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Hector lifted a hand and waved, acknowledging the request, and Thomas returned his attention to Maitland.

“You shall have your goats and chicken and geese delivered, my lady,” he said.

“And when I return in a couple of days, it will be with ten men. Meanwhile, you can prepare the outbuilding you spoke of so they have a place to sleep. You will also need to feed them.”

“I can do that, my lord.”

He smiled at her. “Good,” he said. Then, he lowered his voice so that only she could hear him. “It will seem like an eternity until I see you again, love. Wear the blue dress for me the next time I come.”

Maitland’s cheeks flushed a soft pink. “I will,” she murmured. Then, she lifted her right hand slightly, rubbing on the ring. “I shall think of you often.”

“Swear it.”

“I do.”

He winked at her. “Good,” he muttered. “I shall return.”

With that, he turned for his horse, vaulting up onto the animal’s back as the party from Northwood began to move out.

Hermes and Atreus, astride their wild stallions, began to tear off down the road at a gallop, causing the others to follow suit.

Soon enough, the entire group was thundering off down the road and Maitland watched them for a moment, shielding her eyes from the sun, watching Thomas tear down the road until he was out of her sight.

With a smile on her lips, she came back into the yard, closing the gate and throwing the big bolt on it to seal it up.

What a day it had been.

Maitland was feeling rather dazed and dreamy as she wandered back into the kitchen yard where the children were washing and drying the bowls and buckets used for the cheese.

Out of habit, Maitland jumped in to help, but her mind wasn’t on it.

It was on the day, on the moments she spent with Thomas, and on his return in a couple of days.

Odd how a man she’d tried to stay away from, or at least keep at a metaphorical arm’s length, had broken down her barriers in more ways than one.

She couldn’t wait to see him again.

Maitland returned to work with renewed vigor, making sure the children took the clean buckets to milk the goats again before they were sheltered for the night.

Since she wanted to increase the milk production, milking the goats twice a day would stimulate more milk.

Marybelle and Nora took their buckets and headed into the pen to milk, followed by the twins and Dyana, who wanted to play with the baby goats.

Artus and Phin remained outside of the pen to watch, and Maitland remained in the kitchen, cleaning out the bowls with Tibelda.

She kept an eye on the children as they milked and played, thinking that her little charity was coming along better than she could have ever hoped for.

Thanks to one rather handsome and powerful knight.

But what Maitland didn’t know was that Edenside was being watched from the trees to the north, just over the road.

That handsome and powerful knight had attracted the wrong kind of attention, and the eyes that had followed Thomas de Wolfe and the Northwood knights from Kelso had also decided not to follow the knights any further.

Women and children made a much better target, for none of Hobelar’s reivers wanted to tangle with seasoned knights.

That had been a group decision.

When they figured out that de Wolfe was either a sponsor or somehow responsible for the women and children of the old pele tower, even if the woman he seemed to be attentive towards wasn’t his wife, they decided that the tower with the women and children inside was to become part of their revenge against the stalwart commander of Wark Castle.

Damage the family and you damage the man.

That was exactly what Hobelar intended to do.

Whoever these people were to him, Thomas de Wolfe would get the message loud and clear.

*

Artus heard the noise first.

Awoken from a dead sleep, he could hear the goats making a great deal of noise and, suddenly, Maitland was rushing past his open chamber door, heading for the bolted tower entry.

“M’lady!” Artus leapt out of bed and rushed to the chamber door in time to see her throwing the entry bolt. “What’s amiss!”

Maitland was in a panic. “Something is in with the goats,” she said, yanking open the door. “Artus, grab a fire poker or anything you can get your hands on. Hurry! Bring it!”

Artus scrambled over to the hearth, now burning low with fire due to the lateness of the hour, and grabbed a heavy iron poker. He rushed from the chamber just as Phin and the twins were waking up.

“Stay here!” Artus hissed at them.

Fearfully, the boys remained in their beds as Artus rushed out with Lady Bowlin, a big iron poker in his grip. He handed it over to Lady Bowlin, however, as the two of them rushed out into the yard, by the big tree that hung over the wall.

That was their terrible mistake.

It was dark, with the moon to the west of the tower creating eerie shadows along the yard.

Rushing into the yard, Maitland and Artus failed to see men in the tree branches over their heads, men who had climbed onto the wall and then into the tree.

As the pair ran out, the men dropped down, catching the boy first, who screamed angrily.

They grabbed Maitland a split-second later and, panicked, she began swinging the iron poker around, pounding it on anyone who came too close.

It was so dark that Maitland couldn’t really see who she was hitting but she knew she made contact based on the painful grunts she was hearing.

At the moment, all she could think of was retreating into tower and bolting the door, but there were bodies behind her, preventing her from fleeing. Terrified, she began to scream.

“Artus!” she cried. “Get inside and bolt the door!”

Artus, however, was in his own battle, which really wasn’t so much of a battle as it was an outright capture– of him.

He wasn’t very large, and he couldn’t fight off a group of men, but he did the only thing he could do– he used his teeth and legs.

He was biting anything that came near, kicking with all of his might, but it wasn’t enough.

He was overwhelmed. As Maitland watched in horror, two shadowy figures dashed into the tower.

Unnatural strength seized her, strength she summoned to save the children.

With a roar, she leveled off the poker, swinging it at her head-level and hoping to catch her attackers in the head as well.

She began screaming for Tibelda to bolt doors, but then she heard crying as the attackers began emerging from the tower with children in their arms. Renard, Roland, and Phin were carried past her.

She could hear them screaming as they whizzed by and she remembered that the chamber door to the boy’s dormitory had been open.

The boys had been left vulnerable.

Then, there was screaming from the second level of the keep as the attackers reached the girl’s dormitory.

She could hear things slamming and the girls screaming, and she knew it was because Tibelda was putting up a fight.

The woman always carried a dagger in her skirts and, clearly, she was using it because she heard men yelling as well.

She could only pray that Tibelda had bolted the door to the girl’s dormitory.

The fighting in the tower seemed to go on forever.

As Maitland beat down her attackers, someone yanked the poker from her grip.

An old blanket was abruptly thrown over her head and as she fought and struggled, men were wrapping rope around her, tying her up in the blanket.

The sounds of a battle in the tower became eerily still and, shortly thereafter, she could hear Marybelle and Nora crying as they were carried from the keep.

Maitland ended up slung over someone’s shoulder, but she was still kicking and fighting as much as she could until they managed to get a rope around her ankles to still her legs.

Disoriented and suffocating in the stifling woolen blanket, she was forced to stop her struggles for fear she really would suffocate.

Whoever had her was rushing off with her and she was bounced around painfully, the sounds of the panicked goats growing further and further away.

She could hear the crying of the children and she called out to them, hoping to calm them.

They were caught up now, prisoners, and there was nothing more she could do.

She’d fought the battle and she’d lost, at least until the next battle, and once she assessed the situation, she would certainly give their abductors another fight.

Maitland never had been one to lie down and surrender.

But for the moment, the fight was over as she and the children were spirited off into the night.

What Maitland didn’t see was the last act of the abductors before they left the tower completely, and that was the careful placement of a wolf’s head dagger right at the entry to the tower, so it was sure not to be missed.

The reivers were sending a message, very loudly, and they wanted to ensure Thomas de Wolfe received it.

They wanted Thomas to know who was in charge.

*

Back at Edenside, the newly-repaired entry gate had managed to slam shut when the abductors fled, the hinges broken on the western gate, wedging the panel closed and immovable.

The goats in the kitchen yard were untouched, as were the chickens, although the door to their coop had been knocked open, giving them the opportunity to escape so they could find food.

The goats, having been harassed by men in an attempt to draw out those in the tower, were now moving through a breach in the pen, wandering out into the kitchen yard and into the kitchen itself where several sacks of grain, stored in a stone storage cabinet, drew their interest. Having been disturbed from their sleep, they were now wandering around, finding things to eat, whether or not they were meant to be eaten.