Her Highlander

by Alice Wilde

  “Our ship is just up ahead, but we need to proceed with caution from here. I don’t think we should be seen together with Annalise. We don’t want to raise suspicions.”

  “I don’t like the idea of leaving her alone,” Roan says.

  “Of course not,” says Ero.

  “We aren’t leaving her alone,” Li says. “Annalise, I’m going to need you to follow alone, but remain far enough away that it doesn’t seem like you know us.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  “Pretend to be looking for some fish or wares, whatever you can find close enough to be able to hear what’s going on. Then wait for my signal.”

  “Signal to do what?”

  “I’m not entirely sure yet. I’m hoping we’ll have some idea what goods are being loaded and where. We’ll just have to improvise.”

  My stomach is somersaulting inside me.

  “Ready?”

  I’m most certainly not ready, but what can I say? “Yes.”

  “Okay, good. Roan and Ero, follow me.”

  “Good luck, princess.”

  Roan squeezes me gently on the shoulder and gives me a wink before they head off down the dock without me. I want to run after them, but I don’t. This is a chance to prove that I’m capable of handling myself. I wait until I feel they’re an appropriate distance away from me to start making my way down the dock as well. There several vendor stalls set up along the way, so I pretend to examine them while keeping a watchful eye on my three companions.

  It seems Li stopped us more than a short distance away from the ship we’re supposed to be taking. It’s only when they’ve almost reached the end of the wharf that they finally stop to talk to someone. The ship moored there is far smaller than the ships we passed closer to the main waterfront. From my limited knowledge of ships, I’d guess her to be a sloop. Perhaps large enough to need a crew of twenty to thirty men.

  I’m not close enough to hear what Li is saying to the captain, so I move to another stall much nearer and pretend to admire the far-from-fresh wares the seller is animatedly trying to sell.

  “—perhaps a bit short, but that shouldn’t be a problem with the three of you.”

  “How few?” Ero says, his tone hard.

  “Please, gentleman, you have to be quick. If we don’t leave soon, there will not be another chance today.”

  “How few?” Ero repeats.

  “Around fifteen, but I can assure you, it won’t be a problem.”

  The captain is a rotund man, and even I can tell he seems unusually nervous.

  “What happened to the rest of your crew?” Li asks.

  “They are cowards, that is all you need to know. Now, please, I must set sail. I cannot wait any longer.”

  They’re setting sail earlier than we expected. Gods, what now? I push away the malodourous fish the seller is shoving in my face and step away as quickly as I can as he swears at me for wasting his time. Li is arguing with the captain on board the ship now, but whatever he’s saying is being dismissed.

  Li looks out toward me, his expression far from his usual calm. He says something, and the captain pauses in his orders to the crew. He turns back to face Li and nods his head, making a gesture I can only imagine is meant to make him hurry.

  Li makes his way back down onto the dock and then over to Roan and Ero.

  “There are still several barrels and crates that need to be brought aboard. Hurry, before the captain decides to leave them behind once again,” Li says with a meaningful look toward me and then pointing Ero and Roan toward a pile of wares before returning to the deck of the ship.

  I make my way over to the crates as quickly as I can without being noticed. Checking my surroundings, I pretend to drop something and then squeeze into the middle of the goods.

  Ero and Roan are soon standing over me. Ero grabs a barrel and Roan a crate as they look down at me.

  “Now what?”

  “I think we’re going to have to get you on board inside one of these containers,” Ero says.

  “So, what would you prefer, lass?”

  “Long and well formed,” Ero says with a raise of his eyebrow, “or short and thick?”

  “What?” I ask, shocked.

  “Pretty sure he’s alluding to the barrels and crates,” Roan says. “But I could be wrong. Although I’m pretty sure we’re holding the wrong items in that case.”

  “You wish.”

  I can barely get the next words out of my mouth, my face burning with embarrassment.

  “Barrel.”

  “You’ve chosen well, princess.”

  “Stop with the princess already,” I hiss at him.

  “As you wish…Your Highness.”

  Roan rolls his eyes, and Ero yanks the top off of the barrel as easily as if it were a child’s toy and dumps the contents out into the ocean. Wine. He bends and plucks me from the ground, carefully placing me inside the barrel.

  “Get ready for the ride of your life,” Ero says and then carefully replaces the top of the barrel, pushing it back into place but leaving enough space for air.

  It’s nearly black as pitch inside the barrel, and the scent of wine is pungent. The sensation of being moved inside a barrel is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I’d never realized how much the ability to see changes how you experience movement. Just when I’m afraid I’ll be sick, Ero sets me down. I have no way of knowing exactly where I am, only that I’m no longer being carried.

  “Grab the last of the merchandise and we’ll be—”

  The captain doesn’t finish his sentence. I can hear men shouting but can’t quite make out what is being said.

  “Forget it! Weigh anchor! To your posts. We sail at once!”

  Men scurry about the deck and I hear the gangway scrape against the ship as we begin to pull away.

  The shouting on shore grows fainter, and the ship rocks as we crash through the waves and out to sea.

  “What was that all about?” Li asks.

  “Oh, just a bit of trouble with the French authorities. Nothing to worry about now,” says the captain as he walks away.

  “Probably something to do with the stolen wine,” Ero says.

  “Wonder what’s in the crates,” says Roan.

  “Hopefully we never have to find out,” says Li. “Better get to work. The faster we get there, the sooner we can forget this.”

  I shout as loudly as I can, but no one seems to hear. Water has started leaking in through the crack in my barrel. Wave after wave crashes over the sides of the ship.

  I can hear men yelling as they try to keep the ship on track, but my barrel continues to roll back and forth with each lurch of the vessel. My stomach turns and I want to be sick, but I swallow hard to keep from doing so. Pressing my mouth and nose to the small opening in the barrel, I try to breathe in the salty air as best I can. If I could turn my body around, I’d kick the lid of the barrel off and escape. As it is, I’m going to have to wait. This is not how I expected to die.

  “How could you not know there was a storm brewing?” Li shouts above the pandemonium.

  “Don’t turn this on me. I warned you, didn’t I?” the captain bellows. “I dare any man to say he saw the warning signs for a storm! I had to sail today and needed crew and you wanted free passage. I took you aboard and you lot have brought us misfortune.”

  “We’ve brought you misfortune?” Li growls.

  “You and your blasted companions snuck a woman aboard! Don’t you know how much bad luck you’ve brought down on us?”

  “And that gives you the right to just throw her overboard?” says Ero.

  A flash of lightning is quickly followed by the rumble of thunder as another wave surges over the side of the ship and into the crack in my barrel. I cough.

  “Ero, calm yourself,” Li yells.

  “As soon as I find her, she’s going over. The sea demands a sacrifice!”

  “Hurt her and you’ll breathe your last,” Ero roars.

 
Lightning explodes once again and I hear the crack of wood and the boom of thunder all at once.

  “The mast! She’s going down,” the captain shouts.

  The boat rises beneath the swell of a titanic wave. I feel my barrel rolling with great speed and then all of the sudden nothing. A moment of emptiness and then I’m falling, plunging into the stormy sea. My head hits hard against my wooden prison and then blackness.

  Ten

  Roan

  I pull at the rigging, sweat dripping down my brow more from the heat of the sun than the strain of labor.

  “What brings you to England?”

  I glance over at the man beside me. “Thought you were supposed to be helping,” I say.

  “Not much I can do to help. So, what are the three of you doing on this ship?”

  “We just need passage across the channel.”

  “Not many would want to be associated with us, even for free passage.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The captain’s pretty infamous around these parts for smuggling. He’s generous when it comes to compensation, but crew don’t last long.”

  “If that’s the case, why hasn’t he been caught?”

  “Could be for a number of reasons. He only smuggles when the offer is high enough to draw him from his estate. No one knows who he really is. And he’s extremely superstitious. He won’t sail unless everything is opportune.”

  I can’t help but shake my head. “Annalise will get a good laugh out of this.”

  “Your lady?”

  “I can’t say she’s my lass. I wish she were.”

  “Perhaps she’ll take you once she knows you’ve been sailing the high seas. Many a girl will shed her dress for one night with a man of the sea.”

  “I doubt it. Besides, she already knows and hasn’t thrown herself at me yet.”

  “Ah, a French girl then. Exciting lovers.”

  “No, not French. She’s coming back to Scotland with me. Well, with us.” I smile at the thought and then I swallow and look back at the man I’ve been talking to. His tanned face has gone a deadly pale.

  “You don’t mean…she’s here? You snuck a woman onboard the ship?”

  My throat has gone dry and I can’t seem to get the words to come, my hesitation signing our fate.

  The man steps back away from me before I can move to grab him.

  “Captain!”

  “No, please.”

  He spins around and leaps down to the main deck, darting over to the captain. All I can do is watch in horror as I see the captain grasp what the man is saying and turns on Li.

  What have I done? Everything was going fine until I opened my big mouth. I don’t know what I was thinking. No, I wasn’t thinking. I forgot myself. It had finally dawned on me that in a few short days I’d be sharing my life, my family, and my home with the lass. I had let pride and the folly of my wagging tongue prevail over caution and now she would have to pay for my mistake.

  Eleven

  Ero

  I may not believe in love, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with senseless killing. I’ve never been one for superstitious nonsense, now more than ever.

  Roan’s pissed me off enough the past two days, but this takes the cake. I get it, he’s got a thing for the girl, but how could he be so stupid? He couldn’t keep his mouth shut for just a few short hours, and now the crew knows there’s a woman on board.

  “If I didn’t need your hands, I’d have you all thrown overboard,” the captain says. “Where is she? Where have you hidden her?”

  “We’ve made it this far,” Li says, his voice calm but firm. “There’s no reason for things to get out of hand.”

  “Where is she?” the captain demands. “Get her off my ship this instant!”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Li says. “Just get us to the destination and you’ll never be bothered by us again.”

  “Fool. We’ll never make it as long as she’s on board.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” says Li. “We’re making good time. Nothing’s gone awry, and you wouldn’t have even known if it weren’t for Roan’s slip of the tongue.”

  “You’ll see. The ocean’s a jealous mistress. She wanted me to know, and now she’ll expect her dues,” the captain says. “Lads, find her.”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” I growl, positioning myself between the captain and his men. Wind whips up around us.

  “Don’t test me, boy,” the captain says. “The lady of the sea has already started to grow angry.”

  “We won’t let you harm her,” Li says.

  “Just look at the skies, you bastards!”

  I snarl, but I’m thrown off balance onto the deck as a wave hits the side of the ship. The skies have grown unexpectedly dark and only seem to be getting darker.

  “Fine, if you won’t tell me where she is, I’ll find her some other way.”

  I grit my teeth, but I can feel anger rising in me. The selfish disregard for another being’s life reminds me of the night I witnessed my father murder my family and I begin to see red.

  “Throw everything overboard!” the captain yells.

  There’s a loud splash and I turn my head to see several crates get tossed overboard.

  “No!” Roan roars, running over to them.

  A strong gust of wind rushes across the deck and the clouds above suddenly burst, torrential rain pouring down on us all.

  Several of the crew draw out their cutlasses and point them toward Roan while others continue to throw goods into the ocean. My vision continues to fade as the storm rises around us. Waves break against the sides of the ship, nearly capsizing us in their efforts.

  Li tries to calm me, but it’s too late. This madman thinks throwing a girl overboard will save his own crooked, rotten corpse. If anything happens to her, I’ll make sure he doesn’t survive another day.

  I hear Roan shout, but I am nearly blind with rage and can’t quite make out what he says. Then I hear yet another barrel tossed overboard.

  “Hurt her and you’ll breathe your last,” I say, and everything goes dark.

  Twelve

  Annalise

  I open my eyes, but all I see is darkness. My head is throbbing with pain alongside the aching of my body. It takes me a moment to remember what happened. I nearly stop breathing as the memory of recent events comes flooding back to me. I don’t even know where I am. All I know is that I’m still alive.

  Pausing my inner thoughts, I listen. I can hear seagulls and the faint crashing of waves, but I’m not moving. I wriggle around inside the barrel, at least as much as I can. Nothing, no bobbing or tipping. I must be on land. Or perhaps I’m wedged into some rock at sea. No, don’t start thinking like that. I need to focus on getting out of this barrel, and soon. I’m not sure how long I’ve been knocked out, but I need water, food, and to relieve myself before I fall ill.

  I press against the top of the barrel as hard as I can, but nothing happens. I try again, and this time the wood groans. Ero must have really jammed the lid back on for it to be stuck so soundly. Running my fingers gently around the inner rim, I feel for cracks in the wood. I know there was one that Ero left for air, but I can’t seem to find it. Thinking for a moment, I suck at my cheeks to gather as much saliva from my dry mouth as I can before spitting onto my fingers and running them once again around the inside of the barrel. Then, I feel it, a light breeze barely noticeable through a small crack.

  Positioning myself against it, I press with as much force as I can manage. The wood creaks and I feel the opening let in a bit more air, but it doesn’t break. I can feel tears welling up in my eyes. All this way to be lost at sea, trapped in a barrel, and unable to escape. This is the part in a book where the maiden would be rescued by her lover or some force of nature would set her free. It all sounded so much more romantic in stories.

  No. I am better than this. I won’t go down without fighting, not until I’ve used every last bit of energy in my body. Breath
ing deeply, I prepare myself once again to try to break free. Just as I’m about to set myself against the wood, I hear voices. They’re unfamiliar, English voices. I don’t know if they’re close enough to hear me, but I press my mouth the crack in the barrel and shout as loudly as I can. My voice comes out raspy and low. I try again, forcing sound out.

  “Help, please help!”

  The voices go silent, but then I hear, “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “I thought I heard someone calling.”

  “It’s probably just—”

  “Help,” I call out once again, my throat stinging.

  “There it is again!”

  “I heard it, too. Careful, it might be a trick.”

  “It sounded like it was coming from one of the barrels.”

  “Here, men, check those barrels!”

  The crunch of boots on wet sand draws closer, and I hear them kicking other wooden items. I must not have been the only barrel that washed ashore. Suddenly, there’s a loud crunch, as if one of the men has smashed something down on one of the other casks. I flinch as I hear the wood splinter and break as it’s hit again.

  “Idiot! Look what you’ve done. That was perfectly good wine. I told you to check the barrels, not destroy them.”

  “Sorry, sir,” says a deep voice.

  “You will be sorry if I ever see you do something that stupid again.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The footsteps draw closer, this time without further sounds of destruction. The crunch of sand grows louder as someone draws near to my barrel. I don’t know why I’ve kept so quiet, but my heart has started to race and I feel a pang of unease in my gut. A loud thud reverberates through the drum of my barrel as a boot collides with it. There’s a pause, and then again, the barrel is kicked.