by Mia Pride
Like a toad catching a fly, he reached out swiftly and grabbed her tongue, leaning so close she thought he might kiss her again. Why did she secretly wish him to? “Keep yer tongue to yerself unless ye wish me to show ye how to really use it.”
He released her, and she scowled. “I believe ye already did last night,” she taunted, trying to remind him of their kiss. For what reason, she did not understand.
Darkness clouded his brilliant green eyes as he braced himself upon both arms and leaned over her. “I can show ye a much better way to use it if ye want…”
Suddenly remembering one of the images in her forbidden book, she flushed and turned away. She knew exactly what he spoke of and scowled when he chuckled at her, before pulling his worn boots over his calves and heading for the door.
“Where are we going?” she whispered, slipping on her leather shoes and walking towards him. With a devilish wink that made her insides quiver, he replied, “To battle, love.”
* * *
Thomas’s blood boiled in his veins as it all suddenly became clear to him. He watched their enemy, Richard Bingham, surrender immediately upon making eye contact with Katherine aboard Grace’s ship. His grandmother began shouting commands for her crew to commandeer his ship, which he had seen anchored just off the main dockside.
Why he was so blasted angry with Katherine, he could not figure out at that moment, but the need to drag her away and demand answers took over all his reasoning. Swooping her up over his shoulder, Katherine squealed as he carried her into the captain’s cabin, not caring in the moment if those were his grandmother’s private quarters. He needed to rage, and he needed a private place to do that.
“Ye are Bingham’s daughter!” he shouted, throwing her on the solid oak bed nailed down to the cabin’s floor. She bounced on the mattress as her backside landed, then scrambled onto her knees to back into the corner like a wounded animal. “Ye set me up! All of this was to try to get to me. Why?”
“What?” Her round-eyed innocence would not work on him.
“Dinnae play dumb with me, lass.” He stalked forward, fisting his hands. Why did her betrayal hurt so badly? He had only known her for less than a day, yet he had sensed something special about her, something wild, exciting, yet innocent… something he had been quite certain he needed in his life. Now, he was trying to decide how to be rid of her. Gods, Bingham’s daughter Emily had literally grabbed him by the bollocks in England, and now her sister had done the same, only she did not even realize it. He instantly loathed her for sharing the man’s blood. She was his enemy! And then, it dawned on him. “It’s been ye all this time…”
Her brow furrowed and she shook her head, acting as if she had no idea what he meant. “My grandmother says that Bingham has been somehow intercepting all her cargo and she could not understand how. It was ye… with yer spyglass and snooping around! Ye tell him where the cargo is and he collects it, keeping it all for himself while the people starve!”
Something like fire lit in her eyes and she jumped off the bed, pouncing at him. He gripped her shoulders painfully and gave her a shake. “Dinnae deny it! Ye have been aiding yer father in betraying my family!”
“Aye! I have! Ye are nothing more than thieving pirates, stealing cargo from the merchant ships and Spanish galleons that come to aid the Irish people! Ye take the coins for yerself… och, I’ve seen it with my own eyes! Then ye leave the rest of the goods in a cavern, or coves, so some other thief can profit! My father uses those goods for the people! He feeds them and cares for them! I willnae be ashamed of helping him serve Ireland!”
He wanted to kill the lass. He had to back away, press his body toward the farthest wall to prevent himself from throttling the wee bitch. All this time, the people suffered because of her… and fool that she was, she actually believed her father helped people? Nay, she knew what he did. How could she not? She did not care because it made her rich… bought her finery. And yet, looking at her now, she wore a simple wool dress just like a common Irish lass and her shoes were quite worn. She wore no fancy frippery or baubles. Perhaps she dressed this way only when she planned to go spying on pirates. He seethed once more. She was a loathsome human being.
“Yer father is a piece of shite horse’s arse who kills innocent Irish people and lets them starve! He keeps everything for himself, which is a direct violation of the queen’s orders! He is meant to help control the rebels, aye, but he is also meant to govern these people and help them, not punish them for being hungry or stab them in the back while defenseless!”
“Ye are wrong, ye nasty… pirate… knight… whoever ye are!” she shouted back. “He would never do such a thing! He is always gone, helping the people! He commanded me to stay indoors! He does not even know I am the one who sends him missives about the cargo locations! I wanted to help the people!”
“All ye have done is kill them!” He shook with rage. Never in his life had he hated someone as much as he hated Katherine Bingham. Just the name made him want to throw her overboard. Mayhap he should. It would be fine payback for her father’s murder of his uncle and the imprisonment of his grandmother.
“Yer father told my Uncle Owen he wanted a truce. Owen was a peace-loving man,” Thomas whispered, feeling his anger being replaced by pain. “He opened his home to yer father, who tied him up and stabbed him a dozen times while he was defenseless, then tricked my grandmother into believing he would release her son, then imprisoned her for over a year, but not until parading her dead son’s body before her.”
“That’s an awful lie!” she cried. Tears started rolling down her cheek. “He could never… would never…” Her body shook and he almost felt bad but resolved to be a stone wall where Katherine was concerned.
“He would. He does, Katherine. Ye know why he hates my family? Because we pirate, aye. We steal from merchants and the Spanish. But my grandmother uses that gold and cargo to feed her people. Do ye ken who she leaves those goods for in caves?” Katherine sniffled and wiped her nose with her long blue sleeve. “’Tis for the local chieftains. She sends them codes. Each code is for a different pickup point. They find it and bring it to their people. But the past few months, that cargo had gone missing repeatedly. It was ye.” Thomas pointed at her and scowled, feeling his hatred spike once again. “He stole from the Irish. They starve to death because of ye. Then they steal and yer father cuts off their fingers for—”
“Stop! Stop it now!” A horrified sob escaped her throat as she began to pummel him with her fists. “I did not know! I did not know!” Crumbling to the ground, she cried into her hands at his feet. “I have lived here on this island since I was five years old. This is my home. These are my people, though they all hate me. I am so alone! Always alone! I only wanted to help...” As she began rocking back and forth on the floor, his stomach clenched. Could she be this talented a liar? Nay. She spoke true. She was innocent of all knowledge about her father’s deeds. She shared the man’s blood, but not his ill will toward the Irish. Still, the thought that he had kissed Bingham’s daughter, enjoyed it, and had thought of much more, made his stomach sour. Naught could come of his attraction for the lass.
Her words about being alone stung at his heart. He knew all too well what it meant to be alone. Where he had sought the beds of married women and buried his pain in battle after battle, this woman had given herself over to a cause she truly thought meant something, and now she suddenly realized she was the enemy of the very people she sought to help. The pain in her sobs told him she meant well. Still, she had caused more damage than she knew.
A banging at the door had her gasping for air and scrambling to her feet. Grace walked in with a snarl on her face that would have frightened any man, let alone this already distraught woman.
“Yer father has called a parley,” she hissed. “The ship for his daughter. I told him nay.”
“Wh-what?” Katherine stepped back a few times before her calves hit the bed and she fell back onto it.
“I can have th
e ship without giving ye back, love. Good thing I dinnae want ye. Although, he did kill my son… an eye fer an eye, ye ken? I would kill ye both now, but I am trying to honor my promise to yer queen.” Anger and pain blazed in his grandmother’s eyes but she turned away from Katherine and spoke to Thomas instead. “I told him to load yer ship with all the cargo he had stolen from us over the past several moons and he can have her back. That was meant for me people, not him and his daughter,” she spat.
Thomas refused to look at Katherine, who continued to sob in the corner. He had to remember who she was and what she had done. “Return the lass to him. I want her gone. Once the ship’s crew and cargo are loaded, we head back to Clew Bay.” Without another word, Grace left her cabin.
“Let’s go,” he barked, causing Katherine to jump out of her skin. She shook all over, but he grabbed her arm and dragged her down the few stairs to the main deck without making eye contact. She weakened him, and he did not like it. He needed to be rid of her. A skiff had been lowered and Thomas went first, dropping off the rope ladder onto the small boat before reaching up to grab Katherine and help her down.
“I… I am sorry, Thomas,” she whispered, but he paid her no heed. Her apology did not fix all the damage she had done, but this trade would. They would have their cargo and disperse it to local clans, as planned.
Forcing her to sit on the wooden bench, he grabbed the oars and silently rowed her back to her father. “Thomas…” she pleaded, but he would not look at her. There was nothing to say. “Say something!” she cried.
Stopping the oars, he looked at her, really looked at her and saw how distraught she was. In that moment, something inside him snapped. Gritting his teeth, he shook his head. “We have nothing further to discuss, love. Once ye are back with yer father, we shall never meet again… I hope.” He knew his words hurt her. Whatever this intense connection was between them, the one that made him want to strangle her one moment and kiss her maddeningly the next, was dangerous and unstable.
Reaching the shore, her father ran over to her and ripped her out of the boat by her arms, hugging her closely. “Oh, Katherine! I have been so distraught! Thank heavens you are well!”
She stayed silent and did not hug her father back, Thomas noticed, but Richard was too relieved to see his daughter to care.
“Ye have some very wicked daughters, Mr. Bingham.” The man’s gaze snapped up to Thomas, a wide-eyed look on his paling face. Richard looked at Katherine quickly, who looked confused and broken at the same time.
“Wh-what do you mean, Sir Esmonde?” Richard said through clenched teeth. “I have but one daughter.” The man’s eyes skittered back and forth, and Thomas had no idea what the man was about.
“Last I was at court, I met Lady Emily Bingham, who says she is yer daughter. She also attempted to trap me into a marriage with her. Image that. Ye could have been my father by marriage,” Thomas smirked, doing all he could to discomfort his family’s enemy. “Fortunately, I was much too clever to be seduced by the lass, though I do confess she is bonny and has wandering hands,” he winked. Katherine gasped at his words and looked up at her father with questions in her gaze.
Richard scowled and blustered at his words. “I thank you for your safe delivery of my daughter, Esmonde. Your cargo and crew are being loaded now. Allow me to escort my daughter home. I trust our business is completed, for now.” The scowl and warning in the man’s voice were not lost on Thomas. Nay, he had not seen the last of Bingham and he relished their next encounter, for the man had a debt of blood to pay.
Thomas grunted and, without another word, turned away, hoping to never see Katherine Bingham, the wee hellion, again. Thomas paused and slowly observed his surroundings. The English surrounded him, his own people, yet something felt off. It buzzed through his body like a swarm of bees as the dock beneath his feet vibrated in warning. Just as he attempted to shout to his grandmother to prepare for an attack, the sounds of wood splintering and men screaming filled his ears while he ducked for cover. Something sharp sliced through his arm and he hollered in pain, his ears ringing from the explosions close by.
Smoke filled his lungs and he coughed violently, trying to see through the haze. Shouts rang out and he heard his grandmother commanding her men in the distance. Had she opened fire on the docks after a parley? Would she have so risked his life? Large hands grabbed his shoulders and dragged him backwards roughly. He fought back and roared in pain as one of the hands touched his wounded arm.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw two of his grandmother’s men, her quartermaster Matthew and some other man he recognized but could not place. “What is happening?” he coughed as he felt himself being thrown into a skiff.
“The bastard blew yer ship to bits, he did!” Matthew roared over the sound. “Must have had explosives in the cargo!” They rowed back to the ship and Thomas used all his might to climb back up the ladder, gritting his teeth against the pain in his arm. Reaching the main deck, he heard Grace shouting, “Fire! Destroy these filthy Sassenach ships!” And the entire ship shook as a series of cannons went off, spraying bits of water and wood into the air as they obliterated the Ulster dock, sending Bingham’s men scattering in a stream of shouts and cries.
Slowly, he watched as the remains of his ship sank into the sea, splintered wood and all, while several others were blown to bits as well. His entire body thrummed with the need for revenge. The bloody evil bastard had loaded his entire crew onto that ship and they all went down with it. “Filthy, whoreson… bastard!” he roared, while clenching his fists and saying a prayer for his mistreated crew. He had planned to give them a better life, to free them from their binds of slavery, and offer them a fair split of all cargo and gold they ever found. He would have never forced a man to work for him. But now, those men were dead… except… looking into the violently turning water, he saw one man blustering for air, struggling to stay afloat.
“Man overboard!” he yelled and dove into the water without hesitation. More debris flew past his body and water sprayed in towering waves above them, but he would be damned if he watched this man drown before his eyes.
“Throw them a rope and raise the anchor!” he heard Grace shout over the din of cracking wood. Something flew over his head and he tried to catch it but missed. Having now reached the man, Thomas held him upright while trying to latch on to the swinging rope. His arm stung with pain, but he would handle any amount of pain if he could save this one life.
As the rope dragged past him in the water, he wrapped it quickly around him and the other man, holding the end tightly with his free hand as they were slowly and painfully dragged back onto the deck. He and the man coughed up water as they landed with a painful thud, and Thomas was certain he would have rope burn around his chest for a week.
“Ye really are a knight, ain’t ye, grandson?” his grandmother said with a smirk. “Ye have honor beyond anything I have ever seen on these waters. Ye are dumb as I’ve ever seen, too.” She lightly kicked his side with her boot as he continued to sputter. It didn’t take long before he realized they were sailing full speed away from the destruction, but in the distance, he saw that coward Bingham riding with all haste back to his beloved manor home while Thomas’s crew, ship, and all the cargo meant to help the starving people of Ireland sank to the bottom of the sea.
It was hard to see through the red haze of his fury, but as he narrowed his eyes and watched Katherine’s long blonde hair whip behind her in the wind as she rode in front of her father, he vowed to have his vengeance… and he would strike the man where it hurt the most. The last bit of honor he owned had been used to save that dying slave from the water. Death was too good for Bingham. Aye, he would gut the lout in due time, but he had plans to destroy the man first.
Chapter Six
The explosions behind her made Katherine yelp and turn as her father’s horse galloped away from the harbor with all haste, carrying them both far from the mayhem. “Nay!” she wailed as she saw Thomas’s ship shatter
into thousands of pieces with its entire crew aboard. Thomas was on the dock and crouched low, covering his head as cannon blasts began to fly from Grace’s ship. “Why did you do that?” she cried. He had made a deal with the pirates: her life, for the ship, cargo and crew for Thomas. Had the sparing of her life not been enough? For she was fairly certain Grace would have killed her just to seek her revenge had not her father given her a more than fair deal. Still, the booms, shakes, and shouts coming from behind them told her that her papa had betrayed them.
“I had to!” her father shouted. “I could not allow all that cargo to be used against us by the enemy! I could not allow another pirate ship to roam the waters!”
As the harbor was now over a mile away, the horse slowed to a more manageable trot, also allowing for her to converse better with her papa. She was so confused about so many things. The image of Thomas ducking for cover amidst the explosions battered at her heart. There was no way he could have survived that, was there? He was a large, powerful man, but he was flesh and bone as any other human and with all the blasts and debris in the air, how could he come out unscathed? Her heart lurched at the thought and she bit back a cry. She would have a good wail when she got home, thinking of the man she had known only for a short time. He hated her, and she could not blame him if all he said was true. But, it could not be. Her papa was a man of honor… only, had he not just ordered a ship full of innocent men to be destroyed without hesitation? She knew this was war, but she was sure that could have been avoided.
“Thomas is not a pirate, Papa. He was given that ship and crew by Drake. He earned it. He is a knight sent here by the queen!”
She heard her father bluster at her words. “He is a pirate! His entire family are pirates! They all deserve to be wiped from the earth, scourge that they are!”
