Page 5 of Once Upon A Haunted Castle
“Indeed. And what was she doing with it?”
“I dinna know. But I’ll found out.” Beiste gripped the hilt of the sword that had been passed down to his father by his father before him, the great Norse king, Somerled, who’d come to conquer the land.
He glanced toward the archway, where just a trip up the stairs would take him to the room housing the mysterious beauty with his father’s sword and the answers to his father’s death.
What had his father gotten into? Why hadn’t he told Beiste about his oath of protection to the Cam’béal Clan?
“Prepare the men on the wall for a siege. Send out riders to warn the villagers. The Norsemen are not merciful. They are brutal. Everyone must take shelter if it is not too late already.”
Thunder cracked once more, rumbling throughout the walls. Beiste was certain the thunder was masking the din of riders.
“They have come,” Beiste said.
“Aye.”
“Prepare for battle.”
He rushed out to the bailey in time to hear his men shouting over the high, thick walls of the castle, built from the rock of a mountain and overlooking the sea.
“We will not be sieged this day,” Beiste bellowed. “Fire your arrows. Dinna let them over this wall. Fortify the gate!”
Men rushed all around him, rain wetting their hair and causing it to stick to their faces, soaking into the thick wool of their plaids.
Beiste let out a battle cry filled with equal amounts of rage, sorrow and frustration. He felt like a man walking blind into a battle, fighting a war he had no knowledge of. An enemy he’d never met and knew not their motivation.
“Give us the woman!” The bellow was clear.
They wanted Lady Elle Cam’béal.
But he wasn’t in a giving mood today.
Beiste marched up the wooden stairs to the battlements, looking down at the rough, soaked warriors below. There had to be fifty of them.
“Ye’ll not be getting her today. Nor tomorrow. Ye’ll have to kill me first,” he shouted. “The woman is mine.”
