Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy (9 page)

The wind now behind them, they sailed parallel to the headland’s looming chalk cliffs. With their tall columns, arches, and caves, they made an impressive sight even at dusk. As Jake had expected, pinpricks of light showed in cottages atop the headland and here and there around the bay, marking its shoreline. Shifting his attention back to the headland, he saw the opening in the cliffs.

“There, Mace!” he shouted. “Just off the port bow. See it?”

“Aye, Cap’n,” Mace shouted from the stern. “D’ye think it might harbor ships as big as them others?”

“According to the
Sea Wolf
’s rutter, it can take one or two large ones. I doubt they’d risk trying to take five such into it, though.”

Will said, “What if there be rocks?”

“If we keep to the center of the opening, we’ll have good clearance, lad.”

“What of the tide?” Alyson asked. “Is it going in or coming out?”

“Coming out,” Jake said. “These rollers will make any landing a challenge, but that beach is said to be safe in all but the highest spring tides. I doubt we’ll need the coble again, in any event.”

His last statement stunned Alyson. “But what if we do?”

“We won’t. As you see, this wide-mouthed bay provides little protection against the wind. We’re nobbut
eight miles from our meeting place and can walk it faster and safer than we could sail it against such fierce winds as these.”

“Doubtless, you’re right,” she said, thinking in truth that after their wild ride, once she was out of the tossing coble, she would be grateful to walk.

Looking up at the high, cave-ridden headland above them and seeing no sign of any inlet from where she sat, she hoped again that Jake knew what he was doing.

“Coo, them cliffs reach tae the sky,” Will said. “If there do be a beach in amongst them somewheres, how will we get up from it tae yon village?”

“Where there is a harbor, there will be a path,” Jake said.

“Most often, aye,” Will agreed. “But I’ll believe in it when I can see it.”

Nearly agreeing with that earnest declaration, Alyson noted that Jake had fixed his gaze on a point ahead of them, doubtless the opening of the harbor that he had mentioned to his man. She would have liked to see where they were going. But she could not even see the shore there over the prow of the coble, and she was not about to stand to do so.

For one thing, she was uncertain that she would be able to perform either movement, as cold as she was. She also knew that she would stay calm only if she continued to place her trust in the coble and in the two men sailing it.

Jake had lost his hat, and his dark hair had plastered itself to his head. Strands of it stuck to his face. It had been windblown when she recognized him on the deck of the
Maryenknyght
. But she remembered his dark soft curls from his visit to MacGillivray House. That evening
had been a pleasant one, and as far as she could tell, he had not altered in the year that had followed it.

Since he was Ivor’s friend, she knew she could trust him to look after her until they found Niall or learned what had become of him, because Ivor would take a dim view of anyone who betrayed her trust. And people never liked it when Ivor took a dim view. But what, she wondered, would they do next?

Will wanted to rejoin Jamie Stewart. But what if the pirates had
not
returned to Bridlington’s harbor? If they had gone elsewhere, how would anyone find them? And if the four of them did find the pirates, what then?

“The
Maryenknyght
be nae more the noo,” Will said, as if his thoughts had followed a similar track. “How will we get Jamie tae France if we
do
find him?”

“Orkney is wealthy and powerful,” she said. “If the pirates don’t know that, if they took them aboard only because the
Maryenknyght
was sinking and have released them hereabouts…” She stopped, seeing tears in Will’s eyes. “What is it?”

“Nowt,” he muttered. “I just ha’ a gey bad feeling about all o’ this.”

A tingling sensation touched her as he spoke. And the shudder that ran from her nape to her shoulders and rippled through her body had naught to do with the chilly wind. She recognized its meaning. Will was right, more so than he knew.

Jake’s thoughts followed a similar track as he considered what lay ahead. He had to discover what had happened to Orkney and James.

His two passengers would be devilishly in the way, and he could not do a thing about that. He itched for a few minutes with her ladyship’s husband to tell him what a fool he was for having brought her on such a voyage.

In any event, he couldn’t abandon her or Will. And rejoining the
Sea Wolf
quickly might not be an option while the wicked weather continued. Still, Coll would aim for the coast near the center of Filey Bay, as Jake had ordered him to do.

So the first order of business was to learn what he could and decide what his options were. The next would be to see to Lady Alyson’s safety.

They would have to walk north along the cliffs lining the bay to meet the
Sea Wolf
. Since that would take them away from Bridlington, he might have to depend on what news he could glean from folks on the headland or along the cliffs.

Unless the pirates left James and Orkney in Bridlington, he suspected that the Fates had seriously limited his options.

The harbor mouth looked larger as they neared it, and the coble passed with ease between the flanking chalk cliffs. Ahead, he saw a long jetty and a deep sandy beach at the base of the cliffs. Besides sand, though, there were scattered rocks and boulders. On any normal day, beaching safely would be easy. However, the heaving seas were driving huge waves inland despite the ebbing tide. In such an inlet, one rarely expected to find such powerful rollers.

Swiftly scanning the shore as he dropped the sail, he saw a pathway leading uphill from the jetty. It looked steep, but he would be glad to exert himself. The exer
cise would warm them all. He was sure that both of his passengers must be freezing in their wet clothing. He was none so warm himself.

The effects of the wind were less powerful in the harbor than on the bay. He saw two boats larger than the coble tied on the leeward side of the jetty, dancing wildly on the waves. He would keep his passengers safer by beaching the coble. However, their speed had increased on the rollers. They were going too fast to depend solely on the tiller for a safe landing.

“Mace, lock that tiller and grab an oar,” Jake shouted, grabbing for himself the oar that Alyson still held. “Face the beach, Mace, and row steerboard!”

Standing on the midthwart, steadying himself at the mast, Jake stepped over the two sitting in front of it to the bow thwart, used the oar as a third leg when he sat, then shoved it into the portside rowlock and snapped the lock into place.

“Pull hard,” he shouted. “We’ll aim between those two boulders dead ahead. You two stay put and hold on,” he added over his shoulder to Alyson and Will.

Fixing his gaze on his chosen landing place, he plied his oar, adjusting his pull as needed to keep them on course. The next moments went quickly. Then the boat soared atop a huge roller and plunged toward the beach. He saw smaller rocks, half-buried in the sand, too late to avoid them. The coble landed hard, right where he’d wanted it, and shot wildly up onto the rain-and-wave-soaked sand.

He heard rocks scraping the hull. Then came a loud crack, and their forward momentum abruptly stopped.

Since he and Mace had experienced hard beach landings
before, Jake barely spared him a glance but turned his attention to their passengers.

Will looked relieved and shot him a grin. “We made it!”

“Aye, we did,” Jake said. “How did you fare, my lady?”

“My legs are numb,” she said with surprise. “I don’t think I can stand.”

When it became apparent that both of their passengers would require help to get out, Jake lifted Alyson out without ceremony and let Mace see to young Will.

As he carried Alyson above the reach of incoming waves, he saw a shallow cave in the looming cliff face and carried her there. “Try to stand now,” he said, setting her on her feet. “I’ll hold you steady until the numbness wears off.”

“My legs feel all tingly,” she admitted, shivering. “I got colder than I knew. But I need only stamp about to get warm. At least we are out of the rain here.”

He kept hold of her until he was sure she was not exaggerating her ability to see to herself. Then, seeing Will also stamping one foot and waving his arms about, he said, “How is that ankle of yours, lad?”

“Better,” Will said. “I can stand on it now.”

Nodding, Jake went to help Mace drag the coble above the high-water mark. It would be unusable until repaired, but someone would be glad to attend to it.

They had not seen another living creature.

Gesturing toward the path up the cliff, Jake said, “They seem to have carved steps right into a declivity there. Are you ready to go up and find proper shelter?”

Although Alyson was ready, she kept her opinion of the rough-hewn steps to herself. At least she was not taking a few steps up only to slip back, as she would have done on such a slope without steps. Even so, she could not be sure that she was seeing the top end of them when she tilted her head back as far as it would go.

Mace went first, then Will, with Alyson behind him and Jake behind her.

The rain continued but was lighter than it had been, and the wind barely caressed them on the steps. When they had found their rhythm, climbing them, Jake said casually, “What did you see, Will, before you went to help the lady Alyson? Did you see the pirates board the ship?”

“Aye, some o’ them,” Will said, glancing over his shoulder at Alyson.

“When Ciara said ships were approaching the
Maryenknyght
, Will and Jamie ran up on deck,” Alyson said, speaking loudly enough for Mace to hear her, too.

“We wanted tae see what were what,” Will said. “But when they fired their cannon and yon fool, Cap’n Bear-dolt—”

“Bereholt,” Alyson corrected.

“Him, aye,” Will said nodding. “When he stopped the ship, Orkney said we should go below. Jamie said he wanted tae watch, but Orkney spoke tae him sharp. So we went doon and told Lady Alyson and Ciara that the pirates was a-boarding. Then we hid. But some o’ them villains came and found Ciara. When she screamed, Jamie ran tae help her. I did, too. But we shouldna had done that.”

“I’d wager you had few choices, lad,” Jake said. “Had you stayed where you were, they’d likely have found you in any event.”

“They must have come down to the lower cabins straightaway,” Alyson said. “I’d expected them to head for the hold, but evidently only a few of them did, as we saw. Ciara had just fastened the lid of my kist and was getting into hers when they burst in on her. Then the boys ran in, and the men hustled all three of them away. That’s when I discovered that I was locked in.”

“A good thing you were,” Jake said. “Had the kist not been locked, that chap who rattled the hasp-pin would have opened it and seen you straightaway.”

Alyson grimaced, knowing he was right.

“What did you see topside, Will?” Jake asked next.

“Men all a-shouting and a-cursing,” Will said. “Some was still a-jumping aboard from the two ships hooked tae the
Maryenknyght
. Others herded our lads sternward like sheep. Someone shouted about us taking on water, and Cap’n—” He glanced at Alyson. “The captain said he’d feared all along that the oakum they’d caulked seams with at Leith hadna had time tae dry proper and wouldna hold. Them fools a-banging their ships against ours as they did must ha’ finished her.”