“Stop them!” The confused guards were now pulling more horses out of the stables, saddling them up, understanding that our mission was in fact a getaway.
And Campbell and his men had emerged from the manor with swords raised, running toward the stables to procure their own horses.“Seize them!”howled Laird Campbell, with a face as red as a prized beet.“She’s the king’s lost child! I want her!”
More aggravated shouts spiked through the air as we neared the gate.
“Laird Ogilvie is dead!”
“Chase them down!”
“Retrieve that lass at any cost!”
But the two guards who manned the gate never stood a chance. Wilkie, who had somehow gained possession of a dagger—I guessed it was one of Ritchie’s or Ronan’s—cut down with a vicious swipe a guard who attempted to grab the reins of our horse. The second man, struggling to pull the heavy gates of the keep closed, was knocked and stepped on by Ritchie’s horse.
And we were outside the walls of the Ogilvie keep, on our way, at full gallop. Pursued by an assembling number of vengeful Ogilvie warriors—although in fact I wondered if their numbers would be all that daunting—and the hell-bent posse of Laird Campbell and his twelve officers.
I only hoped our horses were up to the task ofoutrunning equally large animals, and those that carried only one man.
Wilkie’s arms were wrapped around me securely, and he pushed our horse harder and faster. I could take comfort from his closeness as I leaned against him, holding my hand to his thigh.
I could see that Ronan’s and Ritchie’s horses were close behind us.
And far in the rear distance, when I peeked around Wilkie’s body, I could see the figures of at least twenty ridden horses, creating a dusty cloud behind them.
Gaining on us.
“Faster,” I whispered, but Wilkie needed no reminder. Our horses were at full speed, already slowing slightly from the weight of us and the speed at which they were being pushed to hold.
We were outnumbered vastly. I had a sinking feeling there would be no escape this time if we were caught. In hindsight, bringing along the minister might not have been the best plan of action; it meant that Campbell could force me to marry him without delay. And Campbell would know, too, that there was one sure way to get me to agree to anything. Anything.
Saving him, my warrior.
Wilkie was wild, flailing our horse with the only riding crop he had on hand: the dagger’s wide edge. The horse was responding to it, too, but it could only hold such a wicked pace for so long.
And they were gaining on us.
Very quickly now.
I could hear their shouts as they spurred each other forward.
“Get me that lass!”
We were approaching the rise of a hill, traveling at such speed that I hoped there weren’t cliffs or rocks or unseen holes on the far side of it. But we couldn’t slow. We would have to risk pitfalls in the interest of saving our own lives. And I could hear a loud, thundering noise, very close and all around us. Dust seemed to be rising from all sides, oddly, and the noise was deafening. Shouts circled in the air, as though the wind had picked up the noisy approach of our pursuers and amplified it, swirling it in all directions.
I heard Ismay scream and turned to see what I could. I caught only a brief glimpse of Ritchie answering the jab of a Campbell officer with his own sword, fighting him off but only just barely, as the soldier rode now at his horse’s flank.
Wilkie pushed on, and we were nearly to the top of the hill.
And when we reached the top, we were afforded a most alarming, beautiful, astounding view: the Mackenzie army, approaching from the north, riding straight toward us in numbers of several hundred men.
CHAPTER TWENTY
WERANSTRAIGHTINTOthem, among them, swallowed up by Wilkie’s clansmen, absorbed, amazingly, into a sudden sea of safety.
And I could see that Campbell’s men were in such close pursuit and were caught so off guard by this sudden materialization of an enemy army that several of them rode right into the Mackenzie masses. As Wilkie turned our horse, I caught sight of two Campbell officers being cut down, impaled by the swords of a number of Mackenzie warriors, who may have attacked out of sheer surprise more than anything else.
Campbell was livid and appeared almost crazed with his many frustrations, yelling, “Pull back, men! Pull back! The Mackenzies are too many!”He swore loudly at the sight of two of his men being slain, then he repeated his orders in a high-pitched shrill.“Pull back!”
The remaining soldiers of the combined Campbell and Ogilvie forces followed their leader’s order, retreating and forming a row that faced the front line of the now-halting Mackenzie troops. In the center of the Mackenzie front line were Laird Mackenzie, Kade and Fergus flanked on either side by two Munros, the distinctive bright red color of their Munro tartan standing out among the mass of blue and green of the Mackenzies.
