Scott was instantly at Gar’s side.
“Let me see the damage,” he said, lifting Gar’s tunic. What he saw had his features tightening with concern. “We must get him inside, Papa.Now.”
Gar was weakening. “I cannot,” he said, his voice with less force than it usually had. “My castle is under siege.”
“There are many men to defend it,” Scott said. “You need help, Gar.”
Between Scott and William, they managed to pull Gar inside the keep, but he was still resisting.
“I will survive,” he insisted. “My castle may not. I must command this battle.”
“I will have Andreas do it,” William said calmly. “He knows the Scots. Your castle will be safe.”
Gar was starting to fail. He seemed unable to move his legs adequately as the blood drained from him. “T-tell him I…” he stammered, feeling extremely lightheaded. “He must… My wife is here… Tell him he must…”
That was as far as he got before he passed out completely.
The battle for Gleann na Fola raged on.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“As near aswe can deduce, someone opened the postern gate and the Maxwell was waiting,” Troy said grimly. “Maksim must have tried to stop them because we found him with an ax in his chest near the gate. We managed to kill about half of the Scots, but the rest of them ran off by morning. That was three days ago and we’ve not heard anything from them, or any of their allies, since. But one thing is certain—the Maxwell of Westerkirk did not do this alone. They had help.”
It was daybreak on a misty morning as the bulk of the de Wolfe command structure stood around the dais in the great hall of Gleann na Fola, discussing the breach that had been so very costly. William had sent word to de Wolfe allies in the north right after the event, so gathered around the dais were men that had been allies and family of the House of de Wolfe for years. Decades in some cases. But this was a crucial moment for all of them. The Maxwell of Westerkirk had managed to hit them, and hurt them, and it was time to strike back and erase the despicable Scots from the earth once and for all.
This was a war council.
Ryston and Dalton de Royans, close allies of de Wolfe and lords over a castle along the border known as The Lyceum, were the first ones to answer William’s summons. By sheer proximity, they were the closest. Joining them were John de Longley, son of Adam de Longley, Earl of Teviot and lord of Northwood Castle, which was where William had been the captain of the guard for many years before becoming a lord in his own right. The House of de Longley was family to the House of de Wolfe. Adam had been knighted by William, long ago, and his only son, John, was a tremendous commander. He had addressed William as “Uncle William” his entire life and now stood at the ready to help a man he loved very much.
And help was most definitely needed.
Last to join the war council on this short notice was William’s youngest son, Thomas. As the Earl of Northumbria, a title he’d acquired through marriage, Thomas was the most excitable of William’s sons and a warrior with no equal. He took every battle personally, which meant everything he did was fed by emotion.
Including now.
Thomas was absolutely furious.
“To be perfectly clear, the Maxwell of Westerkirk started this entire situation,” he said. “They murdered de Bourne knights.”
Troy nodded. “They did.”
“And when they were punished, they told their allies thattheywere the victims of English aggression.”
Troy shrugged. “That is simplifying it, but aye, that’s what they did.”
Thomas threw up his hands. “And now, the western section of the border threatens to explode because of what they’ve done.”
Troy drew in a long, sorrowful breath. “Aye,” he said quietly. “We nearly destroyed the entire clan in an earlier skirmish. We captured one hundred and sixty-seven of their women andchildren and sent them into England to be sequestered in a few abbeys. One would have thought that Westerkirk would have surrendered at that point, but they did not. They called on their allies to oppose us. They staged an attack on the gatehouse, which somehow led to a spy being planted in our midst. We are still trying to determine just how and why that happened, but we believe that spy opened the postern gate so they could breach the castle.”
“It was clever of them,” Thomas said, shaking his head with regret. “They may have been small in number, but they are very determined.”
Troy nodded, looking to his father, who was sitting while most were standing. During the battle three days ago, he had been sorely taxed and still hadn’t really recovered. William wasn’t thrilled with the term “clever” that his son had used, but it was the truth.
The Scots had been damn clever.
“They were either clever or very fortunate,” William said after a moment. “Or both. We had men all over the walls, outside the walls, and everywhere in between, but they still managed to breach. We lost an excellent knight in Maksim de Reyne. I’m told he was the reason we knew the castle was breached in the first place. Without his sounding the alarm, it could have been worse.”
“Itisworse,” Thomas said, eyeing his father, his brothers. “They killed a knight and six soldiers. They also badly wounded Gar. How does he fare, by the way?”
