Page 96 of The Pirate Queen

Lynch’s Castle she did not love at all. It looked like a block of English stone dropped into Galway as a kind of warning. They wandered away from it quickly and soon she was distracted again, and hungry too. Meat pies with flaky crust for lunch. And ale as well, which left her feeling lightheaded and heavy-footed. Donal promised not to tell Eóin that she drank the whole tankard.

Grace bought a flower from a dirty child on the street corner, tucking it behind her ear as they made their way back to the harbor.

She felt utterly free.

For an afternoon.

Then they’d boarded Niamh again. Now they are only a few hours from home, sailing fast with a brisk wind and an empty cargo hold. Grace slept fitfully in the cabin by herself as Donal was given the night watch. So she sits in the bow, her heavy eyes closed, feeling the sun burn a path along the part in her hair.

Her eyes snap open when she hears the watchman call out.

“Ship ahoy!”

A dark vessel with lateen sails creeps along the northern horizon. It is roughly the same size as Niamh, but taller, less agile. Grace has never seen a ship like that, so she finds her father. He’s standing on the cabin deck, shading his eyes with one hand.

“What is it?” Grace asks.

“A caravel.”

“Spanish? I would love to see a caravel up close.” She braves a sideways glance at her father. Decides that he is distracted enough to press an old issue. “I would love to go to Spain.”

“One day.”

“You keep saying that, but you never take me.”

“It isn’t time, bird.”

“When?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Will you promise?” she asks.

Eóin turns to her, startled, as if he has only now realized they’ve been speaking. “Promise what?”

“That you will take me to Spain.”

“Yes, yes. Fine,” he says, then turns back to the distant ship.

“Will you do it before you send me away?”

“How—”

“I heard you and Mam arguing about fosterage again. She thinks you’ve waited too long.”

“I have. For Donal, but not for you, bird.”

“She says other chieftains send their children as young as eight. Why haven’t you sent us?”

His response startles her. “Because I will miss you when you’re gone. Both you and Donal.”

Grace doesn’t know what to say. And when she looks up at her father, she sees that he has lost the thread of this conversation again, focused on that other ship.

“Sivney?” he asks.

His first mate is at the tiller. “Captain?”

“All ahead full. I would like to get a better look at that caravel. They’re low in the water, so they’ll be having a full cargo hold. It shouldn’t take long.”