The reactions of those who met her gaze were varied. As Margaret had said, they all knew what had happened between her and Brodie. A mixture of curiosity, sympathy and knowing filled the eyes of those who looked at her. But some greeted her as she walked by, so that had not changed.
In the next moment, the somewhat organised chaos of the busy camp turned into mayhem.
Mounted warriors and more on foot flooded in from all sides. Their shouts blended with the screaming of men, women and children who fled their swinging swords. She pressed herself into a copse of trees and tried to find the safest way out. And then she saw one man on a horse pursuing Fia from behind.
Running out from her shadowed hiding place, she scrambled around the fighting and got to her first. Pulling the crying girl close, she ran to the nearest shelter and pushed her inside. Across the clearing, Arabella saw more children and women clustered in fear and not moving. Skirting the horses and the men, she ran to them. She heard Brodie’s voice calling out orders to his men and then saw him leading a group of his men against the invaders.
For a part of a moment their gazes connected across the camp. Her heart pounded in her chest at the way he stared.
‘Get to safety!’ he yelled, and the spell broke between them.
She grabbed the hands of two of the boys and called for the women to come. Ducking and running, stopping when they got too close to the warriors now engaged in battle, Arabella managed to get this small group to one of the caves. As she ran back to find Margaret, she heard her name being called and stopped to look.
A man bore down on her with his sword in hand. Just before he began to swing his sword down at her, he pulled up hard on the reins and brought his horse to a halt in front of her. Shielding her eyes from the spraying dirt sent into the air by the horse’s hooves, she stumbled and fell.
Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her to stand. Arabella then found herself face down over the saddle of a man’s legs. When she tried to push off, a strong hand on her back held her in place.
‘Have no fear, Lady Arabella. I will get you to safety. Be still!’
Through the confusion and screaming, the fighting and people running around below her, she could not tell the direction they travelled, but soon they were away from all of that and on the road leading down the mountain.
‘I cannot stop until we are safely away, lady,’ the rider warned her.
She heard the sound of a small group of riders massing along and around them and then nothing.
* * *
‘What do you mean she’s gone?’ Brodie asked as he ran towards the place where they were gathering the wounded. ‘I saw her taking the women to the caves.’
‘Aye, she did. Then she came back this way. Was she struck down?’ Rob asked.
A terrible fear pierced deep into him then. Had she been killed in this attack? They ran along the path, checking every injured person and not finding her. He called out for help when they found someone needing attention. Margaret and the other women were already helping.
‘Arabella!’ he called out as they made their way around.
Then he stopped and looked one more time across the clearing where he’d seen her.
‘The man took her.’ Brodie whirled around and found Bradana’s daughter there.
‘What man?’ he asked, crouching down to speak to her. Rob came to his side and waited.
‘The man on the horse. He grabbed her up and rode off there with the others,’ Fia said, pointing towards the path out of the camp. The girl winced as both he and Rob let loose several curses.
‘Go to your mother, Fia,’ he said, pushing the girl to where he could see Bradana working.
‘Ye will bring her back, Brodie? She looked scared. She didna want to go,’ the little girl said. He wanted to give his word, but he could not. Not right now.
‘Go to your mam now.’ She ran off as he said, but her sad eyes pleaded with him to follow Arabella. Then he turned to his friend. ‘Gather the men,’ he ordered. He knew the horses were safe so they could follow them.
‘Nay.’
Brodie turned to look at Rob. ‘Nay?’
‘Chasing them down the mountain is likely to end up with the lady’s death. We know the paths and trails, they do not. It will be a simple thing to ride off the cliffs near the turns. Is that what you want?’ When he did not answer quickly, Rob pushed it. ‘Well, do you?’
‘You know I do not.’
‘Stop for a minute and think about this. They were Mackintoshes from Caelan. They will return to Drumlui Keep. That’s where they’re taking her. Caelan wants her back.’
