Page 11 of Keepers of the Highland Crown
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.
Chapter 6
“Apologies I could not offer more about who set the fire,” Nella heard the farmer say again toward Callum while they all stood beside the spent ashes. “Our lad was knocked unawares by the raiders while we were hunting, and we only came back in haste once we smelled the smoke. The bastards left this in their wake. I found it on the edges when I went to round up that stray goat.”
Another one.“A Dane axe,” Callum murmured at the axe in the farmer’s fist then swore something in Scottish Gaelic under his breath. “May I have this?”
“Aye.” The farmer handed it over with ease.
“Our eldest who is ten and six has been missing for months.” The wife half sobbed the words. “To think we almost lost another.” She grabbed her son close, who had a dazed look.
“Your lord will see to the re-building here?” Callum questioned, standing before the Scotsman who all but snickered.
“Nae, greed is his bedfellow, not charity.”
Callum went over toward Luss, who was nibbling the far remaining grasses on the fringes with the sheep. What was her knight… No, theknight–ahem– what was the king’s captain carrying? A bag of coins?
The subject’s eyes bloomed wide when Callum pressed multiple coins into his palm. “With compliments of King Alexander.” The farmer remained speechless while Callumlooked toward the wife. “Are you able to find shelter for the eve?” he asked them.
“Aye, thank you, sir.”
In a nod Callum then stepped toward Nella. Callum paused, turning back toward the Highlanders. “Your eldest, what name does he answer to?”
“Kameron,” the father answered, clutching the coins toward his ribs. “Kameron MacKurryn.”
“A good lad,” the wife gushed.
“His trade is that of a farmer as well?”
The father circled his arm around his wife and remaining lad. “Nae, he is apprenticing to be smith.”
Callum nodded solemnly then set Nella upon Luss. He leapt up behind her onto the saddle. Sir Brayden then took the lead led on his own charger back toward the tavern’s direction.
“Callum,” Nella asked after they galloped a distance, “what is capturing your interest regarding Kameron?”
“Sir Brayden,” Callum replied while looking at her, “a fortnight past, when you were on leave from duty, I was at court while our lord king listened to the daily complaints. Within one hour two lads were declared missing from bustling burghs. One common thread bound them.”
“Smiths?” Nella guessed.
“Aye, both.”
Brayden snorted. “’Tis odd.”
