There Your Heart Will Be Also (15 page)

Nay, that would never work.
To reveal her identity now would only complicate matters more.
Realizing her options were limited, Sarra
nod
ded
her head
.
The only way was to put
trust
in
God
to
protect him
along with
the
other men
.

Once the men were
out of the keep
,
Sarra collapsed into a heap
up
on the floor.
The
nearby
maids rushed to her
aid
.
“Are ye well, my lady?”

“Aye, I am all right
.
I just need to rest a bit.
Will you help me up?
I must make my way to the battlements.”

“Nay, my lady.
Ye must stay inside and stay safe.”

“I
am going to the battlements,” she said emphatically.
Sarra may
have been
pretending to be a maid but she was the mistress and would do as she pleased.

Sarra
grasped handfuls of her skirt and
rushed out into the front yard
.
While
head
ing
to the battlements surrounding the castle walls,
darkness
blanketed
her
.
The air was thick with fog and s
he grabbed a torch to help light
the
way.
The sounds of nature were drowned out by the birthday well
-
wishers
who
hurried
to their homes.
Did they know the gravity of the situation?
Oh, the pleasure of living
without certain knowledge
!

Worry pushing her forward, Sarra wondered w
hat she expect
ed
to see
?
Probably n
othing
.
But
as the mistress, sitting around
and wait
ing didn't suit either
.
There had to be something
she could do to
protect her keep
and the people
.

Sir Henry led the contingent of knights outside the walls
and Cedric followed quietly behind
.

Before t
hey snuck up on the unsuspecting raiders
,
Cedric
spoke to Sir Henry
,
making a request
that
the men remove any armor
which
might make noise.
He knew
the mistress might not
approve, but he was sure the element of surprise would come at a greater advantage than armor.
Sir Henry
wasn't easily convinced but after several minutes of explanation he
reluctantly agreed.

As they approached, Cedric
's
eyes adjust
ed
to the darkness and he could see
the raiders
.
Their kilts swayed as the wind began to kick up.
The Gaelic words floated back to him in
their
hiding position.

That sounded like Duncan and his men.
What were they doing here?
Cedric hadn't sent for them
yet
.
They were going to ruin everything!
This was not the time.
If they came now before he'd even met the mistress
,
would his plan work?
That little weasel
, Barney,
was always in too big of a hurry.
The next time he saw
him
, he would have his head.

There had to be a way to keep Sir Henry from finding out the truth.

Think, think.

Turning
,
Cedric
whispered to Sir Henry to keep the men still, quiet, and hidden, as he alone approached the raiders.

Sir Henry
voiced his
refusal
.
“I think not.
This is not your keep to protect.”

“
T
rue.
But ye kind folks have allowed me to stay in ye
r
keep and I would like to repay the favor.
Do ye not hear the voices?”

Silent for a moment they
listened. T
he
sound of
Gaelic voices floating back on the wind
reached them
.

“Ye must trust me. I will be able to infiltrate the group without anyone being the wiser.”
Still Cedric could sense the knight's hesitation. “This way if anyone gets hurt, it won't be ye men.” With those added words, the man r
eluctantly
agreed to
allow
Cedric
to continue forward
.

As Cedric headed out into the field, he muttered to himself.
This was ridiculous. If Barney had just done as he was told and waited until called
,
then none of this would be happening. The men would have pretended to take the animals and then Cedric would have
ridden
to the rescue
,
securing a place in the mistress' heart.
The plan had been so simple.

U
nder his breath
he considered
all the ways he would punish
Barney and
Duncan
. Even if Barney had said it was time to come
,
Duncan should have known better. He'd asked for a specific amount of time before the plan was to go in action.

Cedric
approached
the raiders and blended in with the group.
He listened attentively to the conversation going on around him
.
Where was Duncan anyway?
Cedric needed to find him and stop this foolishness before the
plot was discovered
and
they
all
h
u
ng!

The only thing going for him was
t
he
entire lot was
speaking Gaelic.
Now all he could do was hope the knights in the castle didn't speak it as well.

“This is almost too easy, I tell ye.”

“Aye, canna be a good thing.”

“Well they are havin
'
some kind of festival for the little lady of the place, I heard.”

“Aye, I heard
it
as well.”

“Lucky for us her useless crew of knights isn't on duty, right?”

All matter of back slapping and congratulating began to ensue
,
w
hen
Cedric
heard someone reply
, “Aye, lucky for us.”

“
W
hat are we going to do with all these sheep?
We are too far away to take them home.”

“
We might
carry them away and slaughter them.”

“
S
eems a might bit wasteful if ye ask me.
Why don't we stay close by and try to sell them back to the castle?” said one of the Scotsmen
,
with amusement.

The crowd laughed heartily at the idea.
Cedric was becoming angrier by the minute.
He couldn't see a thing.
Eyes still adjusting to the blackness of night
,
Cedric struggled to listen
.

Where was Duncan?
If he was leading this rag
-
tag bunch of men, then Cedric had yet to hear him speak.

At the risk of being recognized and some fool giving him away to the knights, Cedric said,
“I think maybe we ought to just leave them be.
Especially since our laird didn't request us to come.
”

Cedric heard a snicker.
“A laird?
Since when did we follow a laird?”

Then another voice added,
“
W
hy would we do such a thing?
Don't need no laird.
W
e received payment in gold for this job.”

Payment in gold?
Unease set in.
Cedric had indeed sent payment by Barney for Duncan and his men, but not
in
gold.

Apprehension mounted.
Who are these people?
Swallowing against his fear,
Cedric
tried another tactic.
“I heard a tale the mistress of the keep is going to marry a Scot.”

“Really?”

“Aye, really,” replied Cedric.

Cedric could just make out the
shadow of the
Scotsman
speaking
as he struck a thoughtful pose and stroked his chin
.
“I guess
it
does change things a mite.
We canna rightly kill one of our own
.
B
ut we don't know for sure she is going to marry a Scot
,
now do we
?
Why would a Scot marry an English lass when there are so many young Scottish lasses to chose from?
And
any Scot worth
'
is salt would be out here tryin
'
to protect his future property, right?
Aye, I think he would.
Right, lads?”

Cedric could hear, rather than see, the heads nodding in agreement.
This had gone on long enough.
Cedric was
furious.
If
his
no account
friend, Duncan,
had gone and gotten himself so drunk he didn't know what he was doing
,
Cedric would skin him and leave him for the buzzards!

With a calm voice, Cedric said,
“Duncan?
Is that ye?
”

“Afraid not.
There ain't no Duncan in his band.
And now I hear ye again, ye don't sound familiar.
Who are ye?”

How could Duncan not be here? If this group wasn't his own men, then who were they?
Swallowing, Cedric wondered h
ow things
could
get any
worse.

When
Cedric didn't answer
,
one of the group
changed the subject saying
,
“What time
is it
?
We are never going to get out of here.
We are goin' to get caught for sure.
We
must have brought a bunch of English lily
-
livered sissies along with
us
.”

His pulse
raced
.
Where had he gone wrong?
Cedric hadn't personally spoken to Duncan about helping him.
He'd left
it
up to Barney
, his hireling,
o
bviously not the best plan.

As
he listened to the Scots argue amongst themselves
, and no voices were familiar
, it
appeared he
was right in the middle of a group of unruly and
unknown
Scots.

But if
Cedric
believed because he
had not answered
earlier, that he wasn't still
being sought
, he was mistaken
.
In all the confusion some of the men were trying to discover his identity by accosting their friends.

One
Scot
must have
been
pulled aside because he yelled,
“Aye, I told ye
it
was me.
Ye have been with me this whole time and ye are just now realizing who I am.
Are ye daft?”

When the noise settled, the silence was as thick as butter.
Only the chirping of crickets could be heard.
At one point Cedric thought he
picked up the sound of
a man scratching, but he could have been mistaken.

Cedric worried Sir Henry would lead a charge at any moment and he would be caught
in the fray
,
unable to escape.
How could he defuse this situat
ion with the least possible casu
alities?

“What are we goin'
to
do?”
came a voice from the crowd.

“We were hired to take the sheep.
Seems like the least we can do
is
to accommodate our employer.”

Snickers went around.
Cedric pulled his sword free.
If he had to
protect
these animals with his life, so be it.
The moonlight hit his blade
, shining
on the face of one of the raiders.

The man's eyebrows rose.
“Who are ye?” escaped the man's parted lips before Cedric took him down with one swipe.

The agonized moan sent the group into panic.
Blades whipped around him wildly.
Cedric couldn't possibly fight the lot of them alone.
Eventually he would be forced to press the keep's knights into service.
With his fingers upon his lips, preparing to alert Sir Henry, Cedric
spotted what
appeared to be a giant cloud
.
A
thousand stars
winked
.
Cedric
squinted
at the disturbance,
realiz
ing
it
was
dust
and
it was
headed his way.