Page 66 of The Falcon Laird
“The man came to you, not me,” Gavin said. “Who is he?”
“One of my escort will seek him out before we leave here,” Hastings replied. “I expect you to find out what this man knowsand use it to find the Bruce. Send me the information when you have it. Find the acres near Kilglassie to give to him.”
“I would not give a handful of earth to such a man,” Gavin said in a low voice. “Give him oxgangs near Loch Doon if you wish to pay him for his treachery.”
“You dare to speak against treachery?” Hastings asked softly.
Gavin fisted his hands at his sides and stared at Hastings. “Until Kilglassie is garrisoned, you will find little help here,” he said curtly.
“Be warned, Faulkener,” Hastings said. “Bruce could take this place in a moment if he chose to do so. You do not even have a decent gate on this place. And Bruce and his little group took Turnberry Castle two weeks ago, killing a garrison of three hundred men. Henry Percy was the only one left. He shut himself up in a privacy chamber while Bruce packed up the silver and the food and quit the castle.”
“I have no intention of shutting myself inside the walls. And no one will take this place.”
“I only came to warn you,” Hastings said.
“You only came to lay your hands on Kilglassie’s gold,” Gavin said.
Fergus pulled hishead and shoulders back out of the well shaft and rubbed at his bald head. “Ach,” he said. “I knew most of that. Spying is a tedious thing.”
“But we learned of the English spy,” Christian said.
“And we learned that your husband is not so set against the Scots as Hastings would have him be,” Fergus said. “I find that interesting. Now go out to the yard and see which of the workmen is the traitor. Hastings will surely have a word with him before he leaves.”
Christian, leaning her arm in the embrasure of the well, suddenly grew alert. “Fergus,” she said, “what is that? Listen,now.” They stuck their heads back into the hole together. Light voices, high and wild with giggles, drifted toward them.
“If you can hear from above, you can hear from below,” she whispered. “Is that Robbie? And Patrick?”
“Ach,” Fergus said. “What are they doing?”
Christian frowned. “There is an odd echo—oh Fergus—”
“Saint Michael preserve our souls,” Fergus muttered. “The lads are inside the well!”
Chapter Sixteen
“Come out o’there, Robert and Patrick Macnab!” Fergus called into the well shaft. “And William too!”
“They must be mad,” Christian said, looking in beside him.
“Or more daring than we’d ever thought,” Fergus muttered. Three small faces peered up at them from the shadowed interior of the well. Robbie and Will clung to the iron rungs along the wall, and Patrick was in the water, holding on to the lowest bar.
“But the treasure is down here!” Robbie yelled.
“Have you found it?” Fergus yelled, his voice a booming echo.
“Not yet,” Robbie said. “You do not give us time!”
“Come up here,” his father growled, “before I forget I’m a priest o’ God.”
The boys glanced at each other and began to climb up. Halfway along, Patrick, the largest of the three, took hold of one of the iron rungs. The stone shifted and a chunk came loose as he pulled on the bar. The boy and the stone both fell into the water with heavy splashing. Will and Robbie, screaming, scrambled toward the top.
Christian stretched out her arm frantically to grab Robbie as he came higher and reached toward Will behind him. Fergus helped her and bent over the edge of the well calling for Patrick. In a moment, the boy called back, treading water, apparently unhurt. Once they had hauled the younger boys out of the well, Fergus clambered over the side.
Removing her cloak, Christian knelt and wrapped its fur-lined warmth around the two shivering boys. “What in the name of God were you thinking, lads?”
“We wanted to find Kilglassie’s gold,” Robbie said. “I had a dream ’twas in the well, behind a stone, and it spilled out, so many coins, like a king’s treasure room.”
“We only thought to look,” Will said.
