The Highlander’s Pirate Lass by Heather McCollum

Chapter Five

Eliza’s blood rushed through her, giving her energy, as she stared at the tall Scotsman who looked as if he would seize her.

She stared into his wide eyes. “If you or any man touches me without asking, the body part you touched me with will be cut off,” she said and sliced the sharp edge through the air. “Whatever part that is.”

Beck’s brother stepped back, lowering his hand. She watched the man swallow.

“Understood?” Eliza asked.

“Aye,” Callum said, his brows raised high.

Eliza walked around Callum, never taking her eyes from him. Watching a potential enemy often stopped them from following through on their dark thoughts. She guessed that Callum Macquarie was honorable like Beck, but she took no chances. She walked backward toward Lark at the steps.

Pip stopped to glare at Callum too. With her free hand, she drew a slicing motion across her neck. “Not a touch, Scotsman,” she said. Hester imitated her glare as she held Pip’s other hand and moved her finger across her own neck.

“Now show him your teeth,” Pip whispered. Hester opened her mouth wide, making it difficult for Eliza to hold her glare. “No, keep your teeth together,” Pip said, and the child clamped her teeth together with a loud clack. The two girls pulled their lips back into a pair of human snarls.

Alice frowned at Callum. “As women who must traverse ports, we ladies do not give second chances. No touching, and if the leering gets too strong, you will lose an eye or two.”

Lark stood behind Eliza. “We are going to get along famously,” she said lightly. Beck, Callum, Eagan, and even Rabbie watched them exit, and they climbed the narrow stone steps up to the floor with bedchambers.

“This is a small chamber where I keep my bathing tub,” Lark said and pointed to a second door. “That leads to Adam’s and my bedchamber. You can bar both doors, and you will not be disturbed.” She pointed to the hearth where a small cauldron sat on a grate. “The brothers will bring up cold water from the cistern, and you can heat some.”

“One could drown in that,” Pip said as she inspected the tub, her eyes wide.

“Pish,” Alice said. “You can swim, and I will bathe Hester.” From the quickness in Alice’s voice, she was just as excited as Eliza to sink into a bath.

“You must not have much of a chance to have a warm, freshwater bath living on a ship,” Lark said.

Eliza shook her head. “I had one as a birthday gift on Christmas Day several years ago. At a whorehouse in port.” She still remembered relaxing in the warm water, letting it rise to her chin. She’d stayed in it until the water had turned completely cold.

“Well, you could have one every day here if you can haul the water,” Lark said. “I have a bathing tub down in our cottage in the village too.”

“You have a second dwelling?” Eliza asked.

Lark flushed. “When Adam and I need to be away from his brothers or we are working in the village, sometimes we just stay the night there. If my sisters move here, they may live in it.”

The children inspected every inch of the room, and Lark told her about the rooms in the castle until they heard footsteps. “Water is here,” someone called. Callum, Eagan, and Beck walked in with buckets, each one pouring fresh water into the tub.

“Jasper says tarts will be baked by the time ye finish up here,” Callum said with a quick glance at Eliza.

“Thank you,” Lark said and shooed them out.

Beck went to the hearth and worked quickly to start a fire. “Ye can heat the cauldron right on the grate,” he said, and crouched to gently blow on the growing flame. Eliza watched the play of his muscles through his tunic. Lord, he was fine to look at.

He stood, turning to Eliza. “Your trunk has been placed in a room down the hall where there are three small beds. Next door is one with two beds.”

“Where do you sleep?” Eliza asked, not quite sure why that seemed important.

He met her gaze, and something stirred in her stomach. His eyes were dark in the room, but she knew they were a pale gray. “We are each working on a cottage in the village where we will eventually live.”

“You are always welcome at Gylin,” Lark said, straining with the water-filled cauldron.

Beck took it from her and set it on the grate. “’Tis crowded here,” he said, and Lark laughed. “My place is nearly finished, so I will sleep there,” Beck said.

Pip’s eyes grew round. “In the haunted village?”

He chuckled. “I am not afraid of ghosts or curses or even pirates.”

“Well, I am,” Pip said, going to the fire to stare at the heating water.

“A good amount of fear keeps you alive,” Alice said. “As long as it doesn’t paralyze you.”

“Wise words, Mistress Alice,” Lark said. “Come along, Beck. Let’s leave them to their baths.”

Eliza stood at the door, closing it slowly as she watched Beck walk away toward the tower stairs. He looked even larger inside the confined space. At the top of the steps, he glanced back as if he felt her stare. Their gazes connected and her breath stopped. Damn. He had some sway over her.

She frowned over her reaction and pulled back into the room, closing the door.

…

Beck sat at the table in the great hall, watching Anders fidget with his empty plate. “We eat when they come down?” the lad asked. He’d bathed in the loch with Beck, Drostan, and Rabbie and was dressed in clean clothes that the boy had pulled from the stuffed trunk upstairs.

“Eat a bannock while ye wait,” Beck said. A growing boy was forever hungry. Anders snatched up the oatcake.

Pip’s voice came from the turning tower stairs. “I could have stayed in that bath forever.”

“Me too,” Hester said, her little voice high-pitched like a bird’s chirp.

Beck stood and tugged at Anders. “Ye should stand when a lady enters the room.”

“What? Why?” he asked, his mouth full of bannock. Beck lifted under his thin arm, and the boy stood. Adam and his brothers walked in through the entryway, but Beck kept his gaze on the alcove as the two ladies and two children emerged.

Eliza wore another blue dress, perhaps one of Lark’s. A white smock, edged in lace, lifted above the bodice that was cinched to show Eliza’s waist and the curves she had hidden well under her sailor’s tunic. Stays pushed her lush breasts upward and petticoats belled out her skirt. Her hair had dried in loose curls of gold, half of it plaited and pinned to the top of her head. With the added color from the sun, she radiated health that came from exercising outdoors.

He could not stop studying her as she walked with a grace that came from growing up on a moving ship. Her nose was straight and just the perfect size for her face, set between eyes full of depth. He’d never thought of a lass’s eyes before and realized that he’d like to look in Eliza’s longer.

Eliza’s sharp gaze quickly took in the room, as if she must always know where danger lurked. Was Jandeau responsible for her constant wariness? Or Captain John?

Callum came to stand next to Beck. “Does she have to look so bloody fetching?” he said under his breath.

“Ye will be missing a hand or a set of lips before she leaves,” Eagan said to him. Anders snorted, crumbs on his lips.

Beck cut Callum a shaming look. “She has been through enough. Do not give her reason to defend herself.”

Callum’s face pinched in. “Och, Beck, ye foking know I wouldn’t do anything a lass wouldn’t want me to do.”

“Aye,” Beck said. “But it won’t do to become attached to her if she’s planning to leave as soon as she can.”

“Ye best remember that too,” Eagan said.

Beck glanced at Anders. “She doesn’t plan to marry ever, does she?”

“Nay,” Anders said. “Never.”

“Excellent,” Lark said, striding in with her son, Johnny. With red hair, chubby cheeks, and happy blue eyes, the bairn was nearly as big as Hester even though he was at least a year younger. Adam came over to take the lad.

Eliza sat across from Beck, with Pip and Hester between her and Alice. Eliza smiled at Anders, and again Beck watched her face, soaking in the softening. “You look clean,” she said.

“I smell good too,” he answered. “Captain Beck uses a soap with pine needles in it.” Anders held up his arm and sniffed along it. “I smell like the forest.” He looked at Eliza. “What do you smell like?”

Aye. What did she smell like? Beck could imagine inhaling along her warm nape under the fall of her golden hair.

Eliza imitated the boy by inhaling along her own bare arm. “Lemon and rosemary.”

“The lady of Aros Castle makes soaps in many different scents,” Lark said. “Strawberry is my favorite. I will find you some to try.”

“’Tis my favorite too,” Adam said, but his tone made it apparent that he liked strawberry the best on his wife, not himself. He leaned over and kissed the bare skin above her shoulder. God’s teeth. His older brother exuded utter contentment. ’Twas part of why he and his brothers were working on their own cottages, so they wouldn’t keep stumbling upon them kissing and tupping in dark corners. As if they didn’t already have the largest bedchamber in the castle.

“Can we eat now?” Anders asked.

“Certainly,” Adam said.

“First,” Eliza cut in, raising an eyebrow at the lad, “we say a thanks for our food.”

Pip frowned at Anders. “You know that, because there are so many without.”

“Very true,” Lark said, cutting a stern glance across at Beck and his brothers.

Eliza bowed her head. Beck did, too, but kept his eyes open, free to watch her without her catching him. There were other colors in her golden hair, browns and even a hint of red. When her eyes were closed, her long lashes fanned out under her eyes.

“We thank you, Lord, for making this food available for us. Keep us healthy, strong, and courageous or take us away from this world,” she said. “Amen.”

“And squeeze the hearts of our enemies until they burst and they descend to hell,” Pip said and looked up at Eliza. “You forgot that part.”

Eagan laughed from his spot down the table.

“Captain John’s favorite prayer is not suitable for all tables,” Alice said.

Eliza reached forward to spoon out a piece of mutton pie for each of her wards, Alice, and finally herself.

“This Captain John sounds like an interesting fellow,” Adam said. “Ye have been on his ship for ten years?”

Eliza chewed, and Beck could see her face tighten. No matter how casually Adam asked, she was clever enough to know she was being questioned.

“Aye,” she said and took another bite.

“Have ye all been on his ship for that long? Well, those of ye older than ten?”

Eliza set down her spoon. “One’s history is one’s own to tell. If they wish to tell you, that is up to them.”

“How about ye then?” Adam asked. Lark placed her hand on his arm, but he did not pull the question back.

Eliza set her cup down and faced Adam. “When I was twelve, Captain Jandeau boarded the ship that my parents, baby brother, and I were sailing on from England to Ireland where my father was to be stationed. Jandeau stabbed my father through his chest and gave my mother to his crew to be raped repeatedly until they slit her throat and threw her overboard. I was kept alive to sell into slavery. I was onboard the Bourreau for two weeks when Captain John came across Jandeau’s ship.”

She took a sip of her wine and set it back with a clunk on the table. Everyone sat in silence as she spoke, only the children eating. “John knew Jandeau well enough to check his cabin. He found me there and dragged me out. Captain John’s crew crippled the Bourreau’s sails while he swung me back across to the Devil’s Blood. I have been there ever since.”

The room was silent. “And your brother?” Lark whispered, her face pale. After all, that could have been her if Adam and their family hadn’t rescued her.

Beck watched Eliza swallow and then inhale slowly as if pain bit down within her. “I did not see him after I was locked in Jandeau’s cabin.”

“We found Hester holding onto a piece of floating gunwale several months ago,” Pip said. She shrugged when Anders frowned at her. “She is too young to tell.” She looked back down the table. “Her ship was torn apart in a storm. She is the only one we found alive.”

No one said anything. Most of them, like Beck, had probably lost their appetites. Silence fell along the table until Alice cleared her throat. She had washed too and looked quite handsome in a green costume. “Captain John’s men also rescued me from Jandeau’s ship. I had not seen Eliza or her brother because I’d been shackled below.”

Lark’s hand pressed against her heart. “I… I can only imagine the horror.”

Alice flushed as if she knew what everyone was imagining. “I luckily get very ill at sea, and the smell of vomit, and the fact I did not try to stop myself from soiling myself and all who came close, deterred the men for the three days I was there before Captain John and his crew boarded the Bourreau.”

Lark looked at Adam. “I need to write to Anna to let her know Jandeau is back in Scottish waters.”

He nodded, his face grim.

“I was taken off a different boat,” Pip said. “It was a horrible place with very smelly pirates. Luckily, I was too young to remember much.” The girl looked down at her plate while she spoke and then began eating again.

Everyone along the table turned their gazes to Anders. He finished chewing and shrugged. “I was raised in a whorehouse in the West Indies. Mistress Amanda said Captain Jandeau dropped me off there when I was a baby and would come back for me someday. Captain John paid her for me before that happened.”

“Does that mean ye belong to Captain John?” Beck asked, his voice rough.

“No,” Eliza said, her eyes cutting to him. “A human belongs to no man. ’Tis Captain John’s belief. We are all free to go, but we choose to stay to help others.”

“Is that what your captain does?” Lark asked. “Saves children and women from pirates?”

“Captain John is a privateer for King Henry of England,” Eliza said. “Now that the king is dead, the captain is waiting to hear from King Edward and his regent if we have royal orders to seize enemy ships. But if there are children or women imprisoned on any ship we encounter, we do everything possible to free them.”

“’Tis a noble cause,” Callum said.

“There is a fine line between pirate and privateer,” Adam said. “And while Henry was alive, Scotland was considered the enemy.”

Eliza popped a piece of mutton into her mouth and chewed slowly before swallowing. “You would definitely consider us pirates, then.”

“Pirates who save children and women,” Lark said, her hand sliding down Adam’s arm.

Beck wasn’t about to let Eliza and her group be thrown into Gylin’s dungeon, but he knew his brother was not that heartless.

“With the start of a new English rule, the Devil’s Blood should sail elsewhere,” Adam said.

Eliza put her small eating knife down. “I would recommend it, but Captain John and the Devil’s Blood seem to have vanished.” A pinch between her brows showed her worry. “He had planned to return to Eilean Mòr for us over a week ago.”

“Jandeau?” Lark asked.

Eliza shook her head, and the candlelight danced along the gold of her hair. “My bluff that your friend’s ship was the Devil’s Blood would not have deterred Jandeau if he’d already sunk it.”

“Would he have abandoned ye on the isle?” Beck asked.

Eliza lifted her gaze to his. “No.”

“And Cullen hasn’t seen the ship?” Lark asked.

“Nay,” Drostan said from down the table. “When he caught up to us, he said he’d not seen anything except an English ship sailing in the waters.”

“Cullen wanted to go after Jandeau,” Beck said, “but ye know Camille is wedding this week, and Rose would have his hide if he did not return in time.” He looked at Eliza. “Camille is Cullen’s daughter.”

“Tarts,” said Jasper, a tall, dark-skinned man who had arrived on Mull asking for work the year before. He had a curious accent when he spoke, which wasn’t often, and a delicious way with food. His past was his own, but he seemed honorable, and they had hired him to work in the kitchen several months ago. He carried in a tray laden with fragrant pastries.

“Wonderful,” Lark said. “Thank you, Jasper.”

Pip squealed and Hester imitated her, the two jumping in their seats.

Beck took one, biting into the honey and nut pastry. As always, the sweetness cleared his mind like a giant broom. There was no room for curses or ire. His eyes closed momentarily as he tasted it fully.

When he opened his eyes, Eliza was staring at him. Her lips were pinched tight. “Try one,” he said, nodding at the plate. “Jasper makes the most delicious tarts.”

She finally took one, biting it and chewing. “Delicious,” she said, her hand coming before her lips. Jasper nodded in response.

Johnny began to fuss and rubbed his eyes with his little fists. “I will take the lad to bed,” Adam said, rising.

“How about a tour of the castle?” Lark said and kissed the curls on her son’s head as Adam lifted him.

“I think I need some fresh air,” Eliza murmured. She gave a tight smile.

“I will take the children up in a bit,” Alice said, looking at where Hester had climbed onto Whisky’s back with the help of Pip. “Is the dog that tolerant?”

“Aye,” Beck said. “She is fine with Johnny grabbing her ears.”

“Then a tour would be very nice,” Alice said.

Eliza was already walking toward the entryway by herself. Callum and Eagan watched her go and then looked to Beck. “Ye are going after her, aren’t ye?” Callum said.

“And get stabbed?” Beck joked but was already rising.

Callum snorted. “Ye are the one she keeps glancing at.”

“He rescued her,” Drostan said, eating a tart. “And then didn’t throw her overboard when she took over his ship.”

Beck frowned at him. “She didn’t take over the ship, and for her bluff to work, I couldn’t very well drag her down.”

“Aye, aye,” Drostan said, unconvinced.

Damn what they thought. He had built the Calypso himself with guidance from Cullen’s shipbuilder. He would never have let Eliza, or anyone, take her over. He strode away from his annoying brothers, thankful once again that he had his own place down in the village.

…

“You are massive,” Eliza whispered in the shadows that enveloped the small stable built inside the stone wall around the castle.

The horse lifted his head over the stall. She could see his large eyes in the silvery moonlight that came in through the door she’d left open. She was used to traversing her world in the dark, but her world was a much smaller place on the deck of a ship, one that she knew so well she could walk it blindfolded without tripping.

The beast before her blew a breath out of its nose. She held her palm up to the soft muzzle, and it sniffed, breathing in her scent. Her patience was rewarded with the horse moving closer, pressing its velvet nose into her hand, letting her smooth down it to scratch under its bristly chin.

Pebbles crunched behind her, and her hand slid to the dagger she had tied to the belted chain around her waist. “His name is Bòcan,” Beck said. She let her inhale out in a silent stream. Beck came up, stepping past her to pat the horse’s neck. “It means ghost in Gaelic. He was born white and turned a dappled gray.”

She ran her hands along the side of the horse’s cheek, exploring all the indents and rises of his face. The horse let out a breath as if sighing. “He seems to like this,” she said, smiling in the darkness even though sadness tugged at her.

“He does indeed,” Beck said. “I will take him out to exercise on the morrow. When I’m at sea, Lark takes him out, but Adam says she may be with child again so she cannot ride him as much.”

Eliza touched the pendant she wore on a chain around her neck. “I had a horse once, long ago when I was in England. We left her behind when we sailed for Ireland because we were only to be gone a year. I wonder sometimes what happened to Ginger.”

The darkness hid the glimmer of tears she knew must be in her eyes. She tried to keep hold of her familiar ire to banish them from her voice.

“She might still be alive if she were a filly,” Beck said. He leaned against the stall door, and she could feel his gaze even though she kept her focus on Bòcan’s big eye.

Eliza moved under the horse’s neck, turning her back on Beck. “I have no life back in England. I am dead to that world.” Like the rest of my family. The familiar heaviness of guilt swelled in her stomach, and she leaned her forehead against Bòcan’s neck.

“Ye could have an inheritance,” Beck said behind her. He was close but did not touch her. “Wentworth sounds like a proper English—”

“I have a perfectly happy life sailing with Captain John rescuing children from bilge scum like Jandeau.” For the child I did not save. “I will remain on the Devil’s Blood until John makes me her captain.” The weightiness of guilt was making it hard to breathe, and she pushed away, striding toward the door, her legs slapping at her skirts. Damn petticoats.

“He would give ye his ship?” Beck asked, and she heard the frown in his voice. Did he not think she could captain a ship?

“I’m apprenticing for the position. He says I’m the cleverest of his crew, one he can trust to keep our mission alive.” That was if the Devil’s Blood was not currently at the bottom of the cold sea.

Eliza stopped in the middle of the bailey, well away from where the willow branches danced like whips in the night breeze. She stared up at the stars in the night sky, listening to Beck follow her. “Is there no way to get out of this fortress once the gate is down?” she asked. Frustration made her sound surly, but she did not care. The Scotsman had no right to question her or make her think about things she’d rather not.

She startled when his hand took hers. “Come this way,” he said, tugging her toward the wall.