Chapter Sixteen

"She's staying?" Adam asked Eagan as he turned, jumping back. They were training in the bailey before Gylin Castle. "On Wolf Isle?" Adam surged forward, but Eagan anticipated and sidestepped the assault. "Taking Grissell's place with the children and lasses?" Adam asked, his breath coming in gusts.

The crunch of their boots showed the tempo of their dance as they fought with wooden swords, turning, thrusting, and stepping backward in an effort to throw off the other's balance.

"Grissell asked her," Eagan said. And then we fell into bed and nearly incinerated the sheets.

It was a wonder he'd disentangled himself from Tessa that morning with her scent and warmth ensnaring him. Only the direct orders from his brother, the chief, to come back to Gylin pulled him from her arms. It was midmorning by the time he'd emerged and Sia had run inside Tessa's cottage, ready to take his place in the warm bed.

"And how did she answer?" Adam asked, his gaze sliding to where Drostan and Callum battled against Beck.

Eagan took the momentary distraction to knock against Adam's unguarded hand, making his sword drop as he grunted. Adam grabbed his sword from the dirt but nodded to Eagan, giving him the point. With real swords and real foes, Adam would likely be dead.

Eagan caught his breath as Adam worked his fingers, making sure nothing was broken. "She didn't answer," Eagan said, making Adam's gaze snap back up to him.

"She's still considering going with her father if he returns," Adam said.

The other three had paused, breathing hard.

" When he returns," Beck said. "The devil will harass us until he draws his last fetid breath."

Callum nodded, his face grim. Drostan stared, but they all knew Beck's words to be true. With each failure to win what he considered his prize, Jandeau's obsession with the Macquarie Clan had increased.

"Bloody foking hell, I should have killed him when he was unconscious," Callum grumbled, not for the first time. He was the only brother to have actually caught the infamous pirate when he'd gone to retrieve Anna and her sister, Dora, from England.

Drostan's hand came down on his shoulder, but he didn't say anything. They'd each gone round and round with Callum since that time, telling him that an honorable man didn't kill an unconscious, unarmed man, but Callum continued to berate his honorable actions.

"Then we'll take turns guarding Tessa until he returns," Beck said.

"And do what?" Eagan asked. "Kill Jandeau in front of her?" For that was the only outcome that rid the Macquaries of their tormenting adversary. "Her father."

"If she happens to be looking," Callum said, and Eagan threw a glare his way. "What?" Callum said. "They're not going to have a good father-daughter conversation over tarts and ale." He threw his sword on the ground. "Do ye imagine them having a picnic where he tells her how he's always loved her and will quit selling children and women into slavery to become a loving father, supporting her in France?"

"Hold yer tongue," Eagan said. "'Tis just…for Tessa to witness us killing her father might turn her away from us, make her…" He trailed off. Make her hate me. He looked at his brothers. "I think I want to marry her." Was that true? Would he stay for her, abandon his plans to leave? She'll go with me.

They all stared at him. "Ye want to marry Jandeau's daughter?" Drostan asked.

Eagan felt his blood begin to boil. "'Tis not like she has tainted blood. The sins of the father don't transfer to the daughter. She barely knows him."

"Ye love her?" Adam asked. He'd set his wooden sword aside and crossed his arms over his chest, studying Eagan.

Eagan scratched at a prickle of drying sweat on his forehead. "We get on well together."

Callum snorted. "Having a good fok doesn't mean ye get on well—"

Eagan charged his brother, his fist cocked back. Fool Callum wasn't expecting his youngest brother to attack and didn't even get his hands up to defend himself before Eagan delivered a punch to his jaw.

The momentum threw Callum backward so that he landed on his arse, his head thrown back to hit the ground.

"Daingead!" Adam yelled, running to Callum while Drostan grabbed Eagan's arms.

"Well, hell," Beck said casually, his elbows out on either side of his head as he cupped the back.

"Ye don't talk about her or any woman like that," Eagan yelled at Callum. "Ye foking arse."

Adam leaned over Callum. Eagan shook off Drostan's hold, so Beck came over to stand with Drostan. "Ye need to calm yerself."

"How calm would ye be if foking Callum said that about Eliza or Lia?" Eagan looked at his two brothers.

Behind them, Adam had clasped Callum's hand and was giving him a lift off the hard ground.

Callum rubbed his chin, wincing. "Ye've got a hell of a hook, brother," he said, though the words were slurred from the injury to his mouth. Blood flowed from a cut on his lip, and Adam handed him a rag from his belt.

As if reveling in the turmoil between brothers, the willow tree danced in a sudden gust of wind. The spindly branches snapped toward them like whips.

"And ye've got a hell of a foul mouth," Eagan said, and spit on the ground as if bitterness coated his tongue.

Callum turned and strode toward the well on the other side of the bailey.

"Ye need to talk to Tessa," Adam said. "See what she's planning."

"If ye ask her to marry ye," Beck said, "she'd have a reason to stay."

Eagan scratched his fingers through his sweaty hair. Would she go with him if they married first? He met Adam's eyes. "I plan to leave Wolf Isle. I meant to weeks ago, but Tessa showed up."

"Leave the clan, yer family?" Drostan asked.

Eagan didn't break his gaze with Adam. "I plan to go north to Orkney and decide from there if I will sail to Norway and Denmark or travel the east coast of Scotland."

"Ye're serious?" Beck asked, coming to stand next to Adam so that he could stare in Eagan's face, as if weighing his commitment to his plan.

"He's had a satchel packed," Adam said, still staring at Eagan. So Adam already knew.

"If ye've gotten Tessa with child, then ye must ask her to marry," Drostan said. "Or do ye plan to doom our clan?"

Eagan felt a flush prickle along his skin. He hadn't pulled out every time Tessa and he had come together. He glanced at the willow tree, but no leaves had turned brown, not that they would right away. He released a breath. Fok, he'd been so stupid. What if she were pregnant and Jandeau took her like he'd tried to take Lia, dooming the Macquarie Clan when they didn't marry?

"I'll wait until her monthly courses come," Eagan said, his stomach growing sour. It had been his plan before, but then they'd fallen into bed again.

"And we have to make sure Jandeau doesn't take her before then," Adam said, his brows pinched. He exhaled. "And I would like to talk more about ye leaving before ye do. Don't run off in the night."

He looked worried, his stoic, always-in-command eldest brother. As if he might miss him and not just because he wouldn't be able to order him around. Either that or he was worried about the curse not being broken.

"I'll give ye notice."

"Stay away from Callum right now," Drostan said.

Eagan glanced down at his knuckles where the skin had broken open on impact. The blood had already dried. "Tell him to keep his filthy mouth away from me." Eagan grabbed up his sparring sword to set it against the barn before he strode out the gate. Some laps across the small loch north of Ormaig would help him think and cool his blood.

Despite the calm breeze, Eagan felt a storm gathering, and changes were already in motion.

…

It had been late afternoon when Tessa watched Eagan ride up, dismount, and stride toward her, standing on the cottage porch.

One kiss had swept them both away in the familiar storm of their passion. 'Twas as if they both hid away in the sweep, not wanting to talk about hard things—things like her father, Grissell's request to stay, his plans to leave Wolf Isle, and whether he truly wanted to marry her. The topics seemed too weighty to voice. So, instead, they'd blocked out the world with passion.

Eagan had left as the sun began to descend. I'll return tonight , he'd said.

Perhaps I wish to sleep tonight , she'd answered.

Then I will stalk around your cottage, protecting ye.

From my own father? Her smile had left.

He'd looked her directly in her eyes. Aye.

Darkness had descended, but Eagan hadn't yet returned. Tessa looked around the cottage that she'd grown to adore with its exposed rafters and chipped hearth. She'd hung herbs from the rafters, much like Grissell, the old woman teaching her even more than her mother had about the combinations of plants, animals, and elements in the world.

Tessa had learned midwifery from her mother, but Grissell had taught her so much more. Everything from how to calm a rolling stomach to powerful sleep tinctures to even poisons that would stop a heart. It should have been obvious that Grissell was preparing her to take over once she died.

Did she want to leave this place? Leave her pets and the friends she'd made? Leave Eagan? No, but she'd also prayed her whole life for her father to return, for him to love her as his daughter and tell her stories of her mother when they were young and newly in love.

Your father, Tempest, was so riveting , her mother had said. A beautiful man, dark and mysterious. His mother had abandoned him, yet he kept his heart open to love. He loves me, loves you, ma chérie.

Rebecca had told Tessa that they'd met when they were young, when he'd attended the English court with the French ambassador as his page. How their passion had exploded into an inferno. Her parents didn't approve, but she wouldn't give up her Claude for their strict English ways. She'd run away with him, but due to his unexpected appointment to the navy, she'd been left on a small isle off the coast of Scotland where the French ambassador had known of a place for women with nowhere else to go.

But Claude had returned for her, and when she'd told him she was with his child, he'd taken her to France, and they wed. It was the most romantic story Tessa had ever heard. Her mother had told her it repeatedly, like history, like she must convince herself it was true. As a child, Tessa hadn't recognized that, but now she wondered.

Tessa helped bring in money by singing and teaching the royal children how to dance, but it was never enough to create the lifestyle her mother sought. Rebecca also sought protection, and she gained it from the powerful players at the French court—that was until the king's powerful mistress had her throat slit.

Tessa moved to the window, peering out. Two rough-looking men turned to her, and she stepped back, her heart pounding. But then she remembered them from Ormaig Village. They were patrolling the grounds until Eagan returned. Peeking back outside, she could see the outline of swords strapped to their sides.

Tessa's brain was so tired from churning through possible decisions that when she lay down on the quilts, she quickly drifted into sleep. The sound of the door opening startled her, and her eyes flew open. Still groggy, she pushed up from the bed where Sia sat beside her at attention like a lioness. The cat hissed.

"Mon père?" she whispered. Was this a dream? She'd had them before. Her father coming to find her, hugging her and telling her that he loved her. But this man didn't smile.

Claude Lemaire stepped inside the cottage, shutting the door behind him. He wore a soft-soled boot that made no noise when he walked toward her. "Ma fille," he said. "I've come for you." They were words she'd prayed for, but they were said in a cold voice. He'd come back for her. She was worth sneaking into enemy territory to retrieve.

"I…" Her mouth remained open for a moment, and she wondered what would come out. She rubbed her hands down her face and slid her feet to the floor. Would she tell him she didn't want to go? The thought was ridiculous after a lifetime of praying for his return. But Eagan…

"Mon père," she said, "I've been making my home here. May I… I mean…" She took a full breath. "I must remain here on Wolf Isle. The old woman who cares for the children—"

"There's no time for talk, Claudette. We must be away now. Take what you'd like or leave it all. I will purchase new clothing for you once we make port among the Caribbean Islands."

"Caribbean?" she whispered and frowned. "You're not taking me back to France, to your family's chateau in the countryside?"

"Chateau in the countryside?" He narrowed his eyes.

"Alsace. You said we would live on your estate there. Mama said you had family in the French countryside."

Jandeau rubbed his chin. "Your mother spouted fairy tales."

The belittling grin growing on his mouth made tears gather in Tessa's eyes. He thought her mother was a fool and Tessa for believing her..

"Why did you leave her in France then? Leave us both?"

Her father looked over his shoulder. "My men are waiting on the shore. We go now."

"But—"

His face hardened. "I don't care if you wish to stay with the Macquaries. They are my enemy and as my daughter, your enemy, too. I could squash them with one attack this very night. My men are vicious and will rape and plunder and kill. But I've reined them with loyalty to me."

Tessa stared at him, trying to take in this information while her brain fought with the discrepancies between a loving father and this man staring at her in the dark.

He huffed. "Come now, Claudette, and I will leave this isle unharmed." The deadly threat was evident in his even tone.

Tessa swallowed hard and felt herself nod. "I'll gather a bag."

"Rapidement."

Tessa threw her jars and pouches of herbs, two flasks of weak ale, and several clean smocks into a satchel. She made sure her necklace was in place, the birdcage locket nestled between her breasts, and threw on her heavy woolen cape.

Meow . Sia rubbed against her legs, and Tessa scooped her up with her free arm. She couldn't let her go. Eagan had said that Sia had been on a ship before when she voyaged with Lia.

Tessa threw her satchel over one shoulder and nestled Sia under her cloak against her chest. "I am bringing my cat," she said to her father's back, but he continued to stride away, expecting her to follow.

In the darkness, she saw men running about the other cottages. "What are they doing?"

"Patrolling against the Macquaries." He glanced at her. "Especially the one you've been foking."

The crude word pierced, lodging in her chest. Of course her father would be angry about her indiscretion, and there wasn't time to defend her actions. What would she say if she did have time? I love him like Rebecca loved you. The words jumped through her mind, but she brushed them away. Even if they were true, they'd only bring more cursing from her father.

And what did she know of romantic love anyway? Her mother had sworn that her father loved them both, yet he never came to visit and let them fall into penury. And Eagan still planned to travel across Scotland.

Tessa clutched Sia, and the cat squirmed. She loosened her hold but wouldn't let go as she followed her father through the quiet woods to the shore where three rowboats waited with a man at each.

She swallowed hard when she saw two men tied to a tree, their mouths gagged. The men who'd been guarding her. One was unconscious while the other glared at her father as he strode by. The captain clasped his hands behind his back as if he stood on his ship's deck. He ignored them and Tessa, as if he didn't expect anything less than complete cooperation.

Tessa looked back at her cottage and the clearing in the small compound. "Wait," she said and stopped on the rocky shore. Dawn was creeping upward. She hadn't even gotten to say farewell to the three children and Grissell. "I must—"

"There's no time. A storm is moving in." Her father turned to stare at her. "You will come with me." He spoke as if she were his property. Tessa had been independent her whole life, and his tone grated on her.

"I have no choice in staying on Wolf Isle?" she asked even with a lanky sailor gesturing for her to climb into the small boat.

Her father dropped his hands, and they formed fists at his sides. He walked back over to stand before her, and she looked up into his black eyes. A chill slid down her. "I will take you, ma fille, or I will take Wolf Isle and every breathing soul on it," he said, his words as cold as the dark sea at his back.