With that one glance confirming our danger, I put spur to horse and fled.I saw Hugh in front, his face anxious as he looked over his shoulder to ensure my safety, and I saw the fields rising in front to the welcome greyness of the surrounding hills and the comforting shield of night.
'Stay close,' Hugh shouted urgently.
I spurred urgently, feeling sorry for Kailzie, feeling scared for myself and Hugh.I felt less sorry for Kailzie when she bucked under the prick of my spurs, nearly throwing me.I held on grimly, very aware of the horsemen clattering through the dark behind me.
Liddesdale was awake.All along the valley as far as I could see lights were coming on as householders put fire to torches or stoked up their fires and opened their doors.Horsemen were gathering as well as masses of men on foot, while children and women were shouting to one another the length and breadth of the valley.
'Jeannie!'Hugh's shout was urgent.He reined up beside me, grabbed hold of my bridle and pulled me away to the left.'They're in front of us.'
Peering into the dark I saw shadowy shapes, heard the rattle of bridles and stirrup, and followed Hugh off the path and back down to the valley floor, following the bank of the Liddel Water.I hoped there were no men ahead; I had chosen badly when I wanted to cross this valley.My vanity had proved costly.We looked for a gap to the north, some path or opening that would allow us access to the long bald hills in which we could hide, and which would eventually take us home to Peebles-shire and the Lethan Valley.Instead, all we saw were armed men, riding to block our path, chanting their slogans 'An Armstrong, an Armstrong' or 'An Elliot', 'A Nixon' or whatever riding family to which they claimed their allegiance.
'All Liddesdale is up!'I shouted.
'This way!'Hugh's grin took me by surprise.Trapped in the middle of Liddesdale, surrounded by hundreds of some of the wildest riders in Europe, in the middle of the night and with a woman to look after, he gave me a wide, cheerful grin.'Let's confuse the Armstrongs.'
Raising his voice to a roar, he shouted 'An Armstrong!An Armstrong!'as loudly as he could and led me back over the Liddel that we had crossed with such hope only a few moments before.I followed, feeling my heart sink yet trusting Hugh with all that I had.Or nearly all that I had.One precious thing I still reserved for Robert, but at that moment I had no thought for that part of me and every thought for saving all the rest.
In the dark, it was hard to differentiate between friend and foe, and now that we were riding in the same direction as everybody else, and shouting the same slogan, there was less attention paid to us.'They're at the Castleton!'Hugh yelled.'It's a raid by the Grahams!'
His words, shouted with authority and roared out in the dark, had some effect.Many of the riders headed south and west down the flow of the Liddel.Others did not.Stray voices gave contradictory orders.
'This is Mangerton!'The voice roared from this side of the Liddel.I knew that Armstrong of Mangerton was one of the chiefs of the Armstrongs so his name carried more authority than any anonymous voice in the dark.'Light the bale fires!Form patrols!'
'That's not so good,' Hugh did not lose his smile.'They will be all around the valley in minutes.We have to hide inside Liddesdale.'I could nearly hear his mind working.'Are you superstitious?'
The question took me by surprise.'What?'I am sure I stared blankly at him.
'Are you superstitious?Are you scared of ghosts and bogles and demons?'He glanced around, lifting his hand to wave to a passing group of Croziers as if he knew them well.'I know that you are well used to dragons!'
Was this a time to joke?Obviously, Hugh thought so, to judge by his smile.
'Well, are you superstitious?'
I shook my head.'No more than anybody else,' I said.I remembered the childhood stories that Robert and I had shared when we tried to frighten each other with tales of witches and fairies.My stories had always been more vivid than his, so that on more than one occasion he had held my hand as we ran home through the dark valley to Whitecleuch or Cardona Tower.
'Good: come with me then.'
We changed direction for the third time that night.Rather than trying to escape across the valley or joining the men who rode purposefully to their designated positions, he led me up the valley to a spur that lifted some thousand feet high.Hugh had mentioned that the Liddel Valley formed a Y shape if you remember?Well, we were now ascending the fork of the Y, the crotch, if I may be so crude.
'Not many people come up here.'Hugh was a bit breathless as he forced his horse up the steep slope.'It's haunted, you see.Even the Armstrongs are afraid of ghosts.'
'Are you sure it's the ghosts that daunt them and not the climb?'I pushed poor Kailzie as hard as the mare could go as we ascended that slithering, slippery slope.
We stopped eventually with our horses breathing hard and my muscles aching with strain.Hugh dismounted and helped me off Kailzie.I thought his hand lingered a fraction too long on my arm, but I may have been mistaken.I know I thrust out my bottom slightly too much as I swung off the horse.I did not mean to; it was some instinct over which I had no control.I do know that he took no notice, the pig.
'Where are we?'In the dark, I could not see much except a number of humped shapes that could have been tree stumps, ruined dwellings, or perhaps great rocks.'Are we safe here?'
'We'll have to stay here for the day and try and get away tomorrow night,' Hugh said.'They call this the Nine Stane Rig.'
I knew the name and the evil reputation.Suddenly I felt a chill descend.'I know the story,' I said.
'All of it?'Hugh's voice was quiet.'This is a stone circle with nine great standing stones, used by the ancients, maybe the Druids for human sacrifice, they say.'
'I have heard that,' I said, 'although I have never been here before.'
'Not many have,' Hugh told me.'Not even the Armstrongs come here.That is why I asked if you were scared of bogles and demons and such like.'
'I have never met one,' I controlled the tremor in my voice, 'and have had no reason to fear them.'
