That had been safe for a while, but now the enemy soldier wanted her horse to try and get away. He was trying to grab the reins and attacking her, and she was struggling to control the horse and stop him from pulling her down by slashing at him with her sword!
With terror in his heart, Ewan kicked up the stallion and thundered towards them, his bloody sword out held at his side. By the time he got there, the man had Annie halfway out of her saddle, and although she was putting up a spirited fight, Ewan could see she was in great danger. Driven by a deep need toprotect her, he slipped from the saddle, immediately yanking the man off her by the collar of his uniform coat.
The man shouted and staggered a little but soon righted himself. Ewan raised his blade to cut the fellow down and only glimpsed the dirk glinting in his fist when it made contact with his chest, a long horizontal slash that tore through his leather jerkin and into his flesh. Hardly realizing he had been cut, Ewan knocked the dirk from his assailant’s hand and forced him to the ground, gripping his throat tightly.
“Where’s yer maister’s army? How many days from here?” he demanded, shaking the man violently.
“I’ll tell ye naethin’, ye bastard,” the man spat.
Ewan put the point of his sword to the fellow’s throat. The man shrank back, but Ewan held him tightly in place. “Tell me what I wantae ken and maybe I’ll spare yer life.”
“He’s two days away at least,” the soldier admitted, his face turning red, then blue. He choked out curses as he struggled in vain to loosen the grip on his throat.
“Thank ye, that’s very helpful,” Ewan growled before running the man through the chest. He flung the still twitching body to the ground at Annie’s feet. She ran to him, but when he tried to put his arms around her, he felt a terrible pain in his chest that made him double over.
“Ach, Ewan, ye’re hurt!” she cried, shoving herself beneath his shoulder in an attempt to hold him up.
“’Tis naethin, just a scratch,” he told her, nausea sweeping through him. He leaned on her as he looked around and saw his remaining men gathering themselves, dusting themselves off, retrieving their horses and those of the enemy that were running loose.
“Bring their weapons,” he shouted, “and pile the corpses in the wood over there before ye come back tae the camp.” The men started to do as he commanded.
“Ewan, ye’re badly hurt. Ye havetae come with me tae see the healer right away,” Annie said urgently, her face white. She ripped off her kerchief and placed it over the wound, trying to staunch the blood.
“Later. We need tae get back tae the camp and report this. Somehow, some of Allan’s men, an advance scouting party nay doubt, got intae the area without me knowledge. I must get back and tell Colin what’s happened.”
“All right, we’ll go back,” she agreed, “but as soon as ye’ve told Colin, we’re goin’ tae see the healer.”
“All right,” he said grudgingly, in agony from his injury and worried about the appearance of Allan’s men. Yet a part of him was deeply touched by the concern she was showing for him.
Once his men had concealed the enemy corpses, they gathered around their laird. They had lost four men and another five were injured, some seriously. What was left of the scouting party limped back to the camp.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Back in their tent, Colin stood listening to Ewan’s report of the fight, whilst Isla tried to tend to his wound as best she could. The gash seemed worryingly deep to her and would not stop bleeding, even though she laid many strips of clean cloth over it and bandaged them in place. The men’s voices went over her head as she worked, for she was terrified the wound would become infected and Ewan might die. She wanted desperately to get him to Ella’s, thinking her friend’s expertise was urgently needed.
After she had finished cleaning and dressing his wound, she made him some of the herbal tea Ella had given her for her headache, knowing it would help a little with the pain until she could get him to Ella’s place. She made him drink it and waited impatiently for him to finish his conversation with Colin. But before that happened, there was a commotion outside the tent that attracted their attention.
Colin broke off talking and said, “I’ll go and see what goin’ on.” He went outside to look. There was murmured talk outside, andColin returned a few minutes later. He grinned at Ewan. “Good news,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “One of the scouting parties has found an old fellow who claims tae ken the secret way intae the castle, and he’s willin’ tae part with the information for the right amount of gold.”
Ewan rose without a word and made for the exit at once, following Colin outside. Isla crept over to the tent flap and listened to the conversation with mounting fear as the old man, whose voice she did not recognize, negotiated his price. She heard the chink of coins, and then her heart sank with dread as the old man told Ewan exactly how to get into the tunnel system that ran beneath the castle.
“I need the layout as well, fer when we get inside,” Ewan said. Isla kept on eavesdropping, listening in angry, terrified silence when the man offered to draw a map of how to get from the tunnels into the main part of the castle without being seen and details of the floor plan.
When the man had gone, Ewan and Colin remained talking outside for a while. Isla continued listening, her alarm growing by the minute as they began formulating a plan to send soldiers to penetrate the castle and, once inside, open the gates to admit the rest of the army.
I havetae get away long enough tae warn Gregory before Ewan attacks.But how?!
She wracked her brains, and after a few minutes, she had an idea of how she might be able to do it. It was risky, and she wouldneed Ella’s help to make it work. But if it saved Gregory’s life and Ewan’s and prevented needless bloodshed, she knew she had to try.
“We must ride tae the healer’s house right this minute,” she told Ewan when he came back into the tent. He looked pleased with the agreement he had struck with the informant, but his face was as white as milk, so she knew his injury was paining him.
“Can ye ride?” she asked him, secretly determined to visit Ella as soon as possible, but now with more than one aim in mind.
“Aye, all right, as long as it daesnae take too long,” he agreed.
She brought the horses right up to the tent and helped Ewan into his saddle before levering herself up in front of him and taking hold of the reins. “Hold on tae me,” she instructed him, holding down her anxiety as she waited for him to drape himself across her shoulders and lean against her back, hissing occasionally at the pain it caused him.
“All right?” She felt him nod. “Here we go. I’ll try tae avoid the bumps as much as I can.” She clicked her tongue, the horse moved off, and they set off out of the camp at a brisk trot, heading for Ella’s place. As she guided the horse onward and Ewan tied to suppress his groans, it really brought home to her how desperately she wanted him alive and not dead. In fact, she never wanted to leave his side.
