Page 50 of The Trials of Alaric
Tarquin looked worried about that, too, and well he might. Who knew what Bebbington might try next?
“Ee,” said the captain. “We’ll do it right fine, good sirs. But mind you, we need to leave soonest.”
“We are ready,” Alaric declared. It remained only to be ferried out to the smack in a rowboat, and within fifteen minutes, they were underway. With the captain and a crew of two, Alaric, Tarquin, and Luke were also doing duty as deck hands, with the help of some of the footmen.
“If the wind holds,” said the captain, “I’ll have ye back in Bailecashtel well before sunset.” This close to midsummer, the sun was up until ten o’clock, which was in three hours.
The fishing smack held few comforts, but Eloise and her maid did not complain. They sat where they were told and tried to stay out of the way.
It was Eloise who noticed the boat that was following them.
“Just goin’ the same way as us,” the captain assured them, but Eloise was afraid it was Bebbington, coming after her.Tarquin didn’t mock her belief, and Alaric noticed that several of the sailors were also keeping a wary eye on the boat.
“They’ll not catch thePeggy-Rose, m’lady,” one sailor told Eloise. “She handles like a dream. Just a puff of wind, like we’ve got tonight, and we’ll fly all the way to Claddach. If the wind holds.”
The wind did not hold. In fact, it died entirely halfway through the journey, and then a fog came up out of nowhere.
“Isn’t that just like herself,” said the captain. “She’s a ticklish bit of sea, this one. One minute a storm, the next a fog and not a breath of wind. Keep a sharp look out, lads. Gents, I should say. We should be well clear of any rocks, but she’s a tricky one, and that’s for sure.”
Twice, a slight breeze came up—enough to ruffle the sails, but not to fill them even when the captain ordered this rope pulled and that one loosened. Each time, the fog cleared just enough to see the other boat. Each time, it was closer.
The second time the fog cleared, a man could be seen standing up in the prow of the other boat and shaking his fist. “Itismy brother,” Eloise told Tarquin. Alaric was staring at the other sailors. One looked remarkably like Gorry. Then the fog rolled back between the boats, though thePeggy-Rosewas afloat under a patch of sky, where the clouds were stained pink by the rays of the setting sun.
“Cap’n, look at they clouds,” said one of the sailors, indicating the skies to the left of the direction they were heading.
“Damn me,” said the captain, then bowed to Eloise. “Beggin’ yer pardon for me language, marm.”
“Is it a problem, captain?” Tarquin asked.
“I’ll not lie,” said the man. “I’d be right happy to be in Bailecashtel, with a mug of beer in one hand and a pie in the other, but there. If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride, as the saying goes. Here’s the thing. That’s a storm, or atleast a squall. It’ll bring us a wind, coming straight at us from Bailecashtel. Now I’m not sailing straight into a squall, but I can use the wind to take us out of trouble and bring us safe to Dara, and that’s what I plan to do, not being wishful to risk thePeggy-Roseor your lady.”
He pointed in the direction of the other boat. “If they’re wise, they’ll do the same.”
Even as he spoke, a gust of wind buffeted the boat and set the calm sea tossing. The captain shouted some commands so fast that Alaric had no idea what he’d just been ordered to do. Fortunately, the sailor next to him told him which line to grab and pull, and in moments the boat had turned and was speeding at perhaps a seventy-degree angle from its previous direction.
For several minutes, Alaric had no time to look for the other boat, and when he did, it was not visible. The wind had whipped the fog to shreds, but the fast-gathering clouds, the setting sun, and the rain that came with the wind meant the patch of sea they could see around them grew smaller by the minute.
There followed a tense, scrambling, clawing, tugging interval of time, filled with the groan of ropes, the howl of the wind, and the slapping of waves on the fast moving, bucking hull of the boat. Alaric did what he was told and tried his hardest not to think about the last time he’d experienced one of the Irish Sea’s storms.
Then one of the sailors let out a glad shout. “The signal fires on Dara Sea Wall!”
The captain corrected their course and sailors did complicated things with the lines and sails, until Alaric could see, through the gloom, a fire on either side of them as they sailed into Dara Harbor.
“Any sign of Bebbington and the other boat?” Tarquin asked. But the boat did not follow them into the harbor, nor did itappear in the time it took for them to anchor, come ashore, and arrange for the anchorage with the harbormaster.
Things nearly turned pear-shaped again, when the harbormaster sent for the justice of the peace, for thePeggy-Rosehad been reported stolen. However, when Alaric introduced himself and explained how they came to be bringing the stolen boat back to Claddach, the justice said, “I thought I recognized you, Mr. Redhaven. You did a grand job running the contests at the fête. Shouldn’t you be at the castle, wooing our Lady Bea?”
Which led to more explanations and ended with Alaric, Tarquin, Eloise, and Luke being invited to spend the night at the justice’s house. “And we shall give you a good sendoff bright and early in the morning, and so we will,” said the justice.
Tarquin escorted Eloise to the justice’s carriage, but Alaric and Luke took a moment to say farewell to the crew, and to thank them again. Alaric pressed a pouch of coins on them, glad that Tarquin had thought to share what he had brought with him.
“Sir, we’ve been paid for the voyage,” the captain protested. “And for our ferry fare home in the morning.”
“But not for your costs at the inn tonight,” Alaric pointed out. “Have a good meal and a drink or two on us and thank you again.”
“Aye, we’ll drink a blessing on you, sir,” the captain agreed.
“We would be grateful for it,” Alaric said. He was not sure whether their trip had been cursed—since so much had gone wrong—or blessed—since they had avoided disaster over and over.
