by Fiona Faris
James blushed at the insult, but Uilleam stayed him. James was too sensitive to these things, and while he was growing more and more free with his insults, he still seemed ill-equipped to handle the ones flung back in his own face.
“Don’t be distracted by his taunting, lad. If there’s one thing I like about Cailean, it’s the fact that he’s all mouth and no teeth. You can always rest assured that he’ll never manage to do you any real harm,” Uilleam mocked.
“No, but you can, can’t you, Uilleam MacGregor? And speaking of thieving cattle, what of this latest attempt to steal the cow that rightfully belongs to me? Do you think that you can actually convince the Gunn whore to be faithful to you? After all, she is just another beast for breeding. I do imagine she would be a fun one to tame,” Cailean said wickedly the thought that had been in his mind so many times before.
“She’s not a beast, and she’s no mere cow. Perhaps it’s your own filth and whoring about with cattle that’s got your mind so polluted about it, but I can guarantee you that you’re wrong. This lass is no more a whore than your own mum is a virgin,” Uilleam accused.
With that, Cailean’s men began a charge. There in the narrow corridor, James, Angus, and Uilleam fought with their swords ready to shed blood. With each stroke that clamored, Uilleam’s hope grew that they might find a way out of this yet.
Scotsmen were trained well, but the Clan Campbell had grown lazy. With so many in number, it seemed that their effort had decreased and it showed. One lad was too slow, and James struck him hard from behind where he fell. Another had poor wrist technique, and the blade was too heavy for him to raise in time to block a strike from Angus.
It seemed that defeat might not be as imminent as they had previously predicted. After all, the Gunns and the MacGregors were used to defending themselves. They were used to fights and swordplay and the like.
But the Campbells were used to speaking their wishes and having everything they wanted handed over through skills of manipulation and threats. They were ill prepared for ready combat, and that was the advantage Uilleam was taking.
Siusan and Shona were still behind the men, but with all of the fighting coming in further and the wounded bodies piling up, Uilleam knew that he would need the women to get up the stairs quickly before their safety was compromised in the fray.
“Lass, take your mum!” Uilleam shouted over his shoulder before blocking another blow in defense. He paused in his instructions to fight off another guard while Siusan and Shona stood mid-stride.
“Take your mum and get to the turret,” he finished, glancing back at them before turning around just in time to block what would have been a fatal blow and instead left him with a minor cut on the surface of his leathers.
He heard the footsteps of Siusan and Shona going up, but he continued to push away the question of whether or not someone was up there waiting for them. Had he just sent the woman he loved and her mother into yet another trap set by the Campbells?
Whether he had or not, it seemed there was no other way back down from the turret. Unless Cailean had given instructions to kill mother and daughter directly, which would have defeated the whole purpose of this drama in which he made Siusan his bride, then it stood to reason that the women would be safer up there for the time being than they would be down here in the midst of the fighting.
Angus cried out in a loud roar as he took on two men who were both coming after him and managed to get between them and through to the other side of them in such a way that the two men were fighting one another before they realized that Angus was gone. It had been a brilliant move.
But Uilleam was far more distracted by the fact that Cailean, coward as he was, continued to stand at the other end of the corridor with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face, certain that he would win this battle easily, despite the fact that his guards and soldiers were dropping around him.
The three men had worked considerably to decrease the numbers of opponents, but there were so many still coming at them. Uilleam felt his body growing tired and knew that getting tired could mean defeat. He had to push past it and make himself strong enough to finish the job he had started.
He saw that while James was distracted fighting one man, another was coming up on his other side and Uilleam reacted just in time to knock the other man unconscious with the butt of his heavy claymore. James turned just in time to see that he had been defended and gave Uilleam a quick smile of appreciation before taking on another guard.
And still, through it all, Cailean stood watching. As his soldiers entered the fray, a few at a time being so limited by the narrow hallway, the young Campbell continued to stand without a care to all the men he was losing.
“Cailean!” Uilleam finally yelled as he fought with another guard. “Why won’t you come fight? Why are you not brave enough to enter into battle with us? Afraid?”
Although his taunts echoed with the effort of them, Cailean seemed taken aback. How could Uilleam dare to challenge him when he was in the midst of being attacked by so many?
Not a word came from Cailean’s surprised mouth, but Uilleam continued through his ragged breaths, exhaustedly exhaled.
“You really can’t fight even one of us on your own? You’d rather sacrifice a thousand men than stand against even one and fight your own battle? Come now!” he shouted, the last word overwhelmed by the sound of steel on steel. “You and I both abducted the same lass. You from her home and me from you. And now I’m here to do it all over again just as you did. So why will you not fight me, you radge lad?”
Cailean seemed to stutter for a moment before finally replying, “Because the blood of cattle thieves is not worth my sword. I have nothing worthy of so little as you. Why should I fight you when it is clear that my men are weakening you?”
“Ha! Weakening me? I’m having a battle of words with you as I strike down one soldier after the next. And you think I am the one who has been weakened?” Uilleam taunted. He knew that he could only keep it up for so long, but as long as he was doing it, he wanted Cailean to notice and to be afraid for his own men, and even more, for himself.
Cailean didn’t say much beyond that and Uilleam was glad. He had proven his point, but he was growing terribly worn down from the fighting. Each man who came at him was refreshed and ready for a start to the battle when Uilleam, James, and Angus had been at it for a while now. Still, while the wounded Campbells grew in their numbers, the three men had only minor scratches to show for all the fighting that had occurred.
As if the same thought found its way to Cailean’s mind, Uilleam heard a sudden cry from his enemy.
“Will you never stop?” he asked in a feral rage.
“Never!” Uilleam replied, the only answer that he could honestly say. He would never stop defending Siusan, and he would never stop in his revenge upon the Campbell’s for what they had done to his own clan.
As swords continued to strike, Cailean growled in a spitting hostility before he simply turned on the stairs and swiftly bolted down them. Angus, James, and Uilleam continued to strike at the guards, but it was clear that the Campbell army was unsure whether or not they were to follow Cailean.
With that moment of distraction, Uilleam and the Gunns charged forward, fighting the men back. They continued in their slashing, determined that now was the best chance they would have to defeat their enemy.
Cailean had been a coward. Here, in the midst of battle, he had simply run off and left his men. It was everything Uilleam had known him to be. And with that, he began taunting his enemy.
“Ye see that, laddie? Yer general, yer leader’s son, a whelp o’ a boy, just ran off!” he teased, pressing further forward.
The guard did not reply, trying to focus intently on the fight. But a few of the men behind turned and made their way after Cailean. Directionless, frightened, or perhaps the assumption that they were meant to follow, soon there were only a handful of guards remaining in the narrow hall that was now littered with slain and wou
nded Campbells.
Uilleam allowed himself just a moment to wonder again about Siusan and Shona on the turret. Were they safe? Would he be able to guide them to freedom?
Chapter Thirty
Kylguhurne Castle
Later the same day
“Don’t worry, Maither. They will come for us,” Siusan tried to assure her mother.
Shona had gathered herself but seemed still in a state of frustration and anxiety, which Siusan could hardly blame her for.
“Ay, they will. The question is which ‘they’ you speak of? Will it be your faither and brother and husband or the enemy Campbells?” Shona asked with irritation.
Siusan sighed and held her mother close. Shona was right. They had been greatly outnumbered. There was little chance at all of the men she loved getting through the fight unscathed. There was no telling how soon Cailean might find his way up to the turret, having killed her husband and family in order to torture her in the ways he had threatened before.
Coming up to the turret had been terrifying. The women had no idea if there would be guards up here. The fact that there were none had been a surprise and relief, but the sound of waves crashing upon the rocks below was another reminder of the danger they were in should the fight come up here.
“Faither will get them through it,” Siusan encouraged her mother. In truth, it was Uilleam she trusted to be the warrior, but Siusan knew that her mother would be proud to consider that her own husband, the patriarch of the family, would be the hero.
“Aye. Aye, I’m certain that he will,” Shona replied as if trying to convince herself.
Siusan tried to placate her mother by presenting her with a smile. No matter how false and hopeless it really was, she had to do something to ease her mother’s worries. For now, she settled for simply holding Shona and allowing her to be the frightened one. Siusan would remain strong.
“Can you imagine how lovely it will be when we get back home and sit for a nice cuppa?” Siusan asked with a gentle, comforting laugh.
“Och, that will be the bonniest cuppa I’ve ever had,” Shona laughed in reply.
“I’ll add extra succar to mine,” Siusan dreamt. Her mother gave a small ‘mhmm’ of agreement. It was working to distract them both, to think about the peacefulness of sitting at home with a mug of tea, maybe the warmth of a fire or a nice bit of haggis, neeps, and tatties. Anything to remind them of their clan life and being away from wars and battles.
But they could not overcome the noise of the sea. And with every threatening roar of the waves and each gust of sea spray that stretched its arm up to them, Siusan was reminded just how precarious their position really was.
Shona began to hum a sweet lullaby, and Siusan listened, thankful for the softness of her mother’s voice, although it shook and quaked a bit from the excitement and anxiety of all they had been through. Siusan remembered the tune as one her mother had used to calm her from her childhood fits and rages, a bit of peace among her own restlessness.
The sound of footsteps was coming up the turret. They were strong, but there was only one. Was it Cailean?
Siusan leaned forward, eyes wide in the darkness and fearful that she would know within moments whether or not she and her mother were safe. The turning about in her gut felt as though it were being ripped apart of its own will.
But then a head of flaming red appeared against the dark sky and step by step, Uilleam’s form came onto the turret as a victor. With only the light of the faint moonlit clouds in the sky around him, he was a striking, terrifying figure for any who knew him not. And yet, even Siusan, in love with him as she was, feeling a swooning heat from the presence of the muscles that rippled beneath his shirt, found her heart leap to her throat.
“Come, lass,” he ordered.
Dumbfounded, Siusan removed her arm from around her mother, and Shona looked for the first time to see that they were safe and would be rescued. The woman whimpered in relief and looked back at her daughter as if it had all been a dream or misunderstanding.
“Right,” Siusan replied, still in a daze.
Quickly she felt the adrenaline, and she was able to be up and helping her mother until they were ready to move quickly.
“What happened?” Siusan asked somewhat breathlessly.
“Exactly what I would have expected from a coward like the Campbell whelp. We don’t have too much time for me to tell you. But Cailean Campbell ran off, and eventually, his soldiers followed. Except those who were too injured or dead to go with him,” Uilleam said rapidly, trying to usher the women through to the turret as quickly as he could.
Siusan moved down in front of her mother and gave a delighted cry when she saw her father and James standing at the base of the stairs to help her and Shona into the hall.
When Siusan realized why she nearly felt numb again.
At the bottom of the stairwell, the bodies were too many to take an easy step down. And once her eyes adjusted inside the hall, Siusan saw the massacre. Some of the men still moved but played dead for the sake of keeping their lives. Others were clearly dead, without question. And still more continued to moan for their injuries or even slowly, painfully release a hiss of foul insult upon the men who had cut them down.
If this was what victory looked like, Siusan knew that she never wished to taste it. In her mind’s, the sound of a kestrel’s neck snapping rang and she felt she was going to be sick. Behind her, she heard a cry of horror from her mother. Indeed, men’s work of brutality was something Siusan never wanted to know any closer.
“Do no’ linger, lass,” Angus said in her ear, prodding Siusan forward.
She realized then that she had tears clouding her eyes, but she nodded to her father as he, James, and Uilleam helped the women to move on.
“Right, let me lead the way, that way I can warn you if I spot any danger,” Uilleam instructed. “James, you bring up the rear, in case we are approached from behind. And all of us have to keep our eyes open. Not just for soldiers, but for places we can stash the lassies if a battle should happen again.”
Siusan gave a tsk at the statement and how Uilleam had worded it, but being still in the hall surrounded by bodies, she was thankful that he was considering how to protect her from even the sight of battle.
Finally, they all began to move forward and down the first stairwell of many that they would have to walk in order to get through the castle and to freedom. Soon they were at the base, and there was still no sign of any threat, so they proceeded down the next set of stairs and another until they had descended three floors.
“Of course they had to put us in the tallest tower of the whole castle. Who’s to say how many floors we have to get through?” Siusan whined.
“Hod yer wheest,” James hissed in a whisper. “No need to go announcing our presence.”
Siusan kept quiet as they made their way another floor down. And just when they thought themselves to be safe, a soldier came from around a corner with sort drawn and aimed for Angus.
“Retreat!” ordered Uilleam, trying to alert the rest but remain quiet enough not to draw more attention.
Siusan and her mother turned to go back up the stairs, but just at that moment, a soldier came from the floor they had just left and drew his sword at James. They were trapped on the stairwell between the two soldiers.
Angus and Uilleam had reached the floor and were fighting on level ground, but James had to strike upwards at his opponent who had the advantage of height. The challenge of fighting and keeping their footing on the narrow steps was evident.
The soldier against James struck down, dragging his blade swiftly against the left arm which James had sacrificed as a shield.
James cried out. It was far from a mortal wound, but Siusan was horrified that her brother was in this position and would not be able to fight for long with the injury and his position.
Soon, Uilleam and Angus had defeated their enemy, and without a thought, Uilleam bolted up the stairs in three long leaps and took on
the man who had come at James. The clash of swords was sure to draw attention to their position, but at that moment, Siusan worried only for the safety of her brother.
Once James had reoriented himself, he had Uilleam took down the soldier swiftly and turned to continue onwards.
“I’m sorry,” James apologized in embarrassment, and perhaps a bit of shock still from the wound.
“Don’t be sorry, James. You did your best. He had the clear advantage,” Shona replied.
There was not much time, and they had to keep pressing onwards, but Shona quickly ripped a strip off her dress and wrapped it tightly around the gash on James’s arm.
Siusan could see that the blood soaked through the tourniquet rapidly. It would be at risk for infection. Worse still, it would impair James’s ability to continue fighting.
