Gaultier chuckled, then prodded him to leave the mill, the tip of his blade at Bartholomew’s back.
“My maid!” Marie protested.
“Someone will fetch her,” the Captain of the Guard said with indifference. “Hasten yourself back to the keep, my lady, if you mean to survive this day.”
“I would take his counsel,” Bartholomew added and Gaultier struck him in the back of the head.
“You may give your opinion when you are asked for it,” he snarled and Marie seized the opportunity to flee.
*
Anna flung herself down into the snow beside Duncan.
The older man spared her a glance. “He follows your scheme, though I counseled against it. Did you come to see the outcome?”
“I came to help.” She watched as Bartholomew stepped into the mill and heard Duncan begin to count beneath his breath. He lifted his bow and aimed it toward the old keep. Anna saw a man loitering there.
She loaded her own crossbow.
“I will not miss,” Duncan said tightly.
“You cannot hit three,” Anna replied.
“There is no one else in the clearing.”
“Save the two goatherds, neither of whom is either Herve or Regan.”
“Are you sure?”
“Herve is old and walks with a staff. I doubt he has suddenly had such a remarkable recovery from his rheumatism.”
Duncan pursed his lips. “Not in this weather, to be sure.”
“While his sister Regan is tiny, only as tall as my shoulder.”
The Scotsman nodded. “And no one else tends the goats?”
“No one else wrought like a man-at-arms.”
“Who shall we take first?”
“Leave the one in the ruined keep. He is of a size with Bartholomew and must be Gaultier.”
“There would be repercussions from his demise, to be sure.”
She nodded. “And no voice of reason to halt the others. Once he enters the mill, I will take the left one posing as a goatherd, and you the right. If others reveal themselves, we shall take them as we can.”
“One maid is on the road with the horses, just in the cover of the forest.”
“Aye, I could hear her. She must have been fearful for she talked to the steeds.”
“The other is with Marie.”
“I would not see either of them injured, nor even Marie,” Anna said, even as Gaultier stepped away from the ruined keep. He moved quickly toward the mill, drawing a knife from his belt. He flattened himself against the wall outside the portal, surveyed the clearing, then abruptly ducked inside.
Marie screamed.
Duncan and Anna fired their crossbows as one. The two goatherds fell silently, then there was a roar from the direction of the road. The goats bleated and ran for the distant fields.
