Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I dinna think them ships be friends, m’lady. Sight o’ them sent a sailor running for the master’s cabin. I hied m’self down here, so I dinna ken what happened after that.”
    “Whatever happens, the boys should be safe,” Alyson said. “No one will let harm come to them.”
    “I ken who that Jamie is as well as ye do,” Ciara said. “I should think that with him on this ship, we’d have a flotilla along to protect him.”
    “Well, we don’t,” Alyson said.
    She did not want to try explaining to Ciara that Orkney and others who had arranged the voyage, including the King, must have hoped to transport Jamie in the deep secrecy that had cloaked his whereabouts before Christmas. According to her cousin Ivor Mackintosh, such a scheme had worked the year before to convey Jamie to St. Andrews, where he had lived under the bishop’s watchful eye. But then, shortly before Christmas, Albany had summoned the lords of Parliament to meet at Easter.
    Doubtless, aware that Albany meant to retake the Governorship he had lost to Davy Stewart on Davy’s coming of age—and wanting to protect Davy’s little brother now that Davy was dead—the King had decided to move Jamie again.
    Ciara had grimaced at Alyson’s brief reply but said nothing more, and Alyson retained her customary composure until they heard a distant boom.
    Frowning, she said, “I don’t think that was thunder.”
    “Nay,” Ciara said. “Mayhap we should go up and—”
    “Hark!” Alyson interjected, hearing pounding feet in the passageway.
    The door burst open, and Jamie, entering with Will on his heels, exclaimed, “They have cannon aboard the biggest o’ those ships! It’s shooting at
us
!”

    Hearing cannon fire, Jake saw the merchantman heave to and watched in dismay as the English ships surrounded it. The two largest ones, using grappling irons, flanked it.
    Although he climbed the mast to watch the confrontation, he could do naught to aid the
Maryenknyght
. Themuch smaller
Sea Wolf
carried no artillery and was heavily outnumbered. Nor had it been anyone’s intent that he do more than witness the prince’s safe arrival in France and report back to Bishop Wardlaw.
    If the pirates took captives, Jake would follow them and hope to create an opportunity to rescue Jamie and Orkney, at least.

    Alyson jumped up, steadying herself against the roll of the ship as she headed toward the door. Chessboard and pieces lay forgotten on the table.
    Pulling the door open, she stepped into the passageway just as a crash and instant darkness told her someone had slammed the hatchway shut.
    As she struggled to collect her wits, Jamie said in a carefully calm voice, “Do you think those pirates will capture us?”
    “Whether they will or not remains to be seen,” she said. Knowing that the boys had explored the ship, she added, “It may be wise for us to hide, in case they do, though. Do you know of a place where you and Will might conceal yourselves?”
    “We
could
go into the hold,” Jamie said, frowning. “Orkney did say that we were no tae go down there, because there will likely be rats. And the captain said we’d no see anything anyway, ’cause he has strict rules against lanterns unless someone else goes along wi’ water tae douse any fire. But with all this wind—”
    “Aye,” Will said, nodding. “The way the sea be a-tossing o’ this ship, even a grown man would ha’ trouble staying upright down there wi’ a lantern in hand.”
    Eyeing them both, Alyson suspected that the only way either would descend to the hold would be if she and Ciara went with them. Recalling the older woman’s terror of the dark, the possibility of the ship’s sinking if a cannonball struck it, and the way that Ciara’s eyes had widened at Jamie’s mention of rats, Alyson knew she’d have trouble persuading any of them to seek refuge in the hold.
    Her usual common sense stirred sharply then.
    “I expect that the hold is the first place the pirates