Cuthie slammed the door shut and turned the lock with a loudclack.
“Lass,” Kieran whispered.
“I’m not hurt,” she said, intuitively knowing that was his first thought.
She curled into his side, her shackled hands twisted to the side between them, her body squirming to get as close to him as possible.
Kieran wished desperately there were some way to hold her, to comfort her. “We’ll find a way out of this,mo chridhe. We can return tae England once Cuthie deposits us in a port. It will all come right—”
Jamie grunted.
Kieran frowned.
She continued to writhe.
“Lass?”
“Cuthie is a lout,” she hissed, wriggling beside him. She sounded more frustrated than upset. “He won’t set us free. Instead, he’ll use me as leverage to get ye to do all sorts of dastardly things and then ‘deposit’ us in a watery grave when he is done. The man only behaves morally when there is a distinct threat of retaliation.”
“Cuthie is an opportunist, a survivor of the worst sort.”
“Aye.” She squirmed, her manacles clanking. “He will always find a way to cheat or brutalize or manipulate his way out of trouble. We have to get off this ship afore it sets sail.”
Kieran nodded in agreement. “That’s all well and good, wife, but the tide will turn before morning. By the time the sun rises,The Minervawill be out to sea. Unless the rest of the Brotherhood mount an assault, I fear we are stuck—”
“Got it!” Jamie abruptly sat back.
Kieran looked down at her.
She held aloft a thin, metal pick with a hooked end.
“How?” He shook his head.
“Mr. Chen slipped it into my pocket as I was being shackled. Let me see your hands.”
Kieran proffered his chained wrists and watched in amazement as his clever wife set to picking the lock.
“How did I ever convince ye tae marry me?” He shook his head in wonder. “You’re a marvel.”
“Thank ye.” She kissed his lips. “But fair warning, I’m going tae remind ye of this moment for the rest of our lives.” Her voice went sing-song. “Oh, ye thought ye were going tae pop down to the local for a pint with Tam, did ye? I think not. Remember that time I saved ye from sure death aboard a merchant ship in the South Pacific? Well, you’ve now got a babe with a nappy that needs changing. You’ll be staying in tonight.”
Kieran chuckled, soft and low.
Heaven above, only Jamie could make him laugh at a time like this.
“Ye get us out of this mess, lass, and I’ll gladly forgo all pints with this mythical Tam.”
His brilliant wife grinned and continued to pick the lock.
She had him free in ten minutes. It took another twenty for her to talk him through picking the locks on her own wrists.
Kieran’s heart hammered in his chest so loudly, he worried others could hear it.
But the ship was quiet.
He heard Cuthie call to Massey in the distance, something about most of the men having gone ashore to “teach those savages a lesson.”
Jamie looked at Kieran. He nodded.
