Chapter Thirty-Eight
Katrin never rememberedmuch of what followed, at least not in any detail. They ran. Somehow, over that broken ground and in the dark, they did, her two bearers giving valiant service. After a time, they reached a stand of trees, one alive with others who also fled. The hunted.
Katrin hunkered down beside her father and said, “I maun go back.”
“Nay,” Da said. He’d remained awake, distressed and cursing, insisting he did not need to be carried even though he did.
“Finlay,” she said.
That moment, that one terrible moment, now superseded all the others in her mind. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw it again. Finlay, throwing himself forward.
So she and hers could get away.
He must have succeeded in delaying their pursuers, for the English soldiers did not come after them. Even though, aye, the wood rustled with life, they were left alone.
He could not possibly have survived. He was a harper, not a warrior, and even the best of warriors—Reagan—had gone down. Exhausted and with no shield, Finlay fought armed only with love.
His love for her.
Nay, he could not possibly have survived. But he must have hung on long enough to allow for their escape.
The pain of it stunned her, made it hard to breathe and harder tothink. She realized but one thing: she could not waste what had been given at such a price. At all cost, she must get her da away to safety.
How, she could not imagine. They were stranded in hostile country miles and miles from home with nothing. No food. No supplies. No clothing.
Would others of their clan come behind them? Had any survived?
It grew cold that night, and they had no shelter. Wet to the skin, the four of them huddled together for warmth and Katrin slept not at all. By morning, when dawn bled in from the east, she felt sick to the very death.
She once again robbed from her own clothing to rebandage Da’s leg. When they moved off, he insisted on walking, supported between his two young clansmen. Katrin did not think he would get far.
They needed food and warmth. Da needed a proper physician. Katrin could still hardly think on these things. She saw only Finlay.
Finlay.
They filled their bellies with water from a stream and hid when they could. Katrin had no doubt the English still hunted them, and after the atrocities at the ransacked priory, any landsman they met would be sure to point them out. Nowhere to ask for help. Da grew steadily weaker, but refused to let his men carry him.
Again and again that day, she peered over her shoulder. Searching, aye, for pursuers. But also hoping,hoping. Hearing words echo in her mind.
I will find ye. Always.
Like a tribe of wounded rabbits, they moved on through that day, keeping to the gorse and heather, finding their direction by the sun that broke through from time to time. It shifted far to the south at this time of year, and Katrin—now leading the way—kept it behind her right shoulder.
Many other rabbits traversed the country around them. She could hear as well as sometimes glimpse them, and sometimes mountedknights still moved through. Not their own.
By hiding in the wet gorse, they escaped notice.
That miracle may have been due to prayer. She heard Rabbie praying often. She prayed also, in a blind sort of way, desperate prayers that went out to who knew where, especially when the riders moved past.Do no’ let them see us. Please, please.
She once heard Davey mutter, “I want my ma,” and it wrung her heart because she did not think he would see his ma, or his home, again.
Da was in too much pain for prayer. He sweated and tried not to groan, but he kept moving. For another night they crouched in the heather, freezing. Starving. Davey wept, and the rest of them pretended they could not hear him.
A deep and terrible sort of despair took up residence in Katrin’s heart.
Not long into the next morning, they came to a ruined structure. Those fleeing the battle had by now spread out and the pursuers came less frequently, yet Katrin felt anything but safe.
Though the place stood tumbled stone from stone and overgrown with bracken, Katrin thought there might be some remnants of food there—a foolish thought, as it proved, since something else entirely awaited inside.
