Chapter Twenty-Two #4
“Who has been so cruel to you your entire life that you believe hurting children is acceptable?” she asked.
“Did your mother beat you senseless? Did your father whip you until you screamed? What makes you think that behaving this way is the right and civilized thing to do? Those children have never done anything to you. They cannot hurt you in any way. They have never had anyone love them and I am trying very hard to raise them to be productive people. I am teaching them skills and a trade. Why would you take all of that away from them just for your foolish notions of revenge?”
Hobelar suddenly grabbed Maitland around the neck and she gasped, her hands going to his as he held her around the throat.
“Ye have no idea what I’ve done, woman,” he growled.
“If ye knew the men I’ve killed and the women I’ve cut tae pieces, ye wouldna speak tae me so.
For now, I’ll forgive ye, but do it again, and I’ll kill ye. ”
Maitland could feel the blood pulsing in her face. “Kill me and you’ll have no one to accomplish your terrible scheme.”
He squeezed tighter and Maitland knew if she didn’t fight back, he might very well kill her, so she brought a foot up, kicking him right between the legs.
Hobelar loosened his grip as he doubled over, but he didn’t let go of her completely.
As she tried to whirl away from him, he grabbed hold of her hair and yanked hard.
Maitland fell to her knees as Hobelar stood over her, mad enough to kill.
“That’ll cost ye, woman,” he said. “I hope ye enjoy pain.”
Before he could collect the dagger in the sheath on his belt, a high-pitched whistling sound filled the air and something solid hit Hobelar squarely in the chest. He staggered back and fell onto his buttocks as Maitland ripped her hair from his grasp.
Terrified and startled, she turned in time to see an arrow protruding out of Hobelar’s chest.
An arrow with a bright red flag attached to it.
Shocked, she turned in the direction the arrow had come from in time to see Thomas emerging from the cluster of birch trees. He had a wicked-looking crossbow in his hands and as the skies lit up with lightning, he rushed to Maitland and pulled her off of the ground.
“Thomas!” Maitland gasped in utter shock. “You’re here!”
He was already running away, pulling her with him, as the reivers over in the barrel vault realized something was terribly wrong. Men were spilling out into the storm, shouting the alarm.
“Hurry,” Thomas said as he pulled her into the birch trees. “No time to talk. Run!”
Maitland didn’t need to be told twice. She was already running, leaping through the foliage and launching herself through the hole in the wall where the children had gone. Thomas was right behind her and they began running, as fast as they could, across the wet field that stretched to the east.
Thomas had Maitland by the hand, but she was running faster than he was.
Terror fueled her stride and by the time they reached the river, she plunged into it, sloshing across it as Thomas kept pace with her.
His horse was tethered to a tree on the other side and he grabbed Maitland, practically tossing her up into the saddle as he mounted in front of her.
“Thomas, the children!” Maitland cried as he reined his horse around. “We must find the children!”
Her hand was on his shoulder and he grasped it, kissing it quickly. “I already have, sweetheart,” he assured her. “The children are safe, I promise.”
Maitland didn’t say anything more. She was stunned and overwhelmed with Thomas’ slick rescue, hardly believing he’d been there to save her at just the right time.
It seemed like a miracle. As he spurred his horse away from Castle Heton, coming towards them over a rise was a massive army.
Maitland caught sight of the mounted army, hundreds and hundreds of them, and as Thomas charged through their lines, they continued on towards Castle Heton.
But that wasn’t all.
To the north, she could see another army moving towards Castle Heton and then, to the south along the road Hobelar had wanted her to take to Wark, she could see yet another line of men. It seemed like an entire army was surrounding them from all sides, all of them converging on Castle Heton.
It was a rescue the likes of which no one had ever seen before.
After that, Maitland pressed her face into Thomas’ back and held on, weeping softly now that she was safe.
They were tears of thanks, of joy, and of fear that hadn’t quite left her yet.
The children are safe, I promise, he’d said.
She wasn’t even sure she believed him until they reached an enormous castle and charged through the gates, and there she saw several big, wet men standing with her children near the entry to an inner ward.
Desmond was among those wet and weary men, and as Thomas pulled his horse to a halt, Desmond was there to pull his sister from the beast and embrace her tightly.
When Maitland caught a glimpse of Lady de Wolfe emerging from the keep with little Dyana in tow, the tears Maitland had so recently stilled returned with a vengeance, and she sank to her knees, opening her arms to the seven children she’d come so close to losing.
Hugging them all, alive and well, was one of the sweetest things she could have imagined.
God had been looking out for those children, for once.
Finally, they were safe.