Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy (11 page)

“I thank thee,” Alyson said, following her to the screen and accepting a towel. “Tha shouldst go, brother. Tha must ha’ dry clathes thyself, as weel.”

“Aye, me da put some in yon room across the way,” Lizzie said.

Two men hefting a tin tub and two others carrying pails of steaming water came in as Jake went out. When Jake cast Alyson a look of concern just before he shut the door, she gave him a sober wink in response.

She was relieved to see him go, though. She had come too close to sharing her opinion of the villains who had
insisted that Davy Stewart had died of natural causes, rather than the way he had. She had no reason to distrust Jake and good reason to trust any friend of Ivor’s. But some opinions were safer unshared.

She greeted the tub men confidently, although she began to suspect that maintaining the Yorkshire accent would be harder than she had thought.

Wondering how Lady Alyson could be so bedraggled and remain so beautiful, Jake had been unable to resist that last glance at her as he left. When she caught his eye and winked just before he shut the door, he knew she was just expressing confidence in her ability to deal with Lizzie. He also noted a dimple below the left corner of her mouth that he had not noticed before.

Putting the image with the dimple firmly out of mind, he crossed the landing to their second room, where he found Mace and Will changing out of their wet clothes. Will wore a dry but threadbare shirt that fell to his knees, and was reaching for a thick, knitted, moss-green jersey that looked as if it might fit him better.

Mace said, “They ha’ been gey kind to us, sir.”

“They have, aye,” Jake agreed. “I was going to send you into Flamborough to learn what you could about those other ships. But, as full as this inn’s common room is, I’m thinking we’ll do better to chat with men here. When you’ve dressed, go down and ask Metlow if we may use that round table in the nook by the fire. If he says aye, tell him ‘Mistress Allie’ will sup with us.”

Mace raised his eyebrows. “D’ye think that be wise? Some o’ them lads…”

“I agree,” Jake said. “But she believes that the three of us can protect her. Forbye, she wants to hear more of what Will can tell us about what happened.”

Mace’s lips twitched in a near smile. But he said only, “I agree that it be better for me tae stay here. Most o’ them chaps below ha’ drink enow in them the noo tae forget what they say or how I sound when I talk.”

“If anyone questions you too closely, confide that your mother was a damned Scot afore she married. After our years together your Scots is gey like mine.”

Mace did smile then. “Happen she
were
a Scotswoman, coom tae that.”

Will watched them, saying nothing. But when Mace was ready to go downstairs, the boy eyed Jake quizzically.

“You stay with me, lad. No one has asked who you are, but they must think you are my son or Mistress Allie’s.”

“Is that what I should call her ladyship, too, then, sir?”

“Aye, and refrain from saying ‘sir’ and ‘m’lady’ until we reach my ship. Can you remember that?”

“Aye, sure,” Will said.

“That is a fine sweater you are wearing,” Jake said.

“Aye, well, the man said it be one his son outgrew,” Will said earnestly. “He said I could keep it, but he didna ha’ any o’ his outgrown shirts, so I’m a-wearing one he brung up for ye or Mace. I didna think ye’d mind.”

“I don’t, nor would Mace,” Jake assured him.

“D’ye think Jamie will ha’ dry clothes? Mayhap we should keep some for when we find him.”

Hesitating only a moment, Jake said, “We may not be able to rescue him, Will. We are only four people, after all. Even with the
Sea Wolf
’s crew, we’d be too few to take on that pirate fleet. Our job is to tell people at home what
happened. But first,” he added, “Mistress Allie wants to hear about all that you saw on deck.”

“Aye, sure, but mayhap I should tell ye first that—”

“You need not tell it twice,” Jake said. “We must talk whilst we eat if only to look normal, so we might as well talk about that as anything else. It should be safe enough as long as we take heed of anyone coming near us. It wouldn’t do to let others hear aught we say about the
Maryenknyght
.”

“I didna want tae tell her about Ciara,” Will said glumly.

“I ken that fine, lad. So does she. But you were right to tell her. Shall we see if she is ready yet to go downstairs?”

They had their answer when he opened the door, because Lizzie opened their door at the same time, and Alyson was peering over Lizzie’s shoulder. Clearly ready, she wore a plain white veil over her hair, which hung in loose, silky-looking flaxen plaits, one lying forward over her left shoulder and breast.

“Lizzie thinks Ah should dry me hair by t’ fire downstairs,” Alyson said. “So Ah plaited it as it were afore. I can brush it later, for it’ll dry quick.”

He nodded, having no idea how long it took a woman to dry her hair. At Duncraig, he and his father lived with Giff MacLennan and his lady, and Lady Sidony often plaited her hair. Alyson’s looked fine to him.

Downstairs they found Mace seated at the nook table near the fire with a jug and a mug before him. As the two women of the alehouse darted around them, setting hot food on the table, Jake pulled out the stool nearest the hearth for Alyson.

She accepted it, shifting the errant plait to her back.

Motioning for Will to take the stool on the hearth side of the table between Alyson’s stool and the bench under the window where Mace sat, Jake sat opposite Will. From there, he and Mace could both watch the common room.

“They been a-talking o’ them ships,” Mace muttered when the alewife and Lizzie left them to their supper. “They say all five ha’ harbored at Bridlington this past fortnight or longer. They harbored there although their leader hails from a village called Cley, much farther south, in a shire called Norfolk.”

“Have these pirates attacked others?” Jake asked him.

“Nae one mentioned other attacks. The men a-talking did
call
them pirates, and said they’d been a-prowling the seas as long as they’ve been here.”

Alyson’s forehead creased slightly before she said, “Surely they must have seen other merchantmen, even ones from… from the north.”

“Aye, that be so,” Mace agreed. “One lad did say they ha’ stopped near every ship from the north. But nae one seems tae ken nowt about seizing any cargoes.”

“Which means they did not,” Jake said. “A single merchantman’s cargo would fill the hold in the largest of those ships. They’d have no need to stop every ship coming south. Moreover, Will said most of the attackers did not even look for the
Maryenknyght
’s hold. Is that not so, lad?”

“Aye, it is… least I didna see anyone near that stern hatch, but them three did come out o’ there, later. Them wha’ Jamie and I saw a-boarding her did just herd our lads about, though, and took… um… them others wha’ they did take.” He glanced at Jake as if to ask if he had been clear.

Giving him a reassuring nod, Jake said, “Their leader identified our youngest friend with astonishing, even suspicious, ease. Tell us what else you observed, lad.”

“What if one o’ these others can hear?” Will asked. “I canna talk and watch.”

Jake rested his left hand on the table and wiggled its forefinger. “I’ll keep watch for anyone coming near. If I lift my finger so, stop talking.”

Nodding, Will glanced at Alyson and then looked back, fixing his gaze on Jake’s left forefinger. “Ye asked earlier did I see Mungo and Niall.” Raising his gaze to Jake’s face, he said, “I should call them so, aye?”

“Aye.”

“Well, we did see them when we got topside, like I told ye. But I saw ’em again later, too.” He grimaced uneasily.

Alyson understood that Will did not want to tell her the rest. She said gently, “Tell us, Will. Were they no longer aboard that lead ship?”

“Nay… I mean we were all aboard her by then. Jamie and me kent fine that ye were still below, so I watched them. I thought one o’ them would ask about ye—Mungo or Niall, that is, no the captain or the louts. But nae one did till they was turning away wi’ the captain. Then that Niall said summat about going back tae find ye”—he glanced at Alyson—“but Mungo said he’d sent someone tae fetch ye and that Niall should go below wi’ him and Orkney. I kent fine that Mungo had sent nae one, and Jamie did, too. Ye should ken that all were disorder, wi’ planks stretched ship tae ship all along where they was hooked together. Nae one paid me heed. I think they were
too busy fleeing the
Maryenknyght
tae heed one lad slipping back tae her. I were near enough the forecastle tae slip into Orkney’s cabin. It were gey easy from there tae get back down the hatchway. I thought Jamie would tell your Niall, and they’d wait for us.”

“But they didn’t,” Alyson said. “And it is as well that they did not, Will. Whatever happens, we know where they are right now. We may be the only ones other than their captors who do.”

“Aye, well, I dinna ken what they be a-doing wi’ Jamie,” Will said. “Ye should ha’ heard Orkney a-telling that Englishman that he’d nae right tae touch our prince or tae interfere wi’ his journey, let alone tae damage his ship as they had. Orkney said he should arrange tae find them proper transport tae go on forthwith.”

“What did the captain say to that?” Jake asked dryly.

“He said there’d been a change o’ plans, that we had entered King Harry’s waters without his royal permission. That were when someone shouted that the
Maryenknyght
were a-sinking, and men began scrambling tae get from our ship tae them two other ones. That’s when I slipped away.”

“You saved my life,” Alyson said. “I’ll never forget that, Will.”

Raising his left forefinger, Jake said in his Borderer’s accent, “Will ye tak’ some o’ this fine bread the noo, Allie-lass?”

“Ah will,” she said, as Lizzie passed behind her and bent to refill Jake’s mug from a fresh jug of ale. “Ah’ll ha’ the butter as weel.”

Passing her the butter crock, Jake thanked Lizzie and took the jug from her, handing it to Mace.

“Will ye ha’ some, too, laddie?” Mace asked Will.

“Aye, sure,” Will said.

“Ye’ve barely touched yours,” Jake murmured to Alyson.

“I am not fond of ale, I fear,” she replied.

“Ah, nae doot ye’d liefer ha’ whisky.”

With a wistful smile, she said, “We do have gey fine whisky at home.”

“I remember it, aye. Near as potent as Isles brogac, as I recall it.”

They all fell silent, making the most of the tasty fish stew.

Then, abruptly, Jake said, “How came you to be on the
Maryenknyght
, lass? You said it was because your husband serves Orkney, but I’d have thought the trip was all men’s business—Orkney’s and his grace, the King’s, in fact.”

“That may, in fact, have been the case,” she said. “But Orkney himself told me that very few people knew the true purpose of the journey and that Niall was not one of them. I think Mungo must have known, because he is chief secretary and had been traveling much on Orkney’s business. Niall stayed at Roslyn Castle, Orkney’s primary seat, to tend to business there. Since we had been so briefly married—”

“Briefly?” He gave her a sharp look. “But you must be married nigh a year by now. I distinctly recall Ivor’s saying that you were to marry in June.”

“Doubtless, he did, sir,” she said, amused to think of just what Ivor might have said to Jake, who had been amusing himself at the time by flirting with her. “From one cause or another, we postponed our wedding until December. So we had been married little over a month
when Niall learned about this journey. He told me only that he and Mungo would be leaving the first of March for France. I said I’d like to go if I could, as it would give us a chance to know each other better.”

“Ivor said you had known your intended since childhood.”

“Aye, but not as a husband to live with.”

“So, you thought such a journey would let you spend time together.”

“Aye, for I’d barely seen Niall since our wedding day.”

“And didna see much o’ the man on the ship, neither,” Will said darkly.