Page 58 of Maggie and the Pirate’s Son

“Well… they’re good for learning to fight. But if you had sisters, you probably learned just as good as if you had brothers.”

She shook her head, and his eyes widened in surprise.

“No one would knock you down faster, but if anyone else tried it, there’d be blood.”

“Sounds like my cousins. Lion, Logan, Lennox, and Lodie. Suppose you’d fit right in with them, Levi Langley.”

Langley found the whole thing especially hilarious and slapped Maggie repeatedly on the arm to emphasize it as he laughed. “Cor, we start counting cousins, we’ll never finish!”

“Do you ever think about what comes next?” she asked him.

“If that poxy Walsh’d had the captain’s bounty, you mean?”

“Aye.”

Langley leaned back against the bulkhead, his chin tilted up in thought. “Like to go back to Hull and set me oldest sister, Annie, up proper so she never has to wash another frock or stocking again, including her own.”

Maggie couldn’t help grinning at such a selfless dream from the young pirate. The riches of the world, and he wanted to look after his sister.

“Sure the others must have half a dozen brats apiece by now. Someone ought to look after Annie.”

“She’s lucky to have you.”

He snorted but preened a little. “Mind telling her that?”

“I’ll drop a message in a bottle.”

“Probably reach Yorkshire before I do.” He said it with a laugh, but she couldn’t help wondering what would become of them all.

“So did Red Coats steal your sheep or something?” he asked, with none of his usual cheek.

“No.” Maggie shook her head. “But they turned clan against clan. Without them, I don’t think Simon Fraser would have ever marched on Inverness, forcing entire families to flee their homes. I was only little. What I remember most is that I didn’t really understand.”

“Did they burn your houses down?” Langley asked, setting down his half-eaten breakfast to listen to her tale.

Maggie shook her head again. “We got lucky. Twice. We had somewhere safe to go until the Rising was all over with. But they quartered soldiers in our house while we were gone. I’ll always swear they stole my favorite doll.”

Langley burst out laughing at that, and Maggie realized her mistake. Her face heated furiously as she tried to stammer an excuse.

“You must have had sisters, besides all them boy cousins,” Langley cackled. “Did they make you play with the ugliest one?”

“Exactly,” she agreed. “Every single time. It wasn’t fair.”

Langley collapsed in another fit of laughter, and Maggie smiled, her heart starting to beat again because mentioning the doll didn’t seem to have given her away.

“You two scallawags are just about loud enough to wake the dead,” Dutch said, stepping into the infirmary, but there was no anger in his voice.

“Seemed like the thing to do,” Langley giggled. “To make sure Nav stayed with us.”

“How’s he doing?” Dutch asked, stepping close enough to see for himself, but looking to Maggie for confirmation.

“His fever hasn’t broken yet,” she admitted, praying he wasn’t here to say her time was up. “But he’s easier than he was, and the ear doesn’t look any worse.”

“No,” the quartermaster agreed. “I dare say it looks better.”

She exhaled in relief, tears springing to her eyes, and she bit her lip and nodded her own agreement.

Dutch studied her intently. “Keep up the good work, Magnus.”