Julianna glared at the stranger as she stepped between him and Agnes holding Elias close to her. It had been close to an hour after Nicholas and Rauf had left them when the first stranger kicked her door in and burst inside the chamber. After seeing two women and a babe, he left them alone with a warning to stay where they were or he would be forced to kill them all. Lismoor had been taken, its guards killed or taken as prisoners to York, where England’s king awaited his men.
“And Lord Rothbury?” Julianna had asked, trembling while she waited for his reply. Nicholas couldn’t be dead. She wanted to fall apart, fall to her knees, but Elias needed her, and so did Agnes, who burst into tears at the soldier’s words.
“I do not know,” the English soldier had told her and left without telling her anything else.
Now, she stared down a second brute who had been guarding the broken door while someone in charge was notified. “He is a babe!” she growled at him.
“I do not care. I might just kill him because he disturbed me.” He grinned.
She smiled back. “You come near and you will surely die.”
He laughed, but there must have been something in her glare or in her voice that convinced him she spoke the truth, for he did not go near them.
She comforted Elias and Agnes and prayed that God would keep the babe quiet.
“Are you its mother?” the ogre asked.
“Itis a he. Have you already forgotten? Are you dimwitted?”
He frowned and looked to be about to step forward.
She pulled up the sleeve of her léine, exposing her wrist and the ring around it with three tiny fangs of tarantulas secured to it. The fangs were dipped in poison.
“You insult me,” he said in a low warning tone.
“You make it very easy.”
From the corner of her eye, Julianna could see Agnes shaking. Poor Agnes. She certainly wasn’t going to like what came next.
“Let us go and I will not lay you flat on your homely face.”
He studied her for a moment and she imagined what he saw. A woman slight of frame, at least six inches shorter than him, making threats she appeared to believe herself capable of fulfilling. He laughed and came at her.
She lifted her arm and the fang pricked him in his left hand that was reaching for her. He blinked and then he crumbled to the ground.
“Help me get him behind the bed.” Julianna wasted no time and grabbed for him. “Agnes, stop weeping. Everything will be well. Now, help me!”
Agnes set Elias down and helped Julianna pull the man behind the bed.
Julianna returned to Elias, kissed his head, then stepped away into a corner and wept.
She’d grown hard and strong in the last few years but Nicholas could possibly be dead. She had to find out. There was no one guarding the door but…she looked at Agnes and Elias. They had to flee. More men were coming. Lismoor had fallen. She closed her eyes. How many men were there? Her belly sank. Not again. She wanted to hide as she had the night the Scots had attacked her home. She wanted to hide from what she might see before this was over.
But she had Elias and Agnes to think about. She wanted to take the babe but she couldn’t take the chance of pricking him with a fang. “Take the child, please, Agnes,” she said quickly, quietly, and with the authority of a noblewoman. “Elias,” she said once Agnes had lifted him, “do you want to see the horsies? Aye?” She smiled at him with tender emotion warming her gaze. “Remember I told you about the noisy dragon? You must stop crying so that we can hide and not be found. Do you understand?”
He nodded and smiled back at her. “That is my boy.”
She turned to Agnes. “Where should we go? You know the castle better than I.”
Agnes shook her head then wiped her eyes. “We should get to the dungeon below. There is a way out from there.”
To the dungeon then. “Let us be away!” She pulled her friend and then ran for the stairs.
They turned a small bend and ran straight into a large man Julianna had never seen before. He wore breeches and a red coat, though it was not one of the military coats the English normally wore. This brute, along with his comrades, were the ones hired to rid the king of his enemies before they grew too big to stop.
He looked surprised to see them there in the hall.
Where was everyone else?
