“Ye kept Aishlinn’s things safe, lass. Helpin’ ye is the least we could do.”
Nora studied each of the men for several long moments. They looked sincere, almost eager to help, and for the life of her, she could not begin to understand why. Nor could she grasp why it was she felt she could trust them.
They were savage looking men. Men who had burst into her home in the middle of the night and taken her husband and brothers-in-law, presumably to their deaths. Why did she feel more comfortable and safe with these men that with her own husband?
How many stories had she heard growing up that told of the savage and barbaric ways of the Scots? Aye they did appear that way, with their long hair, braids, beards, and massive fur-covered bodies. She had been taught that Scots beat their wives and children—and just how that differed from the way Englishmen behaved, she had no idea. Yet these men had shown her nothing but a gentle hand and were now offering their help.
Her father had been a good, honorable man who was always one to help those in need. Mayhap she caught a glimpse of him in the eyes of the men standing before her. He had died two years past and not a day went by that she didn’t think of him or her mum who passed away in her childbed giving birth to Elise. Her parents had always been her strongest allies. Her heart ached with missing them.
It was the kindness she found in the eyes of these strangers that gave her hope. Hope she thought lost this past year.
Their help was needed. Dawn would be breaking across the horizon in a few short hours. She would allow them to help her get John and Elise out of Castle Firth. She could hitch the cart to the ox and use it as a means to get as far away from Firth as possible.
She would find employment with a manor house as a maid or servant of some kind. Mayhap she’d meet a kind man who would want more in a wife than just someone to punish. A man who’d allow her to keep John and Elise.
Her mind made up, she smiled at the men and gave them an approving nod. “I’ll accept your kind offer, William. I’ll never be able to repay you the kindness you’ve shown me this night.”
Wee William let go the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He was glad she came to her senses. A wee lass such as the one before him did not stand a chance against castle guards, shoes or no. With a broad smile, he scooped her up and headed toward his horse.
When she began to protest that she was quite capable of walking of her own accord, his smile broadened. “I canna let yer feet freeze, lass,” he said by way of an explanation for carrying her. His heart thrummed happily as he quietly carried her through the soft snow.
Nora had no way of knowing that at that moment, as the giant Highlander carried her through the cold winter’s night, she had just been claimed as Wee William’s woman. He had decided at some point in the last few minutes that he would do anything to keep her, even if it meant breaking into an English castle in the middle of the night.
Three
Wee William hoisted Nora onto his horse and made sure she was safely seated before unraveling a fur blanket from the back of his saddle. Using his dirk, he cut two strips from the fur then grabbed leather ties from his saddlebags. In short order, he had makeshift-boots wrapped around her feet.
“How do those feel, lass?” Wee William asked as he looked to see that his men were mounted and ready. Though each man held the reins to spare horses, Wee William had a strong desire to keep Nora close to him.
“They’re quite warm!” she smiled down at him as she wriggled her toes. “I thank you, kindly.”
Wee William pulled himself up to sit behind her and wrapped the remaining fur around her shoulders. As he leaned forward to grab the reins, he caught the faint smell of lilac and for a moment, he thought he might swoon and fall from his horse. Blue-eyed women who smelled of lilacs were dangerous.
Nora gasped as he tapped the flanks of his horse. “Wait!” she exclaimed as the horse moved forward. Wee William quickly pulled rein.
“What?” he asked impatiently.
Nora wriggled around to look at him. “The ox and cart! I’ll need them after we get John and Elise. I cannot walk to southern England in this weather.”
Wee William smiled and urged his horse forward. “Have ye family in the south?”
“Nay,” Nora began.
“Have ye someone there waitin’ fer ye?” he asked.
“Nay, but I hope to gain a position in a manner house or a castle, as a scullery maid, or a servant of some other fashion.”
“Have ye ever been to southern England lass?”
Nora let out a heavy sigh. “Nay, I haven’t.” She’d never been more than a few miles from Penrith her entire life. But it mattered not at the moment. Soon she’d be reunited with her brother and sister and they’d be starting their lives over, some where far away from the horrible memories of the past year.
“Och! ’Tis a terrible place to raise children. ’Tis filled with all manner of evil, wicked men who’d think nothin’ of taking advantage of an innocent young woman such as yerself.”
Nora swallowed hard. What did William know of southern England, she wondered aloud.
Wee William chuckled. “I’ve been there. Only once mind ye, fer it was a den of sin and corruption and evil!” He feigned horror and added a shudder of disgust for good measure. “’Tis a place I wish never to step foot upon again.”
Truth be told, Wee William had never been farther south than Northallerton. He preferred keeping his big Scottish feet safely on Scottish soil where the good Lord meant them to be.
He wouldn’t be in England now were it not for his chief, Angus McKenna. Retrieving these small treasures was Angus’ way of making up for all the years stolen from him and his daughter, Aishlinn. Wee William had taken this mission only as a favor to Angus and to bring a smile to the face of Aishlinn who was now heavy with her first child. Of course Aishlinn had no idea they were here, very few people did.
Nora was so lost in her own worries that she was paying very little attention to Wee William or his men. Could she put much stock in what he was telling her or was his vision of England jaded from all the years their two countries had been at war?
Daniel and David, who now rode on either side of Wee William and Nora, nodded their heads in agreement with Wee William’s description of southern England. Of course as far as either of them was concerned, all of England was filled with deviants, thieves, and men of ill repute. It could be said that neither man held a good opinion of any Englishmen. Mayhap save for the wee lass that now rode atop Wee William’s lap.
“And the woods ye’d travel through along the way?” Wee William said before shaking his head in dismay. “They be filled with highwaymen and reivers, and men who’d think nothin’ of harmin’ a wee lass such as ye.”
She had given no thought to what she might encounter either on her travels south or once she’d arrived at a seemingly safe haven. More than a hint of trepidation began to creep in to her heart. How could she not have thought of such things as highwaymen and ne’er do wells?
She shook her head at her lack of thinking. In the past year she’d met more men of questionable character than she would have previously thought existed, thanks to Horace. How could she have been so naive as to not give consideration to such things?
Being alone on the roads with her younger siblings, without so much as a knife for protection was something she had not considered. Her only concern these many months had been to get her brother and sister out of Firth and all of them as far away from Horace as possible. The bountiful hope she had felt only moments ago began to dwindle quickly.
“Aye,” Daniel interjected. “The Sassenach to the south be heartless and cruel, lass. And the highwaymen are notorious for killin’ innocents fer the sheer pleasure of it!”
“I heard tell of a band of reivers who killed a man, his wife and their five bairns, just fer the two pigs the family traveled with,” David added.
Neither man had known that Wee William’s intent was not to terrify th
e young woman. He only meant to place a few seeds of doubt in her mind so that she’d agree to what he intended to propose. When he saw her fingertips brush away what he assumed were tears, he was quite tempted to knock both men from their horses.
“Daniel! David!” Wee William boomed. “Yer scarin’ the lass!”
“What shall I do?” Nora asked to no one in particular. “My only thought has been to get to John and Elise, and take them somewhere safe. I cannot, in good conscience, take them south if ’tis bad as you say! How will I keep them from harm?”
Her mind began to fill with images of ne’er-do-wells, dirty highwaymen, and heartless, lust-crazed men. She began to feel foolish and uncertain.
“Wheesht, lass!” Wee William whispered in her ear. “All be no’ lost now. Ye’ve other options ye might no’ have considered.”
Nora wiped away another tear, took a deep breath and looked at him over her shoulder. “What other options?” she asked hopefully.
“There is more to this world than England, lass. Much more.” Wee William whispered softly.
“Do ye mean I should go to France?” she asked incredulously. “But I cannot speak French, William.”
Wee William chuckled at her innocence. “Nay, lass, I dunna mean France.” He smiled thoughtfully and gave her waist a slight squeeze with his arms. “Have ye ever thought of going north?”
“North? We’re already as far north as we can possibly be, William,” she said dolefully. “We are just two day’s ride from the border.” She sighed and shook her head. “I wish to be as far away from here as I can possibly get.”
By now Horace’s and his brothers’ bodies were growing cold from their blessed deaths. Still, she had no desire to stay here. Her prospects of making a living here were nonexistent, unless she chose to work at Castle Firth. She would give no consideration to working or living there.
Her chances of finding a husband under the age of fifty were just as bleak. Though he was seven years her senior, Horace had been the most palatable of her choices for a husband. There were only three other available men in her village and each of them were old enough to be her grandfather. Horace’s age, along with his promise that he would allow her to keep John and Elise, had been the only reasons she had agreed to marry him.
“Nay, I dunna mean France,” he said softly. “Have ye thought of Scotland?
Scotland. The idea had never crossed her mind. Of all the places she had thought of going, if she were ever free from Horace, Scotland was never one of them. Her parents, or more specifically her father, had always spoken ill of the Scots. There wasn’t a man or woman in her village that had ever bespoke a kind word toward the people who occupied the land to the north.
From the time she was old enough to talk, she’d been warned about the barbaric Scots. Scotland was filled with strange, angry men who raped, plundered, and murdered their way across the lands.
Again, she had to ask herself why she felt safer with these men, these Highlanders she’d been warned about since she was a babe, than she did with any other since her father had died? It made no sense. By all rights she should be absolutely terrified in their presence. Yet, she felt safer now, with Wee William’s arms wrapped around her, than she could remember feeling since her father’s passing.
“Ye’ll no’ find a more beautiful land than ours, lass,” David offered.
“Aye, no greener, lusher land and no better people,” Daniel said as further enticement.
Of course they would think such a thing. What good man doesn’t have a fondness and great love for his own country?
“What if I do not like it there?” she asked. “Would I have your promise that you’d bring us back to England?”
Wee William wasn’t about to make such a promise, not if he could help it. “That’ll never happen.”
“What won’t happen?” Nora asked, worried she might not like his answer.
“The chances of ye no’ likin’ Scotland are as far fetched as Daniel here sproutin’ wings and flyin’ amongst the birds!” Wee William said, adding a nod for emphasis. Besides, he thought to himself, I do no’ plan on lettin’ ye go.
They made plans for the retrieval of young John and Elise. Much to Wee William’s consternation, he had to admit their options were few. Option one would be to allow Nora and David to slip into the castle, find John and Elise, and extricate them as quickly as possible.
Option two, which was far more to his own liking than the first, involved three hundred Scots hell-bent on revenge against the English, a catapult and flaming oil. Since they had none of the latter at their immediate disposal, and only because they could not wait to get off English lands and back to their motherland, they went with option one.
The decision made, they left their horses tied to a stout tree not too far from the wall of the castle. Nora was insistent that she knew exactly which of the solars the children would be sleeping in and just how to get in to the castle. Wee William prayed the plan would be easily implemented for the thought of spending the rest of his life in an English dungeon was not one that he enjoyed.
“Och!” Wee William whispered harshly. “I’d like to keep both me eyes, David!”
“Sorry, Wee William!” David whispered back. “Can ye stand a bit taller?” he asked as quietly as he could. “I can almost reach.” David’s foot had slipped again, the toe of his boot poking into Wee William’s eye as he tried to find purchase on the top of Wee William’s head.
“Ssshh!” Nora whispered hoarsely at the two of them. “Do ye wish to be caught and thrown in the gallows?”
“Would ye like David to stand on yer head, lass?” Wee William shot back. ’Twasn’t easy having someone use you for a ladder.
Wee William took a deep breath and tried to stand a bit straighter. He had his hands wrapped tightly around David’s calves to keep him from falling and breaking his neck. Wee William stood on his tiptoes to gain the extra inch or two David needed to reach the window ledge.
A moment later, David grabbed the ledge of the window with his fingertips, grunted and pulled himself up. Quickly, he hoisted himself up and onto the wide window ledge. He crossed himself and thanked the good Lord for Wee William’s height and strength.
“Ee-God woman!” Wee William groused again as Nora began to scurry up his back so anxious she was to get into the castle and to her brother and sister.
With her snow-encrusted, fur covered feet, ’twas quite difficult to gain any traction. She had started to slip and grabbed Wee William’s hair to keep from falling back into the snow.
She shushed him again and began her ascent.
David tested the window and was relieved to find it unbarred. He stretched out on the window ledge, one hand holding the windowsill while the other reached down to grab Nora’s arm. After a few futile attempts, Nora growled and thrust herself up to David’s open hand. She began to recite the Lord’s Prayer as she dangled rather precariously in the air.
“Thy will be done,” was as far as she got before David swung her sideways and hoisted her up onto the ledge with him. She landed with a gasp and continued to pray.
“Lass, can ye let go me beard?” David asked. His voice sounded pained, as if he were trying to keep himself from crying.
Nora hadn’t realized she was holding his beard with a death like grip until she opened her eyes. If it were daylight, he’d certainly see her face burn with embarrassment. She realized she would not have made a good soldier or spy, for she was terrified of heights.
“I’m sorry, David!” she said in a very hushed and humiliated tone.
“No worries, lass.” David let loose a sigh of relief when she finally let go of his beard. He rubbed his jaw for a moment before pushing her upright.
Under different circumstances he might have enjoyed having the lass straddling him as she now did. But fifteen feet off the ground on a window ledge attached to an English castle was not the best place for such things.
David sat up, pushed the window open and Nora sl
id into the room. David followed quickly behind and gently pulled the window closed. They took a moment to allow their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Soon, Nora began making her way between the pallets in search of her brother.
From one spot to another she slipped in between the snoring, teeth-grinding, dreaming young men until she found her brother. He was asleep on his back with one arm thrown over his forehead. She knew it was John because he’d been sleeping like that since he was a babe.
Ever so quietly, she bent to her knees beside her brother’s sleeping form. She was fully prepared for what would happen next for she’d been waking him each morn for years. Nora knew to stay away from the arm that rested comfortably on his forehead. David however, wasn’t privy to that information.
When Nora clamped her hand over John’s mouth, she made sure to keep her head away from his hand. John was notorious for waking up swinging and he did just that. Bolting upright, he flung out his arm and the back of his hand landed across David’s nose.
It was all David could do not to swing back or yell at the lad. Grabbing his nose, cursing under his breath, he grabbed John’s hand to keep him from swinging again.
“John!” Nora whispered. “’Tis me Nora! I’ve come to take you away!” She waited a moment for recognition to settle in before removing her hand from his mouth.
In the time it took for a heart to beat once, John’s tense shoulders sagged and his eyes filled with relief. “I thought you were Mad George coming to try to bugger me again!”
Nora hadn’t a clue what he meant and supposed she had disturbed John’s dream. She noticed David flinch as he drew his dirk from his waist and glance around the room.
“Put your shoes on, John!” she whispered.
John did as he was told without question. He donned his shoes and grabbed his cloak that he had draped across the blanket of his pallet. Silently, he followed between his sister and the strange man who was with her.
They paused at the door that led to the young ladies’ solar next door. Nora carefully opened it a crack and peeked inside. Thankfully it appeared all its inhabitants were asleep.
Wee William's Woman, Book Three of the Clan MacDougall Series Page 4
