Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Something is wrong.
Sofia MacDonald leaned over the side of the small, shallow-water ship she and her guards had hired for the crossing from Loch Lochy and stared quizzically at the currents and the shoreline that formed a small edge in the center of the horizon.
Her gaze flicked up to the sails, flapping in a moderate breeze, then to the helmsman standing by the rudder.
To the untrained eye, or the unobservant one, everything was as it should be.
Sofia, however, was neither untrained nor unobservant.
As such, she was quite aware that the boat was drifting from the course she had requested.
She had specifically requested a straight passage from Gairlochy across the loch to the fishing village of Killcarrigan, which was less than a day’s ride from the gates of Achnacarry Castle, the seat of Clan Cameron and home of her sister Catherine and her husband, Lord Aiden Cameron.
The boat had started out on that course, but now it was drifting on a diagonal path that would land them well out of Cameron territory.
The change was subtle, but Sofia was not a fool, and she was well aware that the territory outside of her new kin-by-marriage’s lands was fraught with contention and enemies. The question was why.
“Me lady?” Tristan, her guard for the journey, stepped up beside her. “Is aught amiss?”
“We are drifting off course, and I dinnae ken why. Have ye any idea?” Tristan was familiar with the passage between Keppoch Castle and Achnacarry Castle. He would know if there was a reason for taking a circuitous route rather than the shortest path across the loch.
“Nay. I’ve seen nay sign o’ storms, or hard winds, an’ the water is clear enough - there’s nay shallows or submerged growth that might hull the boat.” Tristan frowned. “I dinnae ken why we might be goin’ off course, but I’ll ask the captain, if ye wish.”
“Please.” It might be naething, but there was a warning ache in Sofia’s stomach that suggested something was amiss, and she had learned long ago not to dismiss such warnings.
Tristan nodded and made his way toward the foredeck. Sofia trailed behind him, curious to know what the captain of the boat might say regarding their current situation.
The captain was a grizzled older Highlander, with hands roughened by work and weather, and the tartan of the Cameron clan decorating the sash across his chest. He turned inquisitive eyes in Tristan’s direction as the guard stepped up beside him.
“Me laird? Is there somethin’ wrong? Daes the lady need aught? ”
“That’s what I’m wonderin’.” Tristan tipped his head and regarded the captain with a cool, assessing gaze that Sofia had seen make younger warriors stiffen in their boots. “I want tae ken why we’re driftin’ off course, away from the Killcarrigan landin’ me lady asked ye tae make fer.”
The captain scoffed, adopting an expression of bemusement that didn’t quite hide the sudden tension in his shoulders, or the sharpening of his gaze as it flicked in Sofia’s direction.
“Och, lad, I dinnae ken what ye mean. We’re driftin’ with the currents an’ in the right direction, sure enough.
Mayhap land-walkers like ye an’ the lady might be confused, but trust an old water-hand tae ken what he’s about.
We’re on course, an’ we’ll make Killcarrigan in good time. ”
“Will we?” Tristan’s voice was bland, but Sofia was in a good position to note the tightness in his shoulders.
She edged forward. Tristan was a good man, but he also had a volatile temper and little tolerance for anyone who might lie to him or treat him like a fool.
The captain’s answer was exactly the type of response to stoke his temper to life, even if the captain himself didn’t notice.
“O’ course. Tae an old lake-dweller like meself, who’s captained a vessel on these waters fer years, there’s all manner o’ subtle landmarks. An’ o’ course, any man can read a compass.”
“Aye. An’ mine says we’re goin’ in the wrong direction.” Tristan’s voice was sharper now, and Sofia edged closer, knowing a confrontation was likely to erupt any moment. She wanted answers, but not if trying to get them put all of them in danger.
“Well, lad, all I can say is that mayhap yer compass is broken. They dae go out o’ true sometimes.”
“Mayhap. But I dinnae think that is the case.” That was all Tristan said, his voice soft and deadly, before he launched himself forward, a dirk appearing in his hand like magic as he shoved the captain up against the nearest rigging.
“Land-walker I might be, but I’ve made this journey afore, many a time, an’ I ken the currents and the water well enough.
We’re off course, an’ ye’ll be tellin’ me why, or I’ll put a dagger in yer throat, or yer gut. ”
“Tristan, wait…” The warning came too late, as chaos erupted on the foredeck.
A sailor spotted the dirk in Tristan’s hand and lunged forward with a shout.
Tristan slapped him aside with easy confidence, but that movement was enough for the captain to pull free of Tristan’s grasp and roar out “Treachery! Thieves! They’re tryin’ tae kill me an’ tak’ o’er the boat!
They’re likely tae kill us all! Stop them! ”
“Soldiers tae me! Protect the lady!” Tristan’s answering shout galvanized the guards, even as he tried to return to Sofia’s side, but it was too little, and too late.
The sailors were up in arms, abandoning their tasks to pick up whatever weapons they could find.
Those sailors who had not been working came boiling out of the small below-decks space, armed with knives, pikes, small axes and cudgels.
In seconds, Sofia’s guards were embroiled in a pitched battle with the sailors manning the small boat.
The numbers were uneven, in favor of the sailors, but far worse, in Sofia’s opinion, was the terrain.
Her guards were unused to fighting on the unsteady surface of an unmoored ship, whereas the sailors were in their element.
Sofia grabbed one of the steerage poles, ready to defend herself.
A sailor lunged at her, clearly hoping to take her as a hostage to force Tristan and the other three guards to surrender.
Sofia hit him in the gut with an awkward swing of the pole and knocked him down, then shoved clumsily at another man who darted in her direction.
The second man went down, but not before a third managed to catch her in a vise-like grip, pinning her arms to her sides. Sofia thrashed and tried to hit him with the pole, but he was far too close, and his control soon allowed another man to step in close and wrench the pole from her hands.
She looked up just in time to see Tristan fall, stabbed in the chest, by the captain. The last of her guards succumbed a second later, toppling over the rail of the ship with a faint groan, blood streaming from what was most certainly a fatal wound.
She was alone. She fought back tears as the captain approached her. “Why would ye do this? I paid ye fairly.”
“Aye. But nae as much as the man who paid us tae deliver ye tae the coastline of Clan Grant’s territory.” A cruel smirk twisted the captain’s mouth. “’Twould have been better fer ye an’ yer men if ye’d never realized the boat was driftin’, but since ye did…”
He chuckled, and the sound was echoed by the sailors. Sofia bit the inside of her cheek and glared at him, unwilling to show her fear, or her sorrow for Tristan and his men. She would not give them that satisfaction.
After a moment, the captain turned away. “Bind her hands and secure her tae the aft rail.”
Sofia tried to struggle, but she was outmatched.
Two men dragged her forward and pushed her to knees.
One of them held her, and the other bound her wrists with a length of rope from the deck, which was then secured to the rail, pulled short enough that Sofia couldn’t rise to her feet without being horribly off balance.
For several long moments, all she could do was sit, huddled by the rail, her mind gone numb with shock and pain.
Tristan’s face as he fell filled her thoughts, and Sofia swallowed back bile.
She had seen her share of violence, but the coldness of the captain’s betrayal and the murder of her guards made her feel ill.
Sofia breathed deeply and forced herself to focus on her situation.
She was a prisoner. Her allies were either dead or unable to help her. Unless she could find some way to escape, she would be delivered to the enemies of her family, to be used against her loved ones. She could not allow that to happen.