brother. He found he’d started praying since he met Moira. He was wary to believe anyone or anything listened to him, but if there was a God and he was a merciful listener, Kyle would beg for divine intervention. His mind filled with images of Moira being battered and bruised all over, just as her arms had been when they met. The bruises had nearly healed by the time Dermot attacked. Now Kyle assumed she was suffering from her brother’s vindictiveness.
The charges against Keith and Kyle interested neither of them, since the list didn’t nearly encompass all that they had done over two decades. But they’d argued that they sailed under the marque of the Earl of Argyll and had the earl’s protection to conduct business on his behalf. The gaoler laughed as he reminded the twins they were in Ireland, not Scotland. Despite maritime law saying officials should accept their marque, their notorious reputation superseded any legitimacy the Earl of Argyll might have lent them.
So the brothers sat in the dark waiting for morning and their arraignment. They didn’t doubt the gaoler and harbormaster would be foolish enough to allow Kyle and Keith outside as they moved them to see the magistrate. Tomas and Kyle’s crew would already know the route and would lie in wait. It was the same routine each time authorities captured either or both of the brothers. They’d escaped more times than they would recall. But it confirmed why they loathed coming ashore anywhere in the British Isles except for the tiny island of Canna, where they stored their bounty.
And so, the brothers waited for morning to arrive. There was nothing to say, since they didn’t want anyone to overhear them. They had a cell to themselves, but they knew there was a jailer posted outside their door. Kyle and Keith had made the pretense of fighting when their captors stripped them of their weapons, but both men carried weapons in places the gaoler hadn’t thought to search. If all went to plan and if history repeated itself, Tomas would slip into the jail’s armory and retrieve their swords and knives while Kyle and Keith were being transported.
A key rattling in the door signaled to Keith and Kyle that the time for them to see the justice of the peace drew near. The sun had already risen, making dust motes dance in the air within the cell. The brothers looked at one another and grinned, but by the time the door opened, they’d turned their good cheer into mutinous glares that made the jailer pause. Four men stood behind the one with the key. That was half the men present when they were arrested. Not daring to look at one another lest someone think it was a signal, Kyle and Keith filed out of the cell without argument. As they always did, they appeared resigned to being caught. With heads down and eyes cast to the floor, the twins lulled their captors into a sense of overconfidence.
Kyle breathed in the fresh breeze, the tangy salt air burning his nostrils. He felt at peace knowing the sea was nearby, and he was no longer encaged. As the gaoler and his men led Kyle and his brother to the magistrate’s office, Kyle kept his head down, but his eyes scanned their surroundings. He expected Snake Eye to create the usual distraction, pretending to be drunk and barreling into at least one jailer. But as they drew closer to the justice of the peace’s office, and nothing happened, Kyle spared Keith a glance. The look of confusion and disquiet that met him matched his. Something was very wrong. The only reason his men wouldn’t come to his aid was if they feared more for Moira than they did him. His heart pounded as he looked back at Keith, knowing his brother thought the same thing.
With a roar, the twins fought against their captors, swinging manacled fists and kicking. They’d often jested about gaolers’ stupidity when they shackled the men’s wrists in front of them. It only gave prisoners a weapon. While they felled the men with them, neither pirate realized how close they’d come to the magistrate’s office. More guards ran toward the fight, each armed with a club. The brothers exchanged a look of annoyance before each received a blow to the head.
Moira dozed but woke several times throughout the night. She’d heard her brother’s voice coming from the floor below as he bellowed and sang. She