Even In Darkness (Between) (16 page)

Chapter 17

Bam! Bam! Bam!
The heavy, thumping sound ricocheted in my groggy head, though I couldn’t quite place it. Eagan stirred beside me with a moan that told me he’d been just as dead asleep as I was.

“Captain!” a voice shouted from the other side of the cabin door.

“Bloody hell,” Eagan grumbled as he rolled out of bed. He stomped over to the door and ripped it open. “What in the hell is so blasted important that you have to—?” His snarl faded at the sight of the disheveled sailor in the doorway. I recognized him as the short, burly man with the crooked nose who’d deposited me in the cabin after Eagan had rescued Willie from the sea.

“Pirates, captain. They snuck up on us in the night after the storm. We’ve drifted toward a small island where they must have been hiding in wait. They’re not long in boarding us.”

Eagan swore and hurried over to the armoire. In one quick motion, he whipped the nightshirt over his head and dropped it to the floor, standing there naked as he pulled out a pair of breeches. My throat made an involuntary hum of appreciation at the sight of his gorgeous body, but both men ignored me.

“Where’s Parker? Did I not assign him the lookout post before I retired?” Eagan didn’t spare me a glance while he dressed, his focus completely honed in on the problem at hand.

“Fell asleep, sir. ‘Twas a long night for all of us.” The sailor rubbed his forehead nervously, his gaze wary of how Eagan might respond, but he shouldn’t have worried. Eagan’s anger seemed to dissipate at the reminder that they’d lost a crewman to the storm.

“That it was, Murphy. I know Stanton was like kin to you, and I’m sorry for his loss.”

The man bobbed his head and turned to leave. Eagan started to follow him, then seemed to remember I was there, and stopped to face me.

“Stay here. Don’t
go anywhere. I’ll be back for you later.”

I jumped
out of bed. “Are you crazy? I’m not going to sit here and wait for some pirate to come bursting in and rape me. I’m a sitting duck!” I hugged my arms to my chest, painfully aware of my nakedness under my thin shift—the only thing that stood between me and some meat-fisted pirate getting his thrills. An icy shiver of fear swept over me at the thought.

Eagan
hesitated, his brow furrowed in displeasure, then nodded. “You’re right. Go, quickly. Find your husband and stay close to him. With Callison, there’ll be two men between you and the intruders.” He started to leave, but turned back again. “Lindsey, I—” He sighed heavily and shook his head. “No, there’s too much to say and no time to say it. Later, I promise. We’ll talk.” Then he closed the space between us, took my face in his hands, and brushed his lips against mine. “Be safe,
ma chérie
.
Je t’aime.
”

And then he was gone.

Shouts from the deck spurred me on, as I imagined the pirates getting closer, maybe lobbing cannonballs at the side of the ship. Were we going to sink? Panic
began to swell inside me. I had no one to help me on with a corset, so I just shrugged on the heavy layers of my outer dress and called it good. Yes, it was indecent with only my thin shift concealing my breasts, but there was no help for it. Besides, it wasn’t like I cared about Aiden seeing them. And Callison... A wave of revulsion crashed through me at the thought of him listening outside the door when Aiden and I were—

Gunshots from outside cut off my train of thought.
I yanked on my boots and booked it out the door and down the stairs to the room where they’d kept Aiden, praying the whole time that they hadn’t moved him somewhere new so that I’d be lost wandering the halls. I spied Callison sitting outside Aiden’s room, picking his teeth with the point of his knife. I’d never been so happy to see the fat bastard in my life. As I approached, he extracted something stringy from between his teeth and held it up to examine it, shrugged, then plopped it back into his mouth. He straightened when he saw me.

“And just where do ye think ye’re going?”

“Pirates are attacking the boat. The captain told me to come down here so the two of you could protect me.” I could barely get those last words out, so ludicrous was the idea that Callison would lift a finger on my behalf, let alone ward off gun slinging pirates. But the mention of pirates had him on his feet and twitching like some newly beached whale.

“Under attack, you say?”
His knuckles faded to white as he gripped the knife at his side. “Then I must go.”

“No! You’re supposed to stay here and guard the door.”

“And what sort of fool do ye take me for? What kind of protection would I be against a pistol in this narrow hallway? Nae, fend for yourselves.” He grabbed the jangle of keys on his belt and unlocked the door, then took off down the hall without another word.

“Great,” I mumbled
. The loud boom of cannon fire outside was followed by a violent lurching under my feet as the pirates’ shot must have hit our boat. “Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit,” I chanted, slipping inside and slamming the door shut. Aiden was face down on the mattress, bare to the waist. Streaks of dried blood covered his back, but it didn’t look quite as bad as it had the day before. Still, the sight made my eyes burn with unshed tears, remembering each lash of Eagan’s whip as it fell against his skin.

“Lindsey?” His voice was scratchy as he sat up and turned to face me. “You came back.” The ship rocked again as another cannon ball slammed into the boards. “What’s happening?” He seemed ridiculously calm—drugged, almost—and I wondered fleetingly if the doctor had given him some sort of medieval pain killer.
Nothing like a hit of opium to take the edge off, right? Oh, and make you hallucinate like crazy.

“Pirates are attacking the ship,” I replied, not moving from my place against the door, just in case he really
was messed in the head. The image of him standing over Delgado’s body with his bloody knife flashed in my mind. I pressed back harder against the door and swallowed the fear that had surged in my throat.

“From where?
Did ye hear them? Are they Scottish?” The ghost of a smile played across his lips and he started to laugh in this really maniacal way. He was most definitely not okay. I was rethinking my decision to come down there when he stood up and lunged toward me. A squeak slipped past my lips when his hands clamped down on my arms. He seemed to shake off his sedation and come alive right in front of me. “This is it, lass. Don’t you see? The end of the madness, of this blasted ship, of being under the captain’s thumb!” All of a sudden, he released my arms and swept me off my feet, twirling and laughing like we’d just won the lottery. His joy was seriously freaking me out.

“Aiden, stop!
Put me down. Please.”

He slowed to a stop, but nothing could dim his radiant smile. My heart gave a little lurch at the face I once loved so much
. He was like a stranger to me now. I didn’t know what was happening. Here Aiden looked more vital and alive than I’d seen him in weeks and I was completely falling apart inside. I was a ratty old sweater that was being unraveled bit by bit until nothing was left but a worthless pile of scraps. All I knew was that it felt wrong to be in his arms and, God help me, I was worried about Eagan fighting off the pirates above deck.

Aiden
finally set me on my feet. I covered my chest with my arms, somehow shy about my lack of a corset. He chose that moment to plant a delirious kiss on my lips before I could pull away. He appeared unaffected by my resistance and let out an eardrum piercing war cry.

“What are you doing? They’ll hear us!”
I hissed.

“Exactly.
In fact, why wait for them to come to us? Callison is long gone. I heard the English vermin shoot down the hall like a cannonball when ye arrived so the door is no longer blocked. Maybe we can assist the pirates and move this along, aye?”

As he was crossing the room to leave, the door swung open to reveal the scariest looking man I’d ever seen. Insanely built, his shoulders touched either side of the doorframe so that he was cast in shadow, which only served to make him look more menacing.
This was no Johnny Depp kind of pirate. This guy was mean, dirty, and bad ass. A dark red and green kilt swung around his tattooed legs as he swiveled a little and ducked his head in order to enter the room. The long blade he pointed at us could easily have split a man in two. And judging by the blood dripping from it, he probably had done exactly that just minutes before. My mind flashed to Eagan again and I sent up a quick prayer that he was safe.

“And what have we here?”
His voice sounded like gravel crunching underfoot. Upon seeing Aiden’s kilt, his eyes narrowed. “Clan MacRae, are ye, then?” His gaze swung up to Aiden’s face, nailing him with a stare that would have shriveled a lesser man.

Aiden straightened and jutted out his chin proudly.
“Aye, son of Hugh MacRae of Eilean Donan. William Fraser is my uncle.”

The pirate stiffened
in recognition, his eyebrows on the ceiling. “Hugh MacRae saved my life once. ‘Twas on Campbell lands, during a raid. We were there for peace talks but I was restless and had a score to settle. I’d almost made off with three heads of cattle when Seamus and his brother damn near caught me red-handed. Hugh came o’er the bluff and distracted them long enough for me to break away. Lost the cattle, I did, but kept my neck, if ye take my meaning.” He rubbed a hairy paw over his tree-trunk neck in remembrance, then sheathed his sword. “I owe yer father. Where is he now?”

“Dead.”

The pirate’s hands curled into fists. “The English?”

“Na
e, the ague. Nearly thirteen years past.”

He nodded and
seemed to relax. “Well, I’ll repay my debt to his son, then. Come wi’ me. We’re looting the ship and then burning her down. We’ll take ye aboard our own.”

“And the lass?”

The man seemed to notice me for the first time. His body shifted with interest as a leer stretched across his face. “Well, hello there, pretty thing.” Revulsion swept through me as I strained to press myself further into the wall. “Aye, she’ll make a nice distraction.”

“She’s with me.”

The pirate chuckled and shrugged. “For now, aye. But ‘tis lonely on the high seas and I’ll no’ guarantee her safety. My men have been long without the pleasures of a woman, ye ken?”

Outraged and scared shitless, I expected Aiden to jump to my rescue, to threaten him, to do
something
but he just nodded grimly and followed the pirate out the door, beckoning for me to come. I hesitated, thinking he was crazy if he thought I was going to come willingly after that display, then I realized maybe he was just buying time. Maybe he wouldn’t really let them touch me, but he had to make the pirate think it was okay so we could get off this boat before it burned down. With a shudder, I pressed off from the wall and hurried down the hall after them.

Shouts and the clanging of swords were coming from the deck. Cannon
balls intermittently rocked the boat as the pirates pummeled us from the side. Fear became a tangible, writhing thing inside me so that I could hardly breathe. When I slowed, Aiden yanked on my arm so hard that I nearly fell. “Come on,” he growled, dragging me behind him like a disobedient child, but I dug in my heels.

“Aiden, stop!
What about Willie? We have to find him!” The thought of that little red-haired boy facing down a humongous pirate made me feel violently ill. The fierce need to protect him shut out everything else.

A flicker of sadness crossed Aiden’s face, but he shook his head.
“Nae, ‘tis only you and me now.”

“You’re not even going to look for him?
Your own brother? What the hell is wrong with you?” I ripped my arm out of his grasp. “What happened to the man I married? Where did he go? Is he even in there?” Tears clogged my throat. I tried to fight them back, but it was a losing battle. Just like all of this was a losing battle. It didn’t seem to matter what I did, I couldn’t win. The rules seemed to constantly change in this game of wits. Just when I thought I was making progress, everything would fall apart again. Nothing made any sense. Up was down. Black was white. Right was wrong.

Good was evil.

As we ascended the stairs, the pirate cursed and bent to shove something out of our way.  Blood
oozed down the steps onto my shoes. We continued on past the body of Murphy, the crooked nosed sailor who had come to tell the captain about the attack. His stomach had been sliced open, spilling ropes of white intestines into his lap. Bile surged in my throat and I quickly averted my gaze. Aiden seized my arm again and pulled so that I was forced to keep pace with him as we made our way across the deck to the makeshift bridge connecting the two ships. The bright sunlight made me squint which was something of a blessing because my eyes could not fully absorb what had become of the ship Eagan captained.

Pirates swarmed the deck like a plague of locusts, cutting down everything they encountered until no life remained. Several were coming up from the kitchen carrying boxes of supplies and hauling them across the plank of a bridge to the other vessel. One was diligently working at setting fire to the main mast. My head swung wildly back and forth, eager for some sight of Eagan or Willie. I saw neither. All I saw was blood and destruction.