“They may nay have had any true plan for its use, just a wee thought that it might be useful at some time. Whatever plan they had doesnae matter now. ’Tis Amiel’s knowledge of it all that we must consider now.”
“We cannae lose him. I suspicion your kinsmen cannae lose the ones after them, either.”
Brian wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. “My kinsmen will be fine. They may ne’er lose the ones on their trail, but they can and will evade and outrun them. As can we. My kin have something we dinnae have as weel, something that gives them an advantage.”
“Oh, aye? And what would that be?”
“More men.”
“Ah, true. Would it help if we hired more men? I can afford it. Weel, once I am back with my clan and can get some coin in my hands, I can.”
“I did think on that, but nay. We are verra close to Dubheidland. Best if we continue as we have. I still believe we have a better chance of slipping round these bastards if we are alone. I will be rid of the third horse once we reach Sigimor, though. I dinnae believe it fools anyone any longer.”
“If they can send word to each other and ken all else we think they do, then nay, it doesnae fool them at all. They ken where the boys are being taken by now.”
She shivered, and the way Brian held her a little tighter only slightly warmed the chill of fear. It was a fear that ran too deep to be banished. With each passing day, each new scrap of information on their enemies, her need to see Michel and Adelar grew until it was a sharp ache inside her. It was not just because she missed them, which she did, but a need to see with her own eyes that they were safe. She also needed to see that Scarglas could keep them safe. Although she trusted in Brian’s word on that, her heart needed the proof her own eyes would give her.
“Dinnae worry so, love.” Brian brushed a kiss over her mouth and stood up.
“Easier to say than to do,” she muttered as she took hold of the hand he held out to her and let him tug her to her feet and into his arms. “’Tis hard for many to understand considering who Michel and Adelar are, but they aremyboys.”
“Ye had the raising of them, fostered them in many ways.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then led her over to the horses. “Ye also have a heart too good to hold the wrongs their parents did to ye against them. It will nay be long now before ye are with them again, a sennight at most. There may e’en be word about them waiting at Dubheidland.”
Arianna prayed there was. It would be enough for her to calm her fears about the boys for a while. Her arms ached to hold them, but if she knew for certain that they were safely behind the walls of Scarglas, she could endure their absence for a few days more.
Chapter 8
“Wait here, lass.”
Arianna frowned at Brian as they both dismounted. “What do ye plan to do?”
“Slip into that wee village ahead and find someone to take word to your kinsmen,” he replied.
“Ye think that must be done now?”
“Aye. There are ten men after us, lass. Ten. If they have sent an equal number in all three directions we tried to lead them in, then we have a small army running about the country hunting those lads of yours.” He winced when she paled and wished he had held to his decision to keep that information from her.
She gasped and grasped him by the arms. “Michel and Adelar?”
“Are better protected than we are and, ye must trust me in this, lass, my family kens weel how to sneak about and hide themselves and anything of value they have, including other people. I can promise ye that verra soon after my kin rode away from that beach those lads wouldnae have been recognizable e’en to you and a plan was already made to hide them if the need arose. And do ye ken what else my kin can do verra weel?”
“What?” Arianna desperately wanted to believe him if only to push back the fear that was now making her thoughts scatter and her heart pound. “What can they do?”
“Fight.” He kissed her on the forehead. “We survived for years surrounded by enemies, which my fither was verra skilled at making. Some of those enemies were verra determined to see us all dead. They failed. As my fither liked to say, he may nay have been the best of fithers and was a worse husband, but he had done a fine job of teaching his lads how to survive. And he did. We are all verra, verra good at it.”
She rested her forehead against his chest for a moment as she finished beating down her fear for her boys. His plan had been a good one, still was a good one. The fact that there were a lot more men hunting her, Michel, and Adelar than they had believed did not change that. The utter confidence underlying his words helped her get control of her fear as well. She recognized that sort of arrogance for her kinsmen had it. Brian knew his strengths, his abilities, and those of his kinsmen. It was a good arrogance, too, for it was one that would not blind him to what he couldnotdo, to what would be just reckless to even try.
Stepping back a little and releasing him, she took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and nodded. “Go then. Since I am nay sure of exactly where I am, I am nay sure which of my kin is the closest ...”
“I am. Once Fiona let us ken who her clan was allied with, we found out all we could about them.” He gave her a quick kiss. “I willnae be gone long.”
“Just be careful.”
She watched until he was out of sight. The ease with which he disappeared into the shadows of the scattered trees gave her even more confidence in his assurances that he and his kin had the skills she and the boys needed to stay alive. It was not easy to understand the life he had led for it was so vastly different from anything she had known, but she could see that he spoke the truth. MacFingals knew how to survive and treated a skill at stealth as just one more weapon. Although her family had known a reasonably peaceful life during much of her growing years, she suspected they had such skills as well.
Arianna turned her attention to the horses. It had been a long, long day of riding hard, taking tortuous routes, and hiding until it was safe to continue traveling. The time taken to send a message to her kin was dangerous as they could not be certain just how close their enemy was, but it was necessary. They were going to need all the help they could get to stop these men.
It appeared that Amiel and the DeVeaux had brought a small army to hunt down her and the boys. She should have known that but had never taken much notice of how many men Amiel had with him the few times she had seen them. Even if she and her allies were able to cull those numbers, Amiel and the DeVeaux had undoubtedly brought enough coin with them to pay others to fight for them. There were always plenty of men around with no loyalties and an eagerness for coin.
