“Will you be comfortable here? Mayhap Laurel and Rick should come to our chamber. I don’t like the idea that you’ll be sitting for hours. That’s what I’ll do.” Dominic talked more to himself than he did Emelie. His mind could focus on little more than how to keep Emelie safe and comfortable. He scooped her back into his arms, not hearing her protests. He tucked her back into bed, even as she insisted that she would be fine in the solar. She didn’t want to inconvenience Laurel, even if Dominic were correct that it would be safer to remain in bed. “I’ll let Laurel and Brodie know that you’re sheltering in here. They’ll understand, and Laurel will likely appreciate having a bed to lay Rick on when he naps.”
“Thank you, Dom.” As Dominic’s eyes met Emelie’s, he knew she was thanking him for far more than thinking about her comfort that morning.
“There’s naught I wouldn’t do for you and our family, sparrow.” Dominic pressed a kiss to her lips, but it was over far too soon. He ducked out of the chamber to find his brother and sister-by-marriage, and to summon the guards to their new post. Laurel arrived with her infant son, who slept soundly bound to Laurel’s chest with a length of plaid. She stood whispering with Brodie when he arrived with Dominic. It wasn’t the first time Laurel said goodbye to Brodie before battle, but Emelie intuited it hadn’t grown any easier with experience. She doubted it would ever get easier for her.
“Wolf, I know you can’t promise to come home to me, but promise me you will do everything you can. You don’t have to win this war alone,” Emelie beseeched.
“Brodie and I will do what we’ve done since I was auld enough to ride out with him. We will fight back-to-back, guarding one another. We have the advantage that this is our home. There’s isn’t a spot that we don’t know as well as our own hand. I am coming back up here to you. And I am going to hold you tonight and make love to you. I’m going to do that every night for a long time to come,” Dominic pledged. Emelie could only nod, the lump in her throat too large to speak. “I need you to promise that no matter what, you do not open that door to anyone but Brodie or me. It doesn’t matter what you hear in the passageway. Short of the keep being on fire, you remain here with your guards. There is no safer place for you.”
“I promise,” Emelie whispered as she rose to her knees on the bed. She wrapped her arms around Dominic’s neck, resting her head on his chest as she’d done so many times since they met in the garden. Just as his presence calmed her the day her world fell apart, so did he give her strength now. Their kiss was poignant, a promise of more to come, but there was a note of farewell. “I love you, wolf.”
“Nearly as much as I love you, sparrow.”
“Don’t jest. I love you with everything I am, everything I have. I need you to know that,” Emelie insisted.
“I do. You fill my heart and my mind. I am going to protect you, Em. I’m going to end this today. God has ordained our family, and no mon will put it asunder.” With a final embrace and kiss, Dominic walked to the door and waited for Brodie. The brothers left the chamber, walking shoulder to shoulder to the bailey.
Twenty
“Stay beside me, little brother,” Brodie instructed. It was the same thing he’d always said before he and Dominic rode or marched into battle. Brodie had fought back-to-back many times with Graham when he was alive. But he’d fought at Dominic’s back just as many.
“Keep up, auld mon,” Dominic jested, his habitual reply. “Your wife will take my bollocks if aught happens to you.”
The last battle the brothers fought together had taken place just beyond the barmekin wall. It had been brief and fierce, but the Campbells won the day. However, Dominic would regret to his last breath that he prioritized Colina over his duty to his clan and Brodie. He’d ridden off the battlefield to reassure Colina he survived. It had put what he once feared was an irreparable rift between him and Brodie. He glanced at his brother.
“I won’t leave until it’s done,” Dominic promised.
“I ken, Dom. It’s nae the same,” Brodie said, his voice laden with emotion. “Dinna fash. I trust ye as I always have.” Brodie wrapped his hand around the back of Dominic’s head and brought their foreheads together.
“I love ye, brother,” Dominic whispered, just as emotional as Brodie. They’d always made time to tell one another that before battle. Their mother had insisted, despite how their father had scoffed and mocked them.
“I love ye,” Brodie replied. The men gathered their targes from the armory, moving now in silence as the sky lightened and the hour moved toward dawn. Brodie had met with his captains after their conversation with Alec ended and Dominic returned Emelie to bed. Dominic learned Brodie and Laurel remained discussing the plan for a while before Laurel retired to bed. He’d shared further details he devised with much input from Laurel. She was the greatest strategist any of them knew, and her plan had won them the last battle.
Dominic strained to make out the men on the wall walk. He recognized Alec, who stood looking out toward the river. He was to watch for the signal Simon told him the Pringles would use as the sun rose, but the stars remained. When it came, Alec was to slip down to the postern gate. His movement would be the alert to the Campbells. The clan warriors were tucked away in the shadows of the outbuildings and the keep. Dominic knew the villagers had arrived while he was settling Emelie. They were hidden in storerooms inside the keep and below ground in the storage buildings. As much as he wished to go up to the battlements to check the village, they could not afford anyone recognizing him. It would ruin their ruse.
The minutes dragged as everyone waited, alert and tense. Dominic could still see Alec from where Dominic waited at the corner of the keep, Brodie to Dominic’s left. They would lead the offensive against the unsuspecting Pringles. When Dominic and Brodie emerged from the shadows, their warriors would attack. Their goal was to take the Pringles off guard. Dominic closed his eyes and said a hurried prayer. When he opened them, Alec was no longer in his spot on the wall walk. Dominic’s gaze jumped to the stairs, finding Alec rushing down them. While Dominic was certain Alec couldn’t see him or Brodie, the senior warrior nodded in their direction.
The guard beside the postern gate sprawled on the ground, pretending to be knocked unconscious. He would seal the postern gate behind the last Pringle and join the fight from the rear, alongside men who hid behind barrels now placed near the retaining wall. Alec glanced around once more, then eased the portal open. A man fitting Simon’s description stepped inside the bailey, his gaze sweeping across his surroundings. In the otherwise silent night, Alec’s voice carried bits and pieces of what he told Simon.
“They rode west this morn. They’re taking the birlinn when they are across from the island. They didna want ye seeing them go by boat again,” Alec explained, just as he’d been instructed. “Be quick, lest the men above sound the alarm before ye are all inside.”
Alec backed away with haste, not trusting Simon to leave him alive after his supposed treachery. Simon nodded before pushing the gate open wider. Three more men stepped through, and Dominic was certain he looked at all four Pringle brothers: Henry, Simon, Harrold, and Oliver. He wondered for a moment what their father believed his sons were off doing with all four away from Hoppringle. He wondered if Laird Pringle sanctioned Henry’s attempts to get Emelie to leave Kilchurn. He would fight his way to Henry, everyone knowing he reserved the right to end their nemesis’s life and to exact justice for his wife.
Brodie nudged his arm as the last Pringle entered. They watched the guardsman in repose ease to his feet and slide along the wall to lock the hatch. With the front and rear gates sealed, the Pringles were now caught in the Campbells’ net. The Campbells waited patiently as the Pringles crept forward, spreading out toward the barracks and the keep. When Henry was nearly to Dominic, the latter stepped out of the shadows.
“Ye’ve got bollocks. I’ll give ye that, since ye have nay sense,” Dominic greeted Henry.
“And you have a whore for a wife, heathen,” Henry smirked.
“Yet ye sneak into a Highlander’s home and think to leave here alive. Like I said, ye have nay sense.” Dominic stressed his brogue, rolling his letters and deepening his voice. He would posture and distract just long enough for the other Pringles to move within easy reach of his men. It only took a moment. Henry opened his mouth to retort, but Dominic released a piercing birdcall. Henry twisted to see who Dominic whistled to and froze with shock as Campbells poured out of every shadow and building in the bailey. “How do ye nae ken we’re one of the largest clans in the Highlands? Daft sod.”
Dominic ran toward Henry, his sword raised and ready to engage. Brodie burst from the shadows, maneuvering himself to protect Dominic’s back as two Pringle brothers swerved to come fight beside Henry. Two Campbell warriors approached, but Dominic shook his head. They turned to find other opponents. The imminent fight was too personal to Dominic to let anyone else join him, and he didn’t trust Henry not to reveal Emelie’s secret when he undoubtedly would want to taunt Dominic. Launching an offense, Dominic and Brodie angled themselves to take on the three Lowlanders.
“She spread her legs without me even asking. Wet for me before I could even stuff her with my cock,” Henry jeered. Dominic said nothing. “She begged like a two-pence whore.”
Dominic feinted to the left but brought his sword down and slashed across Henry’s legs. Henry wobbled before his legs buckled, blood gushing from the deep laceration. Dominic’s grin held only malice. “I will bring ye to yer knees.”
Dominic didn’t wait for Henry’s response. He thrust his sword into Henry’s groin, eliciting a howl of pain. “Ye should have kept yer wee stick in yer breeks. Can ye imagine her surprise when she learned it should last longer than a sneeze?”
