Page 78 of Warrior’s Lady

The maid set her sewing aside and rose from her chair.

"Stop," Rhiannon commanded. "Please, come no nearer to me."

The maid's face paled. "Why, milady?"

Rhiannon swallowed roughly. "Plague has hit the castle."

The maid gasped.

The children froze in their play. Even they knew the implications of that terrible word.

After a long pause, Violet said, "I can help. If you will only bring me the Stone."

"I would if I could." Rhiannon felt her shoulders dip as she explained what had happened.

"I was mad at you at first, for taking the Stone from me." The shield of aloofness around Violet dissolved as her eyes filled with tears. "I'm not mad anymore. I tried to protect you."

Rhiannon stared at the little girl, baffled. "What do you mean?"

Violet set her doll on the floor and rose, heading for Rhiannon. "I thought that if I—"

"Stop! I beg you. Come no closer. I could not live with myself if you became ill because of me."

The girl froze. Fear, stark and vivid, glittered in her eyes. "I thought that if I allowed myself to care about you, that you would be taken from me like my daddy and my mum. So I started pretending I didn't care."

Rhiannon felt a rush of sympathy at the child's logic, and how she'd tried to protect herself from further loss. "I'm not going anywhere, sweetheart."

"How can you say that? The plague…"

"I am not going anywhere," Rhiannon said with such conviction she almost made herself believe the words were the truth. "Our lives were brought together for a reason."

Violet nodded. "Because God knew I'd need a mother."

An odd kind of peace settled over Rhiannon at the young girl's words. "Promise to stay in this room? All of you?" She searched each of their faces for agreement.

"We promise," Violet stated for them all.

Convinced that they would do as she asked, Rhiannon returned to care for the sick and dying.

Camden cupped his hands around his mouth and blew a hoary breath to warm his fingers as he waited for his men to surround the bishop's house. He wanted all exits covered before they attacked the bishop and his men. The bishop would surrender the Stone before the battle was through.

Dawn began to lift the gloom of night and give shape and substance to the bricked walls of the bishop's borrowed home. Tension knotted the muscles of Camden's back and neck as he waited in the cold that seemed to soak through his heavy layers of clothing to scratch wet, icy fingers up and down his spine. He was well-armed for this attack, with two daggers strapped to his chest, a claymore against his back, and his curved sword strapped to his side. All within reach and deadly, should the bishop choose not to cooperate.

It did not take long for his men, twenty-five heavily armed warriors, to surround the house. They waited in the growing light of day for the order to strike.

They were loyal, every single one of them — loyal to him not because of his politics or his religion or even his wealth, but because they were family. Their dedication, even Orrin's, warmed his spirit as he drew his curved sword and signaled for the charge to begin.

On his signal, half of the warriors charged into the house, while the other half waited outside for men who might try to escape. The bishop's forces were small, but powerful. That they'd stripped them of their cannon gave Camden a measure of comfort as he dismounted and charged through the door that his warriors had just knocked off its hinges.

In less than ten minutes, the bishop's men had been shredded by Scottish steel. Some men lay dying, surrounded by their own blood while others lived, cursing, moaning—their faces gritty masks of fear.

Camden led the charge into the inner chambers of the house. They servants cowered as they drew near, waving Camden's men through the corridor. They stopped abruptly at the sight of the bishop himself, sprawled on the floor in the middle of the hall.

Inside the nearest chamber, a young woman lay upon the floor, her face and neck covered with a red rash. The plague had struck here, too.

"Go get some horses from their stable," Camden ordered the warriors who had followed him into the room. "We'll take those who are living back to Lee Castle."

"What about the plague?" Orrin asked. "We are all exposed. Our only hope now is to find the Stone and pray its magic works on us all." Camden knelt beside the bishop's body.