Read Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy for Free Online

secured the lid in place.
    Alyson bit her lip to keep silent, praying they would not hurt Ciara.
    Ciara screamed again. Then Alyson heard the last thing she wanted to hear, when Jamie shouted, “Leave her be, ye gallous beast!”
    Sounds of more struggle ensued, and she heard Will’s voice along with Jamie’s and Ciara’s. Other masculine voices joined in, followed by more cries and conflict as captors shoved their captives out the door and along the passageway.
    Alyson reached to try the lid of her kist again, only to tense every muscle when a footstep sounded right beside her.
    The metallic sound of a pin being slowly drawn from its hasp followed.
    She held her breath, afraid to let it out.
    A voice, clearly English, shouted from the passageway, “Stir your stumps, Geordie. This devilish tub be a-sinking!”
    “God-a-mercy,” the man murmured. Then he was gone.
    Pushing against the lid as hard as she could, Alyson realized the effort was useless. Ciara had put the pin in, and the villain had not got it all the way out!

    Jake saw long before the
Sea Wolf
neared it that the
Maryenknyght
was listing. “Nay, then,” he muttered, amending the thought. “She’s going to go under!”
    Beside him, Coll nodded. “She is, aye, sir. But likely they’ve taken all aboard her onto them other ships.” Looking up, he added with a frown, “I think it be starting to rain, but with this wind whipping up the sea as it is, a man cannot be sure.”
    “Get us closer,” Jake said. To one of the lads resting nearby, he added, “Fetch my sword from my cabin. I want to see if anyone’s still aboard.”
    “She’s like to go under afore ye could search her,” Coll said. “And if we be alongside, she’ll take us down with her.”
    “Just get me close enough to see for myself that those villains have not left anyone behind. They’ll have been interested only in her cargo of wool and hides.”
    “I doubt they thought of aught but their
own
hides, sir.”
    “If Orkney knew the ship was sinking, he’d have done everything possible to get his young charge out of danger,” Jake reminded him. “Sakes, what the devil… Coll, do you see that? There
is
someone aboard, and if my eyes do not—”
    “Your vision be as good as ever,” Coll said grimly. “That be a female, and by the way she moves, a young one.”
    “Bring us alongside the ship,” Jake said in a tone thatwould brook no argument. He was already scanning the ship’s side, seeking a way up.
    The man he had sent for his sword returned with it, and Jake slung it on.
    “Someone’s cast a rope over the side yonder near the stern,” Coll said. “But she’s sinking fast. I’d wager that their cannon shot farther and more accurately than they expected, or them villains damaged her when they grappled onto her.”
    “The latter, I think,” Jake said, pointing. “That gash there dips below the waterline. But we’ll climb up here. ’Tis a shorter climb, and in this wind and these seas, we’ve no time to try aught else.”
    “Sir, with respect, she’s like to go under afore ye can get back to us.”
    “We’ll just have to move faster than she does,” Jake said. “Mace, to me!” he shouted. “Bring your sword!”
    A fair-haired oarsman on the first bench, nearest the stern, relinquished his oar to another man. Grabbing his sword and sling from under his bench, he stepped to the gangway down the middle of the deck between the two banks of oarsmen, and moved swiftly along it to Jake.
    “Aye, Cap’n?” he said as he slung his own longsword across his back.
    “You and I are going to board her. At least one person is still on her. But there may be others, and the ship is sinking. Coll, get us near enough to catch that rope. Wait only to see us aboard, and then haul off a safe distance. It is indeed beginning to rain and may soon come down in buckets. Whether it does or not, in the increasing darkness, you’ll likely lose sight of us. If you do, turn back to