Chapter 27
B rigid and Mary stayed at their posts for what felt like hours. Every few moments, Brigid shook her arms out, to stop them from going numb, then she lifted her musket again and focused on the woods outside the window. Nothing moved except the wind-swept branches, but they could not relax. Edmondson’s men might still be there, biding their time. Brigid wished she had a decent set of binoculars. She could hardly see anything.
Then something moved on the road for a second. Brigid yelped before she could stop herself. Mary already had her face almost wedged into the arrow slit.
“Who is it?” Brigid asked anxiously. “Is it Edmondson’s men, back already?”
There was a second of tense silence while Mary squinted out into the distance.
“I recognise them!” she shouted. “It’s some of Sandy and Tam’s men!”
They flew down the stairs to the great hall. Mary called out orders, and the huge door groaned its way open. Next, the gate had to be unlocked and unbarred. At last, the way was clear, and three men rode into the courtyard. Exhausted, they half-tumbled off their horses.
“We were ambushed, my lady,” one of the men said to Mary. His face was ashen. “Edmondson knew we were coming. The whole thing was a trap.”
“The attack on Gillies Tower was their main goal, then,” Mary said grimly. “They wanted to make sure we were left undefended.”
A few more men rode in through the gate, then some more.
“Where are Sandy and Tam?” Brigid asked, but no one seemed to know.
“They were still fighting when I left,” one man said. “But they’ll be fine. They can handle themselves.”
Brigid wanted to believe him, but she was beside herself with worry. She could tell that Mary, twisting her fingers in her dress and asking the same sharp questions over and over again, was just as bad.
At long last, two more horses appeared on the road in the distance. Mary stared at them for a second, then let out a whoop of joy.
“It’s Tam and Sandy!” she said. It was all Brigid could do not to go rushing out onto the road. She waited in the courtyard, buzzing with anticipation.
As the two men swung down from their horses, Brigid and Mary greeted them with tight hugs. Sandy conducted a quick roll call - to his obvious relief, everyone had made it home, and there were only a few minor injuries. Sandy’s bleeding leg seemed to be the worst of the lot, and Mary fussed over him.
“You were right,” Sandy said, looking at Brigid. “We shouldn’t have ridden out. It was too good to be true, and I should have seen that. Damn Edmondson.”
“Well, you didn’t face the worst of it,” Mary said drily. “The rest of Edmondson’s force attacked us here.”
Tam and Sandy both gasped.
“What happened?” Sandy asked, at the same time as Tam asked, “Are you alright?”
“It was a close thing,” Mary admitted. “I thought for sure they were going to make it through the gate. But we held them off.”
“You need to tell me all about it,” Sandy said.
“Perhaps over some food and ale,” Brigid cut in. Tam sighed with relief and winked at her.
They all turned towards the door to the great hall, now standing open - and then the clatter of hooves echoed from the gatehouse.
Brigid whirled around to see horsemen charging in through the still-open gate. A cart came rolling along behind. And she recognised the lead rider - he had visited before.
“Bailiffs,” Mary whispered in horror.
The lead rider smirked down at them all.
“Well,” he said. “A pleasure to see you all again. I am delighted that I now have all the evidence I need to see you hang, MacLeod. And I’ve brought the men to arrest you.”
Before anyone had time to move, two men had stepped forwards and grabbed Sandy. The rest lowered their muskets. All of Sandy’s men took a step backwards, indecision plain on their faces. Tam lunged towards Sandy, regardless, but two more bailiffs seized his arms, laughing as he fought in vain.
Mary screamed as more men grabbed her as well. Brigid stood frozen in fear, barely able to move as rough hands took hold of her arms. What was going on?
Across the courtyard, Sandy was vastly outnumbered and bleeding badly, but still fighting valiantly. He threw one man off, but another was there to replace him. And then another man came up behind him. Before Brigid could scream a warning, a stone came down hard on Sandy’s head. He didn’t quite fall unconscious, but he staggered a little, clearly dazed and knocked off balance.
That was all the advantage the bailiff’s men needed. They forced him face down into the bed of the cart. In an instant, they had tied his hands and feet, rendering him helpless. They were clearly well practised at this. Their threatening muskets kept all of the Gillies Tower men at bay.
The remaining men let go of Mary and Brigid. Staggering backwards a little, Brigid clutched at her friend’s hand for support. Tears were streaming down Mary’s face - and Brigid suddenly realised that she herself was crying. She hadn’t even noticed.
The two men holding Tam pushed him against the wall. One man held a knife to his throat, the blade winking in the faint sunlight.
“This is your warning,” the man said grimly. “Come after your friend, and we’ll have no trouble killing you where you stand. You’re no gentlemen. No one will question your death.”
“That goes for the rest of you!” the other man shouted, waving his sword at the rest of the Gillies Tower men. No one moved.
Tam slumped against the wall, all the fight draining out of him. Brigid thought she saw a tear leak from his own eye.
The bailiffs backed away and remounted their horses. They rode out of the gate, smirks still on their faces. The cart trundled along behind, with Sandy lying deathly still in the bed.
Mary yanked her hand free from Brigid’s and ran for the door.
“Fetch my bow and arrow!” she shouted to no one in particular. “I’m going to kill every bloody last one of them!”
“Mary, no ,” Tam said, grabbing her arm and yanking her to a halt. “They are officers of the law. We have to be careful. If you shoot them, you’ll hang for murder, and then where will we be? We need to be sensible. There’s a better way to rescue Sandy, if only we can think of it.”