The Pirate Princess: Return to the Emerald Isle Read Online Free PDF Page B

they were never in each other’s way. But Eileen still bugged Meg at times.
    The sound Meg had heard was soon lost in the cacophony of the strong headwind whipping the sails and the waves crashing around them. She concentrated on tacking towards the historic landmark, closely watching the water in front of the boat. The tide was going out, and Meg knew that the huge amount of water emptying through The Race was helping the Muirín in its battle of forward motion against the heavy wind. With the tide going out, the headwind was actually a good thing to have at this particular leg. If the wind had been with them, both natural forces would combine to push the boat at top speed towards the underwater reef—the reef the lighthouse warded boats away from. Beating into the wind allowed Meg a little more time to execute the maneuvers she knew by heart to get the boat through the rarely used channel. Few boats and captains attempted to go between the point and the rock, but the Murphy girls never steered clear of a challenge.
    As they neared Race Rock Light, Shay was the first to spot a woman sitting on the high granite wall that formed the foundation for the light house. “Look at that!” she said. “Some lady must have paddled out to the Race Rock Light.”
    They all looked and saw a woman sitting on the sea wall. She had long, white hair, and was wearing a flowing, grey dress. Everything about her seemed drab and grey. The wind was blowing her hair and dress in all directions, and it looked as though she was combing her white locks. It was such a strange sight that the whole Murphy family was silent for a moment while they stared. The grey woman was bent over as if she was shielding herself from the wind, so they could not see her face.
    “There ’s no boat tied up to the pier,” Shay said, pointing. “It must be a kayaker.”
    “She’s dressed kind of weird for a kayaker ,” Mark said. “You know, ever since that ghost show on cable did an episode at the lighthouse, there have been all sorts of weirdos sneaking their way on the rock to ghost hunt.”
    Meg knew what her father was talking about. One night a while back , she heard her father yell and it had woken her up. She wanted to know what he was yelling about, so she went downstairs to snoop. She found him on the edge of the couch talking to the TV. “No way!” he had yelled at the screen, which, to Meg’s surprise was in black and white. The image on the screen was a rocking chair in a corner of an attic that started rocking all by itself! Mark explained that the show was using night vision and that it was in the keeper’s house of Race Rock Light. He allowed Meg to stay up with him to watch the rest of the show because he said what they were watching was in their own back yard and of interest to her, but Meg always thought he had kept her with him because he was a little scared of the footage. At the time, Meg didn’t get what the big deal was; the show had probably rigged a fishing line or something to move the chair (it was on the Sci-Fi channel), but she happily stayed up and watched the rest of the show with her dad. That night came back to her as they sailed past the island.
    The air around the Muirín seemed to be charged with electricity and the hair on Meg’s skin stood on end. She needed to concentrate on where she was going and how to get there; she could not just stop and stare at the sight of the strange woman. When she turned the boat port, into the channel, the wind changed and she was forced to alter her plan mid leg. She tweaked the tiller and pulled in the forward sheet tight while tacking with the aft sail. Meg was able to sneak a peek at the grey woman between tacks, and it was as if her vision had blurred. Although Meg saw the lighthouse and the seawall in perfect focus, the details of the woman’s lines were soft and had no definition for her. It was very strange.
    Meg could tell her mother was also bothered by the sight of the woman.