Chapter 20
By the time Anders and Stellan reached the central Sutherland camp, the joyful, though quiet, reunion was already well underway.
The Sutherland and the lairds of their allies welcomed the men, but voices stayed low to keep from alerting the Sinclair keep that something was going on in the siege camp.
Firelight revealed the worry still in their father’s eyes.
It lasted until he spotted his twins coming out of the darkness between the trees.
In that moment, Anders would have sworn tears filled his eyes.
Stellan and he went straight to their father.
“Ye are here!” He exclaimed as he grabbed them together in a bear hug and pounded their backs.
Anders hissed and clenched his teeth against the pain of his father’s grateful embrace. “Easy, Da,” he said. “Ye may recall I had a wee run-in with some guards earlier today.”
Sutherland let go of Stellan and held Anders at arm’s length. “I saw ye on the wall, but didna see all of this. What did they do to ye? God’s teeth, I’ll tear them apart.”
“The Sinclair has likely already done so,” Anders assured him. “After his son took it upon himself to threaten ye—and me—he was no’ pleased. Nor with the four guards it took to subdue me and get me up there, where ye saw me.”
“Aye, and now, when ye didna lead the others into camp, I feared ye had been caught. Or worse.”
“Nay, Da,” Stellan reassured him. “Anders delayed to have a few words with Ailsa, the Sinclair’s daughter, before we could get away. We are here, safe and whole.”
“Ye are?” Sutherland peered intently at Anders.
He had to know about the memory loss by now. “Aye, and whole. Mostly. The other men must have told ye?”
“Aye, they did that, but there’s been nay time for aught else.”
“My memory is recovered, Da. I ken who ye are, and all these others. This walking mirror-image beside me does surprise me now and again, though.”
“What?” Stellan’s visage paled for a moment in the firelight, then reddened. “That was a jest, I think,” Stellan told their father. “Anders, now is nay the time for them.”
“Aye, I ken it. Sorry, Da.”
“I’ll forgive ye much, Son, save for yer inability to stay aboard a perfectly good Sutherland birlinn.”
Despite his injuries, Anders had to laugh at that, but it took effort. Stellan had said much the same. The events of that night and the days that followed were too fresh, and still stung.
“While ye get something to eat and drink, I will send for Seamus MacKay and the Rose leader to meet with us, and ye can tell us how ye managed to escape.”
“We can talk while we eat and drink, Da,” Anders said. “The sooner ye ken, the sooner we can plan what to do about the Sinclair response to our escape.”
Sutherland nodded. “Very well. Get what ye want and bring it to my tent. I’ll round up Seamus and Drake Rose.”
Once everyone was settled, Seamus gave them some good news. “Did ye ken several of the crates from yer birlinn have washed up on nearby beaches since the storm? Among them, we found one with the herbs ye meant to deliver to MacKay. Still dry and useable. Our healer will be pleased.”
“’Tis the best news I’ve heard so far,” Anders said. “Our ill-fated trip wasna wasted.”
“Tell us what happened,” his father demanded.
Anders launched into the story of what had happened to him, and how he had been treated while he recovered.
And after, when the birlinn’s crew had been found.
How their efforts to protect him and his to protect himself and them, kept them from meeting until after Stellan and his men arrived.
“Ailsa and I became close. With her mother’s help, she tried to talk her da into a betrothal between us, but he wouldna hear of it.
Her brother the heir was all for a fight, and her da began to be swayed to his way of thinking, even to the point of contemplating killing us off, one by one, until ye lot left Sinclair land. ”
“’Tis barbaric,” Seamus muttered.
“Among her friends, Ailsa counts a guard named Tasgall. When she became convinced her da was seriously considering his heir’s plan, she knew the only way to save our lives and prevent a clan war was for us to escape. They led everyone from the dungeon—”
“Dungeon!” Seamus shook his head in disgust.
Stellan spoke up. “We were well cared for, again, thanks to Ailsa, with food and drink and blankets. Only in the last week when Sinclair began to think harsher methods were required did they take away most of the blankets. With the season turning, the dungeon was cold, but we managed with the help of some sympathetic guards and Ailsa.”
“There was no other way for us to leave,” Anders added.
“There were too many of us. Tasgall silenced the dungeon guard. We left by a postern gate on the outside of their orchard. It lies closer to the woods than anywhere else around the keep. From there, we crossed a narrow bit of glen and disappeared into the trees.”
“What of Tasgall and Ailsa?” Seamus asked. “They could be in danger.”
“I saw Tasgall hit the postern guard from behind,” Anders said.
“They werena seen by either the dungeon or the postern guard, so likely our absence willna be noted until one of those two wakes up and raises the alarm. They’ll think we managed to break out ourselves, though they’ll be puzzled as to how we did it. ”
“I still have the key to the cells,” Stellan said, holding it up. “They may assume one of us lifted it from one of the guards, but they will be unable to discover who.”
“Well done!” Sutherland exclaimed.
“Lads, I’m overjoyed ye are well, and sorry that yer errand of mercy on my clan’s behalf went so wrong,” Seamus said. “I’m proud to stand with Sutherland to get ye back.”
“Rose, as well,” Drake said.
“We are grateful our allied clans supported us,” Stellan said. “Yer numbers kept Sinclair from acting foolishly.”
Seamus snorted “I shouldha kenned ye wouldna need our help, but would manage yerselves to find a way to escape.”
“And left another broken heart behind,” Stellan teased Anders. The others laughed until they noticed that Anders was not laughing.
Anders took a breath. “I wanted Ailsa to leave with us, but she was insistent her da would come out fighting to find her. She asked that the Sutherland send in a betrothal agreement. She and her mother would convince her da to accept, and she would walk out to join me.”
“I am nay keen on the idea of a betrothal, either, after all this, Son,” Sutherland said. “What Sinclair did—”
“Was to allow his people to take care of us,” Anders said with the clarity that came from being outside Sinclair’s walls. “He couldna see a way out of this stalemate, either, since he held a betrothal agreement from the Norse king.”
“That is still a problem,” Stellan interjected, “but ’twas Boden causing the most trouble, nay Sinclair.”
“Ailsa is to me what Mariota is to Stellan,” Anders declared. “I must do everything I can to have her with me. If ye willna approve a betrothal, if I must, I will go back to Sinclair.” He knew his father would never allow that, but he had to say it.
Sutherland ignored the challenge. “Even if I send one in, he may reject it.”
“Ailsa will have to decide whether to obey her da or listen to her heart and leave the same way we did,” Stellan said. “Write the agreement. Have MacKay and Rose witness it. Brodie, too, if one of theirs is here on land and no’ all out at sea, blocking Sinclair Bay. Send it to Sinclair.”
“Then I must wait,” Anders added.
“So shall we all, Anders,” his father agreed.
“So shall we all,” Stellan and the others echoed.
Ailsa sat in the great hall the next morning, waiting for her father to find out how the Sutherlands got out of Sinclair and punish her.
The voice they heard in the garden last night calling out who’s there had been the guard assigned to the postern returning to his post. Why had he left it?
A call of nature? Or had Tasgall somehow diverted him before collecting the Sutherlands?
Thank the saints Tasgall had been able to hit him from behind and knock him out.
Now that the Sutherlands’ absence had been noticed, if the guard had seen her or worse, Tasgall, word would have gotten back to her father in no time.
She could hear everything going on in his solar. Her mother was in there with him, trying to calm him, but Sinclair was furious.
“How did they get out? How did they overpower the dungeon guard? Where was the postern guard? Damn it, giving that Anders Sutherland access to the keep was foolish. He showed them the way out,” he ranted.
“This is Ailsa’s fault. And why are they still camped out there?
They’ve gotten what they want. They should be leaving. ”
Ailsa listened with bees buzzing in her bloodstream. She expected to be called into the solar at any moment to suffer her father’s wrath. Even if he couldn’t prove she’d had a part in the escape, he blamed her. And she would hear about it.
A messenger came into the great hall and headed for the solar, a rolled up vellum in his hand. Her heart skipped a beat, then resumed, beating even faster. Please, let that be the betrothal agreement from Sutherland, she thought. And let Da sign it!
She heard her father break the seal and swear as the messenger quit the solar and passed through the great hall on his way out.
“Do no’ dare to destroy that!” Her mother’s voice sliced the air, as sharp as the blade stabbing Ailsa’s heart at the realization that her father was about to tear up the betrothal agreement. She’d been foolish to hope he would ever sign it.
“Ailsa wants this, and ye need the alliance to heal the wounds ye have caused,” her mother continued in a more reasonable tone. “Do the right thing and sign the betrothal. Make yer daughter happy.”
“Her happiness is no’ a factor, Wife, as ye ken fine. ’Tis the matter of the betrothal agreement with the Norse king. ’Twould be dishonorable to break that agreement.”