Chapter Twenty-Three

The sentimental warmth that had spread through Tessa's body drained as if she'd been struck mortally, leaving cold dread in the emptiness.

Claude Jandeau continued to clap slowly with each hard thump of his boot as he stepped down the stairs from the guard tower. The children screamed, running for their parents. The Macquarie brothers and Rabbie pushed the women and children behind their backs, forming a circle around them.

Men from Jandeau's ship stood at stations along the wall holding muskets aimed at them.

Tessa stood between Lark and Lia, their arms pressed against one another while the children crowded into the very center at her back. They clung to each other, fidgeting and trying to keep the youngest ones quiet and still. Tessa's heart thumped hard, and 'twas difficult to draw breath. But she forced an inhale and turned to face the children. A soft ribbon of song came from her.

"Hush les enfants, be strong and brave…" She translated the short French song into English. Little eyes stared up at her, transfixed and settled for the moment. She let the song run out and turned back.

Rabbie tried to keep Ida behind him, and she smacked his arms to let her see. Grissell had moved into the shade of the willow tree as if its whipping boughs would guard her, away from the pirates' target.

"What do ye want, Jandeau?" Adam called. All the brothers had their swords out, but they would do little at this distance against muskets.

"I've come for my daughter, and I'll also take your isle and maybe your wives and children if you give me any trouble."

"Ye have come to die then," Eagan said, his words commanding and dark.

"You're not in a position to threaten, Macquarie pup." Jandeau motioned to the men around the wall. "As you can see, my men have recovered from your poisonous concoction, la fille." He peered between the broad shoulders standing sentry before Tessa to meet her gaze. He tsk ed. "My daughter has a cruelness in her." He grinned. "Your knowledge could be of help to me."

Tessa followed him with her gaze while Jandeau walked around their circle, out of reach of the Macquarie swords. If they lunged, no doubt one of his men would put a shot through the Macquarie's face. Jandeau acted like he was in complete control of the situation, and it seemed he was.

Jandeau glanced at the willow tree and Grissell standing beneath. "So the crone still lives. I thought she'd died and was in the ground already." He turned away, not bothered by the limbs blowing around, grazing his head and back like a lover's fingers.

From along the wall, one of the Macquarie guards must have broken through his restraints. He yanked off his gag and lunged for one of the pirates, but the large man snarled, lifted him, and threw him over the side. Tessa and Lark gasped as he hit the ground with a thud. He was most likely dead.

Hannah, who was only one year old, cried, and Lark bounced her up and down, trying to soothe her.

"I could order them to shoot all Macquarie men," Jandeau said, pointing around their tight circle. "Then we will take your women and children to use or sell. He moved his head left to right as if weighing his choices, as if he weren't talking about rape and slavery. "The old women will die of course." He met Eagan's gaze. "But, really, I want my daughter. Claudette, come to me and save your Wolf Isle friends."

"You promised that before and still took the children," she called out from the inner circle.

Jandeau shrugged. "You don't have a choice but to hope my offer is true now."

"I'm not with child," Tessa said even though she still hadn't gotten her courses.

Eagan's hand reached behind him, finding hers to hold. "And we just married, so even if she was with my child, it wouldn't be a bastard."

Jandeau clicked his tongue. "A shame that." One of the willow limbs must have tickled his neck, because he yanked it hard, breaking it away from the tree and tossing it. "But I will still take my daughter."

"She's wed now," Eagan said, moving around the circle so he could stare at Jandeau where he stood by the tree. "Ye have no legal control over her anymore."

Jandeau laughed. "Since when do I care about legalities? Non. I will take my daughter and anything else of yours. Compensation for two ships and countless crew you've cost me."

"How did ye even get in here?" Beck asked.

Jandeau's hand flipped around. "'Twas dark and yer village is guarded by aging, easily fooled pirates, eh. You will find a number of them incapacitated."

Eliza cursed, and Tessa remembered that many of those ex-pirates were her family.

"Shhh, Hannah," five-year-old John whispered to his baby sister. "Da will kill the bad men."

Terror bloomed inside Tessa. The whole Macquarie Clan would be killed because her father wouldn't relinquish his hold on her. How could she allow that? Even if she remained hiding here behind them, once Eagan and his family were killed, Jandeau would still drag her back onto his ship, the children thrown into that dank, dark cell in the hull. Would Jandeau's men find Charlotte, Grace, and Bann up in Eagan's room? Barging in to grab them out of sleep into terror? They'd shoot the two wolfhounds too.

Bang! Tessa jumped, and the children screamed inside their tight circle of mothers. Tessa looked out to see one of the men on the wall aiming outside the bailey where an agonizing groan sounded. The crewman yelled down. "And any more of you trying to sneak up on us will be shot, too." He quickly set about reloading his musket while six other pirates aimed directly toward their huddled group and two others glanced over the wall.

"Word is out, Jandeau," Adam yelled, facing out even though Jandeau stood behind their circle. "The whole village will be coming to attack yer men."

"You will die before they can get inside," Jandeau said. "You and your wives and children. Unless you send Claudette out to me."

Tessa looked at each of the pirates, her gaze stopping on Hubert. He hadn't been stripped and devoid of his tongue. Perhaps he'd been saved by eating her potion. Would Hubert fire at the Macquaries to further show his loyalty to Jandeau?

"Come out here, daughter," Jandeau called. "Or I order my men to start shooting."

Eagan squeezed her hand as if to tell her not to step out. "I must," she whispered.

"Nay," he whispered back.

"You'll save me again."

"Bloody hell, he will hide ye away."

"On the count of three, ma fille, your friends and your man will die. Une, deux—"

"Arrêt! Stop!" Tessa yelled and yanked her hand from Eagan's.

"Nay, Tessa!" he shouted, the words like thunder.

There was no getting through the wall of Macquarie brothers with their powerful arms and shoulders in the way. Tessa crouched and threw herself between the space formed by their legs and scrambled out of the protective circle. "Don't shoot them. Leave them unharmed," she yelled, running to her father where he stood at the edge of the willow's reach. "And I will go with you. I will…" She wet her dry lips and pushed the words out: "I will stay with you."

"Nay!" Eagan roared, but his brothers held him back, their gazes raised to the muskets ready to fire if any of them approached Jandeau.

Jandeau grabbed her to him, his arm curling around her middle like he'd held her on his ship. Once again it felt indecent. Was that an erection against her backside? Did power inflame his passions? Cruelty? The thought made her nearly vomit.

…

Eagan watched Tessa blanch to a sickly pale. Life seemed to drain out of her as her father held her against him. She looked like a tortured plaything he refused to give up. She wouldn't remain alive for long in his care. If he didn't abuse the life out of her, she'd find a way to take her own life.

Heart pounding, Eagan fought his brothers to rush at the pirate. His insides were raw and twisted.

"They'll shoot ye," Adam rasped, his arm wrapped around Eagan's good shoulder.

Callum's hands were like vises around Eagan's waist. "'Tis what he wants. Ye run at him, and his men will start shooting. Once we are fallen, they will shoot everyone else."

A whimper sounded from inside the circle, and one of the mothers tried to soothe the frightened children. Turmoil and fury roiled inside Eagan. "Take me," he yelled. "Ye can torture me however ye want, but leave her here, and leave my family alone."

"Fok," Drostan whispered, but Eagan ignored him and whatever else his brothers were saying. His entire focus was on Tessa's face. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she closed her eyes as if willing herself to disappear or die there on the spot.

Jandeau scoffed. "'Tis an uneven trade. A lovely woman, my own daughter, for a Macquarie pup. Non." The monster slid the back of his finger up Tessa's neck to her cheek as if he were her lover instead of her father. Jandeau looked back out at Eagan, his gaze sliding amongst all the Macquarie brothers. "Now offer me Wolf Isle along with your life, and I might consider your offer."

Behind Jandeau, something moved underneath the dancing branches of the willow tree. Grissell . She stood near the trunk, her bent frame straightening as if she shirked off a cloak of years from her shoulders. She wrapped her hands around the dagger that had been stuck in the tree for a century, the dagger no one had been able to draw out, the dagger that still bled with the curse.

The old woman had been barely able to walk. Drostan had been the last Macquarie to try to draw the dagger out of the tree. Even with his muscular strength, it hadn't moved. And yet…

"Holy God," Beck whispered.

Off to the side, Rabbie passed the sign of the cross before him, and Aunt Ida actually held onto the old man's shoulder as she stared.

In silence, Grissell slid the dagger from the tree as if the willow had been merely holding it for her. She turned, and with three strides that seemed as strong as a woman's half her age, Grissell reached Jandeau's back. The willow branches seemed to gather around her, hiding her from the pirates with the muskets. The limbs moved in a frenzied fashion, making it hard to see her from the sides.

Hands clasped around the dagger's hilt, Grissell raised it over her head and plunged it down into the pirate's back, under his left shoulder. If the man had a heart, it was skewered.

Jandeau's face contorted with a mix of pain and bewilderment. His arm dropped from Tessa, and he spun, trying to reach the protruding dagger.

Crack! A musket went off. Adam and Callum released Eagan as they turned to shield their families, pushing them down to the ground. Eagan rushed toward Tessa. Two more muskets went off, and Eagan grabbed Tessa to him, dropping them both to the ground to cover her with his body.

"Tessa. Oh God, Tessa," he said, holding her.

"Eagan!" The panic in her voice made him squeeze her tighter. "You're bleeding!"

The warmth of the blood caught his attention seconds before the sting of the shot registered in his other shoulder. Daingead! Two shots in less than two days.

Eagan lifted his face to Jandeau's shouts. The limbs of the willow tree whipped across the pirate's face, slashing it hard enough to leave lines of blood. Grissell had stepped back under the tree, watching the pirate thrash as blood poured from his slashed heart.

Shouts along the wall continued, along with a few blasts from muskets. Jandeau dropped to his knees, and Grissell walked back to stand tall before him. "An appropriate sacrifice," she said, and spat.

From Eagan's position on the ground, covering Tessa as she desperately tried to stop the blood pouring from his shoulder, Eagan watched Captain Claude Jandeau Lemaire release his final fetid breath.