Senga and Bluebell skidded to a halt in the great courtyard in front of the convent. Her jaw slackened.
There were Dickson soldiers in front of the convent, but they were… they wereretreating?
As she watched, a pair of nuns appeared at one of the larger windows, holding a steaming vat between them. No, not apairof nuns. One woman was a nun, and the other, of course, was Kyla. They painstakingly tipped it, and a torrent of boiling water came surging down onto a group of soldiers who were trying to pick up the battering ram again.
The battering ram, she noticed, was studded with arrows. Sister Rosemary appeared in another window, red-faced with fury, and aimed an arrow out of the window.
“The Abbess said that vengeance belonged to God, but He’s not here and neither is she, so try this one on for size, ye wee bastards!” she screamed, and loosed the arrow.
It hit one man directly in the meat of his buttock. Hardly a killing blow, but certainly a painful one. He gave a squawk, jumping several feet into the air.
Sister Rosemary hastily nocked another arrow, breathing heavily, but paused when she saw Senga.
“Laird Dickson demanded the Abbess in exchange for our freedom,” she called. “Took her up onto that hill and went back on his word. Hurry, I imagine he’ll kill her if he can.”
“Right,” Senga managed, swallowing hard.
Sister Rosemary scowled. “What are ye looking at me like that for? I wasn’t always a nun.”
There was no arguing with that, so Senga hurried away.
She left Bluebell at the bottom of the hill and crawled upwards as quietly as she could manage. Voices drifted to her ears, and she flinched when she heard Struan’s voice. A few more feet, and Senga was able to crouch behind a rock and watch what was going on.
The Abbess stood in the middle of the clearing, very still and calm, hands tucked neatly into her sleeves. Laird Dickson stood behind her, eyes bulging out of his head, and watched his guards fight Struan and Una.
Senga guessed that Struan and Una had run on ahead, hurrying to save the Abbess. Reinforcements were coming, buthow quickly would they arrive? Noah would come with his soldiers, but they would attack the men in front of the convent and not come directly up here.
“I thought I taught ye better, lad,” Laird Dickson snapped, his gaze fixing on his son. “Fighting alongside a woman… disgraceful.”
“Don’t even speak of her,” Struan snarled, shoving away a Dickson soldier.
The man crumpled to the ground, dead. They were cutting through Laird Dickson’s guards at a quick rate, something that the laird clearly noticed himself. He shifted, swallowing uncomfortably.
“Don’t listen to him,” Una gasped, sharply bringing down her blade to behead a man. “He’s just trying to distract ye. Weren’t ye the one who taught me not to let feelings get the best of me?”
Struan gave a quick, tight-lipped smile. He took on two men at once, neatly cutting the throat of one man and thrusting his blade through the breastbone of the other.
No more left,Senga thought.There’s nothing between Struan and his father now.
She rose slowly to her feet, showing herself to the Abbess. The woman caught her eye and gave a smile and a nod. The warmth of her approval settled in Senga’s heart.
“Ye must surrender, Father,” Struan managed, pointing his sword towards him. “I don’t want to see ye dead, no matter what ye have done. I can save ye. I can! Ye don’t need to die, ye don’t need to be humiliated. But it’s over; you must see that now. This must end.”
Laird Dickson bared his teeth in a macabre smile. “Have ye learned so little from me? For shame, lad. For shame. Ye think ye can take my place? Ye don’t think that yer sister and that wee bastard in her womb won’t fight ye to be laird?”
Struan shook his head. “Ye cannot come between me and Kyla. Ye tried before, and it did not work, and it’ll not work now. Give up, please. Let’s make this easy.”
A sense of unease coiled in Senga’s gut. She did not imagine for one moment that Laird Dickson would give up, so the only question that remained was how he would choose to lash out.
Struan crept closer and closer, his eyes trained on his father. Una, however, hung back, every line of her body tense. She met Senga’s gaze briefly but did not hold it, preferring instead to fix her eyes on Laird Dickson.
Senga could hear shouts from below and guessed that Noah and his soldiers must have arrived, driving off the rest of the Dicksons from the convent. With any luck, Kyla would be safe inside. Brendan, Thomas, and Kai would still be embroiled in the battle, and she hoped with all of her heart that they were still alive.
“Ye taught me to wield a sword,” Struan stated at last, leveling his sword at Laird Dickson. “Do ye think ye can take it from me now?”
Laird Dickson stared at the sword, then up at his son. In that moment, Senga saw a tired old man, realizing that his life had crumbled around him and that he had nothing,nothingleft.
“Nay,” he said at last, his voice cracking. “I don’t. But ye have not learned from me. Ye should have killed me, son.”
