“Fight me?Does he walk on water?I knew Conall when we were boys.He was foolhardy then and from the sound of it, he hasna changed.”
Stunned, Lisette could only stare at him while Isabeau rushed up between them, brandishing the soaking wet cloak that she had wrested away from her husband.
Euan stormed after her, but he stopped dead when the raider cast him a forbidding look that made his face turn pale.
“Stay where you are, MacCulloch, while I see this treasure that you wish tae share with me.”The raider grabbed the cloak from Isabeau, who seemed ready to protest until he scowled at her so fiercely that she snapped her mouth shut.
A knife pulled from his belt flashed in the sunlight and then he ripped into the hem of the garment.
The rending sound followed by a dull pelting upon the deck, Lisette’s eyes widening at the glittering stones lying there while Isabeau gave a triumphant laugh.
“My jewels at last!My mother told me they belonged to a sultan in the Holy Land—rubies, emeralds, and sapphires!Spoils of war from the Crusades—”
“Nowmine, Lady MacCulloch.Did you truly think that bargaining with a man called the devil of the seas would bring you the outcome you desired?”
Isabeau’s mouth had dropped open and she sputtered to find words while Euan gaped at him, his face flushing with fury.
Devil of the seas.
Lisette gaped, too, astonished that the jewels had been sewn into the cloak that she’d worn all along without knowing.
What was to become of her and Colin with so ruthless a man holding their lives in his hands?The boy’s sobs had quieted to a soft hiccoughing, but he shivered still and his lips were bluish—God help them!
She glanced again toward the shore, her heart sinking when she didn’t see Conall among the warriors crowding the beach.
Their horses whinnied shrilly as some of the men urged them into the crashing waves—only to turn back when the skittish animals bucked and reared.
“Fools!”grated the raider.“If they have no ship, then there will be no fight.”
“I will fight you!”Euan rushed at the man as if by sheer force he could knock him down, but the raider sidestepped him and Euan went crashing onto the deck.Yet instead of trying to get up, he scrambled on hands and knees to gather as many of the jewels as he could while Isabeau shrieked and fell to her knees beside him.
“No!They’re mine!Give them to me—give them to me!”
Everything happened so fast, Isabeau reaching up to knock the knife from the raider’s hand and grab the weapon to plunge it into Euan’s neck—her husband collapsing onto the deck.
His arms and legs twitching convulsively as blood streamed from the wound and pooled beneath him.
A terrible rasping noise breaking from his throat as Euan gave one last shudder and then lay still, dead.
Staring in horror, Lisette scooped up Colin as Isabeau lunged to her feet, her dark eyes narrowed.
“You’re the one to blame for this misery—I hate you!Hate you!”
The raider reached out to catch her arm, but he was too late, Isabeau crashing into Lisette and trying to push her overboard.
Colin wailing in terror.Lisette twisting to one side and holding desperately onto the railing as another shrill shriek rent the air.
Isabeau hoisted up bodily by the raider and pitched into the sea.
Lisette felt herself pulled safely away from the railing even as her half-sister flailed her arms and screamed for help.
Screamed that she couldn’t swim.
Screamed in vain as the raider brandished his sword as if daring anyone to make a move.
Isabeau choking and sputtering and sinking beneath the waves until only her clawlike hands could be seen…and then they, too, disappeared.
With a vehement curse, the raider swept up the cloak and threw it into the sea where Isabeau had been only a moment before.Then he drew Lisette, weeping from the horror of it all, further away from the railing.
