2
The soft, fragrant grass felt good beneath Ailis’s tired body as she sprawled next to her recumbent friend Jaime and left the children to play on their own for a while.
“Och, Jaime, I must be getting old. The bairns fairly wore me out.” She grinned when the big man laughed, a deep rich sound that suited him well.
“It does them good to run. They dinna get to do it much. Wee ones need to have a run now and again, mistress.”
Ailis nodded, briefly studying the big, dark man at her side. His muscles strained his dull brown jupon, and his hands were so large and strong that Jaime could easily kill a man with little effort. She felt perfectly safe with him and trusted him with the children’s lives. Jaime knew how to control his great strength, when to restrain it and when to unleash it.
She was sure that Jaime was not as slow-witted as people thought. He could learn a great many things if one just had patience with him, but Ailis knew that the most important thing she had taught him was self-worth, something his vicious father and others had stolen from him. She could not help but feel proud of that. It had also made Jaime utterly devoted to her, a devotion so complete it occasionally made her uncomfortable, but she did not dissuade him. It was good to have such an ally, for she had few at Leargan.
A sigh of pleasure escaped her as a cool breeze soothed the heat of the midsummer sun. “ ‘Tis true that the children are forced to be quiet at Leargan so as not to anger the laird.”
“Aye, he can be a mean one.” Jaime sat up to watch the children more closely.
“He can, indeed. And yet ‘tis sad, for a child needs to be a child. They grow so fast.” She watched the children laugh and chase each other, reveling in the beauty of a cloudless summer’s day.
Jaime cast her a nervous glance before blurting out, “I ken that it isna my p-place to speak so or to press ye, but—what will happen to m-me when ye wed Donald MacCordy and go to live at Craigandubh?”
“Why, ye shall come along with us.” She patted his large clenched hand. “Dinna fret yourself. I willna leave ye behind.” She knew no one at Leargan would protest his leaving, for they all thought that Jaime was a half-wit and one to be feared.
He unclenched his massive hands and spread his palms flat on the ground. “Thank ye. Ye and the children dinna tease me or fear me. Ye are my only friend, and I dinna want ye to leave me.”
“Well, I shallna, and the children certainly wouldna wish ye to be separated from us. They love ye dearly.” She frowned when he tensed, oblivious to her words, and stared intently at the ground beneath his hands. “What is it?” She placed her palm flat against the earth and was startled to feel a faint tremor. “Jaime?”
“S-someone c-comes,” Jaime spat out, then cursed the stutter that had marked him as an idiot, a stutter Ailis had helped him overcome until it only affected him when his emotions ran high. He clenched his jaw and struggled to speak quickly despite the stutter. “They c-come from the n-north.”
“MacDubhs,” Ailis whispered, terrified for the children because Jaime was unarmed, their horses were unready, and they were all far away from the protective walls of Leargan.
“Maybe. A goodly number and they ride hard. We must flee from here.”
“There is no time!” Ailis cried as she leapt to her feet, able now to hear the swift approach of horsemen from a direction where only her enemies dwelled.
With a speed that Ailis found truly astonishing in such a big man, Jaime collected the children. Ailis nodded when he suggested that they seek shelter in a large tree at the edge of the clearing. It was hardly impregnable, but it could hide them from the riders thundering their way. If not, it would buy them time, time that could bring rescue. Ailis nimbly swung up into a large gnarled tree and got ready to haul up the children as Jaime handed them to her. Jaime was just handing Rath up to her, the last of the three frightened children, when the riders galloped into the clearing. Ignoring her urging to join them, Jaime turned to face their enemy alone.
Alexander reared to a halt mere feet from the huge dark man. His soldiers quickly reined in around him. After studying the giant by the trunk, Alexander looked up into the branches of the tree and felt almost lighthearted. Twin boys and a small strawberry-blond girl child peered down at him. Such luck did not often come his way.
“The fates have truly smiled upon us this day, Angus.” He grinned at his cousin, who held his usual place of honor on his right. “The fruit we seek is here for our picking.”
“Aye, but there is a muckle great tree to fell ere we can collect the harvest.” Angus nodded toward Jaime.
As he signaled to his men to go after the man guarding the tree, Alex advised them, “Dinna kill him if ye can help yourselves. He is unarmed and outnumbered thirty-five to one. ‘Twould be naught but murder.”
From her perch in the tree Ailis watched nearly half of the men dismount, toss aside their weapons, and approach Jaime. Her blood ran cold when she recognized the MacDubh badges they wore. They apparently did not intend to kill Jaime, but she was not particularly comforted by that. Jaime could not defeat all of the men. Unless some help miraculously arrived, she and the children would fall into the hands of her clan’s deadliest enemies. Tales of the horrors the MacDubhs visited upon any MacFarlane luckless enough to fall into their bloodthirsty grasp ran rampant at Leargan, and she had the misfortune to suddenly and clearly recall each and every one. Calm reason told her that not all of the tales could be true, but, she decided, fear was a highly unreasonable emotion. At that moment she could, and did, believe all the very worst that had ever been said about the infamous MacDubhs.
Relaxed in his saddle, Alexander watched the battle as his men rushed the giant standing guard by the tree. It was a fight that could only end in victory for his men, but the dark behemoth was taking a heavy toll. The fact that the huge man would face several MacDubhs with only his bare fists was pure lunacy, but Alexander could only respect such madness. It was evident that the big man intended to fight to the death, with whatever weapons were at hand, in order to protect the four who huddled in the tree. Loyalty such as that could only be honored, although Alex wondered if the man’s protectiveness would be as fierce if he knew who had fathered the children he so valiantly fought for. When the large man finally fell, Alexander felt no surge of victory. He dismounted, approached the tree, and gazed up at four small, pale faces.
“Come down, mistress, and bring the bairns with ye,” he ordered. A second, closer look at the little girl’s strawberry curls and the twins’ eyes and features confirmed Alex’s belief that he and his men had chanced upon Barra’s brood. “Your gallant protector has fallen at last, so ye must accept defeat and climb down.”
“Accept defeat? Never!” replied Ailis, successfully subduing her very real fear for the children, herself, and the unconscious Jaime. “If ye want me and the bairns, ye will have to come up here and collect us.”
Alexander ground his teeth as he signaled to a select few of his men to answer the girl’s challenge. He knew she was trying to gain herself some time. Whether or not she had any sound reason to think that that would gain her rescue, Alexander was determined to give her as little time as possible.
When the first man who tried to ascend the tree was sent groundward by the simple but effective application of one dainty booted foot in his face, Alexander was as surprised as anyone. As each man went up, he was cleverly routed. The men planned a defense for the move that sent their predecessors tumbling to earth, but the woman, with the agile assistance of the boys, simply adjusted her methods to suit the new attack. Despite a MacDubh advantage of physical size, muscular superiority, and greater number, the girl held the stronger position, for she had a highly advantageous point of defense.
As the eighth man tumbled to the ground, Alexander decided he had had enough. Valuable time was being wasted. He drew his sword and held it to the throat of the now conscious, but still groggy, giant who had proved such a valiant protector despite having been overcome in the end. The threat was a bluff, and Alexander could not guess how she felt concerning the welfare of her guard, but it was a ploy worth trying.
“Mistress,” he called, and everyone looked his way. “There has been enough of this play. Come down or I shall cut this man’s throat here and now.”
