Page 52 of Highland Jewel
As she reached the top, shouts rang out from the street. She darted into the closest room and went to the front window. Soldiers crowded the street. Two of them began to pound on the door. They were preparing to break it down.
She ran into Isabella’s room and found her leaning over the patient.
“Soldiers!” Maisie cried out. “Here. Demanding to be let in!”
A boy lay on her sister’s bed, one leg bound tightly with a pair of splints. A young man a little younger than Maisie stood by the bed, twisting his cap in his hands. Isabella ran to the window and peered out.
She turned to Maisie. “Grab your cloak. And go down the back steps and wait by the kitchen door while I fetch Morrigan. You two must leave the house.”
An instant later, she was gone, and Maisie heard her flying down the front staircase.
She turned to the young man and the boy in the bed. “Stay here. Stay quiet. The soldiers are not here for you—” Maisie’s reassuring words were cut off by the sound of the front door crashing in.
She turned and ran out, quickly descending to the kitchens. She started for the hallway leading toward the front of the house and stopped dead. A pitched battle was going on. Soldiers and citizens were fighting hand to hand. In front of her, a redcoat grabbed their housekeeper by the throat and shoved her against the wall. Picking up an iron skillet, Maisie attacked him, slamming him over the head. He dropped like a stone.
Suddenly, the crack of a pistol cut the air, followed by the sounds of shouts and screams, but the fighting went on unabated.
Helping the housekeeper to her feet, Maisie led her back into the kitchen. Settling her in a chair, she turned back to the front of the house. A wail of anguish met her before she could move even a step, and then Isabella came into the kitchen. She was ghostly white and was pulling a struggling Morrigan by the hand.
“He’s dead. Father’s dead. They killed him. The murderers. Let me go back.”
Through a back window, Maisie saw the shapes of two men coming through the garden. Quickly, she bolted the door. They tried to open it and began pounding. Shouts came from the front of the house and windows smashed. More soldiers were coming in. More cries. Voices rang out from the alleyway. The pounding stopped.
Isabella pushed Morrigan toward Maisie. “You two need to go.” She turned to the housekeeper. “You all need to gonow.”
“We’re not going without you.” Maisie moved in front of her sister, blocking her path.
Isabella’s dress was covered in blood. Her gaze darted toward the front of the house, and her hands shook as she stabbed at tears. “Archibald… he needs me.”
“He’s dead,” Maisie reminded her.
She didn’t know how much time they had. The soldiers would be coming back here any second. They’d search the house and march everyone off to prison. She, for one, wasn’t about to become another pawn in the game the government was playing to crush Niall.
“My patients.” Isabella tried to get around her again. “Archibald.”
Maisie saw that her sister was not comprehending the danger. She was dazed and could only do what she’d been trained as a doctor to do. Maisie turned to the housekeeper, who was holding onto Morrigan. “Help me. We need to get them out of here.”
“We can go to my son’s house in Canongate. He’ll hide us, I know.”
Isabella again started for the front rooms, and Maisie took her by the shoulders. “If you go back in there, then I go with you.”
“As will I,” Morrigan snapped. “I want to cut the throat of the blackguard who killed my father.”
Maisie shook her older sister once, forcing Isabella to look at her. “You’ll not be throwing your life away without us. Do you want all three of us dead?”
Isabella frowned, trying to grasp what was being said.
The momentary pause was all Maisie needed. She turned to the housekeeper. “Check the back door. Can we leave that way?”
The older woman glanced out the window and then unbolted the door. She cautiously pulled it open, looking outside. “They’re gone, miss.”
There was no time to fetch their cloaks. They needed to go now.
Maisie turned to Morrigan. “I need your help. We might have to carry her out, but she’s coming with us.”
Morrigan nodded grimly and took a hold of Isabella’s arm, dragging her toward the door.
Outside, the housekeeper took Isabella in hand, and Maisie shut the door behind them. As she hurried through the garden toward the alleyway, a knot of grief for Archibald rose into her throat. After so many years, they’d finally come to understand each other. She brushed away the tears and followed the others.
