall, Will. If you want to sleep here, too, I’m sure Captain Jake will let you.”

“Mace said I could sleep in a hammock below, where he and some others sleep,” Will said. “That’ll suit me, ’less ye
want
me tae stay wi’ ye.”

Agreeing that it would be much more exciting for him to sleep below, she soon handed him the shuttered lantern, shooed him out, and went to bed. The lower of the two shelf beds boasted a featherbed below her and a soft, thick quilt above, making it more comfortable than the bed on the
Maryenknyght
.

Snuggling in, realizing that she could tell from the motion of the boat that men were rowing, she was sure she would sleep like a bairn in its cradle.

Jake breathed the fresh sea air, thinking as he had so often over the years how much fresher it seemed away from the coast than when he stood on the shore and breathed it. Since it was the same air, he had always thought it a curious thing. He wondered if the sensation was due only to the added freedom he felt on the sea.

The lads were rowing strongly, and he would keep
them at it until they were well beyond Filey Bay. When he saw the lights of Scarborough in the distance, he’d rest the men and rely solely on the sail. The breeze was stiff and more easterly tonight than northerly. By using the jib, he could maintain a good pace.

The Scottish border lay nearly a hundred and fifty miles north of them. If the wind held as it was—a most unlikely prospect—it would take them four to four and a half days to reach Berwick-on-Tweed. They would travel faster than the men on horseback, though, because he could keep the
Sea Wolf
moving night and day. But the riders did not depend on the wind, and if it dropped altogether—also an unlikely prospect at that time of year—the
Sea Wolf
would depend entirely on its oarsmen. And oarsmen needed frequent rest.

Coll said, “How far off yon coast d’ye want me to keep her?”

“Keep the coast just within sight,” Jake said. “I doubt we’ll have company in this darkness. But if it becomes overcast, wake me. I’ll be sleeping on my old pallet in the forecastle cabin.”

“Aye, sir,” Coll said with a smile. “Her ladyship seems a pleasant woman.”

“She is by nature one of the most unruffled women I’ve ever met,” Jake said, when a piercing scream erupted from the stern cabin.

The first thing Alyson would remember about the dream was feeling warm and safe. Then someone shook her awake with horrible news, the gist of which she would not recall. Then, in the nature of so many dreams…

She found herself outside in the cold, facing a forest full of pikes and lances, wondering where Jake had gone and how soon he might return.

“They’re coming,” someone shouted. “Make haste, they come!”

Looking around, she saw horses flying toward her through the air, their hooves kicking squares of fresh-cut peat off stacks reaching to the sky. The horses carried hooded men waving swords and axes, who bellowed at her that she had no good cause to be there, that she should leave at once.

As she turned, a polished wood coffin appeared before her. The lid flipped upward, and Niall’s waxen face and shrouded body appeared.

Then Mungo leaned from the lead horse, his axe raised high behind him but sweeping down toward her in an arc that would surely send her head flying from her body.

Screaming, Alyson threw a peat square at him. Mungo changed to her cousin Ivor, then abruptly to Jake. She screamed again…
and awoke screaming, sitting upright in her shift, looking into Jake’s anxious face.

Chapter 10

A
ware of Coll behind him with a lantern, Jake caught Alyson by the shoulders and held her firmly, saying, “It’s Jake, lass. You’re safe. You had a bad dream.”

“I… I—” She fell silent, and he felt a shudder ripple through her.

“What was it?” he asked, trying to avoid looking too closely at the heaving soft breasts beneath her thin cambric smock. “What frightened you so?”

When she did not immediately reply, he realized that Coll had hung the lantern on its hook overhead and was offering him the quilt, which had slipped to the cabin floor. Jake took it from him and put it around her.

“You must learn to sleep with everything tucked in,” he murmured as he tugged the ends of the quilt together under her chin. “Otherwise, as the
Sea Wolf
rides the waves, quilts and such will slip. Can you tell me about your dream?”

“I—I’m not sure.”

Coll said, “I’ll leave ye tae talk privily with her ladyship, sir.”

“Stay,” Jake said. “Coll is as close as an oyster, my lady. He won’t repeat aught that you say to me. But I must not be here alone with you.”

Swallowing visibly, she looked past him at Coll. The older man moved to the door, shut it firmly, and leaned against it.

“It was horrid,” Alyson said then in a low, still-quavering voice. “At first, I thought it was like… like the other one I described to you. I don’t know why. It just had a similar feeling. I cannot describe it. Faith, sir, I’m not even sure that it felt the same way throughout.”

“Tell me what happened.”

She told him what she recalled, adding, “It sounds foolish when I put it into words. I don’t know
where
I was. I just saw a forest of pikes and lances and… and then that horrid coffin. Niall
is
dead, sir.”

Jake frowned. “A coffin amidst a battle? Did you see an army or just pikes?”

“It was a real forest, with trees. But amongst the trees were hundreds of pikes and lances. It was too dark to see men. But it seemed as if there were many.”

“You could count many weapons, yet not see the men?”

“I told you it sounds foolish, but that
is
what I saw. When I turned, I saw the coffin and Niall’s face. A mounted troop flew through the air toward me. Mungo led on a big black horse. He raised a long axe and swung it at me. As he did, his face turned into Ivor’s face, and… and then into yours.”

“I was here by then,” Jake said, “because Coll and I were just outside and heard you scream. It is understandable that you mixed me into your dream.”

“Perhaps,” she agreed. “Nevertheless, for your face to replace Ivor’s after his replaced Mungo’s… Whatever can it all mean?”

“It means you had a nightmare, lass, that’s all. I ken
fine what you are thinking. But if you recall, you told me yourself that your… um… dreams”—he lowered his voice to keep his words from Coll’s ears—“never foretell events. Since I was in this one and am clearly still alive…”