“Did you identify the Scots?” he asked Kevin. “What clans?”
Kevin was struggling to sit up because he was close to falling asleep. “Our scouts have told us they recognized MacKay and Gordon.”
Patrick looked at him in utter horror. “Gordon?”
“Aye. Why?”
So much for trying to remain calm. Patrick stared at Kevin, hardly able to speak for the terror racing through his mind.
“You were not at Berwick when a man from Clan Gordon came to tell us….” He couldn’t even finish. “They want Bridey. My God… they want my wife.”
Kevin peered at him in confusion. “Why would they want her?”
Patrick struggled to bring forth the explanation. “Because the mother prioress of Coldingham was raped by a member of Clan Haye years ago,” he said haltingly. “When Bridey was brought to Coldingham by her mother, who was a member of Clan Haye, the mother prioress and her brother came up with a plot to use my wife in vengeance against Clan Haye. Before I left for London, we had a visitor from Clan Gordon who came to Berwick to tell us of this plot. Colm thought the man was there to scout Berwick, to see our strengths and weaknesses, but I discounted that. And now… oh, Sweet God, now I see that I must have been wrong. They waited until I left to attack the fortress, hoping it would be easier to get to Brighton.”
Kevin could see how distraught Patrick was, now coming to understand why the man was more distressed than he should have been. Something evil was centering around the woman he married, something unspeakable and dark.
“We haven’t been able to speak with anyone inside of the fortress,” he said. “We have been separated from the castle by a line of Scots. Are you telling me that they are there to target your wife?”
Patrick could only nod. Not having contact with anyone inside the fortress, Paris and Patrick’s brothers, and anyone else, wouldn’t know that the ultimate goal of the siege was to get to Brighton. They would think it was simply a nasty siege, like any number of sieges the Scots were so capable of. They wouldn’t know that it was Patrick’s wife who was in danger, the very woman who breathed life into his veins.
He had to get home.
“Listen to me,” Patrick said, reaching out to pull Kevin off the bed. “I want you to find Daniel de Lohr. He is here, somewhere. I want you to tell him what has happened and tell him I am leaving for Berwick tonight. The man was supposed to supply me with troops to take with me to the north, but I cannot wait for them. You will stay here and bring the troops north, do you hear? I cannot wait, Kevin. I must go home.”
Kevin lurched to his feet, weaving wearily. “I will find him and tell him,” he said. “But I am going with you. You cannot go alone.”
Patrick was in no mood to argue. “Do as I say,” he snapped. “After you find de Lohr, find Henry and tell him also, for he will want to know. Tell Henry… tell him that the Gordon has attacked Berwick in an attempt to get my wife. Tell him I have already left for Berwick. He will understand.”
Kevin wasn’t happy with the command but he nodded his head. “As you wish,” he said reluctantly. “Is there anything else?”
Patrick shook his head, grabbing his saddlebags and slinging them over one broad shoulder. “Nay,” he replied. “Just do as I ask and come as quickly as you can.”
With that, they fled the room. Kevin followed Patrick all the way down to the stable block, remaining with Patrick in case there were any last-minute orders. But none were forthcoming and Patrick eventually chased Kevin away to carry out his existing orders.
As Kevin headed off into the torch-lit grounds of Westminster, Patrick finished saddling his excitable beast. He was fairly excitable himself, hating that it would take so long to reach Berwick and wondering what he would find when he arrived. But above all of his fears, he was grateful for one thing – that his father and his knights were there to protect Brighton from men who wanted to kill her. They knew the grisly story of Gordon vengeance and they knew why the Scots had come. Patrick knew they would do everything in their power to keep his wife safe. It was, perhaps, the only thing keeping him sane at the moment.
He’d been gone from Berwick thirteen days. Kevin had said that the siege had been going on since a few days after he’d left, which meant it was almost a two-week siege at best. But he took comfort in his father being at Berwick and the great de Wolfe and de Longley armies there to engage the Scots and, hopefully, chase them away.
In fact, that could have already happened and he would return to a fortress that was picking up the pieces but mostly sound and whole. That was the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario, he couldn’t bring himself to entertain.
By the light of a three-quarter moon, Patrick set off for Berwick.
Have faith, Bridey, he prayed over and over. I am coming!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Nine days later
Berwick Castle
Berwick Castle, if nothing else, was built to withstand anything.
A bombardment from archangels notwithstanding, the walls had held off the Scots for nearly three weeks. The first few days of the siege had been somewhat sporadic and unorganized, but then a second wave of Scots appeared and the battle began to take some form. There were ladders, many of them, and the Scots were attempting to mount the walls with them but they weren’t quite tall enough, so the ladders disappeared for a day or two only to reappear with extensions on the ends, making them very tall and very unstable.
Truthfully, William wasn’t all that concerned. He’d fought Scots for more years than he cared to recall and he’d seen their tactics, including the unstable ladders. The walls of Berwick were enormous, more than twenty feet in height in some places, with some of the towers nearly sixty feet in height, so William knew that the Scots wouldn’t be able to easily mount the walls much less breach them. They either had to go over them or under them, and either one of those choices was nearly impossible. Frankly, he was surprised they were making the attempt. Still, every time they drew close, William and the knights were ready for them.
Flaming arrows were launched by the archers in the center of the bailey at the Scots on the exterior of the castle, and more than one met its target. Being that the castle was now locked away from the world, William was careful with the ammunition, for arrows were valuable, so he conserved as much as he could. The men of Berwick spent most of their time on the walls, shoving away those unstable ladders and generally doing a good deal of damage that way. In fact, other than the arrows lost, the men of Berwick hadn’t had all that difficult time of it with the Scots.
Then, the English armies arrived.
William had seen the massive army approaching from the west, lines of men in battle formation as they approached the castle, and he saw the standards of de Wolfe and de Longley and Teviot. Confidence filled him in knowing that his oldest and dearest friend, Paris de Norville, had made an appearance with the army from Northwood and also that Kieran had brought his own troops from Castle Questing. It was a prideful sight, indeed, to see the two armies merged and heading towards Berwick like a great steel tide.
The Scots, however, weren’t so impressed. It was a sight that should have made them withdraw but, instead, they rushed out to attack the English army and as William and the knights of Berwick watched with some fascination, the Scots engaged the incoming English armies in hand-to-hand combat that grew nasty very quickly.
It went off and on for days, men fighting one another, killing each other, and soon the dead began to pile up. The armies had met to the north of Berwick on a great hilly, grassy plain, and the attack on the castle eased up because the Scots were diverted to the incoming English armies.
And William hardly slept because of it. He spent his time on the battlements watching the ebb and flow of the fighting, knowing that his dear friends, Paris and Kieran, were in the middle of it, older men who should be enjoying their advancing years but, instead, were in the midst of a battle because William was in need of them.
Wi
lliam also suspected that his sons, Scott and Troy and possibly even James, had come because the army of de Wolfe was quite vast and the banner they flew from garrison to garrison was always the same, so it was quite possible all of William’s border garrisons had spared men to defend Berwick. It concerned William a great deal that his sons were in the midst of the battle, too, so he stayed awake, watching, trying to determine if the English were making headway against a particularly vitriolic band of Scots.
And then, it happened.
Because the garrison had been lured to watching the fighting on the northeastern side of the castle, clever Scots has used that distraction to bring their ladders up to the southeast corner of the fortress where the wall was the shortest. But the English were vigilant and only one ladder managed to get up, with a few Scots leaping over the parapet, only to be met by dozens of furious Englishmen swinging swords.
The clash on the battlements was great as more than one Scot was thrown back over the wall, and a few of the English soldiers injured, before Hector and Alec managed to dislodge the ladder and send it crashing. After that, there was even coverage over the entire wall walk to ensure they weren’t caught off guard again. It was clear the Scots were looking for any advantage to mount the walls, so William vowed they would not be caught off guard again.
And so, the battle between the Scots and the incoming English armies went on for almost three weeks, although there was a definite ebb and flow to the battle. Sometimes it was greater, sometimes there was nothing at all. But through it all, the Scots refused to leave.
Exhausted from days upon days of fighting, the clans had dug in around the exterior walls of Berwick, no longer trying to breach the castle but remaining around the castle for the most part so the English army couldn’t make their way inside and the inhabitants couldn’t get out. The English army had backed off, too, watching the castle and the Scots from a rise to the north while the occupants of the castle remained relatively unscathed. At least, it had been that way for nineteen days.
On the morning of the twentieth day, William was on the walls, watching the encampments both below him and to the north, smelling the smoke from the cooking fires as it mingled with a seasonally-unusual fog bank that had rolled in during the night. It was cold and damp, strange weather for July, and it was also strangely silent. In fact, he didn’t like it at all. There was a tangible stillness in the air, tense, as if there was a predator waiting to pounce somewhere in the mist that he couldn’t see.
Something told him to be vigilant.
“Any movement this morning, Uncle William?” Alec came up beside him, his breath hanging in the cold early morning. “I will admit that I am curious to know what my father is waiting for. The English outnumber the Scots; they should simply drive them away.”
William glanced at his son-in-law. “Paris and Kieran have attempted a few tactics to remove them,” he said. “But these are Gordon men, Alec. They want something very badly inside this castle and they will not leave without it. They are stubborn that way.”
Alec knew that the Scots beyond the wall were Gordon and MacKay; that had been established early on. He also knew that they had come for Patrick’s wife, or at least that was what William believed based upon the whole confusing mess with the mother prioress and her need for vengeance against Clan Haye.
Colm and Anson were convinced that the visit by the Scotsman those weeks ago was merely a precursor to the siege. Intelligence gathering, they had presumed. But it seemed to Alec that the Scots had picked a very big hurdle to tackle in their quest for revenge against Clan Haye. Surely there was an easier way than attacking the biggest castle on the border.
“Those fools,” Alec muttered. “They want Bridey so badly that they are going to tear themselves up against the walls of Berwick simply to get at her. What a stubborn bunch this is. Can they not see that taking the woman from these walls will be impossible? Yet they continue to try.”
William nodded vaguely, his one good eye trying to penetrate the mist. “And they will continue to try until they simply give up and return home,” he said. “It is my belief that they truly believe we hold something that belongs to them, as if we have somehow stolen Bridey from them. For there is truly no other reason for the Gordon to attack Berwick. I see no other logical explanation other than they all have a death wish.”
As Alec leaned against the parapet, looking out into the mist just as William was, the other knights joined them. Hector followed by Damien, Colm, and, finally, Anson joined William and Alec as they gazed out over the wall into the fog. It was lifting slightly, but not enough. It made everything hazy and mysterious. Hector peered over the wall to see what was down below.
“They are dug in like moles,” he said after a moment. “They have set up shelters even, crude as they are. Do they truly think to remain dug in like that?”
William shook his head. “I have never seen anything like this in all of my years fighting the Scots,” he said. “I was telling Alec that I believe that the Gordon must sincerely believe we have something that belongs to them. There is no other reason why they would dig in like this.”
Colm and Anson quickly glanced over the parapet as well, seeing the Scots huddled down below. “Do they truly think to wait us out?” Anson wondered. “And why haven’t the English gone in after them. What are they waiting for?”
William shook his head. “They must have a reason,” he said. “I can only imagine is it some kind of strategy. Either that, or Paris de Norville has gone mad.”
Hector grinned at the mention of his father. “Many people have assumed that throughout his life,” he said. His smile faded as he looked off towards the north as if to see his father through the fog. “I am sure Papa is working on something. He simply would not sit there and let us rot. But I am at a loss to imagine what it could be.”
No one seemed to know. William leaned back against the stone, feeling the dampness to his bones. “If I could get a message to them, we could plan a joint offensive,” he said. “Mayhap I can write a note and we can use an archer to shoot it over the heads of the Scots towards Paris’ encampment. Mayhap a patrol would pick it up and take it to Paris.”
The knights were interested. “What kind of joint offensive?” Hector asked.
William pondered that for a moment. “We have over a thousand men inside,” he said. “We could separate five hundred and take them out of the bailey and then seal up the donjon. That leaves the men, and some knights, on the bridge that spans the chasm, trapped between the locked Douglas Tower and the donjon. With the donjon sealed, we open the gates of the Douglas Tower and charge out and into battle with the Scots. Have Paris and Kieran bring their men in at the same time and we can drive the Scots away from Berwick.”
It seemed like a logical plan. “Who will go and chase the Scots away?” Hector asked hopefully. “And who will remain here at Berwick to man the walls?”
William turned to glance at the host of eager faces, all of whom wanted to charge out to fight the Scots. No knight worth his weight wanted to stand around and hope for an end to a conflict. They wanted to do something about it. William well remembered what it was like to be young and enthusiastic about battle.
“We have two choices,” he said. “I can choose the men who will go and explain my reasons, or we can simply draw straws. What is your preference?”
The knights looked at each other for a moment, torn by his statement because no one wanted to be left behind. It was Alec who finally spoke. “You choose, Uncle William,” he said quietly. “We trust your judgement in all things.”
No one wanted to insult the integrity of the great William de Wolfe, so they all nodded as William considered his options.
“Hector, you will take Damien and Colm with you and lead the charge on the field,” he said. “You are the senior knight and you can command the charge. You will need Damien and Colm’s swords with you, as they are imposing men in hand-to-hand combat. I will remain here with Alec and Anson, because
if the Scots somehow manage to enter the castle, as they did once before, then we must be here to fight them off. Alec has a powerful sword arm, like his father, and Anson can command the men easily because command is his strength. As for me – I will go to my son’s wife and protect her personally. Those Scots will get her over my dead body.”
He meant every word of it. It wouldn’t have been a fitting ending for The Wolfe to die defending a woman in a corner of a castle, but it would have been an incredibly noble death. Still, no one wanted to see that happen. Alec and Anson knew they would be the last line of defense between William and the lady, and a gang of murderous Scots should the Scots breach Berwick. Suddenly, the misty day grew a bit more solemn. Plans had been made and roles defined.
It was time to act.
“Shall you write the missive to my father or would you like me to?” Hector asked quietly. “I will summon our best archer to land the note as close as he can to my father’s encampment. We can only pray one of his patrols picks it up.”
William waved him on. “You may write it,” he said. “Tell him that at dawn tomorrow, as soon as the sun breaks the horizon, we charge from the castle to purge the Scots from our perimeter once and for all. Tell your father to make sure his men are ready to help us.”
Hector nodded. With a lingering glance at the other knights with an expression suggesting that the worst was possibly yet to come, he headed down the wall walk on his way to a tower with stairs that would take him down to the bailey. The Baker’s Tower was the nearest because it was near the kitchens. Just as he entered it, he could see a figure coming up the narrow spiral stairs towards him. Hector stepped back only to realize that it was Brighton.
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