David glanced at Robbie and wished he had spared his brother this.
“Why did they commit this outrage against villagers?” Robbie said. “They’re just farmers and shepherds, not warriors.”
That was precisely the question running through David’s mind. Guilt and rage vied with sorrow in his heart. He was certain this attack was aimed at him. Yet there had been no ambush along the road.
What did his enemy hope to gain by this atrocity?
He steeled himself for more bad news as Brian emerged from a burned-out cottage. The lass Brian hoped to wed and her grandfather had not been among the villagers who fled to Hume Castle, and they had hoped to find them here. But Brian’s expression as he strode toward David was blacker than the soot that covered his hands.
“I can’t find Leana anywhere,” Brian said.
“We’ll keep looking,” David said, though he was losing hope that they would find her alive.
Unable to find any other words, he rested a hand on Brian’s shoulder and stared off at the horizon.
“Wait, isn’t that her grandfather there?” He pointed to an old man walking through a field next to the village with his head down.
Brian set off at a run across the field. When Robbie started to follow, David caught his arm.
“I’ll go with Brian,” he said. “See what help ye can offer the others.”
Seeing the burned village was grim enough. He did not want his brother to hear this tale.
“The men who did this made no secret of who they were,” the grandfather was saying as David joined him and Brian. “It was the Blackadders, and they wanted us to know it.
“We’ll make them pay for this, I promise ye,” David said.
“That won’t bring my granddaughter back.”
David looked at Brian’s face, which was drained of color, and feared the worst.
“I’ve looked in all the cottages and the fields,” the old man said. “I can’t find her.”
David organized his men into lines to make a methodical search of the fields and nearby wood. He hoped he could at least give the old man and Brian her body to bury.
He kept Brian at his side as he joined the search for the missing lass. At the sound of ducks, he turned to see them taking flight from a low marshy area some distance away and caught sight of a bit of bright color amidst the cattails and reeds.
Leana had vibrant red hair.
David took off running, with Brian hard on his heels. When he reached the marsh, David found the lass face down, her body cast aside in the reeds and mud like a discarded bone that had been picked clean.
Gently, David turned her over and cradled her in his arms. Brian wept openly as he pulled her torn skirts down over her blood-smeared thighs and wiped the mud from her face. David had no words to comfort him. Vengeance was all he could offer.
But wait. Did he see her draw a shallow breath? He felt for her pulse.
“She lives,” he said, looking up at Brian. “She lives!”
Moving quickly now, they wrapped her in Brian’s plaid. While Brian held her on his lap, David retrieved the flask from his belt and lifted it to her lips. He sent up a prayer of thanks when she moaned and took a sip.
Though the lass was weak and badly hurt, she would survive.
“Ye will see her through this,” David said, squeezing Brian’s shoulder. “I know it.”
His heart bled for his friend. He could not imagine what he would do if anything like this happened to Alison.
Thank God she and the girls were safe behind the strong walls of Blackadder Castle.
***
