With one last look at him, Jane began to run towards the castle. She sighted movement out of the corner of her eye, and she knew it was the castle’s sentries, curious as to why a woman was running towards their stronghold. Fear gripped her: not for herself but for Alistair. She hopes he was well-hidden, unspotted.
“Help!” Jane cried as she ran. “Help me, please. Commander Pierce! Commander Pierce!” She’d gotten to the gate, which four soldiers guarded. A memory of the soldier that had tried to rape her in the forest flashed in her mind but she blinked it away.
“What’s all this, then?” one of them asked. “Who are you, chit?”
The others closed around her, and she began to weep.
“I must speak to my fiancé, your master. My fiancé. Commander Pierce.”
They murmured amongst themselves, and then one said, “This way,” and led her through the gate, They came to a devastated inner courtyard. The walls were almost completely covered by moss. Jane sighted a small pool of brackish water to her right. The air was rank with something. She resisted the urge to cover her nose from the stench. Surely a damsel in distress would be too distressed to notice the odor. She was directed to a chair inside. She shook her head. “I do not want to sit. I want to see my fiancé, Commander Pierce! Where is he? ”
The guard who had called her a chit earlier on hissed, “Madam! Lower your voice.”
Jane wailed. “I cannot!” She bolted in the direction of the staircase. “Commander Pierce!” The soldier looked like he was confused for a moment, but then he followed after her.
“And who is that unfortunate soul yelling out my name as though it belonged to a nobody?” Jane suddenly heard. She swallowed. The voice made bile rise in her throat. But she quickly recovered. Commander Edward Pierce appeared at the top of the stairs, and it took all of Jane’s willpower to run towards him and not away from him.
“Why Jane, my darling!” he exclaimed when he saw her, shock on his face, “I cannot believe that you are here! What has happened to you?” He rushed to her, and because she could not stand the thought of his arms around her, she descended to the floor. He staggered but caught his bearings.
“I suffered untold things at their hands, Commander Pierce!” she wailed. “They made me their prisoner and said I would pay because you did not agree to their terms for my release. I was told that they wanted to exchange me for one of their own, who is in your custody. You appeared to count that as too great a cost to pay.” There was the right amount of accusation in her tone, and the commander said, “Now, now, Jane dear, I did not agree to their terms only because I meant to attack them and rescue you myself. One does not make an agreement with a Scot; they are barely men.”
“They could have killed me,” Jane said. “Theywouldhave killed me, had I not escaped. And then it would have been too late.”
“But you are here now, aren’t you?” the Commander said, a little irritation in his voice. He looked her over. “Savages, all of them. They have decimated your beauty. They shall pay!”
“They are coming!” Jane said, rising to her feet and doing her best to look terrified. “They were on their way here when I escaped. I did not flee to protect my life only, but to save yours!”
The Commander searched her eyes, a small look of satisfaction on his face. “Adversitydoesbring out the best in women, does it not?” Then, swiftly, he said. “Those bastards! Come, Jane! Show me what direction they are coming in!” He grabbed her hand painfully and practically dragged her to the gate. She pointed in the position opposite to where Alistair was. “From there. If you must attack, you must do it quickly. Their horses are the fastest I have ever seen!”
Commander Pierce gave the order for his soldiers to ready themselves for attack. She had never seen him in battle mode before. Whenever she’d seen him in England, it was an event of or house call. He was many things, but incompetent did not appear to be one of them. She watched him arm himself and her throat turned bitter. She feared that the plan would go wrong. She feared for Alistair.
“I will lead you to them, Commander Pierce,” Jane said.
“Not in the middle of a war, girl,” Commander Pierce said.
Jane realized then that she should have capitalized on the element of surprise and led him straight to Alistair’s trap before she let him arm himself. What would make a commander leave his army and follow her into the woods right before an attack?
“Commander Pierce, the Scots wanted to kill me not just because you had refused their terms, but also because of the gold.”
The commander’s eyes lit up. “Gold? What gold?”
Jane, what gold?
The idea had come to her out of the blue. She had not thought of what exactly she would say to get the Commander to follow her alone. Mentally, she kicked herself. That was the most ridiculous angle to come from. Surely there was no way he would believe her! She started to falter, but remembered that her fate, as well as Clan Fletcher’s, rested on her ability to pull this off. And so she squared her chin and gave him the most convincing look she could muster. “Their gold,” she said. “Buried in the woods. Spoils from their defeat of another clan. I overheard them speaking about it. They mean to attack Loch Lomond, and then retrieve it. They were worried that I had heard about it and sought to keep me from telling another soul.”
The Commander looked at her skeptically. “But the Scots are as poor as church mice.”
“No, they are not,” Jane said. “I lived among them for days, did I not? They used golden goblets and silver cutlery. Their simple mode of dress is only a ruse.”
“Then we must get to that first,” Commander Pierce said. “Do you remember where exactly they said it was?”
Jane thought for a second. “Yes. Next to a grove of cypress trees within a view’s distance from the castle. That is what they said.”
Commander Pierce’s eyes brightened. “I know of such a grove. Come!”
He instructed his second-in-command to lead the charge as he had more pressing matters to attend to. “Perhaps a few soldiers should come with you?” the man asked, and Jane’s heart began to beat quickly.
“Nonsense,” Commander Pierce snapped, “Do as you are told.”
