Pirates of the Angui (Cipher's Kiss Book 1): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance

by Heather Walker

  The Gunns recovered in an instant, and they closed in for the kill.

  In a heartbeat, Ree found herself overpowered and outnumbered. She drew closer to Ned. His presence gave her courage. As long as she was with him, she could face whatever came.

  He turned his shoulder to her, and they fought back to back. The Gunns started to close the circle around them. In a second, they would cut off Ned and Ree’s retreat to the boat.

  Ree parried the Highlanders’ thrusts, fighting in primal madness. Blood splattered her face. She felt like an animal fighting her way out of a trap. Her blade struck someone in the skull. She’d called herself a killer, and now she was one. She wanted nothing but to kill and keep on killing.

  Ned grabbed Ree’s arm and tried to haul her backward. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  She took a moment to understand what he was talking about. When she stole a peek behind her, she understood. A few more steps, and the Gunns would encircle them. She and Ned would never get off this island.

  She backed away, letting her fury cool. She had Ned. She could leave the killing for another day.

  Her leg bumped the prow.

  “Get in,” Ned yelled. “Get in and row.”

  “I’m not leaving you!” she screamed.

  “Ye won’t. Just get in.”

  Trusting him, she dropped the saber into the bilge and climbed on board. She took the oars and pushed off. Ned planted his legs wide and took the full brunt of the Gunns’ attack. They pressed him to the point of desperation, but he never gave up.

  One of the men darted in and stabbed him in the arm. He snarled in their faces and redoubled his efforts.

  Ree rowed ten feet out into the water before she paused to wait for him.

  He backed into the waves still hacking and chopping to the utmost of his strength. At the last possible second, he jumped over the rail. In the blink of an eye, he got his legs under him and met the oncoming attackers.

  “Row!” he boomed.

  Ree hauled on the oars with all her might. She wedged her good leg against the hull and pulled for all she was worth. The boat backed stern first into the channel. The Gunns waded up to their waists into the sea, but Ned fought them back until Ree left them behind.

  A few of the assailants tried to swim after them, but the fight was over.

  Ned collapsed on the thwart. His saber fell out of his hand, and his shoulders heaved. His breath rasped in his throat, and blood saturated his sleeve. His arm hung limp and useless in his lap.

  Ree abandoned the oars and jumped across the boat to help him. “Are you all right? Oh, my God, it looks bad. We have to stop the bleeding.”

  He raised his head with an effort and croaked between gasps. “Turn around, lass.”

  “What? You’re bleeding real bad. Here. I’ll tear a piece of fabric off my dress to bandage it.”

  He took a few more ragged breaths before he got the words out. “Turn the boat around, lass, and dinnae stop rowing until we make land. Dinnae stop for anything.”

  “We can’t,” she exclaimed. “We have to deal with this shoulder before we…”

  The words died on her lips when a huge black shape came drifting around the western headland. Ree stared in slack-jawed horror as a massive ship nosed into view and headed straight for them. It churned up the ocean and sailed into the channel between Barra and Kisimul Castle.

  Ree leapt back to her place and seized the oars. She dragged the boat around so its prow faced the castle and bent her back to pulling on those oars as never before.

  The ship drifted to a stop in the middle of the channel. The crew lowered a skiff into the chop, and a man rowed over to Barra. The Gunns on the shore started loading into the skiff.

  Ree whimpered in terror.

  “Pull, lass,” Ned murmured.

  “I am pulling!” she shrieked.

  She couldn’t have pulled harder if she tried. She almost stood up in the bilge for every stroke.

  The skiff left the beach and headed for the ship before it went back for more.

  Ree’s whole body ached from the effort, but she didn’t stop rowing until the boat bumped into the rock outside the castle.

  Hamish emerged from the building and caught hold of the prow. “Now ye’ve done it. Ye dinnae leave a man much time to get to ken ye before ye set the world on fire, do ye?”

  Ree jumped ashore and helped him pull the boat up. “He’s hurt. We have to get his shoulder bandaged before he loses any more blood.”

  “Dinnae bother about me, lass,” Ned muttered. “We have much bigger fish to fry at the moment.”

  “Get inside, lad,” Hamish told him. “Rosalynn will fix ye up. Ye’re no good to us as ye are.”

  Ned growled, “There’s nothing wrong with me,” but he offered no resistance when Ree helped him stand up and step out of the boat.

  Chapter 27

  Hamish followed Ned and Ree inside, to a sitting room off the front entrance, and lowered him into a chair. Rosalynn and her maids went about fussing over him. He hated the attention and hated being injured even more, especially under the circumstances.

  Men rushed into the room, and Hamish gave orders. “Arm the guard to repel the attack. They’ll likely put ashore on the north landing.”

  “They’ll come in force,” Ned remarked. “They’ll land their entire complement of fighting men, and if that’s not enough, they’ll bring in another boatload. They’ll no quit until they overrun the island.”

  “Then we’d better to be ready to repel them.” Hamish faced another man rushing into the room. “Get the women and children into the top level where they’ll be easiest to defend. The enemy winnae get there anytime soon. Get everyone fit enough to hold a sword downstairs and organized into bands. Assign them to the four sides of the island, with an emphasis on the north and the east. Make sure they’re all armed and ready when the assault begins.”

  “I’m fighting too,” Ree added.

  “Ye’ll do no such thing,” Ned countered. “Ye’ll go upstairs with the women and children.”

  “You’re the one bleeding from the shoulder,” she fired back, “and I’m the one who got you out of there alive, so don’t make me mad by arguing with me. They followed us here because of me. I’m fighting, and you can’t stop me.”

  Hamish and Rosalynn looked back and forth between each other, then Hamish shrugged and said, “Looks like she’s fighting, lad.”

  Ned’s shoulders slumped. “Ye cannae stop them when they dig their heels in like that.”

  “I ken it. Come along with me, lass, and I’ll see ye’re fitted out proper like. Ye can fight on the west with me. It’s likely to be lighter there, but ye’ll see enough action, I’ll wager.” Hamish steered Ree out of the room.

  Ned looked up at Rosalynn smiling down on him as she said, “Now tell me all about how it happened.”

  “The Gunns are on Barra.” He snorted. “I should have said the Gunns were on Barra. They’re coming here now. We had to fight our way off the island.”

  “Is it true what she said about saving yer life by getting ye out?” Rosalynn asked.

  Ned wilted. “Aye. It’s true. I never would have made it off the island if she hadnae.”

  “Then why do ye protest her fighting now?” Rosalynn asked. “If she’s that good, ye’d do better to use her where she’s needed instead of locking her in the attic with the others.”

  “Aye. I ken it,” Ned murmured. “I just dinnae want to see her in danger. That’s all. I would remove her from all of this if I had me way.”

  “We rarely get our way in life, lad,” she replied, “but I dinnae think I have to tell ye that. Ye’ve seen a sight more of it than I have.” She finished bandaging his shoulder and left him alone.

  He picked up the clean shirt she left for him and slipped it over his head. His shoulder hurt like the devil, but he shoved the pain aside. He had to focus on the fight ahead, and there would be a fight.

  He wandered over to the window while
he tucked his shirt into his kilt. The window looked down on the west shore of the island. He couldn’t see the north from here with the Gunn’s ship sitting in the channel. They would be preparing to land their men to assault the castle. As he stood there going over the battle plan in his head, a blur of motion caught his eye. He craned his neck to see down to the ground. In front of his eyes, Rosalynn hurried out of the castle to the west shore. She heaved back a large boulder, put something on the ground, and then rolled the heavy stone back into place. She ran for the castle and passed out of Ned’s sight. As soon as she left, the wind caught a length of red cloth and flapped it in the breeze.

  Ned’s pulse pounded. What was she doing? He didn’t have to ask. He whirled around, grabbed his saber from the chair, and stormed out of the room. He waded through dozens of MacNeills all arming for battle and shouting orders back and forth. Most were going the opposite direction, and they impeded his progress. He searched until he found Hamish with a bunch of his Clansmen in the dining room. Ned’s heart leapt when he spotted Ree standing to one side. She didn’t involve herself in the discussion, but Hamish must think a lot of her even to let her stay in the same room. He sensed she was no ordinary woman, or he would have sent her upstairs with the rest.

  Ned shouldered his way to Hamish’s side, but dared not interrupt the conversation until the man dismissed his Clansmen and turned to him. “Are ye fit enough to use yer arm, lad?”

  “We have a problem,” Ned murmured. “I need ye to come with me. It’s urgent.”

  Hamish’s eyes flew open. “Does it concern the defense?”

  “I believe so, but I cannae be sure.” Ned struggled to keep his voice low.

  “What’s going on?” Ree asked.

  “I dinnae ken,” he replied. “We’re going to find out.”

  Hamish followed him outside. Ned led the way around the castle to the west shore, and Ree tagged along. There was the red flag waving in the breeze for all to see. From here, all three of them could see the Gunns’ ship, and the Gunns could see that flag as plain as day. The red color stood out against the plain gray rock of the shore.

  Hamish stared at the flag. Ree looked back and forth between the two men. “What does it mean?”

  Hamish snapped out of his trance. “Who put this here?”

  “Ye said ye’d be on the west side,” Ned pointed out. “It may be a signal to attack ye.”

  “The Gunns have no reason to attack me,” Hamish replied. “They wouldnae be here at all if ye hadnae come. They’re after ye—or both of ye—and it’s only the lassie that would be over here, not ye.”

  Ned didn’t even want to think about the conclusion spinning through Hamish’s mind.

  Hamish clenched his teeth. “Who put this here?”

  “It was Rosalynn,” Ned replied.

  Hamish shoved past him on his way to the castle.

  Ned cast a knowing glance at Ree, then spun and took off after Hamish.

  Ree caught up quickly and trotted alongside Ned as she said, “What’s going on?”

  Ned shook his head to silence her, and they hurried after Hamish. The big man barged into the castle, cast his eye right and left, and headed upstairs where dozens of women and children packed the bedrooms to bursting.

  Women shouted orders to each other just like the men. Some of the children cried, while others treated the pending attack as a holiday. Boys battled each other with stick swords and chased each other through the halls.

  Rosalynn moved among them, giving an encouraging word here, a smile or a touch there. She spread her care and light through the masses of anxious people.

  Hamish pushed through the throng to her side, seized her by the arm, and marched her out of the room.

  “What’s the meaning of this, then?” She jerked and twisted against the big Scot but didn’t slow him down.

  Hamish’s jaw muscles bulged. He didn’t even look at his wife on their way down the stairs.

  Ned and Ree followed after them.

  Hamish jerked Rosalynn almost off her feet shoving her out of the castle. He dragged her around the wall to the west shore and yanked his hand toward the red flag.

  She spun around to confront her enraged husband. “Hamish, what are ye doing to me?”

  He leveled his finger at the ship looming tall and dark on the glassy water not a hundred yards away. “Start swimming,” he snarled. “Go join yer friends, and I hope they treat ye half so well as I have done all these years.”

  “Hamish, I—” she began, shaking her head with pleading eyes.

  “Start swimming!” he thundered. “Go on. Ye’re one of the Gunns, so go on and join them. Ye wanted to give them the advantage in this fight. Ye wanted to signal them so they would ken where to land to get what they wanted. How long have ye been one of them? Is that why ye married me, to give them a toehold on our land for the day they might need it? Och, I should have kenned ye’d prove false, and I loved ye, lass. I loved ye right well with all me heart.”

  Ned took a step forward and laid his hand on Hamish’s arm. “Hamish, perhaps we should—”

  Hamish rounded on him in a rage. “Leave off, man. Do ye ken what she’s done? She’s been lying for the Gunns all these years, ever since I first took a fancy to her when she was young and faultless. She’s been playing me the fool ever since. Well, ye’ll no play me a moment longer. Go on. What are ye waiting for? Ye want to be the Gunns’ handmaid, and now ye can be.”

  He advanced on the gray-haired lady. She took a step back, and he menaced her all the way to the water’s edge. Rosalynn’s foot splashed in the lapping waves, and she paused. Hamish didn’t stop his threatening advance. He slammed both hands against her shoulders and knocked her a step back.

  Rosalynn tried to maintain her composure. At first, she gazed up at her husband’s contorted visage with calm amusement, but that changed when she sank up to her ankle in the cold sea. Her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth in mute protest.

  Ned came to Hamish’s side. “Dinnae do this to yer own wife, man. Ye ken she cannae swim.”

  “Swim!” Hamish bellowed into Rosalynn’s face. “Swim if ye ken what’s good for ye, or ye’ll lose that lying, traitorous head of yers on land.” He gave her another vicious shove.

  Rosalynn screamed.

  Ned braced himself for a fight to restrain his old friend, but at that moment, Ree called out, “Look!”

  Ned and Hamish followed her pointing hand, and Hamish froze. The ship that once sat becalmed in the channel now carried all her sail. She swiveled on the glassy surface and turned her nose for Kisimul Castle.

  Ned swallowed hard. This was it. The Gunns were attacking. Hamish sensed the truth too. He spun around and headed up the beach, but it was already too late. The ship plowed nose first into the rocky island. In an instant, hundreds of bodies swarmed over the side. A raucous cry went up, and they all charged for the castle walls.

  Chapter 28

  Ree took a few staggering steps backward but never got a chance to retreat before the enemy struck. No one saw what happened to Rosalynn in the confusion.

  Hundreds of armed men attacked the castle from the north side, exactly the way Hamish expected. His men charged out of the castle to engage with the invaders, and archers appeared on the battlements.

  Ree looked around for Ned. Her eyes fell on the ensuing battle. As she watched the Gunns attack the castle, rage boiled inside her. Her newly ignited instinct to fight kicked in. With gritted teeth, she slid her saber out of its scabbard and flung the casing away.

  A Gunn staggered her way, oblivious to her presence. None of them recognized her. To them, she was just any other woman. Seizing the initiative, Ree flew at him with a wild shriek of deadly fury. She hacked her sword at him and drove him back a step. He wasn’t expecting any other woman to do that. She launched herself at him and slammed her shoulder into his chest before he could react. She knocked him off his feet, and he hit the ground hard.

  The saber fell out of his hand
, and she stepped on his wrist to pin it to the ground. She grabbed the dirk out of his belt with her left and plunged her blade into his chest. He grunted once, and she leapt away. She had what she wanted, and was already locking her eyes on her next victim.

  Man battled man all over the island. The Gunns swooped around the castle to converge on it from all sides. The defenders on the parapet pounded them with arrows and spears. The wounded and dying lay clustered all over the ground, and still more kilted men poured out of the ship. When would the tide end? Could the MacNeills stand such an assault?

  Ree killed three men before the remaining attackers realized she wasn’t any other woman. They saw the blood sprayed all over her clothes and the gore dripping from her hair. She was a bloody killer, and they responded accordingly. Three of them came at her at once, surrounding her, and she realized she might be out of her league. She fought to hold back their blades, but they moved and fought in a coordinated effort from years of training. What did she have to counter that besides her bottomless rage and unstoppable will to survive?

  She couldn’t hold them back. She spun one way to block a thrust, but another man closed in on her from behind. He dropped to one knee and slashed his weapon across her leg. He would have cut her down in an instant, but his saber clanged useless against her prosthesis.

  She rounded on her enemy. He stared at her in surprise. That had never happened to him in battle before, and it never would happen again. Insane glee bubbled out of Ree’s soul, and she laughed in his face. That laugh came from some mindless pit of inhuman hatred, and it struck terror into her enemies’ hearts. They quailed before her.

  Before they could recover, she swung her saber at the man who’d tried to sever her leg and chopped his neck halfway through. Her saber stuck in his vertebrae, and she didn’t have time to retrieve it before his comrades moved in.

  She darted forward, ducked under her victim’s arm, and whipped around behind his back. She grabbed him around the shoulders. His head flopped against her shoulder, and blood flowed all over her. She seized the man’s sword hand by the wrist and brought it up just in time to block a strike from the next man coming at her. The second attacker tried to thrust. Ree turned her victim in that direction, and the weapon plunged into his stomach. Before the man could withdraw his weapon, she dropped her victim and dodged the other way. The hapless attacker still gripped his saber embedded in his comrade’s body as she pirouetted sideways and jammed her dirk as hard as she could into his back. He slumped forward, and both dead men fell to the ground at once.