The Wicked Ways of Alexander Kidd (The MacGregors: Highland Heirs) by Paula Quinn Page B

someone to stand in stead fer me, boy. Don’t let the absence of me eye fool ya.”
    Kyle smiled, looking pleased to hear it. Trina knew the first mate had just earned her cousin’s respect. There were men in Camlochlin who fought with less than two eyes.
    “After supper then?” Kyle put to him.
    “Will yar mother be with ya?” Bonnet asked him. “If I damage ya, will she come at me with her little dagger again?” He held his hand up to show her a small scratch and she remembered him reaching for her and her slicing at him. She realized that getting off on the wrong foot with these men wasn’t her best course of action.Especially if they were going to be traveling together to France.
    “I apologize fer—”
    “After supper then, MacGregor,” Mr. Bonnet cut her off and winked his eye at Kyle. “Bring her.”
    Trina bristled in her spot but said nothing. Ruffians. Miscreants. Black-hearted—
    “Mr. Bonnet,” the captain interrupted her string of silent insults. “Have the men see to Jacques in the hall. He attacked Miss Grant on her way here. Prepare him fer me when he wakes, aye?”
    Immediately, Kyle stepped forward and clutched her elbow. “Someone attacked ye? Are ye hurt?” Without giving her a chance to answer, he turned his attention and anger to the captain. “We haven’t been here a full day and she has already been attacked? I wish to see the man who touched her.”
    The captain eyed him coolly and shook his head. “This is me ship, Highlander, and while ya’re aboard ya’ll obey me commands. I will deal with me men. If ya take issue with that, ya can leave today and swim back to Scotland.”
    “The Cap’n’s fair, MacGregor,” one of the men called on his way out the door with a few others to see to her attacker. “Jacques will be punished.”
    Kyle didn’t look convinced, so Trina pinched him.
    She caught the captain’s brief glance beneath the brim of his hat. She was glad he’d gotten it back—glad that he was there to help her a moment ago.
    “How do ya intend to pay fer the gold in yar ear?” he asked, returning his attention to Kyle.
    “By swabbing the decks every day until ye bring us to…?” Kyle waited for the captain’s reply.
    “France.”
    Her cousin looked at her and smiled, his good mood restored. She wanted to punch him. So what if it was where she had wanted to go in the first place? She didn’t want to go there now. Her grandsire would probably lock her up for stowing away on a pirate ship.
    “The hoop’s a loan, Cap’n,” Mr. Bonnet pointed out. “He’s been pukin’ since he got here. We thought it might help.”
    The captain nodded, then looked around and called out to a tall blond man in the back of the quarters. “Gustaaf, fer returnin’ me hat, ya’ll take a half of me next share.”
    “I know how ye fancy that hat, Captain,” the hulking, leathery-skinned sailor pointed out. “But you’re too generous.”
    “Nonsense.” The captain snatched Trina’s hand and pulled her toward the door. “Don’t argue.”
    Trina wasn’t sure if he was speaking to Gustaaf or to her.
    “Where are ye taking me?” she asked, careful not to struggle, lest Kyle feel the need to come to her rescue. It seemed her cousin didn’t care that he was aboard a ship filled with pirates. He would still be a knight.
    “Away from hungry gazes. Really, Miss Grant, how do ya manage to remain ignorant to the dangers of men?”
    “Men were no danger to me in Camlochlin.”
    He turned to look at her, reminding her by the way his eyes traced the contours of her face that he was the most dangerous man of all. “Well, ya’re not in Camlochlin. And while ya’re on me ship, ya’ll use more caution.”
    He was correct. The men did peer at her like they had just seen a succulent doe traipsing into their den. But if he were going to dump them in France, she wouldn’t have to use caution much longer. Now that her kin would knowshe was safe, she wished she could travel a bit