“He’s not like you Blackadders or my family,” Alison said. “He pledged to protect my daughters with his life.”
Alison turned again to see her daughters, who rode behind them, each in the clutches of a Blackadder. They looked so small and helpless that she wanted to weep. She held back her tears and gave them what she hoped was a reassuring nod.
“Believe me, the Beast is no different from us,” Patrick said. “He’d sell those lassies to the devil to keep the lands he stole.”
She thought of Robbie and Will, who already had a bond of friendship with her daughters and would grow up to be the best of men. Her objection to the betrothals seemed trivial now. As David said, his brothers would make fine husbands, unlike the vile men her family and the Blackadders would have them wed.
“When I get my hands on Wedderburn, I’ll make him suffer for every time he touched you,” Patrick said, his lips against her ear. “I’ll punish him until he begs for death.”
CHAPTER 35
Alison’s hope that David would somehow find them faded with each mile they traveled. Most likely he had not even returned home yet to discover they were gone.
Yet she would not accept this fate. Escape was not possible now, while they were accompanied by a dozen armed warriors and she and her daughters were each held by a different rider. She would have to wait until after they reached Tulliallan Castle. But no matter how long it took, she would escape with her daughters and find her way back to Blackadder Castle.
And to David.
She heard the drum of galloping hoof beats and turned to see a group of riders appear at the top of the hill beside them. A moment later, the riders swept down the hillside like a wild river. Alison recognized David brandishing his sword at the front of the fast-approaching riders, and she knew her prayers had been answered.
The Blackadders fell into chaos, shouting to each other, while their horses whinnied and reared.
“God damn Humes!” Patrick said as he tried to control his mount.
An instant later, the Hume warriors rode into the Blackadders, filling the air with their war cries. Alison struggled to keep her daughters in sight, but she could only catch glimpses of them through the tumult.
“Mother! Mother!” Over the clank of swords and shouts, she heard them crying for her.
She elbowed Patrick as hard as she could, catching him off guard, and slid off his horse. As soon as she hit the ground, she realized her mistake. All around her, the battle raged on horseback. Swords flashed across her vision, and horses shied and sidestepped. If she did not get out of the midst of this quickly, she was going to be trampled.
She heard a roar and turned around to see David charging his horse through the mêlée toward her. Time seemed to slow and the chaos around her blurred. She saw only David coming for her, swinging his sword on one side and then the other, cutting down every Blackadder man who blocked his way.
She screamed as someone jerked her up from behind by her hair. David’s dirk flew above her head. She heard a thunk and a wail of agony as her hair was suddenly released. She fell to her hands and knees. Mud from the horses’ hooves spattered her face as she struggled to get back on her feet before she was crushed.
David charged forward, cutting down one last man between them. Without slowing his horse, he leaned down over its side and swung her out of the mud and into the air. She landed with a jarring thump behind him on his horse.
“Save my daughters!” she cried, pointing in the direction she had last seen them.
“Ian, follow me!” David shouted to one of his men, and spurred his horse up the hill, away from the raging battle.
He halted under an old oak a few yards up the hill and dumped her to the ground. She was not hurt, but she lost her footing and fell backward on her bottom with her muddy skirts askew.
“Don’t let her loose,” he told Ian. “Tie her to the tree if ye have to.”
Then he turned his horse and rejoined the fight.
Alison scrambled to her feet and strained to see where her daughters were.
“There!” she screamed when she saw a rider galloping off with Margaret down the path through the wood. A moment later, Patrick and his brother galloped off in the opposite direction with Beatrix.
“Ach, he’s split the lasses up to make to make it harder for us to catch them both,” Ian said beside her. “And he’s left the rest of his men behind to hold us off while they escape.”
David was the first to break through the Blackadder warriors, and he rode after Beatrix. Though it had not taken him long, Patrick and his brother had gained a good deal of distance.
The other Humes were bogged down in the fight.
“Someone must go after Margaret before it’s too late,” Alison cried in frustration.
Robbie, who was not in the fight—probably at David’s order—was close to the path through the wood. She watched him skirt around the fighting men, then take off at a mad gallop down the narrow path. He disappeared into the wood.
“Robbie is just a lad. Ye must help him!” she said, pulling at Ian’s arm. She was frantic.
“Nay,” Ian said.
“If ye won’t go, let me have your horse, and I will.”
“The laird said to keep ye here,” Ian said, glaring down at her. “Ye may have fooled those two dimwits at the gate this morning, but I know better.”
When she started for his horse, he blocked her path. He fingered the rope around his waist to remind her of David’s order to tie her if necessary. She beat on his shoulder, but he would not budge. There was nothing she could do but wait.
She felt as if she had died a thousand deaths before Robbie emerged from the brush. When she saw Margaret clinging to him on the back of his horse, tears welled in her eyes. Praise God!
Robbie rode up the hill to her. She saw the blood-soaked sleeve of his sword arm as he handed Margaret down to her from his horse, and she wanted to weep for what this fourteen-year-old lad had to do to bring her daughter back.
“You’re a good and brave young man, Robbie,” Alison said. “I’m forever in your debt.”
Robbie’s cheeks flushed. He gave her a quick nod, then turned his horse and rode into the fight.
Alison covered Margaret’s eyes to prevent her from seeing more bloodshed and hummed to block out the men’s screams as they died. Dear God, what had she done? The blood spilled today was on her hands. None of this would have happened if she had not left the protection of the castle.
Margaret lifted her head and asked, “Where’s Beatrix?”
“Don’t worry,” Alison said, and brushed her daughter’s hair from her face. “David’s gone after her.”
Margaret dropped her head against Alison’s chest, as if that was all she needed to hear.
Many things had become clear to Alison today. She had learned who she could trust and who she could not. And she knew with absolutely certainty that David would not return without her daughter.
***
A murderous rage coursed through David’s limbs, pulsed in his chest, and tinged the edges of his vision blood red. The Blackadders would pay for taking his wife and stepdaughters with their miserable lives.
Riding at a breakneck gallop, he was steadily closing the distance between him and the two horses. Patrick Blackadder was on one while his brother rode with Beatrix. All David could see of her behind the brother’s bulky frame was a bit of bright skirt and a tangle of dark hair blowing in the wind.
He’d never let them take her.
He spurred his horse to go faster still. Patrick Blackadder looked over his shoulder and saw him coming.
Aye, I’m going to catch and kill you. You’ve committed your last misdeed against me and mine, Patrick Blackadder.
David was close enough now he could almost taste revenge.
Patrick shouted something to his brother, then suddenly veered sharply to the right. Damn him to hell. David could only follow one. He stayed on the brother’s trail, as Patrick must have know
n he would.
He ground his teeth in frustration as he watched Patrick ride off, his image growing smaller and smaller on the horizon. The man was even lower than David had believed. Rather than take a chance that the two of them could prevail against him in a fight, Patrick had abandoned his brother to make his own escape.
His horse’s mane whipped David’s face as he leaned low over its neck and pushed the animal harder still. As he drew up beside the other rider, Beatrix turned wild eyes on him. Their horses’ hooves thundered over the ground. Letting go of his reins, David rammed his dirk into the man’s thigh and grabbed Beatrix with his other hand while his enemy screamed and reflexively reached for his wound.
The bastard was quick, though, and caught David’s arm. Beatrix screamed in his ear and galloping hooves blurred before his eyes as he was nearly wrenched off his horse. He slammed his fist against the hilt of the dagger in the man’s thigh. When the man let go of him with a howl of pain, David quickly righted himself.
He saw terror in his enemy’s eyes. Aye, death and David Hume have come for you. Holding Beatrix against his chest with one arm, he unsheathed his sword with the other and cut his opponent down with one sweeping motion.
He slowed to a trot and watched the Blackadder horse drag the brother’s limp body, which was caught by one foot, along the ground.
Battle rage still pumped in his veins. He stared off in the direction Patrick had ridden. Beatrix was safe now. He could set her down to await his return while he rode after Patrick.
David needed to see Patrick’s blood on his sword, to hear the sharp sound of steel ringing this enemy’s death song in his ears. But then he looked down at Beatrix, who had buried her face in his chest and was gripping his shirt in her wee fists, and knew he could not leave her.
Patrick would face his wrath another day.
***
David had returned with Beatrix, the fighting was over, and the bodies of the dead lay on the ground.
“’Tis all right now,” Alison said, holding her daughters in her arms. “You’re safe. You’re safe.” She repeated the words over and over, but her children wept inconsolably.
The Humes herded the four Blackadders who had not been killed or escaped into a circle. Alison prayed they meant to take them captive, but the hard expressions on the faces of the Hume men made her fear the worst. Killing in battle was one thing, but this would be murder. She could not bear for David to incur this black mark on his soul because of her misjudgment.
CHAPTER 36
David stood before the Blackadder prisoners, his body tense with the need to punish them for the affront to his pride, the fear that had shaken him when he thought Alison was lost, and the pain of knowing she had gone willingly.
The Blackadders had come far too close to succeeding. If David had not returned early or had not discovered Beatrix’s message, he never would have seen the trampled meadow along the path to the abbey and found the Blackadders’ trail in time to catch them.
A message must be sent. Every man in Scotland must know that an attack on his family would lead inexorably to death.
“Kneel,” he commanded the prisoners, “and face your death with what courage ye can muster.”
Another chieftain would give the grisly task of execution to another, but David would not burden one of his men with it. The affront had been personal and the responsibility was his.
He unsheathed his sword.
A twinge of guilt broke through his rage when he saw that the first prisoner was not much older than Robbie. In his mind’s eye, he saw the burned village and Leana’s discarded body in the reeds again. He had good reason to believe a different party of Blackadders—a party led by Walter—had attacked the village. But whether these four men had participated in that crime or not, they were Blackadders and guilty.
Killing a man on his knees turned David’s stomach, but it must be done. These men did not merit a warrior’s death. He wiped the blood and sweat from his hands and approached the first prisoner.
Suddenly, Alison was between him and the four Blackadders.
“I beg you,” Alison said, falling to her knees like the prisoners and clasping her hands. “Don’t kill them!”
David looked down at his wife, a woman he would die for. What he would not give to have her defend him. Instead, she judged him. She would fall on her knees to beg for these foul men who meant her harm, but she despised him for the lengths he would go that she might be safe.
He had learned as a boy that life was rarely fair. And still, the injustice of it cut deep.
“Get away from the prisoners,” David hissed.
“I can’t let ye do this,” she said. “When your temper cools, you’ll regret slaughtering men who are already defeated.”
They deserved to die. The consequences of endangering his family must be made clear to all.
“Look at them, David. See how young they are,” she said, flinging her arm out toward the prisoners. “Do ye believe they had a choice about riding with Patrick Blackadder today?”
They were enemy warriors, not lads playing games. And yet, looking down into Alison’s pale face, he hesitated. If he did this, he would be even more of a monster in her eyes than he already was. Why did that still matter to him after what she’d done?
“Please,” she said. “My daughters have seen enough bloodshed today.”
He turned and called to Beatrix and Margaret, who were being guarded by Ian. As soon as Ian released them, they ran to him. When he knelt down to speak to the lassies, they threw their arms around his neck.
“I knew ye would find us,” Beatrix said.
“Me too,” Margaret said close to his ear.
His heart hurt a little less knowing that they trusted him.
“Did any of these men hurt you?” he asked, pointing at the four prisoners. If they had, nothing could save them.
The girls’ black curls bounced as they shook their heads in unison.
“Ye were verra brave, and I’m proud of ye.”
They hugged him again, and he wondered if Alison had been as easy to please when she was a wee girl.
“You lassies will ride with Robbie and Ian to the castle,” he said, and signaled for his brother and Ian to take them.
While the two helped the girls onto their horses, David returned to stand before the prisoners. It was against his better judgment to spare them.
“Ye may thank my lady wife for your lives, but heed my warning.” He let his gaze travel slowly along the row so that each man would see the depths of his rage in his eyes. “If ye ever set foot on Hume land again, I shall cut ye to pieces and feed ye to the crows.”
David’s fingers itched on the hilt of his sword, and he hoped one of the prisoners would give him an excuse.
“Gather your dead and ride before I change my mind,” he said, and turned his back on them.
***
David tied the reins of Alison’s horse to his, snapping the knot tight, then looked at her with an expression of such cold fury that a shiver went up her spine. He motioned for one of his men to help her onto her horse, as if he were too angry to risk touching her himself.
David did not turn back to look at her once on the long ride back to the castle. The other Hume men were subdued. Alison felt their disapproval in their silence and surreptitious looks. Miraculously, none of them appeared badly injured, but most had cuts and bruises.
When they finally rode through the castle gates, the entire household poured into the courtyard. But after seeing the men’s hard expressions, no one spoke a single word. Will alone gave her a friendly look.
“Take care of the horses and mind Beatrix and Margaret,” David ordered his brothers, then he turned and pointed a finger at Alison. “You, come with me.”
Those were the first words he had spoken to her since the rescue. As she followed him up the stairs to their bedchamber, she could feel the heat of his anger pulsing from his body, as if she were standing too close to a raging bonfire.
As soon as he closed their bedchamber door behind them, he turned on her.
“At the first opportunity, ye chose to go to my enemies,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
“I—”
“The Blackadders!” he shouted. “If ye were going to leave me, did ye have to stab me in the heart by going to them?”
“I didn’t. My uncle sent for me—”
“Don’t lie,” he said, clenching his hands. “I saw no Douglases there.”
As quickly as she could, she told him about the monk delivering a message in the night, what happened at the abbey, and being taken by force on their return.
“I had no choice but to go to the abbey,” she said. “He’s my uncle and a bishop, and he said my daughters’ lives were at stake.”
“Neither your family nor the Blackadders have ever given a damn about you or your daughters. But I,” he said, pounding his chest, “I would give my life to protect you. And this is how ye reward me?”
“David—”
“I should never have expected loyalty from a Douglas,” he spat out.
He turned his back on her and went to the window.
“I did not choose them over you,” she said. “I was not disloyal. I feared for my daughters and felt I must heed my uncle’s warning to come.”
“Lies pour from your mouth,” he said, still with his back to her. “Ye knew damned well what your family and the Blackadders wanted.”
“I swear I did not.”
“Any fool would know they meant to take you and the girls from me, and you’re no fool, Alison Douglas,” he said. “Ye wanted to leave me.”
“Nay, I did not,” she said, tears blurring her eyes. “That’s what they wanted me to do, but I refused.”
“Easy to say after your scheme failed,” he said.
“I did not know their plan.”
“If that is true, then ye blindly put your trust in men who have proven time and again that they are unworthy of it.” He paused. “Ye withheld that trust from me, despite all I’ve done to try to earn it.”
CAPTURED BY A LAIRD (THE DOUGLAS LEGACY) Page 21