by Jane Stain
Donnell dropped his piece of mutton on a plate and gazed at her with wide eyes.
“I hear tell ’twas ye who found Tavish in the underground castle last night, lass.”
Great. Not only had she brought attention to the fact that she could find her way around in the underground, but now he would have to live down having been saved by a woman. Tavish looked around for something he could bring up to change the subject.
But before he could find a distraction, she went on.
“’Twas the strangest thing, Donnell. I was woken from ma sleep wi the sure conviction that gin I would only get up, I could walk tae where Tavish lay sleeping, havin been knockit i the head an laid oot.”
This was even worse, of course. It sounded like the beginnings of all the Irish tales he’d ever heard. The musicians were on a break, and people from the other tables were starting to bend an ear toward theirs. He considered squeezing her hand to tell her to quit it, but the damage was done. He would just have to grab her and run out of the room if she got too close to revealing where she really came from. Her greed for the underground treasure hadn’t made her that reckless, had it?
She tipped her tankard of ale back and swallowed half a dozen times.
“When I got ootside, I saw thon the clouds haed partit in the night, allowing the moon tae shine doon upon the courtyard. I took this rarity as a sign thon ma path was sure and I should continue.”
Tavish and everyone else at the table drank down their ale now, and Donnell calmly put some coin on the table and beckoned over the server.
Kelsey picked up her bowl and drank down the rest of her soup, then wiped her mouth with the huge sleeve of her old time leine blouse.
“The guards wordlessly let me pass, and as I startit doon the corridor alone with juist ma torch for company, I had a vision o where I would find Tavish. I saw the room clearly, as gin I were already thare. Sure enough, thon was where I woke him. I’m tellin ye, I was meant tae gae an get him.”
With this last line, she turned to Tavish and kissed him soundly on the mouth in a way that was considered indecent during the old time. At first he resisted, but when everyone started to cheer and whistle and carry-on, he figured what the heck, and went for it.
Truth to tell, this was the first time he’d been in a bar in the old time, and not in the castle or in a battle camp or in someone’s home. Maybe the rules were different in taverns. Just in case they weren’t, he put his arm around her and held her close so that no one else could grab her.
The server filled up their tankards of ale, and Seumas raised his in toast toward Kelsey.
“Och, that only I could hae my own guardian angel, tae always see me home.”
“Aye!”
“Aye!”
Everyone at their table and even some people from other tables joined in the clanking of tankards, and there was much more drinking and general revelry until the four of them tottered back down the hill to the ship and got aboard.
The three crewmen had been sent on ahead with the crew’s meal, and they were all done eating and had sat down to play howls, a dicing game. They all stood when their captain approached.
“Thank you for the meal, Captain Donnell.”
“Aye, ’twas right good of ye.”
The crewman were all smiles at first, but they began to look envious when he revealed his state of drunkenness by dramatically getting up on some crates in the stern and then gesturing for quiet so he could make an announcement.
“We sail for home, lads! Take her away.”
After he said that, Donnell sat down on a bench and promptly fell asleep, snoring loudly.
Tavish looked over at Seumas, who shrugged, and then sat down beside Kelsey to warily watch the crew take the ship out to sea again. Seumas sat down on the other side of Kelsey, and for once, Tavish was glad to have him near her. With their captain unconscious, who knew what ideas the crew would get? He didn’t know them half as well as he did all his fellow castle guardsmen.
Kelsey took his hand, and he made his arm as firm a hold for her as he could, then turned to smile at her reassuringly.
Come to think of it, something seemed off.
He grabbed the sleeve of the next crewman who wandered by on his way to grab one of the ropes the next time they tacked.
“Why are you sailing to the north? Port Patrick is to the east.”
A bit smaller than Tavish, the crewman stopped short of a physical reaction, but Tavish could tell he was affronted. The man just waited for Tavish to let go of his sleeve, and then gestured up at the sails.
“You can see up there that she’s blowing hard to the south, aye?”
Tavish looked up. The sails were indeed billowing toward the Isle of Man.
“Aye, but what does that have to do with it?”
The crewman gave him a look as if to say, “Isn’t it obvious?”
Tavish stood up straight to his full height and looked down on the man.
The crewman looked to the side for a moment and then back at Tavish.
“Because she’s blowing sae hard to the south, we’re taking her to the north so as not to blow right on by Port Patrick before we get that far east.”
Tavish looked around at the other crewmen to see if they showed any signs that they were taking the castle guards for a ride. But none of them were snickering or avoiding his gaze. One even nodded at him in passing.
Kelsey held up her arm toward Tavish in an invitation for him to sit down again.
“It makes sense to me,” she said reassuringly.
He looked all around one more time and then nodded to her and sat, taking her hand in his to lend her what comfort he could. He would be fine if he was stuck here, but this had to be frightening for her.
About a mile of rocky cliff went by on their left, pounded by the foamy waves, and then the cliffs stood still while the crew were adjusting the sails to turn the ship to the right so that they could head east.
The crewman who had climbed the mast made a guttural noise and then fell to his death atop several of the many crates on deck. An arrow stuck out of his back.
Tavish grabbed Kelsey and put her on the floor, where the side of the ship would shield her from any more arrows, and then he ran to the ship’s armory, grabbed a bow and a quiver, and sought out their attackers.
Good, it was just one ship, coming toward them at a fast clip with the wind in its sails while they were stalled. He only got one shot off before the other ship was beside theirs and boarding ramps came over. But he hit his mark, and the man tumbled into the sea.
Tavish drew his sword and ran over the closest ramp, swinging at every bit of flesh that got in his way, peripherally aware that Seumas was doing the same at the other ramp, and the two crews were exchanging arrow fire.
He ducked first one sword that came at him, then another, and lunged to strike yet a third man down before he reached the other side of the MacDonald ship.
Twice he crossed over the deck, and twice he dodged better than they.
Soon, they all were buried at sea.
Seumas came over and clasped forearms with Tavish.
“Ha! Those MacDonalds didn’t count on finding a MacGregor aboard our ship!”
The two of them were grinning at each other when one of their crewmen shouted.
“The lass! The lass fell overboard!”
Tavish ran back over the boarding ramp to Donnell’s ship and grabbed the shoulders of the crewman who had shouted.
“Where? Where did she go overboard?”
The crewman pointed, and Tavish ran over there, grabbed the side of the ship, and looked over and down into the water. But he didn’t see her.
Tavish had climbed up on the side of the ship was just about to dive as deep as he could when Seumas grabbed his arm.
“Wait. The crew say we’ve drifted since she went over.” He pointed. “They say she’s back over there toward that large jagged rock that looks like a falcon, sticking up above the rest of them
along the shoreline.”
Finding the falcon rock and looking for any sign of her, Tavish raised his voice, calling out to any of the crewmen who would listen.
“Can we quickly take this ship over there? Or would it be faster if I swam?”
But Seumas answered for them.
“It’s too dangerous to take the ship over there—both for us and for Kelsey. She may be trying to swim to us. Look, they’re anchoring here until we get back. Let’s go.” Seumas paused to drop his kilt on the deck before he jumped in with a splash and swam toward the rocks in a style that resembled a breaststroke more than anything else.
Tavish did the same, looking every which way as he desperately clawed the water. He had to find her. She had to be alive. He couldn’t live with himself otherwise. If she…
He forced himself to concentrate just on swimming and on scanning the sparkling water and the jagged black rocky coastline for any sign of her. To convert his desperate sense of loss and despair into anger at the MacDonalds and thus into strength, so that he could swim faster. That was a warrior trick, turning sorrow into strength.
The jagged rocks were sharp, which made climbing difficult. Trying not to think of what they would do to someone unconscious, born here by the waves and dashed against them, he scrambled up onto the rocky shore and all over the jagged shoreline, calling out to her.
“Kelsey!”
“Kelsey, say something if you hear us.”
Seachd deug
Kelsey clung to the rock she’d managed to swim to. Its rough and sharp edges cut at her hands and even into her arms, right through her sleeves with every wave that washed her up against it. But she didn’t yet have the energy to climb up. Swimming in a long heavy woolen dress was the most difficult physical thing she had ever done. It had been a very near thing.
A shot of joy went through her. Tavish was calling for her!
She opened her mouth to answer him, but after nearly drowning three times and swallowing and inhaling a bunch of sea water, all that came out were squeaks and croaking sounds.
“I’m here. Down here. Come get me. Please.”
She felt her mind getting fuzzy. Something very like sleep but not sleep exactly was coming for her.
If only she had a flare in her pocket, like the ones her grandparents used to make sure she had when they took her out in their motorboat. “Now I don’t want to frighten you, Kelsey,” her grandfather had said, “but if you should ever find yourself alone, without us around, take this flare out of your life vest pocket and pull this here and aim at the sky like this!” He’d shot the purple flare high up into the night sky like a firework, and the two of them had grinned at each other while looking at it.
If only she had some way of making a noise.
The fuzziness in her mind was growing stronger. It seemed comfortable. She struggled to remember why she couldn’t just to go into it. It seemed easier. She had this gnawing feeling, this nagging feeling that there was something she should be doing to draw attention to herself. But what? She didn’t even have a life jacket, let alone the whistle that usually came attached.
She started to drift, both off the rock and into oblivion.
But at the last moment before she let go of the rock, she saw a cartoon in her head that she hadn’t seen since she was a child. It was a whistle fight. One character had a whistle, and the other character…
Ignoring the new cuts this gave her hands and arms, she grabbed onto the rocky shore for dear life and drew a deep breath. Puckering her lips, she prayed she could still do this, and then she whistled as loud as she could, drew another breath and whistled again. And again.
She heard two splashes behind her, and then felt strong arms lifting her off the rock into the water and then swimming with her floating on her back, the gray cloudy sky drifting back toward the craggy shore. Her body was already numb from the cold, and now her mind slowly was going numb too.
Tavish’s voice intruded on her comfortable numbness.
“Kel. Stay awake. We can move you across the water, but you’ve got to keep your lungs full so that you stay afloat.”
She dutifully took in a deep breath, held it as long as she could, and then took in another deep breath. This reminded her of swimming lessons when she was a child, with all the other happy children, glad to be allowed to spend the day at the lake…
“Breathe, Kel.”
She resumed her deep breathing, trying not to drift off again into memories. But it was hard to concentrate. She was so tired, and the water felt warm now. It was hard to remember just where she was. It felt just like she was luxuriating in a warm bath…
“Breathe!”
This kept happening over and over again. She had the impulse a few times to ask how far they had to swim back to the ship, but she didn’t have the energy to speak, let alone the voice.
After an interminable amount of time, Tavish was calling out to the crew aboard the ship.
“Toss us down a rope.”
Before long at all, there was a splash in the water, and then Tavish was putting the rope over her and then under her arms.
“She’s ready. Haul her up, lads.”
Her body started to shiver when she was out of the water, and once they had her on the deck she was flopping around like a fish. Tavish was there with her soon. Holding her tight with his whole body, his legs wrapped around her, he stopped the flopping. He was shouting at the crew.
“Blankets! There have got to be some blankets on this ship!”
In a minute, it felt like someone was pulling bed covers up over the two of them. Captain Donnell’s voice came through the covers muffled.
“Ye can hae the use of these Persian rugs until we can get ye up to the Laird’s castle.”
Tavish rolled the two of them onto one of the rugs and pulled a few more over them. His hands moved over her body then, removing her soaking wet clothes, and then the two of them were together skin to skin.
And all she felt was warmth. Blessed heavenly warmth.
He whispered to her there in the darkness while he held her tight against the cold.
“I’m so sorry Kel. So, so sorry. I should never have brought you here. I’ll make it right. Somehow, I’ll make it right. No matter where I have to go or how long I’ll be gone, I’ll make this right for you.”
Kelsey tried to speak again, to tell him not to go, that all she wanted was him near her and that nothing he could go get would be better than that. But her voice wouldn’t cooperate, not even to whisper. She had nothing left.
So she just clung to him, trying to make him understand that she needed him near her and that was all she needed.
His next whisper was hoarse and desperate and full of despair.
“I just hope someday you’ll be able to forgive me, Kel.”
She clung to him and kissed him with all she had in her the whole time the boat rocked with the pounding waves and the two of them forgot all about the crewmen stomping all over the deck as they made the ship obey them and carry them into port…
Neither of them was cold anymore.
The cries of the crewmen reached a crescendo after the ship had stopped rocking. Then they made contact with the dock, and more pairs of footsteps boarded, chatting about what to lift and where to take it.
Donnell lifted up Tavish’s side of their rug bed just enough to speak into it.
“Hold on to each other and I’ll have you put in the wagon!”
Panic struck her, and Kelsey looked to Tavish.
“What?”
He grabbed hold of her with all of his body again and held her tight.
“Best to believe what the captain says.”
And then the crew tied two ropes around their rug bed and hoisted them up in the air. They were carried quite a ways and then dumped unceremoniously into what must have been a wagon, because as soon as the ropes were untied around their rug bed, it started to jostle around to the sound of hoof beats and general laughter.
They
felt some soft things landing on top of them, which must’ve been their clothes. Kelsey wouldn’t have believed that catcalls were the same 800 years ago unless she’d heard it for herself.
“There ye are.”
“You’ll probably need those where you’re going.”
“Unlike where ye hae been!”
Kelsey was a bit relieved when the wagon outpaced the crew’s laughter, but mostly she just relaxed into the bliss of Tavish’s nearness and hoped he’d forget what he’d said about going away.
The sun was setting when they got to the castle. The crew carried Tavish and Kelsey’s rug bed through the service door into the kitchen and then bid them farewell amid raucous laughter.
Right there in front of the kitchen fireplace, Isabel tugged Kelsey out of the rug Tavish held around the two of them and put a thick linen night dress over her head, holding it so that Kelsey could put her arms through.
“Och, ye poor dear! I won’t have any argument, ye’re staying with me this night. Sorcha will see to yer wet clothes and give ye some soup to eat, and then ye really must sleep, my dear.”
Tavish had already donned his dry plaid, kilting one end and blousing the other. He squeezed Kelsey’s hand and kissed the top of her head.
“Aye, lass. Go on with Isabel and get ye some rest.”
Kelsey tried to hold onto Tavish’s hand, tried to draw him to her again so that she could whisper in his ear that she didn’t want him to go anywhere, that it didn’t matter if they were trapped here in the old time forever—so long as the two of them were together. But she was indeed so very tired that her grip was weak. He slipped away easily, and she still didn’t have the voice to call out to him. She watched him go, hoping he would turn so that she could beckon him back to her.
But he left without looking back.
And she was not going to make a fool of herself by asking one of the women to go grab him for her. She was ashamed of herself for even thinking of that. No way was she that desperate. He would either come back, or he wouldn’t.
Isabel patted Kelsey’s shoulder and gave her a kind smile when she looked at the older woman.
