The Red Drifter of the Sea (Pirates of the Isles #3) - Celeste Barclay Page 0,87

woman without objection and remained silent as she stripped. The woman looked at her with pity, but Moira wasn’t interested. She’d spotted the window that hung over the street below. She also noticed the bedsheets were clean. She might not have to go naked after all. She handed her filthy leine and leggings to the woman. When the woman looked at Moira’s boots, Moira gave her a mulish pout.

“He said clothes. He said nothing about my shoes. They stay,” Moira asserted.

“And if he beats me?”

“Then your husband is worthless if he doesn’t defend you,” Moira snapped.

“Like your pirate lover? Where is he?” The tavern keeper’s wife mocked.

“On his way. If your husband wants to keep the extra pouch of coin the Red Drifter offered, you’d both do well to make sure I’m safe and sound when he arrives,” Moira pointed out.

The woman sucked in her cheeks and puckered her lips like she’d eaten a lemon, but she gave her head a jerky nod. She backed out of the chamber, and Moira heard the key turn in the lock. She wasted no time running across the room and stripping off the sheet. She wrapped it around her shoulders and clutched it closed before she went to the window. She tried to open it, but it was sealed shut. She pounded on the glass until Tomas looked up at her. She waved to him. She pointed to the window frame and shook her head. Tomas frowned, but she knew it was from disappointment, not misunderstanding.

Moira stayed at the window, watching people pass beneath her. Tomas remained, but he crossed the street to hide in the shadows where he could see Moira. She watched as men she recognized from the Lady Charity materialized from around The Leg of Mutton and set off on foot. She prayed they were going to find Kyle. But as hours passed, and neither Kyle nor Keith appeared, Moira’s mind leapt from one horrible scenario to another. She’d arrived in Wicklow early in the morning, been captured before midmorning, and saw no one until that evening when the tavern keeper’s wife dumped a tray on the table. She scowled at Moira but didn’t seem to notice the bedding laid over the bed untucked. Moira didn’t want to alert the woman that she’d covered up. She feared the woman would tell Dónal out of spite. So she stood before the woman, naked and haughty. While she didn’t feel like her body was anything to make the woman jealous, her feigned diffidence gave her confidence.

Too hungry to care if she was being drugged, Moira inhaled her food. It made her stomach ache, but at least she was full. She returned to the window, but the setting sun made it difficult to see anything beyond the street below. Tomas remained on sentry, but she sensed his tension. He shifted from one foot to another more frequently, and he peered toward the dock every few minutes. When he glanced up at Moira, she could tell the man’s usually jovial smile was forced. As the darkness of night settled in, Moira feared some fate worse than her own had befallen Kyle.

Twenty-Seven

Kyle sat with his legs pulled up before him, his hands dangling over his knees, and his head back against the wall. Keith sat across the cell in the same position. Neither had spoken since the harbormaster’s men dragged them to gaol. They’d met behind a cobbler’s building during the early afternoon to compare their observations and findings. As they stepped from the shadows to return to The Leg of Mutton, men seized them. Outnumbered and not willing to die, the twins followed the commands and wound up in prison. They’d communicated with looks only twins could interpret until the door swung shut, enclosing them in darkness. There was a small window cut at the top of the wall. Since light no longer filtered in, the brothers knew it was night and therefore well past when they were supposed to rendezvous with Kyle’s men. Neither doubted word spread throughout the town that the authorities had captured the twin pirate captains. It was just a matter of time until Tomas and the others heard.

Kyle feared not for his future. He didn’t expect to spend long in jail, but he feared for what was happening to Moira. He’d heard about a woman seen running along the docks, but a group of men said to be MacDonnells stopped her. Kyle knew Moira was now back with her