The Baron's Bounty Read Online Free PDF Page B

water.
    “Ye canna jest leave him,” she said, horrified to think they’d let the man die.
    “We’re all goin’ te die if this storm doesna let up,” said Elliot.
    “Nay. We’ll be all right.” She tried to convince herself this were true. “Someone will help us.” Looking at the size of the swells that were now almost up to the top of the mast, she was no longer certain.
    “Dinna be a fool,” growled the guard. “No one is daft enough te risk their own neck comin’ after us in weather like this. And if this crew doesna get those sails lowered quickly, the ship will be torn to pieces.”
    Lightning flashed across the blackened sky, and she saw the silhouette of the second crewman floundering atop the mast. He reached out for the lines just as another gust of wind hit the sails, and he almost lost his hold. The ship lurched back the other way, and a large wave hit the side, causing everyone to be set off balance. She heard the man in the rigging scream when he fell, but she never saw nor heard him hit the water because the high swells carried him away before anyone could try to help him.
    Her stomach roiled and she felt as if she were going to retch. She dug her nails into the wooden railing, and said a silent prayer. Now she knew why her cousin, Catherine, feared storms. She also wondered if the woman had somehow known bad weather was on the way, and that was the reason she was sent to meet the baron instead of Catherine coming on the journey herself. Marry, not meet, she silently corrected herself. Once again she thought of why she was even aboard this ship at all. She was her cousin’s proxy, sent to marry the baron in Catherine’s place until her cousin decided to grace all of England with her own presence.
    Isobel looked down at her new ankle-high suede boots and felt sickened at the sight of what the saltwater had done to them. The hemp thread holding them together was frayed and thinned and she could see her feet through the gaping holes in the sides of the shoes. She sighed. Yet another pair of shoes ruined and another mission embarked upon for naught.
    “God’s eyes, nay.” She picked up one foot and almost lost her balance as she tried to see the bottom of her shoe. She’d fallen for one of Catherine’s ploys once again. And this time, more than shoes were being offered as part of the deal. Supposedly if she did this task, Catherine had told her she’d convince her father to let Isobel live at Carlisle Castle in Galloway. That is, the castle that was once Isobel’s home.
    Isobel missed her parents dearly, and had no other family except for her uncle and cousin. But she hadn’t been happy living in Fife for the past eleven years. She wanted more than anything to go home once again.
    Carlisle Castle was where all her memories of her parents lie. She hadn’t been back since her father’s death, and would do anything to have the chance to see her home again. But now by the looks of the storm, she wasn’t even sure they’d make it to England so she could carry out her task of being a proxy in a marriage to a man who she wasn’t at all convinced didn’t kill their Scottish king.
    “Captain canna ye do somethin’ te keep the ship from lurching?” she yelled out, feeling dizzy and very ill.
    The captain glanced over to her and Elliot with a look of frenzy on his face. “Get the wench below deck afore she falls inte the sea.” He went about trying to help what was left of his crew.
    “Come on, lassie,” said Elliot. “Ye need te get outta their way afore ye cause trouble.”
    “I swear Catherine must o’ kent a storm was comin’,” said Isobel regretting her decision once again. “Damn her eyes!” Isobel followed behind as the guard dragged her over the deck and toward the hold. She felt she’d lost control of her life lately. Catherine had decided at the last minute before the ship left that Isobel was to be her proxy. She was being sent to marry Lord Conlin de Braose in her