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Kelso

“’T is him?”

“’Tis.”

The Bold Hobelar could hardly believe his luck. The youngest de Wolfe cub, the commander of Wark Castle, was in Kelso on this day evidently without his army, which was shocking. Hobelar could hardly believe it until his men confirmed it.

“’Tis shockin’, I say,” Hobelar said. “I thought I recognized the man when we came intae town from the north, when he was in the crowd with those children. Do ye suppose the children are his own?”

The man who had confirmed the identity of Thomas de Wolfe was the same man who was always scouting for Hobelar, always breathless and quick of movement. He lifted his slender shoulders.

“He’s with a woman,” he said. “I saw him kiss her. It could be his wife.”

Hobelar’s bushy eyebrows lifted. “The man has come tae town with his wife and children, and no army?” he said in disbelief. “It is possible this is tae be too easy for us.”

“What do you intend to do?”

Hobelar turned towards the tournament field where the mass competition was currently taking place.

He could hear the crowds cheering in the distance.

He was huddled with a small group of his men in the cold shadows of Kelso’s big abbey while the rest of the group was wandering the crowd at the fair, stealing what they could.

Even the reivers had heard of the great fair today and they’d made a point of coming to steal, pickpocket, and otherwise wreak havoc on an unsuspecting crowd.

But what he hadn’t counted on was seeing the man he’d sworn revenge against after the disaster in Coldstream.

He’d managed to ambush one party from Wark, resulting in several deaths, but now to find the youngest de Wolfe cub within his sights, with no protection of soldiers, in fact, was almost too good to be true.

“I’m not certain,” he said. “Where is he now?”

The breathless man threw a finger in the direction of the tournament field. “He’s joined with other knights,” he said. “He’s fighting in the mass competition.”

That brought Hobelar pause. “Other knights,” he muttered. “Friends?”

“They fly the standard of Northwood Castle.”

That brought recognition to Hobelar. It also brought pause. “Northwood and de Wolfe are brothers tae the bone,” he said. “We thought the man was alone with his wife and bairns, but he’s not. He’ll stick with Northwood’s men.”

“Then what do you want to do about it?”

It was the second time the same question had been asked and Hobelar wasn’t entirely certain now, but the news that de Wolfe was with the Northwood knights had him thinking.

He would go after one knight alone, even a de Wolfe, but he wasn’t about to go after several heavily-armed Northwood knights, too.

Still, he was an opportunist and knew he had to take his chances, for another one might not come.

Revenge, if not taken when presented, often slipped away into oblivion.

His heart was pounding with the possibilities.

“Clearly, the man has come tae enjoy the fair and the competition,” Hobelar said. “He’s not come prepared tae do battle. But I’ll not let him slip away. We’ve found him in a moment of weakness and I’ll not let this go.”

“Then what do we do?” the breathless man demanded.

Hobelar had to look decisive to his men; he knew that. Any sign of weakness and the faint of heart lost faith.

“We go tae the field,” he said firmly. “We watch tae see if de Wolfe and the Northwood knights part ways. I am willin’ tae take on one lone knight, but I’m not willin’ tae take on several, and especially not men from Northwood Castle.

There’s an opportunity in this, lads, but we must be smart about it. ”

The men glanced at each other, some of them even nervously.

They’d taken a massive beating in Coldstream several days before and they hadn’t come to Kelso with the intention of going into battle, but Hobelar was seeing this as a chance to seek vengeance on de Wolfe.

No one had expected to see the man here.

Now, a trip to the fair for some easy targets was becoming something else and the breathless man, always the man of reason, summoned his courage to speak on it.

“If the man is with his friends from Northwood, then it would be foolish to challenge them all,” he said.

“If you want to be smart about it, then we wait for de Wolfe to leave Kelso and we follow him. Mayhap he’ll leave with just the woman and the children and, if that is the case, we can catch him on the road.

If we try to take him now, with his friends around, we could all end up dead. ”

Hobelar was eager but he wasn’t stupid. “Then we follow the man,” he said decisively.

“We go tae the field and we watch him every moment. When he leaves Kelso, we leave. We follow him wherever he goes and look for the chance tae strike. I’ll not let the deaths of my men go unanswered.

God has given me this chance tae seek vengeance and de Wolfe is goin’ tae pay with his blood, do ye hear? ”

The breathless man nodded reluctantly. “But if you kill him, you bring the whole of de Wolfe down around us,” he pointed out. “Kill one and they’ll all come. They’ll tear apart the north looking for us and we cannot survive such a thing.”

Hobelar lifted his eyebrows. “I dinna say I was tae kill him,” he said. “But his wife and children are with him. Damage the family and ye damage the man.”

Some of the outlaws didn’t care about the age or sex of those they robbed or murdered, but others did. Attacking a man was one thing, but attacking his young children was another. Hobelar’s intentions were brutal but not unexpected given the man and his reputation.

It was simply his way.

As Hobelar pulled his woolen cloak over his head and dashed out towards the tournament field, followed by most of his men, the breathless man lingered by the abbey for a moment, wondering if Hobelar’s sense of vengeance was going to kill them all.

Ambushing a party of men from Wark was one thing, but ambushing a man and his family?

The breathless man suspected this was not going to end well, for any of them.