“I will send two other men back here to get them,” answered Duncan. “Two more faces they arenae looking for. They will just think the men lead their own mounts back home.” He glanced back at Colin and Gisele. “Try to recall that ye are soaked in wine, drunk, and amorous, and pull the lass’s hood up to shield her face.”
Colin did as his cousin ordered. Gisele tried to relax when the man draped one thin arm around her shoulders and held her close. Nigel glared at them once before Duncan put an arm around his shoulders, leaning against him as if he were unsteady on his feet, and led them out into the street.
As they entered the crowded streets Gisele tensed, terrified of discovery and eager to run. Colin tightened his hold on her, and she was a little surprised by the strength in that thin arm. He pressed his cheek against the top of her head and began to speak in a language she did not understand. She glanced up at him, forcing herself to grin, and caught his dark eyes fixed firmly upon her face.
“English? French?” she asked in whisper.
“Nay. Gaelic. Smile. Ye are a happy whore who is about to make some coin.”
Although she was not sure how that would make a woman act, Gisele began to pretend that she was more drunk than sober and eager to please the man who stumbled down the street with her. She risked the occasional and very brief glance at Nigel and Duncan, who were acting very drunk indeed, even bursting into raucous song once or twice. The way Duncan tended to bump into people may have been the correct way for a drunk man to behave, but it made her so nervous she had to stop looking at him.
Only once did someone try to stop them. Duncan callously and slyly knocked Nigel face down on the ground when he held his arms wide to greet the curious Frenchman, playing as if his unsteady support was all that had kept Nigel on his feet. Colin held her even closer and played at nuzzling her neck. She could feel his long lashes move against her skin, and knew he was watching the whole confrontation closely. When the Frenchman cursed Duncan as a fool and marched away, Duncan helped Nigel to his feet.
All they had to deal with for the rest of the walk to the ship were a few curses and crude jests. Once on board, Gisele pulled away from Colin. Duncan released Nigel and called to two men to go and get their horses. As the men brushed by her on their way off the boat, she wrapped her arms around herself as she began to tremble slightly. When Nigel suddenly put a hand on her shoulder, she jumped.
“Are ye all right, loving?” he asked softly.
She nodded. “I will sit over there for a moment until I can still the fear that long walk stirred in me.”
“I was nay discourteous to her,” Colin said, “or, I tried not to be. But she was to appear to be a whore.”
Seeing that Gisele had sat down on a thick coil of heavy rope and wrapped herself in her cape, Nigel looked back at an uneasy Colin. “That isnae your doing. She wasnae treated well by her husband or his cousin. She shies from a strange mon’s touch, is all. This may also be because we were so closed in by those who wish to give her back to those bastards. If the DeVeaux get ahold of her, she is a dead woman.”
“Aye,” murmured Duncan as he began to closely watch one young man. “And so are you dead. The men searching that wee village werenae just after the lass. A certain Lord Vachel has been screaming for your head on a pike.”
Before Nigel could say anything Duncan cursed, pulled out his dagger, and threw it. A soft squeal from behind him made Nigel turn around to see where Duncan’s knife had landed. A pockmarked youth was pinned neatly to the railing by Duncan’s knife. It looked to Nigel as if the blade had come very close to the youth’s flesh. He followed Duncan as the man walked over to the youth.
“And where did ye think ye were going, laddie?” Duncan asked the pale, trembling youth as he retrieved his dagger.
“To help Ian and Thomas with the horses?” the young man replied in a quavering voice.
“Nay, I think not. We agreed that we willnae sell one of our own to the French, didnae we? But mayhap ye thought that just meant that ye could gain all of the bounty for yourself.”
“Nay!”
“Ye are a poor liar, William. Robert,” Duncan called to another one of the Scots on board. “Take this greedy child below deck and make sure he doesnae leave your sight until we are far out to sea. Then I will decide if I want to toss him over the side or nay.”
“Many men have been tempted by that bounty,” Nigel said.
“Aye, I ken it. Including me. Dinnae fret, I willnae hurt the boy. But ’twill do him good to sweat with fear for a while.”
Nigel smiled his understanding and moved to Gisele’s side. He sat down and took her hand in his. “Have ye calmed yourself, sweeting?”
She nodded slowly. “Do you think we will actually slip out of this village safely?”
“Aye, I begin to.” He watched the men working around the ship for a moment. “We will be setting sail verra soon. Then we can have about three days of rest, nay looking o’er our shoulders every minute.” Gisele thought that sounded lovely and waited eagerly for that brief taste of freedom from pursuit.
Her delight faded very quickly when the ship finally got under sail. They could still see the coast of France behind them when Gisele discovered that she would never be a sailor.
Shaking after violently emptying her stomach over the rail of the ship, Gisele accepted the dampened cloth Nigel held out to her and washed her face. She clutched it tightly in her hand as, with a shudder, she felt the urge to hang her head over the rail again. She had heard ofmal de mer, and knew that was what ailed her. She just wished she had an idea of how long it might last.
“Pity, lass. Ye are no sailor, are ye?” Nigel patted her on the back. “Weel, not to worry yourself. It will pass once ye have your feet back on steady ground.”
Gisele clung to the rail and decided that she must love Nigel very much, for she was not even trying to push him into the sea.
Twenty-one
Gisele groaned and sat down on a large, damp rock. She knew she was probably ruining her dress, but she did not care. It was undoubtedly in a sad state, anyway, after all it had been through with her in the last few days. Her legs were as unsteady as her stomach, and she did not have the strength to search for a cleaner place to sit down. She thought that they had sailed for three days, but she could not be sure, for she had spent most of that time sicker than she had ever been in her whole life. Not long after they had left France the whole journey had become little more than a wretched nightmare to her. Since the only way to return to France was by ship, she decided that Scotland would make a very good new home.
