“Aye,” Ian answered. He turned to his brother. “Set to leave in a week’s time, was it?”
Alasdair nodded, scowling down into his own cup before taking a flask from within an inner pocket of his coat and sweetening the tea with whisky. “One hundred at least.” After shoving the flask back into his coat, he turned to Duncan and Sutherland. “How many in Campbell’s entourage?”
“Near seventy,” Father William said without being asked. He held out his cup and nodded toward Alasdair’s coat. “A tithe of youruisge beathais most appreciated, my son.”
Alasdair held out the flask to the priest as he turned to Alexander. “At least one hundred and seventy then all told.”
“All armed and bringing a pair of cannons,” Sutherland added.
“All toTor Ruadh?” Catriona asked, accepting the cup of tea from Magnus with a polite nod then wrinkling her nose as she caught a whiff of the contents.
Alexander pulled in a deep breath and released it. “Aye, love. All toTor Ruadh.” He shifted and let his gaze settle on the horses. The Neal horses and a safe stronghold in the Highlands. Renowned for their avarice and preening to play to the crown in hopes of favors, the Campbells wouldna hesitate to kill each other for such an opportunity.
“How can I save my people against such odds?” Catriona whispered with a sad shake of her head as she sank to sit on a nearby boulder.
Calum was no longer the sole nemesis of her people. Alexander went to her side and touched a hand to her shoulder. “I ken ye wish to save your clan for your father’s memory but—”
“My father can burn in Hell. I do this for my mother. Clan Neal looked to her for guidance and as much protection as she could offer them from her monster of a husband. Upon her death, I swore I’d take her place as their protector and guardian and I mean to keep my word.”
Catriona’s passion wasna restricted to the marriage bed. Alexander stared down into her eyes, green as a Highland hillside in the summer. The determination and fire he saw in their depths disturbed him no small amount, twisting his heart and adding to the weight of the guilt he already bore because of Glencoe. They were naught but a few hiding on a mountain. Stealth and sly tactics had served them well in the past but they’d never fought against so many and there was no’ the time to find allies to fight at their side. He blew out a heavy sigh and gave a slow shake of his head. How could they manage this?
“Dinna shake your head at me as though I’m a foolish child greetin’ after something I canna have.” Catriona jerked away from his touch, rose from her seat, and moved an arm’s length away. “There has to be something I can do to stop this.”
She kept speaking as though she were alone in this world and that grated on him no small amount. “Ye canna stop this alone, Catriona, and might I remind ye, ye are my wife now. Ye are never alone in anything ever again.”
Catriona stared at the group of men as though seeing them with new eyes and finding them unbelievably naïve. “The lot of ye canna help. If ye return toTor Ruadhwith me, ye’ll surely hang as traitors.” She motioned toward the south. “Ye must leave the mountain.” She pinned Alexander with a pleading expression. “Go to Islay. Wait for me there, aye?”
“Ye have lost your mind if ye think I’ll be leaving ye to face this battle alone.” Alexander pulled her to him and snugged her up against his side while pointing at his silent, wide-eyed men fidgeting with a growing uneasiness around the fire. “We’ve faced tall odds before and lived to tell the tale. Have we no’ done so, lads?”
Graham grimaced then tilted his head to one side like a dog listening to its master. Magnus shrugged. Duncan and Sutherland looked at each other with brows raised and Alasdair and Ian fixed him with a dubious glare. No one answered.
Sawny jumped down from his perch upon a boulder and strode to Catriona’s side. “I’ll fight beside ye, m’lady. To the death, I will.”
Stumbling over his own large feet, gangly Tom joined his friend. “Me, t-too, m’lady. I f-figure me and Sawny can help what wif all the secrets we ken about the k-keep. There’s no’ a passage or hidey-hole we havena explored.”
Catriona gave the boys a trembling smile as she took hold of each of their hands then embarrassed them with a fierce hug. “Ye’re my fine boys,” she said. “Fine boys, indeed.”
Alexander looked to his shame-faced men and the priest. “I know the lot of ye have the courage of these two boys. Are ye willing to at least sort out a battle tactic and do this?”
Ian rose to his feet. “The king’s regiment willna reach Clan Neal for several days. How close are Campbell and his men?”
Sutherland stood, eyes narrowing as he spoke. “I’d say tomorrow. Next day or maybe even a day after that if the weather shifts and troubles them with a spring storm or two. The cannons are heavy and their wagons dinna take well to the muddy passes.”
Alexander turned to Catriona. “How manyloyalmen does your brother have? Men who dinna serve him merely because they fear him?” If they could convince the people that loved Catriona to face their fears and fight, they’d stand a better chance at saving them.
“I canna say for certain.” Catriona fixed him with a broken-hearted, frustrated glare. “Would ye make me a widow so soon? Please go and wait for me in Islay.”
“We either fight for your people or we, as in yourself and I, travel to Islay to start life anew together. Which will it be, wife? Ye’ve no other choices.” Alexander hated to speak so harshly but Catriona had to face the truth. If she returned to Clan Neal’s keep alone, with no more than a pair of twelve-year-olds at her side, not only would she fail in her quest, Alexander felt sure that Calum would kill them all. “Need I remind ye that none of your people kept Calum from imprisoning ye? What do ye truly hope to accomplish alone?” She was being foolish, lying to herself, but he wouldna shame her by saying so in front his men. He lifted his chin and folded his arms across his chest, tensing as he awaited her decision.
She set her jaw and stared down at the ground, hands fisted at her sides. Alexander could plainly see she knew he was right and hated it. She finally looked up, fixing an irritated glare first on the boys, then shifting it to Alexander. “Fine,” she bit out the word, then her clenched jaw softened a bit. “At least if we die, we die together.”
Alexander wanted to smile but for the sake of Catriona’s pride, he refrained from doing so. He nodded to Sawny. “Catriona told me how the two of ye got her out. Pray tell me there’s a better way to spirit us all in other than the privy chute.”
Sawny and Tom scowled at each other as though silently communicating their thoughts. “Ye think the caves?” Sawny asked Tom.
Tom paused and looked at each of the men and the priest, all of whom were now standing around them. He gave Sawny a thoughtful nod. “Aye. Through the c-cave and int-to the stable, then get them to the r-root cellar, ye th-think?”
“The root cellar?” Alexander didna like the sound of that. How the hell would a hole in the ground under the kitchens get them into the rest of the keep?
