Page 16 of Highlander Redeemed
“We shall need to prepare drink and food for ten ... nay, thirteen allies who are arriving, too,” Scotia said.
Jeanette, Rowan, and Duncan all stared at her. “What?” Jeanette asked.
Just then they heard the sound of the lookout’s horn—one blast. Friend.
Scotia looked at Duncan. “Perhaps that is them now,” he said, his eyebrows raised.
“Allies?” Rowan asked. “’Tis probably just last night’s watch making their way home. What makes you think ’tis allies?”
“Aye, what makes you think ’tis allies?” Jeanette echoed.
“Anotherknowingthat came to me right after the information about Lord Sherwood. Thirteen men. I dinna ken what clan they are from, though.”
They all looked at each other.
“We shall know soon enough if ’tis allies or the night’s watch,” Duncan said.
“Aye, we will. Jamie,” Rowan called to a lad who was bringing a load of wood into the clearing, “leave that. I need you to go down the ben toward the training area. That is where Nicholas and Malcolm were going to search. If they are not already on their way back here, fetch them immediately.”
“And any other warriors you see,” Scotia called after the retreating lad. “They will all want to be here when our allies arrive,” she said to her companions, trying to sound confident, though she was anything but.
As Jeanette finished tending Maisie, the rest gathered waterskins and cups, then waited restlessly in the council circle.
It was not long before Nicholas and Malcolm, trailed by Kenneth, Uilliam, and a few other warriors and lads who had been searching for the bairn, began flooding into the clearing, their voices, for the most part, loud and happy. Peigi, who must have been in the cave, was now waiting in the shade of the cavern’s mouth. She quickly sent the lads off on other tasks as the chief’s council gathered in their accustomed circle of logs and stones.
“What news?” Nicholas asked.
Rowan tugged on his hand as she took a seat, pulling him down to sit beside her. “Duncan? Scotia?” She raised her brows at them across the small circle. “Who shall start?”
Duncan quickly filled in Nicholas, Malcolm, Uilliam, and Kenneth on what they knew of Lord Sherwood’s plans.
“I know not how you ken this,” Kenneth said, “but it sounds like they are in Clan Campbell territory. Angus Dubh, their chief, is a wily man. I doubt not that he has eyes on the English even during the day and kens exactly what they are about, just as we would be ... will be.”
“There are also allies on their way into this glen,” Scotia said, not waiting for Duncan.
The circle was quiet, then Kenneth spoke. “How do you ken this, child?”
At the wordchild, all the tiny hairs on Scotia’s body rose like the hackles on a dog. “I just ken it,” she said.
“Sheknowsthings, Kenneth,” Duncan said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “’Tis Scotia who learned of the English trap this night. ’Twas Scotia who found the wee lassie, not me. Sheknewexactly where to look for her.”
“How?” Nicholas asked. “She did not track the wee lass?” He directed this question to Duncan, who shook his head but said nothing. “How did you find her, Scotia?”
Scotia’s ire rose at the doubt in her chief’s voice, and in preparation for a battle, for she knew already they would not believe her. But before she could spring to her feet Duncan reached back and laid a hand on her arm, holding her in place. He glanced over his shoulder at her and subtly shook his head as if he could hear her thoughts.
“Just tell them how it happened.” He sat back, stretching his long legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles, as he slowly looked each person in the circle in the eyes, but he never took his hand off her arm. “They will listen without judging.”
It was as if they all took a long breath as tension eased.
Duncan looked over at her, his eyes filled with what she could only call encouragement and support, and gave her arm a small squeeze before he let it go.
“Just tell them.”
She pulled the warmth of his belief around her like plate armor, focusing on it instead of the disbelief she expected from everyone else. “When I said her name, the child’s, I just ...knew. I knew where she was and how to get there. I know not where the knowledge came from, nor why it came to me. Later, after we found her and her mum had brought her back here, Duncan and I were ... talking.” For a moment the taste and unexpected passion of that kiss tried to overtake her senses again, but she forced her mind to stay on the trouble at hand, not the man sitting beside her. “And all of a sudden, Iknew, first that the English lord planned a surprise attack for our allies and that they had not made their way into the bens yet, and then, almost immediately, I knew a small contingent of our allies neared this glen.”
Nicholas looked at Jeanette, and Scotia knew he was asking her, without speaking, if she thought Scotia spoke the truth.
Jeanette got that look that was both far away and inward that signaled she was searching through the things she had learned before rendering an opinion.
