Page 115

Maitland watched as the five of them slithered through the foliage, between the trees, and finally to the hole in the wall.

She held her breath as Marybelle and Nora had to lift the twins through to Phin on the other side.

When she finally saw the girls slip through, the relief she felt was overwhelming. At least now, they’d have a chance.

Please, God, keep them safe!

Now, Maitland had her own plans to make, plans to keep the reivers fooled for as long as she could to give the children enough time to get far away.

Keeping her eye on the men moving about in the early morning hour, she began to rip up some of the foliage on the ground, making little piles of it.

When she had several little piles, she threw the horse blanket over them, patting it down to make it look like huddled children were sleeping beneath it.

But Maitland remained nervous; oh, so nervous.

She knew that at some point, Hobelar and his men would return and she could only hold them off so long with a story of sleeping children.

But for now, the children were running off, and no one had noticed as of yet, so the more the seconds ticked away, the more Maitland had hope that the children would make it to safety.

As the rain pounded and the lightning flashed, she sat and she waited.

Her wait wasn’t a long one, unfortunately.

As she sat there, her hand on one of the bumps under the blanket to make it look as if she were comforting a child, Hobelar appeared out of nowhere.

One moment, there was no one nearby, and in the next, that wild-eyed outlaw was standing just a few feet away.

The expression on his face turned Maitland’s blood to ice.

*

“Did you see that?”

The question had come from Thomas. He and the others had just crossed a river with thigh-high water and were huddling in a row of rain-soaked trees within sight of the old ruins of Castle Heton when they suddenly caught sight of a child bolting through the wet fields.

He took it for an animal at first until he saw skinny arms flailing.

It took Thomas a moment to realize that the child was Artus.

“My God!” Desmond gasped. “That is one of Mae’s children!”

Thomas nodded, his heart pounding at the sight.

The excitement and the fear that Maitland and the children had been found were overwhelming.

As he’d hoped and prayed, Castle Heton was the right place.

They found what they were looking for. He’d thank God for the good fortune when he had the time but, at the moment, he had serious things to accomplish.

God would understand.

“Go, Des,” he said, waving a sharp hand at the man. “Go and get him. Hurry!”

Desmond vaulted over the branch that was in his way, charging out into the field and heading straight for the panicked child.

As Thomas and his brothers and nephew watched, Desmond intercepted the child and grabbed him around the waist, racing back with him clutched against his torso.

But it was then that they saw more children falling out of a hole in the old castle walls– five children to be exact.

The children started running in different directions, some towards them, some away from them. Thomas pointed to the scattering horde.

“Go,” he commanded. “Get the children. Get them back to Northwood!”

Scott, Troy, Patrick, Blayth, and Markus charged from the shelter of the trees, each man going after a particular child.

Thomas left the shield of the trees as well, rushing across the field, trying to stay low as he approached the crumbled wall that signified the ruins of Castle Heton.

He ran past Troy as the man was heading back to the trees with a little girl in his arms, and then Patrick doing the same with a tiny little boy clutched against him.

All across the field, his brothers and nephew were collecting children and taking them to safety.

That left Maitland and Thomas was going to rescue the woman or die trying.

He’d already made that decision.

He went straight to the hole in the wall.

Thomas hunkered down for a moment, listening for cries or shouts from those inside the ruins, but there was relative silence. Certainly nothing that could be construed as an alarm, so it stood to reason that perhaps they didn’t even know their hostages has escaped.

Carefully, Thomas peered through the hole, seeing trees and foliage on the other side, but he also saw movement.

Straining to make it clear, he could just see Maitland being yanked to her feet by a big, dirty man.

That was all it took for Thomas to remove his crossbow and fire off a red-tagged arrow, up into the air and back in the direction from where he’d come.

It was a low shot, and a long one, hoping it could be seen against the storm and rain.

He was alerting the army to charge, praying they saw the signal because he didn’t intend to send off another.

That second arrow was reserved for the bastard who had just put his hands on Maitland.

It was about to get ugly.

*

Hobelar had her by the wrist, digging his dirty fingers into her flesh.

“I hope ye’ve had enough sleep, woman,” he said. “Ye are goin’ tae complete a task for me today.”

Maitland let him pull her away from the blanket. The less he saw of what it was covering, the better. “I did not sleep at all, if you must know,” she said unhappily. “What do you want of me?”

Hobelar wouldn’t let go of her wrist. “It is time we discuss my plan,” he said as the rain pounded down on them. “Ye’re off tae Wark today.”

Maitland tried to yank her arm free. “Let me go,” she snapped. “You are hurting me.”

Hobelar tightened his grip and twisted her arm so that she gasped. “Shut yer lips, woman,” he hissed. “If ye dunna want the children harmed, then ye’ll shut yer mouth and do as ye’re told. Are ye listenin’?”

Maitland stopped struggling against him because he was genuinely hurting her. “I am listening,” she said with contempt. “What do you want from me?”

Hobelar plastered on a feigned smile. “Good lass,” he said. “Do ye know where Wark is?”

Maitland lifted her shoulders. “I do not even know where we are.”

Hobelar indicated the direction behind him. “Wark is that way,” he said. “If ye take the road tae the south, it will take ye straight tae Wark.”

“And what do you want me to do when I get there?”

Hobelar eyed her for a moment before wiping the water from his face. “Tell de Wolfe he must come with ye,” he said. “Tell him I want tae speak tae him, and if he willna come, tell him I’ll kill the children and dump them at his gatehouse.”

Maitland felt fear shoot through her even though she knew that the longer she stood there and talked to Hobelar, the less chance the man had to get his hands on the children as they fled into the storm.

Run, children, run!

“I will tell him,” she said steadily. “But he will bring his army when he comes.”

Hobelar frowned. “Tell him the bairns will die if he does,” he said. “Ye dunna seem tae understand, woman. Explain tae de Wolfe that he must come alone. Anythin’ else and I’ll kill the children right in front of ye.”

Maitland shook her head at the man, that slow and wagging gesture suggesting utter disgust.

“Who has been so cruel to you your entire life that you believe hurting children is acceptable?” she asked.

“Did your mother beat you senseless? Did your father whip you until you screamed? What makes you think that behaving this way is the right and civilized thing to do? Those children have never done anything to you. They cannot hurt you in any way. They have never had anyone love them and I am trying very hard to raise them to be productive people. I am teaching them skills and a trade. Why would you take all of that away from them just for your foolish notions of revenge?”

Hobelar suddenly grabbed Maitland around the neck and she gasped, her hands going to his as he held her around the throat.

“Ye have no idea what I’ve done, woman,” he growled.

“If ye knew the men I’ve killed and the women I’ve cut tae pieces, ye wouldna speak tae me so.

For now, I’ll forgive ye, but do it again, and I’ll kill ye. ”

Maitland could feel the blood pulsing in her face. “Kill me and you’ll have no one to accomplish your terrible scheme.”

He squeezed tighter and Maitland knew if she didn’t fight back, he might very well kill her, so she brought a foot up, kicking him right between the legs.

Hobelar loosened his grip as he doubled over, but he didn’t let go of her completely.

As she tried to whirl away from him, he grabbed hold of her hair and yanked hard.

Maitland fell to her knees as Hobelar stood over her, mad enough to kill.

“That’ll cost ye, woman,” he said. “I hope ye enjoy pain.”

Before he could collect the dagger in the sheath on his belt, a high-pitched whistling sound filled the air and something solid hit Hobelar squarely in the chest. He staggered back and fell onto his buttocks as Maitland ripped her hair from his grasp.

Terrified and startled, she turned in time to see an arrow protruding out of Hobelar’s chest.

An arrow with a bright red flag attached to it.

Shocked, she turned in the direction the arrow had come from in time to see Thomas emerging from the cluster of birch trees. He had a wicked-looking crossbow in his hands and as the skies lit up with lightning, he rushed to Maitland and pulled her off of the ground.

“Thomas!” Maitland gasped in utter shock. “You’re here!”

He was already running away, pulling her with him, as the reivers over in the barrel vault realized something was terribly wrong. Men were spilling out into the storm, shouting the alarm.

“Hurry,” Thomas said as he pulled her into the birch trees. “No time to talk. Run! ”

Maitland didn’t need to be told twice. She was already running, leaping through the foliage and launching herself through the hole in the wall where the children had gone. Thomas was right behind her and they began running, as fast as they could, across the wet field that stretched to the east.

Thomas had Maitland by the hand, but she was running faster than he was.

Terror fueled her stride and by the time they reached the river, she plunged into it, sloshing across it as Thomas kept pace with her.

His horse was tethered to a tree on the other side and he grabbed Maitland, practically tossing her up into the saddle as he mounted in front of her.

“Thomas, the children!” Maitland cried as he reined his horse around. “We must find the children!”

Her hand was on his shoulder and he grasped it, kissing it quickly. “I already have, sweetheart,” he assured her. “The children are safe, I promise.”

Maitland didn’t say anything more. She was stunned and overwhelmed with Thomas’ slick rescue, hardly believing he’d been there to save her at just the right time.

It seemed like a miracle. As he spurred his horse away from Castle Heton, coming towards them over a rise was a massive army.

Maitland caught sight of the mounted army, hundreds and hundreds of them, and as Thomas charged through their lines, they continued on towards Castle Heton.

But that wasn’t all.

To the north, she could see another army moving towards Castle Heton and then, to the south along the road Hobelar had wanted her to take to Wark, she could see yet another line of men. It seemed like an entire army was surrounding them from all sides, all of them converging on Castle Heton.

It was a rescue the likes of which no one had ever seen before.

After that, Maitland pressed her face into Thomas’ back and held on, weeping softly now that she was safe.

They were tears of thanks, of joy, and of fear that hadn’t quite left her yet.

The children are safe, I promise , he’d said.

She wasn’t even sure she believed him until they reached an enormous castle and charged through the gates, and there she saw several big, wet men standing with her children near the entry to an inner ward.

Desmond was among those wet and weary men, and as Thomas pulled his horse to a halt, Desmond was there to pull his sister from the beast and embrace her tightly.

When Maitland caught a glimpse of Lady de Wolfe emerging from the keep with little Dyana in tow, the tears Maitland had so recently stilled returned with a vengeance, and she sank to her knees, opening her arms to the seven children she’d come so close to losing.

Hugging them all, alive and well, was one of the sweetest things she could have imagined.

God had been looking out for those children, for once.

Finally, they were safe.