“Get out!” She threw a handful of dirt at them while still holding tight to Dugald.
The redcoats rushed away.
“They are gone, m’love,” she called to Teague.
He charged around the barrels, dropped to his knees, and worked his arm under Dugald’s shoulders to hold him. “Damn ye, Dugald. How can we conquer Nova Scotia without ye?”
Dugald managed a faint smile. “Forgive me, my chieftain. I had to pay for my brother’s treachery.”
“There is nothing to forgive, but go in peace and enjoy yer eternal rest, aye? I could not ask for a more loyal clansman. Ye will be sorely missed, old friend.” Teague ached to roar out his sorrow but didn’t. Not after the sacrifice Dugald had just given so that they all might live.
“I thank ye, my chieftain.” Dugald went still, frozen in time with his eyes wide open.
Hand shaking, Teague closed the man’s eyes and pressed his forehead to his. “To heaven with ye, my brother. May yer rest be sweet.” He lowered him to the ground and bowed his head. A strong hand squeezed his shoulder.
“Hie to the ship, my brother,” Calder said quietly. “Dinna let his sacrifice be in vain.”
“Both of ye go,” Mila said. “I must stay here and call out to the soldiers.”
Teeth clenched with grief and fury at the unjustness of it all, Teague clapped his beggar’s hat back on his head and shrugged the cloak around his shoulders. Calder walked with him up the gangway as though helping an aged man.
Once aboard, Teague stood at the railing, his gaze locked on the front of the warehouse.
Mila emerged and waved her kerchief in the air.
The soldiers waiting at the far end of the wharf hurried to meet her, then removed their hats. One of them offered her a polite bow. She shook her fist at the man, shouting something Teague could not hear. From the fury in her stance and the redness of her face, he could not imagine what she said. Then she turned away and stormed up the gangway.
The redcoats signaled for the man waiting with the two-wheeled wagon, then loaded Dugald’s body and carted away one of the most loyal men Teague had ever known.
Mila took her place at his side and squeezed his arm. “I told them if they didna bury him on holy ground, his ghost would haunt them all their days and I would curse them to die alone with no sons or daughters to mourn them.”
“Thank ye,” he said, his gaze still locked on the cart in the distance.
“I pray he is at peace now. A good man such as him deserves it.”
“I pray so too, m’love. He does indeed deserve peace.”
Chapter Eighteen
Unable to keepfrom cringing, Mila washed Teague’s wounded shoulder as gently as possible and applied a clean bandage. “It bled more. Ye are sure to have a terrible scar.”
“Aye,” he agreed quietly. “But at least I am alive and with those I love.”
She carried the basin to the bucket near the door and dumped it. After setting it on the table in the center of Captain Bartholomew’s cabin, she filled it with fresh water, stripped down to her shift, and scrubbed the filth from her face and arms. “It was kind of the captain to give up his quarters for us.”
With a heavy sigh, Teague leaned back into the pillows lining the bunk and stared upward. He held out his hand. “I need to hold ye, my precious dove. Will ye come to me?”
She dropped the rag into the bowl and climbed up beside him. “Always,” she promised quietly. She wished there was a way to ease his mourning for Dugald, chase away the pain, the unreasonable guilt. Her heart was heavy too, but she knew it didn’t compare to Teague’s sorrow. She nestled her head into the dip of his shoulder and hugged his chest. “He would want us to thrive, ye ken?”
“That he would, dear one.” He rumbled against her with a sad chuckle. “He always said he would never marry because he knew he wouldna live long enough to be a proper husband.” He kissed the top of her head and held her closer. “Somehow, he knew.”
For his sake, she needed to turn his thoughts to brighter days ahead. “How long for us to reach France?”
He hummed as though it helped him calculate. “This time of year? A few weeks, I would say. ’Tis not as though we sailed from England.”
Something suddenly occurred to her. “Robbie will have to translate for me until I learn the language. I dinna speak a word of French.”
He didn’t respond, just inhaled a deep breath and blew it out.
