“I’m awake.” Elene could have cried upon hearing the trembling voice, but she feared wasting the energy and that her tears might freeze her eyes shut. She looked around for anything she could use to the fracture the barrel’s planks. She saw nothing of use. She considered jumping on top of it but feared crushing Johan if it splintered.
“Elene!”
She looked up, finding Liam, Cadence, Albert, and Dermot nearly to shore in the curragh. The four men fought the waves, their backs straining within their leines. Liam handed his oar to Cadence and jumped over the side, splashing his way up to the beach.
“Johan’s trapped. I can’t get it open. The wood shrank.” Elene clung to Liam as he wrapped her in his arms, but the embrace was fleeting.
“Get them blankets,” Liam ordered as he drew his sword. Elene gasped until she realized he intended to use the sword’s pommel, not its blade. He reached above his head but paused. “Johan? Can you hear me? Tap where your head is.”
A faint scratching sound came from his right. Liam shifted further left before driving his sword’s hilt into the wood. The sound of splintering timber filled the air. He repeated the move thrice more, putting all his strength into cracking the barrel open. When he could see fabric between the boards, he dropped his sword and used his hands to pull the barrel apart. Elene joined him, yanking from the other side. The barrel burst open when Cadence and Albert added their muscles to the endeavor. Elene fell, landing hard on her backside, but she scrambled on her hands and knees to reach her brother.
“Enie,” Johan whispered the name he’d used for his oldest sister when he was too young to say Elene’s full name.
“I’m here.” Elene accepted a blanket from one man, she didn’t know who, and wrapped it around Johan as she pulled him onto her lap. She looked up when she felt Katryne lean against her. Then a blanket enfolded all three of them. A solid wall was against her back, and she knew it was Liam who held them together.
“I’m here,” Liam whispered in her ear, repeating the reassurance she’d given Johan only moments ago. She rested her head against his chest, finally feeling safe after the sheer terror she’d experienced while in the water.
CHAPTER13
Liam looked around, still surprised that they’d wound up back on Mainland rather than Shapinsay. They’d been closer to the small island, but the sea had a different notion of where to carry the three barrels. His heart was in his throat from the moment Gunter boarded his boat until the moment he leaped out of the curragh. Every moment that he engaged with Gunter was time for the Isbisters to float away.
Once Gunter passed back to his boat, and his fleet was underway, Liam forced himself to wait until they were nearly out of sight before he ordered the birlinns toward the three barrels. It shocked him how fast the sea swept them. He’d seen them carried away from the coast, then he’d watched Elene’s head burst above the surface. He watched in horror as she struggled with Katryne’s barrel, then sank beneath the surface. But a heartbeat later, she emerged with her sister in her arms.
He’d ordered the curragh into the water as Elene helped Katryne to the third barrel. Rowing forced him to turn his back. He wished to look over his shoulder, but he knew it would interrupt their progress. He had to trust that he was drawing closer. When he heard Elene’s voice on the wind, he’d finally given in and looked for her. He thought he might faint from relief when he saw her on the sand, but he quickly realized only Katryne was with her. He saw her struggling to move the last barrel up the beach. He’d passed his oar to one of his men and gone over the side and into the frigid water. It was like knife blades cutting his calves and thighs. He couldn’t imagine how all three survived in the near frozen water of the North Sea. He thanked God that Elene had insisted on the barrels. If they’d listened to his plan, all three siblings would be dead like Elene feared.
As he held on to Elene, Katryne, and Johan, he knew he could love the two youngest Isbisters as much as he did his own brothers and sister. He wanted to. He looked down at Elene’s closed eyes, the fine blue veins pronounced in her eyelids. Her body still trembled against him as she shivered. He would gladly trade places with her if it meant she survived and could make a life with him. He knew what he wanted—needed—with a certainty he’d never felt before. But as much as he longed to profess his feelings, he knew it was far from the right time.
“We need to get you back to the ships. We can’t stay here, exposed, and you all need dry clothes.”
“We don’t have any,” Katryne whimpered.
“I’m sure they’ll give us plaids,” Johan reassured as he reached blue-tinged fingers out to his sister, taking the hand she had curled beneath her chin. “We made it. We’re safe now that we’re with Liam.”
Liam prayed he lived up to such expectations. He helped the three siblings to their feet as he looked around. Elene leaned away and glanced over his shoulders.
“I don’t believe it,” Elene murmured. “We’re near Isbister. I recognize those rocks.” She pointed past where Albert stood. “We can walk there in five minutes.” She squinted down the coast. “Those are their fishing boats.”
“Dermot, Cadence, go back to the birlinns. Bring them round and dock just beyond those boats. Then you and the men join us in the village.” When his men nodded and trod back to the curragh, he turned toward Albert. It pleased him to see that the fatherly warrior already carried Katryne in one arm and lifted Johan in the other. Liam scooped Elene into his arms, her head resting against his shoulder as she curled against him. “Where do we go?”
Elene kept her eyes closed but pointed to the right of the rocks she’d recognized. She pulled her arm back in and tucked the plaid she still had closer to her chest. She murmured, “When you get to the village, the second croft to the right is my great-aunt’s. Go there. She’ll know me and know what to do.”
“Elene, stay awake,mo ghràidh.You can’t sleep until we have you dry and warm. I fear you’ll drift off and not wake again.”
“I’m so tired, Liam. I can’t. Please let me sleep.” Elene whimpered as Liam kissed her forehead.
“As soon as you’re dry, you can sleep as long as you wish. But not yet. I’m scared you’re going to die.”
Elene’s eyes fluttered open at the anguish in Liam’s voice as much as the words he uttered. She saw the fear in his emerald orbs, and she felt him pick up their pace. He was nearly running by the time they reached the village.
“Her name is Ilka,” Elene mumbled, her teeth chattering harder than they had when Liam first found her. He looked around as people came out of their homes and others stopped what they were doing in the village center. Liam led the way to the croft Elene told him about, Albert following close behind. Liam could hear the rumble of the older man’s voice, then the higher pitch of the children’s responses. They both sounded in better shape than their older sister. Liam looked down at Elene, whose eyes were now open but glassy.
“Elene?” An older woman flew through her open door, hiking up her skirts as she ran toward the newcomers. “Merciful angels, what’s happened to you, child?”
“Auntie Ilka?” Elene rasped before coughing. Liam tightened his hold, fearing she was already falling ill.
“It’s me, lass. What’s happened?”
“Can we go inside?” Liam interrupted, surprising the woman with his native-sounding Norn. She looked him up and down before glancing at Albert, who still carried Johan and Katryne.
