Chapter 5
Whizz! The branches flew by his ears; the wind whipped his face as Callum snugged his arm about Nella’s waist. It seemed after no sleep and strained events a cost was claimed as she gave herself into exhaustion, slumbering for a long while.
If Brayden hadn’t appeared when he had, a kiss upon her lips would have been stolen.
Then where would they be? No, it was better this way.
He would see the traitors seized then he would make certain she was looked after somewhere safe of her choosing.
Never would she fear uncertainty again. This he could give and give and give.
If the cruel husband had still drawn breath he would have seen to that – directly. Then her sire, he had never liked him, and no wonder his own sire never had either. Who the hell tells their daughter she is an instrument of Satan? What a complete piece of swine shite!
Nella tucked her temple closer under his neck, and with her wimple lost back in the mud at the abbey, the wispy tawny hairs tickled his throat.
She felt… divine. The only Satan here was him.
It felt complete sinful perfection having her weight in his arms again.
In a blink he was back in the past and a smitten lad.
A smitten lad who had turned more bitter than frost, almost costing him his two younger brothers then his clan then any semblance of existence all from being a complete…
well, arsehole to those who had remained surrounding him.
It had taken him years of learning to breathe once more when Nella flashed his thoughts or even when the tiny task in pulling on his braise seemed too great a chore to conquer by the darkness looming over him.
No, it was sensible remaining as he was.
He had his standing at court, knights and guards beneath his command, and the respect of the king. Then why did it all now seem hollow?
“How did you know I was there?” Her gentle voice broke his thoughts. Luss picked up a step when his calves tightened at discovering her awake.
“On the fringes of the abbey?” he murmured.
“Aye.” The breathy way she spoke the reply, how he missed that! His palm tightened on her waist.
“The wind shifted direction. When the ash gave way to a fresh scent from herbs, I knew it was not only the pine forest in the distance.”
“Hhmm.”
She purred the word. This was going to be more than complicated in staying away from her.
“The arrow. In our times past you were a master with the bow. Was the sentiment you spoke true at the abbey? Were you aiming for the tree?”
“Aye.” It was the truth. If he had hit her accidentally… His fingers turned into a vice. He hadn’t. She was safe here in his embrace.
“Callum?”
“Aye?”
“I cannot breathe.”
Fuk! He loosened his grip. “Pardon.”
She readjusted her weight against him while her legs lay across Luss’s left wither.
His whole body tightened same as the stone they rode past. Hopeless, it was hopeless; he was done for!
He was tasked at halting the raiders who endangered Scotland turning back into war against the Kingdom of Norway yet all he wished was to take Nella somewhere only for them; to taste her…
Dammit, he was the captain of the king’s guard – he should act as such!
One more stride she began leaning her head a bit toward her left shoulder.
She heard something. Like a doe, she adjusted her head which adjusted her ear to pick up on the sound.
How the hell had he missed that all those times with her?
Well, he was more taken with her gaze and sway of her hips when she walked and…
“Callum.” Her words for his ears alone broke into his carnal considerations.
“Something dire is unfolding. I…” His stomach clenched when an expression crossed her features as if the reaper had bolted from the treescape.
“There are cries from fear alongside a crackle same as at the abbey from flames.” His eyes burst wide. Her prowess was unmatched!
“Where?” Only the whistle from wind batting his ears along with thunder from the charger’s hooves reigned for him.
She nodded her head toward the open meadow on their right. “Head southward. Make haste, Callum. I hear their cries for help.”
“Sir Brayden!” Callum roared. “Follow at once!”
Callum pulled Luss’s right rein, shifted his weight onto his right buttock, and the stallion surged toward where Nella’s eyes remained lock on the vista.
“Hold steady, Nella,” he warned as a wide boulder-infested river a far distance ahead appeared. “Luss will fly this rather than race through.”
Shite, he should have had her astride; her two thighs laying over his left were not the best for her balance.
She released Luss’s mane then wrapped both her arms about his waist while he leaned forward, tightening his hold about her with his right arm.
If a lone action could call to mind, she had begun trusting him. This. Was. It.
Her eyes widened after a raging river appeared which was wide with rapids that swirled like storm clouds on water.
“Callum?”
“I have you, Nella, I shall not let you fall.”
He set his jaw, and she gave a gasp, burying her face in his neck when they took flight. They sailed the wind for a moment before Luss found his footing on the far embankment. She snapped her head around.
“He cleared it!” she cried, stunned, then paused. Tilting her head again, she advised, “Aye Callum, stay the course, straight ahead!”
The wind shifted; his nostrils flared. Burning thatch. The flames spiked like spears above the tree line before the vision in horror greeted them.
“Stampede!” Nella cried out when cattle charged toward them away from the flames swallowing the barn belonging to a croft tenant. The herd shot past them in a blink.
A dazed goat wandered through the tall grasses, edging the croft tenant’s structures or what was left of them which had once included a wee house, outbuildings, and a barn with baa’s from terrified sheep trapped in a pen alongside the flaming structure.
“Sir Brayden!” Callum pointed at the creatures about to become instant roast.
“Aye!” Brayden galloped up toward the gate.
“Help!” a man covered in soot and thin as a tree limb hollered at them. “Help us! My wife and lad are missing!”
“Callum,” Nella advised, “circle Luss slowly around the structures for a sound signature.”
He nodded, remaining silent. The stallion, well trained for warfare, followed his demand to venture toward the flames even if instinct the beast bore said different. Sparks flew the air. Callum’s eyes stayed on the house where they began searching.
Riding around the wooden walls, sizzling with a hiss like a snake, Callum shook his head. Don’t cough and distract her. He swallowed hard when a dark plume billowed over them.
“Callum, nae, I do not hear them here.” Her tone was weighed by anguish before she shrieked, “Step Luss back! The roof is cracking and is about to collapse.”
He pulled the stallion left – hard. Crack! The flames ate the thatch greedily when the house folded in on itself. “Nae, where are they?” the tenant farmer yelled, terrified, over the flames’ roar.
“Barn,” Nella ordered.
Callum trotted Luss across the wide expanse toward the larger structure while she harkened at the small buildings which were all but turning into ash.
“Callum, trot around the barn. We must make haste; the beams are groaning in protest from the flames devouring them.”
In a quick two-beat gait they followed a path trodden into the earth by the farmer who screamed louder when another small outbuilding collapsed on the periphery.
Nella’s fingers tightened on his wrist which held her waist. “Callum, hold.” She tilted her head a smidge more. “Aye, there, I hear the mother’s weeping. Seek the outside barn’s far wall. Hurry.”
“Sir Brayden!” Callum hailed the knight.
In a blink the fellow knight was there when they reached the place Nella sought. Covering his mouth, he looked at the wall straight from hell. What was that shadow weaving on the inside through the boards there? Nella read his thoughts.
“Aye, Callum, ’tis the mother. She and her lad are trapped with the beams blocking the door.”
The wall. If he applied pressure, it may cause the whole structure to go. Was there any other choice? No. Time to create a new door.
“Nella, hold tight,” he ordered, then spun Luss around. “Sir Brayden, they are inside this wall. Proceed the same as at Stirling!”
The knight’s sweat-covered face drew fierce. “Aye!”
He lined up his stallion beside Luss. Both beasts’ haunches faced the wall. “Unleash!” Callum commanded, tapping his heels twice against Luss’s ribs. The warhorse gave a great wail, raised up both back hooves, then kicked the wall.
Bang! Crack! Callum kneed the loyal beast forward when a fresh door was created. Snapping his neck around, Callum spied the tenant’s wife whose eyes bulged at the sight in what they had just created.
“RUN!” Nella cried at the stunned pair. “The roof is collapsing!”
The lad who looked about ten and four grabbed his mother’s hand as they bolted for the pathway to safety. A horrible groan echoed the trees as the barn began collapsing from the far end toward them as the pair cleared the final beam toward safety with a puff by sparks following them outward.
The father and husband ran, grabbing them close as Callum looked at Nella’s soot-streaked face, while she smiled at those safe who were hugging and sobbing in relief.
Had he ever seen anything more bonny? No. Never.