Highlander Avenged by Laurin Wittig - Guardians Of The Targe 02 - Highlander Avenged Read Free Book Online

raise a barrier, as Jeanette’s mum, the previous Guardian, had done. Yet Rowan could not perform the simplest of blessings, as she’d demonstrated just this morn. She could not protect the entire castle.
    “Denis, keep our guest company,” Nicholas said as he turned and headed for the tower, Rowan by his side and the older man in their wake. “Have Duncan join us when he can,” he said over his shoulder.
    Malcolm started to argue but Jeanette pressed her hand to his arm.
    “You are not wrong. It is just that we have been hoping it would not come to this,” she said to him.
    “I thought you wished my assistance.”
    “And you have given it.”
    “Jeanette, Scotia!” Rowan called over her shoulder. “You, too!”
    Scotia’s eyes went wide, then narrowed with suspicion.
    “Why now?” she asked her sister.
    Jeanette had no idea, but she would take advantage of the opportunity to press Rowan to take up her training again. Her cousin could not refuse in front of others, especially under these dire circumstances. She would not.
    “I suspect we shall find that out anon, sister. Denis,” she said, turning her attention quickly to their guest’s comfort, “see that Malcolm gets something to eat and have Mary make up a sorrel tea for him.” She looked at Malcolm. “ ’Twon’t be much to eat, I’m afraid, but the tea will cool your fever.”
    “No need, lass,” Malcolm replied. “I shall partake of my own rations until they are gone, and the fever will pass on its own, as it always does.”
    “We are not so bad off that we cannot feed a guest and offer him a simple tea.” She cast a determined look at Denis. “I shall come find you when we are finished. I want to check your wound again,” she said to Malcolm, though she knew it was only an excuse to seek him out.
    Jeanette and Scotia hurried after the others and when they were all standing in the confines of the chief’s small chamber, one floor up in the tower, silence settled over the five of them.
    Nicholas sat in the only chair. He glanced at Uilliam, the black-haired, heavily bearded bear of a man who stood at the back of the room near the door. Nicholas said, “It would seem we can no longer stay in Dunlairig Castle.”
    Uilliam’s voice rumbled over them: “Unless Rowan can raise a defense.”
    Jeanette nodded at his assertion.
    Rowan bristled, but Nicholas nodded. “She cannot yet , and we dare not allow ourselves to be—how did Malcolm put it?—‘caught like birds in a cage’? The time has come to evacuate the clan.”
    He looked at each of the women, Rowan, Jeanette, and Scotia. “The caves are ready?”
    “Ready enough,” Rowan said. “Peigi and her sisters returned from the Glen of Caves two days ago and reported that the necessities are in place, though it will not be a comfortable home and more work will be required once we arrive.”
    The Glen of Caves was hidden away in a deep fold of the mountains, far enough from Glen Lairig to be safe, but close enough to get there in a few hours’ time on foot.
    “Uilliam, you have sites chosen for the warriors to camp?”
    “Aye. With only a score of us, and some of those needing to keep watch over the women and weans at the caves, it will be easy to move the camp as needed. And we shall be plenty close to keep watch in the glen for the English. Once we know how many, and where they are, we can plan our attack.”
    “Duncan told me just this morning,” Nicholas said, “that almost all the livestock have been moved up into the mountains. We shall have to leave behind those that have not been moved yet, for now at least.”
    “Good,” Uilliam said. “Shall I start sending word up and down the glen, carefully of course, for everyone to leave their homes tonight?”
    “Aye, and we will begin sending out small groups from the castle as soon as ’tis dark,” Nicholas added. “With luck we shall all be away before dawn and before any English soldiers are the wiser.”
    “Is there