Page 115 of Feathers in the Wind
The man’s assurance provided no comfort. If he was still alive, Luke was out there when he should have been safe within the castle walls.
A shout went up from the courtyard and Deliverance hurried across to the window. A small group of horsemen emerged from under the gatehouse. The horse’s heads sagged with exhaustion as they drew rein.
As people ran out with torches, Deliverance counted the horsemen in. Ten men had gone out, five had returned in the first party. She counted...three horses... there should have been five.
Unable to restrain herself, she gathered her skirts and ran down to the courtyard as the last two horsemen entered. Sergeant Hale with someone riding pillion on the horse with him and the unmistakable outline of Luke Collyer behind him. The gates slammed shut behind him and Deliverance took a steadying breath.
All the patrol was now accounted for. Her fears had been unfounded. Now she could afford to be angry but one glance at Luke’s grim face and her caustic greeting stopped in her throat.
She looked to the other men and saw the story confirmed in their eyes. She could smell it on their clothes, the stench of smoke and something else, a sickly sweet smell of decay. Lovedie’s story had been true. Charles Farrington had murdered the garrison at Byton before slighting the castle.
Luke dismounted, leaning against the animal’s neck as if too weary to move any further, dark circles under his eyes that had not been there the previous day.
A red-headed boy slid off Sergeant Hale’s horse and stood looking around at the gathering crowd.
A woman shrieked, and Lovedie Brown pushed her way through the crowd. “Toby! Oh Toby, ye’re safe!”
Deliverance looked from the boy to Luke. “Her brother,” he said, his tone heavy.
The Brown siblings embraced, both crying with relief.
Lovedie looked up at Luke. “Oh, Captain Collyer, how can I ever thank you?” Lovedie seized Luke’s hands and brought them up to her face, kissing them. “We owe you our lives, sir. We’ll not forget your kindness.”
Luke extricated his hands and shook his head. “It was the boy’s own wits that saved him, not I. Nothing any good Christian wouldn’t do.” He looked around the assembled garrison. “Farrington is on the move and he will be with us come the morning. It’s time to shut the gates. Those who want to go leave now.”
No one moved.
“We’re here to the end, sir,” Truscott said and the Kinton Lacey men nodded in agreement.
“Lovedie?” Luke looked at the girl. “You and the boy’ve just been through one siege, there’s no call for you to go through another.”
The siblings exchanged glances and Lovedie straightened, tightening her arm around her brother as she shook her head. “We’re not leavin’,” she said. “I told you, we owe you our lives and if that’s what the good Lord wants of us, then we’ll stay and see it out.”
Toby looked up at Luke with undisguised worship in his eyes. “I’m your man now, Captain Collyer. I can fire a musket as good as any.”
Luke clapped the boy on the shoulder. Hale raised his hands to the inky sky and boomed, “On your knees and let us pray to God Almighty for the souls of the slaughtered at Byton and for our safe delivery from the enemy. And let us beseech God to smite our enemy and give us victory.”
As one, every man, woman and child sank to their knees in the muddy courtyard to echo Sergeant Hale’s fervent prayers.
As Luke rose, brushing the mud from his breeches, Deliverance put her hand on his sleeve. “Luke?”
He looked down at her, his face grim. “We don’t have time for pleasantries, Deliverance. We need to get as many of the villagers as want to come in here along with as much livestock as we can fit. Ned get on with it.”
He strode off, leaving Deliverance standing in the middle of the courtyard. Halfway to the gate, he stopped and turned, looking at her with a smile on his face.
“Well, my lady? Are you just going to stand there? I can’t do this by myself.”
Chapter 9
The steady cadence of drums and the tramp of feet drifted toward Kinton Lacey with the soft summer breeze, announced the arrival of Farrington, long before the first soldiers came into sight.
Deliverance watched from the castle wall, anxiously scanning the road for the patrol Luke had led out at first light. The five horsemen came galloping up the road toward the castle. A shout went up from the Gatehouse and the horse’s hoofs clattered on the cobbles as they entered the castle. Hitching up her skirts, Deliverance ran down into the courtyard to meet them.
As she placed her hand on the bridle of Luke’s horse and looked up into his grim face, she knew the news would not be good. He unbuckled the heavy steel ‘pot’ helmet he wore and pulled it off, shaking out his sweat dampened hair.
“Well?” she demanded.
A wry, humourless smile twisted his lips. “We’re honoured. Sir Richard himself is riding at the head of the column.” Luke paused. “I calculate he has three hundred men with him as well as the guns we saw at Ludlow.”
