“If that’s the case, I’ll be so disappointed that I’ll give ye to Magnus—after my brothers have a turn.” Hugh laughed. “But then, I’d planned to do that in the end anyway.”
* * *
The words were important. In the blackness, Sorcha practiced them over and over in her head so she would not forget them. Then she whispered them, testing the sounds with her mouth.
She had almost forgotten the dark, dirty room with the big mice where her father found her. But the memory came back to her in this small, dark place and threatened to push the words out of her head again. She breathed in the smell of her mother in the clothes that surrounded her.
She heard voices, but they were not her father’s, so she covered her ears and mouthed the words until the voices went away. Still, the pounding of her heart made it hard to hear the words.
But she would be strong like the warrior queen, Scáthach.
She would be strong like her mother.
CHAPTER 52
Your wife was taking the women out the back gate,” Tormond said. “I thought she was safe with the others.”
“Glynis is probably still hiding in the fields,” Ian said.
Tormond shook his head. “The woman Bessie said that Sorcha disappeared, and the mistress went back into the castle to find her.”
Nay. It can’t be that I’ve lost them both. As Alex’s gaze traveled over the bailey yard, he saw dead and injured men—but no women or children. He tried to think. Where could they be?
“We searched everywhere,” Tormond said.
“Then look again!” Alex ran to open storeroom doors along the wall. He found sacks of grain torn open, and the wine and ale barrels were all gone.
“Glynis! Sorcha!” he called again and again as he searched. He could not let himself consider that he might be looking for their bodies.
Mary, Mother of God, protect them. He made promises to God as he searched for them. Take me—just keep them safe.
Alex’s hands shook as he entered the keep. The weapons on the walls were gone. Tables were overturned. The hall was eerily quiet, except for the crockery crunching under his feet.
“Glynis! Sorcha!” The answering silence closed in on him.
His boots echoed on the stone steps as he climbed the stairs to the bedchambers above. Would he find them dead? His wife’s body, broken and used by the foul men who had destroyed their home? Alex did not think he was strong enough for that, but he kept walking.
When he pushed their bedchamber door, it creaked open slowly, revealing the room inch by inch. In contrast to the rest of the keep, the bedchamber was neat and tidy. It looked as if Glynis had just stepped out.
Except for her dirk lying in the middle of the floor.
Alex sank to his knees and picked it up. There was no blood on it, praise God. But if Glynis and Sorcha were not here, that meant the pirates and Magnus had taken them—and their purpose could only be evil. Alex had to find his wife and daughter before they were harmed, but he did not know where to look.
Alex pounded the floor with his fists. “Where did they take ye?” he shouted. “Where? Where?”
A creak right next to him brought him upright. When he saw his wee daughter standing in the chest holding the top up, Alex swept her up into his arms. He ran his hands over her to assure himself the fairies were not playing tricks on his eyes, and then he held her tightly against him. Sweet Jesus and all the angels, thank ye.
Alex thought he heard a small voice in his ear, saying, “Aye.”
He leaned back. “Was that you, Sorcha?”
She looked at him with her clear eyes and nodded. In the midst of a day of dread and despair, the miracle of hearing his daughter’s sweet voice for the first time overwhelmed him.
“What was that ye said, mo chroí?” Alex asked, as he brushed her hair back with his fingers.
“Eye.” He had thought she was saying aye before, but this time when she said the word she rested the point of her finger next to her eye.
“Did something happen to your eye?” he asked.
“That’s where the bad man took Mother.”
His daughter spoke in perfect Gaelic, but Alex had no idea what she meant.
“Eye snort,” Sorcha said. “That’s where the bad man said he was taking her.”
Eye snort? What in the name of heaven was…
“Eyenort Loch?” he asked. “On South Uist?”
“South Uist,” Sorcha repeated, and nodded.
Alex gave her a big kiss on her forehead. “What a blessing ye are.”
“Mother called him Magnus,” Sorcha said. “She doesn’t like him.”
“That’s verra helpful, little one,” Alex said, keeping his voice calm with an effort. “Do ye remember anything else?”
“Another bad man came, and they argued.”
“Did ye hear the second man’s name?”
Sorcha gave him a solemn nod. “Hugh.”
“Ye did verra, verra well,” Alex said as he started down the stairs with her. “Now I must leave ye with Bessie while I go fetch your mother.”
“Bring her home,” Sorcha said, hugging his neck.
“I will.”
Alex had just had one miracle. And now he needed another.
CHAPTER 53
I’ll let your husband stew for a few days,” Hugh said, as he tied her wrists to the mast. “I need my bait live ’til then, so I’m leaving a man here to guard ye from Magnus. Ye made an enemy with that one, lass, though I can’t say I blame ye for sticking a blade in him. Magnus is an arse.”
“Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile,” Glynis said. A beetle recognizes another beetle.
Hugh hit her so hard across the face that Glynis saw stars and swayed on her feet.
“Mind that tongue of yours if ye want to keep it,” he said.
She had been foolish to goad him—her stepmother always told her that she did not know when to be quiet. Because Hugh had protected her from Magnus, she’d relaxed her guard around him. She’d do well to remember that Hugh was a ruthless man who killed innocents and stole food from the mouths of children.
“If Magnus sets foot on my boat against my orders, kill him,” Hugh said to the man with him. “I could use another boat.”
While Hugh hoisted himself over the side of the galley, Glynis eyed her guard. He was a huge, muscular man with unkempt hair, a scarred face, and only one ear. When the guard turned, the look he gave her sent alarm racing through her veins. Glynis felt helpless to defend herself, tied like a dog to the mast. She tugged at the ropes, but they held fast.
* * *
A heavy fog rolled in over the loch as evening turned to night. Although Alex could not see the shore, the raucous laughter of the pirates’ camp carried clearly across the still water. Hugh had grown lax.
Behind the laugher, Alex heard the clank of cups and the snap of the fires. Hugh’s and Magnus’s men would outnumber them, but they had surprise on their side. Judging from the sounds, Hugh’s men were well into their cups, celebrating with Alex’s whiskey and ale.
Alex, Duncan, Ian, and Connor stood at the front of his galley and would go first. While the others were fine warriors, the four of them had long years of fighting together. And they were the best.
Alex nodded to the others, and the four of them dropped over the side of the boat with a soft splash. He paused to listen, but the pirates carried on as before. As soon as he gave a low dove call, the other men began dropping into the water behind them. They moved silently through the chest-high water, holding their shields and claymores over their heads. As he neared shore, Alex could see the glow of campfires through the thick fog.
He and Connor hid in the brush near the shore, while Duncan and Ian led most of the men behind the encampment. Duncan and Ian’s group would attack from behind so the pirates could not escape inland. Their plan was to trap the pirates between the devil and the deep blue sea.