“Ye are leaving his service?”
“I was never in his service. I was asked by the Lady DeVeau to join them on this journey and one does not refuse the DeVeaux, not if one is married to one of their women. I intend to get home now. I will collect my family and retire to the lands my father holds. I am nay sure I will be in danger but I am thinking the Lady DeVeau is as bad as so many others in that family.”
“It might help if ye stop bleeding first,” said Sigimor. “Anger your fool of a laird, did ye?”
Sir Anton frowned at Sigimor for a moment and then said, “Ah, you speak of Lucette.Oui,I angered him. I did not like what was being done to the woman, to the Lady Arianna. I had not understood all that was planned when I began this journey. I was standing on the shore of this land before I knew the truth.” He shrugged and then winced. “I was believing I was trapped but I change my mind. I think they will all die here and that means I can leave.”
“Get down. We will bind that wound and I will tell ye how to get to a ship.”
“This is most kind of you.” Sir Anton started to dismount and faltered, requiring Sigimor’s aid. “You are most kind, sir. I am thinking I chose the right time to leave this place. I am right,oui? You will kill them all?”
As Sigimor tended to the dagger slash on the man’s side, he said, “I believe my cousin here wants Lucette dead but, if the others fight, they will die, too.”
“Lucette is not a man any will grieve for. Not even his mother, I think.”
“What were they doing to the Lady Arianna?” demanded Brian, praying the man would say something to prove Fergus was mistaken in what he had seen.
“Beating the truth out of her.”
“Stand back, Brian,” ordered Sigimor. “Ye are scaring the mon.”
Brian abruptly noticed that he was looming over the man, his sword pointing at Sir Anton’s throat. He slowly stepped back and sheathed his sword. There was no question in his mind that the man spoke the truth, that Sir Anton was no more than a man who found himself caught up in something he did not approve of and was trying to get out of it.
“Tell me what made ye risk your life and stand against Lucette and the DeVeaux,” he demanded.
“First I am refusing to kick the Lady Arianna when she is unconscious on the floor,” Sir Anton replied. “Then I make a complaint when Lucette keeps slapping her even when she had no chance to answer the question he asked. I see that he likes it,oui? He is much liking the causing of her pain. He stabbed me. Then I begin to realize he means to kill the two boys when he gets them and I did not come here to slaughter children. He means to kill the woman, too. I walked away for I now understand and will have no more part of this. I will go home now. I will pray that this ends it and none return to tell of how I walked away. I do not wish to die for this travesty.” He moved to remount, his movement somewhat more graceful now that his wound had been tended to. “They are not far ahead of you.”
“We ken it,” said Sigimor, and then told the man how to reach a port and a ship home. “Get your wife and bairns and get as far from the DeVeaux as ye can. The ones here willnae be going home and that might irritate their kin. Ye dinnae want to be close at hand when they hear the news. And there is also the chance that Lady Arianna’s kinsmen will nay be pleased with how she has been treated and look for some revenge. Ye truly dinnae want to get caught in that.”
Brian watched Sir Anton ride away and then looked at Sigimor. “Why did ye help him?”
“Mon needed it,” replied Sigimor. “’Tis easy for the ones with nay power to get pulled into things they dinnae want to do by the ones who hold the power. Sir Anton finally found the spine to risk his life to say nay and then to walk away. Didnae seem right to cut his throat. Now, let us go and get your lady.”
“They are beating her, Sigimor,” Brian whispered, fighting the urge to run to where they held Arianna. Only the knowledge that such a rash act could get her killed held him back.
“Aye. Fergus told us that but, mayhap, ye needed it said again, aye?” Sigimor slapped him on the back. “Rein yourself in, lad. Now ye have had two people tell ye she is still alive and verra close at hand.”
As his cousin silently directed his men toward where Lucette and his men were holding Arianna, Brian wondered why he had no urge to lead. This was his battle. He had taken on the duty of protecting her. She had been taken while in his care. The lead in any attempt to rescue should be his place.
He immediately told himself not to be a fool. Sigimor was good, as good as anyone in the MacFingal clan. It was a wise choice for Sigimor to lead them because he could keep calm no matter what they saw, no matter what they found. The emotions churning inside him told Brian that he was not fit to lead anyone anywhere at the moment. It would take but one look at an injured Arianna to make him act recklessly, to have him thinking of nothing else but the need to get to her and cut down any man hurting her.
Slipping through the trees and shadows as silently as his cousins, Brian struggled to firmly leash his fear for Arianna. Cold blood and a clear head were needed to successfully rout an enemy. It was even more important when rescuing someone, for unthinking, blind rage could easily get the captive one was trying to rescue killed instead of freed. Brian silently swore to himself that, even if they did not get Lucette and all his men this time, he would be satisfied by simply freeing Arianna. He could make the ones who hurt her pay dearly later.
Sigimor halted and grabbed Brian by the arm when he stepped up next to him. A heartbeat later Brian understood why his cousin felt there was a need to restrain him. Arianna was on her hands and knees, struggling to stand up. Lucette stood over her, his hands clenched into fists as his men argued with him. Brian did not need to see bruises or blood to know that Arianna was hurt. It was clear in the way she moved. He clutched his sword so tightly the carvings on the hilt dug into his hand as he fought to maintain the cold calm he needed now.
“The lass ought to just stay down,” whispered Sigimor as he signaled his men to begin encircling Lucette and his men. “I think it best if ye and I run straight for her as all the others are verra close to the horses. They see us coming for them and they will try to run. We want to be verra sure that they dinnae take your lass with them.”
Brian forced himself to study Lucette’s men. They were all close to the horses. He wondered if they were thinking of deserting Lucette as Sir Anton had done.
Looking at Arianna again, Brian trembled from the strain of fighting the urge to immediately race toward Lucette and cut the man down. She was conscious. If she knew they were about to rescue her she might be able to do something to help them keep her out of Lucette’s hands until they could free her. Watching her struggle, knowing she was hurting, made waiting to act a pure torture for him.
“If she turns to face us,” Brian whispered to Sigimor, “I will show myself. I believe all eyes will be on her then, too.”
“Ah, and then she might be able to keep herself from being grabbed.” Sigimor nodded and pulled a dagger from the sheath at his hip. “Then we only need to be close enough to hurl one of these at anyone who tries to take her when they all bolt for their horses.”
“Aye, which they will do the moment they see us, curse their eyes. I doubt they will stand and fight.”
“Getting your lass away from them is all that is important now.”
