LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER FIVE

      LOTTIE DIDN’T CARE that the rain was slashing across her face, making it difficult to see. She walked directly to the railing and gripped it tightly as she leaned over it, taking deep gulps of wet, salt-soaked air and, for a fleeting moment, toyed with the idea of lowering the jolly and putting herself in it and bobbing off and away from this catastrophe.

      That man, her captive, had snatched the breath from her. She’d never looked into eyes so piercing or so shrewd, had never felt such restrained power in a man. There had been only a thin chain keeping him from flinging himself at her and strangling the breath out of her with one hand as he apparently wanted to do—she could see it in the way he’d glared at her. What in God’s name possessed her to stick her hand into the fire?

      She thought of his hair, streaked blond by the sun, wild about his shoulders, having come free of its queue. She thought of the dark beginnings of his beard that framed a sensual mouth, even with his lips pressed together in an unforgiving line. She thought of the way he looked at her as if he meant to put her on a spit and roast her. Was it a sign of depravity that she wanted to be roasted by him? In spite of extraordinary and challenging circumstances, the thought caused her to shiver with a mix of thrill and fear. And perhaps the worst of it all was that she did need the counsel of someone like him.

      “Lottie!”

      She swayed backward from the railing and turned about as Drustan lumbered across the deck to her, his face twisted with worry.

      “What is it, mo chridhe?” she asked.

      Drustan slipped on the wet planking and grabbed awkwardly for the railing to keep from falling. “I donna know what to do,” he said. “Mats, he hasna told me what I’m to do, but I’m no’ to go up there.” He pointed to the masts.

      Lottie looked up—Mats was several feet above her, helping with the sails. “Good Lord,” she murmured.

      “I want to see Fader,” Drustan said.

      “Aye, I know,” Lottie said soothingly. Drustan was not adept at finding his footing when circumstances changed. Frankly, none of them were. “We’ll see that all the men are fed, and then I’ll take you to see him.” She reached up and used the sleeve of the captain’s coat to wipe rain from Drustan’s face. “Come,” she said, and took his hand.

      They made their way to the quarterdeck, where Norval Livingstone stood guard over Mr. Beaty. Even with the relentless rain, she could hear Gilroy and Beaty arguing.

      “I tell you, ’tis no’ the way it’s done,” Gilroy said as Lottie and Drustan climbed the steps.

      “Canna outrun a frigate without a gaff,” Beaty said gruffly.

      “I beg your pardon,” Lottie said.

      Both men had failed to notice her approach and jerked their gazes around to her, slinging water off their cocked hats and into her face. Lottie sputtered, wiping the rain from her face with her sleeve.

      “You ought no’ to be on deck,” Gilroy said. “Look at you, soaked through.”

      “Are we bound for Denmark?” she asked, ignoring Gilroy, her eyes locked on Beaty.

      Beaty glowered at her. “Beggin’ your pardon, but do you think I canna find my way to Denmark?”

      “Why should she trust you?” Gilroy demanded.

      Beaty glared at him, too, cocked hat to cocked hat. “You’re the one who has stolen our ship, and I am no’ to be trusted, is that the way of it? I’m sailing her, am I no’? Sailing east, too, as anyone can plainly see.”

      Lottie could not plainly see it. Gilroy was right—she didn’t trust Beaty. But neither did she trust her own instincts, and she was suspicious of Gilroy’s. How could he possibly know which direction he was sailing in the dark and the rain? She could only hope that she was right, and that these men would not return to Scotland with the whisky on board. They’d have nothing to show for their own cargo, and she knew very well how the crown’s authorities viewed Highlanders—all of them were suspect. They would seize them all. Privateers might do worse. If they were set upon by pirates or privateers, she’d have to give these men leave to take up their weapons, and she had no doubt what would happen to the Livingstones if it came to that.

      All right, that was enough. She couldn’t bear standing in this rain another moment. She would have to trust her instincts, no matter how ignorant they were. “I’ll see to it that the men are fed,” she said, wiping rain from her face again. “After which, Mr. Beaty, your captain wishes to speak with you, aye?”

      “What? Lottie, ’tis no’ wise—” Gilroy started, but she waved a hand at him.

      “It’s all right, Gilroy,” she said calmly. “Come along, Dru,” she said, and left the quarterdeck.

      She and Drustan went down into the hold where the Mackenzies had been forced. It was dank in the hold, and the faint smell of rotting fish assaulted her senses. It was poorly lit as well, and there didn’t appear to be any space that wasn’t taken up with salted beef, wool or casks of whisky. Lottie could hear the raised voices of men coming from the stern. They were shouting at each other, in English and Gaelic, with a bit of Danish thrown in for good measure. She followed Drustan around a stack of crates to an area they’d blocked off to hold their captives. When she stepped into the light of a single lantern, all shouting stopped. The men stared at her for a highly charged moment, and then as if signaled by some magical siren, they started shouting at once.

      Lottie threw up her hands. “Uist!” she cried. “Silence!”

      Duff MacGuire punctuated her shout with a sharp whistle that caused half of them to cover their ears. At least they stopped shouting.

      Lottie took a breath. “We mean to feed you and give you what you need—”

      “What I need is to have these binds undone!” shouted one man, lifting his hands up. “A man canna even piss!”

      “By all that is holy, I’ll put me bloody fist into yer trap if you speak so in front of the lady again,” Morven threatened.

      “Ye canna expect us to eat with our wrists bound,” complained another.

      “You ate the bread we gave you well enough, aye?” Mr. MacLean snapped. The men began to shout again.

      “Please!” Lottie cried. A sharp pain was once again throbbing at the base of her skull, but the men kept shouting and arguing with one another. Lottie took the gun from her pocket, cocked it and fired at the ceiling above them. The crack was deafening and splinters of wood and smoke rained down on them. Men ducked, their hands covering their heads.

      After a moment of stunned silence, a Mackenzie said, “For the love of God, take the gun from her, ere she kills someone.”

      “I’ll no’ do it,” Duff said. “She’s a better shot than any man here, she is.”

      Lottie hopped up onto a crate so she could see them all.

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