She recognized him as the one who’d wrestled the pike from the guard’s hand and stepped back to let the mob take him. He wasone of the distillery workers, and with an effort, she remembered his name.
“Angus!”
He blinked, flinching, perhaps surprised to hear his name. Or perhaps surprised to hear his name being called by a woman, in such circumstances. He turned, and Hannah hurried toward him, trying to ignore the long stares shot her way.
More guards were coming. She could hear distant shouts and drumming feet, the clanking of swords and armor.
“Angus, what are ye doing?” she breathed, grabbing at his arm.
He yanked his arm away, lip curling. Slowly, deliberately, he dusted off his sleeve, as if she might have left dirt on it.
“Ah, the whiskeywhore,” he murmured.
She flinched. “I’m nay whore. I am yer employer.”
“Nae anymore. We’re here to demand that the Laird stand down from his position. If he willnae agree, then we’ll have to force him. We came to fight, so he’d better be ready.”
Forget the fact that he called ye a whore. Now isnae about ye.
She lifted her chin and did her best to ignore the contemptuous look he gave her. “Angus, it’s thanks to Laird MacBain thatourpeople arenae dying anymore. He wanted to help us! He isstillhelping us. Do ye want me to stand here and list all the good things he’s done? If he steps down as Laird, who’ll replace him?”
Angus’s eyes glazed over. “There’s a man we have in mind.”
Alarm bells shrilled warningly in her head.
What man?
“Did that man encourage ye to come here today?” she asked, frowning.
Angus ignored her question. Instead, he glowered at her, then spat deliberately onto the cobblestones. “Cease yer questions, woman,” he snarled. “This is men’s business.”
Turning his back, he marched across the courtyard toward the large, arched entrance to the keep. His weapon, she noticed for the first time, was a long cudgel, slightly bent from use, dented and angry-looking. The sort of weapon that could crack a person’s head in two in one good swing.
And Angus can swing it well.
She hurried ahead of the advancing mob, which was led by Angus, and turned to face them. Angus came to a halt only a few feet in front of her.
“We’ve nay quarrel with ye, even though ye are a scheming whore,” he said, slowly and evenly. “Move aside.”
“Aye, move aside!” yelled several men from the crowd behind him.
She noted briefly that there were no women in the crowd or in the courtyard. More guards poured out of various entrances and exits, and a few brave manservants had armed themselves and stood guard, but there were no women. Nobody except her.
She shivered.
A lone woman in front of an all-male mob? I must be beyond foolish.
“Ye say that this isnae women’s business,” she stated, loud enough to make her voice carry. “But nor is the whiskey business. And mine has thrived, has it nae? None of ye can deny that I managed that business well, even if ye have all chosen to turn yer back on me. I’m ken to be a sensible, level-headed woman, nae a fool, nae gullible, and nae a lover of authority. So why will ye nae listen to me now when I say that Laird MacBain is here to help us?”
A brief silence ensued. Her words echoed through the quiet courtyard, bouncing back toward her. Breathing deeply, Hannah forced herself to wait, squaring her shoulders and staring down the mob.
Listen to me,she willed them.Just listen!
Then a voice came from behind, deep and almost amused. “Ye are wasting yer time, lass. They willnae pay attention to ye.”
A tingle ran down her spine at Aiden’s voice.
She turned slowly, and sure enough, there he was, standing at the top of the stone steps. The entrance to the keep yawned behind him. A handful of grim-faced guards flanked him, and a couple of councilmen and other important men hovered nervously in the background, Theodore and his cousin among them. Their red hair seemed to glow in the fading sunlight. They scanned the mob with impassive faces, and she imagined that they were calculating risks and gauging just how likely this particular herd of cattle-like humans was to charge.
