Page 11 of The Highlander's Dangerous Bride

“Row, lads!” the man she thought might be Captain Mulvaney roared, and the men set to rowing in perfect time with each other, speeding them out to sea on the outgoing tide.

Despite the rough sailing, Raven breathed a sigh of relief.The worst is over, she told herself.I’m off the island and on the way back tae Harris. ’Tis only a matter of time before I’ll be holdin’ Thorsten in me arms again.

Over the next few hours, Captain Mulvaney’s ship sailed on in almost total darkness, save for the occasional crack in the vaulted roof of blackness above them where the moon shone through. Raven concluded that his clandestine nocturnal voyages were best conducted without a single lantern being lit aboard the vessel, which added to the terror of the howling winds and rising waves that soon engulfed them, lashing crew and passengers alike, soaking them to their bones and making their teeth chatter.

Yet the Captain urged his oarsmen to keep up their punishing pace. “I’ve been sailin’ these waters since I was a bairn,” he shouted at the increasingly frightened passengers, trying to reassure them. “Ye’ve naethin’ tae fear. I’ll get ye tae Harris safely, I swear.”

“Ye’re takin’ us tae the bottom of the ocean, ye mean,” one passenger shouted back before retching over the side along with several other unfortunates wracked by seasickness as the boat pitched and tossed with growing violence. Others were huddling on the floor, hanging onto the bench for dear life, moaning and crying. Several began praying.

Raven was deeply moved to see the young couple clutching their son tightly between them as the vessel was tossed up and down on the roiling sea like a paper boat. The boy’s white, terrified face and large dark eyes once more inspired her need to protect. Sensing that calamity might not be far away in the dreadful conditions, she moved slightly nearer the little family, silently vowing to be on hand to help them survive if the worst should happen.

As the voyage progressed, it became clear to Raven that the Captain had misjudged the situation badly. Far from outrunning the storm, they were heading into it. People screamed as lightning cracked like doom and lanced across the dark, tumultuous expanse surrounding them. Thunder roared, and the waves grew ever higher, lashed into a fury by the gale, dashing freezing water over the craft.

Raven’s stomach heaved as she struggled to quell her growing terror. She hung onto her bag and the bench with white knuckles, getting soaked to the skin as the boat reared and dipped, threatening to capsize at any moment.

The birlinn was supposedly hugging the coastlines of the various islands as she passed, but when thunder filled the air once more, and lightning split the sky, its light illuminated a cruelly rocky shoreline which, to her, seemed dangerously close. When the Captain began frantically shouting orders to the poor rowers to get them away from the rocks, she knew they were truly in deep peril.

And Raven was right, because shortly after that, there was a violent impact, a tremendous crash, and the vessel juddered alarmingly as a huge crack appeared in the bottom of the boat. Water began gushing in from below as well as from above. The boat seemed to rise up and tilted violently, tipping most of the panicked, screaming passengers from the benches to the listing side of the boat, which was already half submerged. The rowers, so vulnerable and exposed to the furious elements, were vanishing over the side with frightening frequency, their desperate shouts lost to the gale as their bodies were sacrificed to the raging sea.

Raven was more terrified than she had ever been in her life. She gasped for breath as freezing water was hurled unceasingly into her face, one of the few who had managed to hang grimly on to the bench.

She watched as her bag was snatched away and disappeared into the murk. But the loss of her few possessions was the last of her concerns, as she glimpsed the young couple among those who had been hurled to the side of the boat. The boy was not with them! She cast around and saw him clinging to a stanchion, his cries for his parents swallowed by the encompassing furor.

Slowly, she edged her way towards him and finally reached him, taking his hand and pulling him close, sheltering him as best she could with her arms and body against the wooden wall behind them. Comforting him allowed her to control her panic somewhat.

“It’s gonnae be all right,” she told him, her lips close to his ear, “I’ll get ye back tae yer parents, dinnae worry.” He stared up at her in mute fear, his tears indistinguishable from the rain and sea. His lips moved, but she could not make out his words amid the tumult.

She hugged him closer. “I ken, pet, me too, but ’tis just a storm, it’ll pass, ye’ll see,” she whispered the reassuring lies. “Me name’s Raven, what’s yer name?” At least that was the truth.

“Sandy,” she heard, her ear pressed to his lips.

“Sandy, is it? Is that for Alexander?”

He nodded, so she extemporized in an attempt to distract him, and herself, from their perilous situation. “Och, that’s a fine name tae have at a time like this, for ye ken, there was a famous pirate captain called Alexander who sailed these very seas, and he encountered many a savage storm just like this. But he was very brave, ye see, just like his band of loyal sailor’s, and?—”

“We’ve run aground on the rocks, Cap’n,” one of the crew shouted amid the lashing rain and wind, clinging to the mast for dear life. “’Tis every man fer himself!”

A huge wave crashed over them then, and the man vanished overboard with a cry that was abruptly cut off. To her horror, Sandy’s hand was wrenched from Raven’s, and he was suddenly sucked away from her, vanishing into darkness as if by yanked by some mighty rope.

“Sandy!” she screamed, frantically searching amid the chaos surrounding her, but the broken ship was wallowing now, steeped in water coming from all sides, and they were dashed repeatedly against the rocks by the shore. Still determined to save him, she searched the darkness for him, but in vain.

The already terrible conditions were rapidly growing worse, for as the boat was driven onto the rocks again and again, it started to fragment, its shrieks and groans of agony competing with the surrounding din. As Raven struggled to see what had become of Sandy, lightning once again cracked overhead. In its light, she glimpsed a beach a little distance from the craggy outcrop they were being pounded against. There were shouts and cries as others spied it too.

She was a strong swimmer, and the thought of seeing her own boy again fueled her determination to survive. She told herself that if she could get in the water, there was a slim chance she could find Sandy and get them both safely to shore. If fate decreed that she must meet her maker, then she would not go out without a fight, and she refused to say goodbye to Thorsten and Arne.

Working quickly, she tore off as much of her drenched outer clothing as she could with her numb fingers. Her cloak, her dress, her boots, anything that would weigh her down once she was in the water was discarded. She figured that in her shift and petticoats, she would be able to swim better.If I dinnae die of the cold first, that is.

She was about to plunge overboard when she was jolted violently as the boat smashed against the rocks once more. The mast collapsed, and the keel was torn away with a horrible, wrenching groan, ripping the boat almost in two. A huge swell of water engulfed them then, and amid the screaming, Raven flailed desperately for a handhold.

But her feet were swept from under her, and the broken craft lurched, sending her skidding sideways. She heard her own skull crack as the side of her head impacted with something hard. The last thing she remembered before slipping into total darkness was her body being engulfed by the freezing waters.

CHAPTER FOUR

Numb with shock, Arne stared down at Maeve as she lay limp and unconscious in his arms. A surge of powerful emotions began to rush through him, but before he could even begin to feel them, let alone understand them, one of his fellow rescuers grabbed him by the arm.

“She’s alive, but there are still people in the water. We need ye to come and help us get them to shore,” he shouted into the roaring wind. “Come on!” The man ran off down the beach once more and plunged into the dark, frothing waters with his friend. Arne looked after them then back at Maeve’s pale face. Despite his mixed feelings about finding her after she had deserted him and Thorsten three years before, he found himself reluctant to leave her. What if she died?

An elderly woman standing over them with a lantern in her hand seemed to guess what he was thinking. “I’ll keep watch over her, lad, ye go and help the others,” she told him, jutting her chin towards the other rescuers. “There are many poor souls out there who need ye.”

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