Page 50 of The Guardian's Bride
Chapter Fourteen
Fog and rainrolled in, and with it came the pirates.
Rowena saw the other ship emerge through a curtain of mist as it sailed into the firth from the North Sea. A bolt of alarm shot through her and she stood, sensing a threat, looking around for Aedan and Brian, who stood talking with the captain at the other end of Lauder’s longship. She waved, called out, but they did not turn immediately.
She had been watching the thick, pale fog float on the whippy surface of the water under darkening clouds while Brian’s longship sailed into the heart of the firth. Miserable, she chewed on dried ginger and trained her gaze on the tall mast at the center of the low-slung, clinker-built longship.
The other stable element nearby was Aedan MacDuff, who stood strong and still as he spoke with Sir Brian and Tom Robertson, the captain, and even as he took a turn at an oar with the crewmen. He was becoming a reliable anchor in her life; without him she felt a bit afloat herself on the ship.
Now she saw the other longship, larger and coming fast as it plowed through the waves toward Lauder’s vessel.
“Aedan!” she called over the sound of wind and waves. He turned and she gestured. Seeing the other ship, he spoke to Brian and the two of them made their way toward her better vantage point.
“The flag it carries is not English, nor one I recognize,” Aedan said. “Nor does the prow carry a dragon’s head, so it is notViking—but the legendary Viking dragon ships have not attacked Scotland in living memory, I think.”
As the ship swerved its course to sail closer, Brian swore. “Pirates! They sometimes prowl these waters, but usually at dusk. The fog makes them bolder today.”
Her heart slammed as the ship came into sharper view and she saw several men lined up in the larger ship, bows at the ready. Behind her, Tom Robertson called out and the oarsmen rowed harder, alert to danger.
Then several of the pirates raised nocked arrows. Now the ship was so close that a tall man could leap from one vessel to the other. At Aedan’s quick signal to her, Rowena backed into the shadow of the prow, while Aedan and Brian placed hands on the hilts of the daggers at their belts.
Suddenly ropes soared across the gap between the two ships and iron hooks caught the side of Lauder’s boat, claws sinking into wood. The longship lurched and was pulled close, bobbing on the waves as the two boats nearly knocked against each other.
Rowena felt her stomach sink, sour with fear and renewed nausea. She clutched the rim of the prow and watched as Aedan strode to the side, hand on the hilt of his dagger. Brian Lauder came with him, while Tom Robertson called again for the crewmen to pull hard, though just eight oarsmen manned the twelve-oared boat on this trip. The longship jerked, held fast by the hooks, as wood pierced by iron cracked with a sickening sound.
“Hold!” Robertson ordered.
Rowena felt ill again with the lurching motion of the boat. She sank to a bench, limbs trembling, fear adding to nausea as the smaller longship bobbed in the water.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Aedan bellowed, as two of Lauder’s oarsmen left their benches and tried to pry the claws loose without success.
The boat dipped again as three pirates stepped over the gap and into their boat, hands on daggers. Behind them, archers trained arrows on the longship.
“What do you want?” Brian repeated.
“Whatever you have, sir,” said the older of the invaders. Broad, gray, and gruff, he kept hold of his dagger’s hilt. “Whatever you are carrying, give it over now!”
“Who the devil are you?” Aedan growled.
“Meikle John Reid,” Tom Robertson said. “A pirate in these waters. Out of Flanders now, but an Aberdeen man, if I am not mistaken.”
“That is so,” Reid replied proudly.
“A Scotsman? Why attack your own?” Brian demanded.
“We do what we must,” Reid answered smoothly. “Just out looking for goods to trade. No harm will come to you—or yours.” He looked at Rowena, turned back. “Give over your goods and coin. Give us your names, too. You might be useful to us.”
One of the pirates came forward and grabbed Brian by the neck of his tunic, holding the tip of the blade at his throat. Reid trained his dagger point on Aedan, while the third crossed to Rowena. Though she backed away, he took her arm in a rough grip.
With a growl, Aedan surged forward. Reid’s blade went up, and an arrow swooshed to slam at his feet. He stopped, glowering.
“I am Lauder of the Bass Rock,” Brian gasped, with a blade under his jaw too. “We are only traveling for the day to get supplies in Dunfermline. We have no cargo.”
“But you have fat purses and a pretty lass,” Reid said. “If you have nothing else of value, we will take those.”
Dizzy, heart slamming, Rowena strained against the man’s grip on her arm, but felt faint suddenly. She saw Aedan send her a keen glance, then away.
He reached into his sporran to remove a cloth pouch. “Take this. Let the lass go.”
