Alison turned again to see her daughters, who rode behind them, each in the clutches of a Blackadder. They looked so small and helpless that she wanted to weep. She held back her tears and gave them what she hoped was a reassuring nod.
“Believe me, the Beast is no different from us,” Patrick said. “He’d sell those lassies to the devil to keep the lands he stole.”
She thought of Robbie and Will, who already had a bond of friendship with her daughters and would grow up to be the best of men. Her objection to the betrothals seemed trivial now. As David said, his brothers would make fine husbands, unlike the vile men her family and the Blackadders would have them wed.
“When I get my hands on Wedderburn, I’ll make him suffer for every time he touched you,” Patrick said, his lips against her ear. “I’ll punish him until he begs for death.”
CHAPTER 35
Alison’s hope that David would somehow find them faded with each mile they traveled. Most likely he had not even returned home yet to discover they were gone.
Yet she would not accept this fate. Escape was not possible now, while they were accompanied by a dozen armed warriors and she and her daughters were each held by a different rider. She would have to wait until after they reached Tulliallan Castle. But no matter how long it took, she would escape with her daughters and find her way back to Blackadder Castle.
And to David.
She heard the drum of galloping hoof beats and turned to see a group of riders appear at the top of the hill beside them. A moment later, the riders swept down the hillside like a wild river. Alison recognized David brandishing his sword at the front of the fast-approaching riders, and she knew her prayers had been answered.
The Blackadders fell into chaos, shouting to each other, while their horses whinnied and reared.
“God damn Humes!” Patrick said as he tried to control his mount.
An instant later, the Hume warriors rode into the Blackadders, filling the air with their war cries. Alison struggled to keep her daughters in sight, but she could only catch glimpses of them through the tumult.
“Mother! Mother!” Over the clank of swords and shouts, she heard them crying for her.
She elbowed Patrick as hard as she could, catching him off guard, and slid off his horse. As soon as she hit the ground, she realized her mistake. All around her, the battle raged on horseback. Swords flashed across her vision, and horses shied and sidestepped. If she did not get out of the midst of this quickly, she was going to be trampled.
She heard a roar and turned around to see David charging his horse through the mêlée toward her. Time seemed to slow and the chaos around her blurred. She saw only David coming for her, swinging his sword on one side and then the other, cutting down every Blackadder man who blocked his way.
She screamed as someone jerked her up from behind by her hair. David’s dirk flew above her head. She heard athunkand a wail of agony as her hair was suddenly released. She fell to her hands and knees. Mud from the horses’ hooves spattered her face as she struggled to get back on her feet before she was crushed.
David charged forward, cutting down one last man between them. Without slowing his horse, he leaned down over its side and swung her out of the mud and into the air. She landed with a jarring thump behind him on his horse.
“Save my daughters!” she cried, pointing in the direction she had last seen them.
“Ian, follow me!” David shouted to one of his men, and spurred his horse up the hill, away from the raging battle.
He halted under an old oak a few yards up the hill and dumped her to the ground. She was not hurt, but she lost her footing and fell backward on her bottom with her muddy skirts askew.
“Don’t let her loose,” he told Ian. “Tie her to the tree if ye have to.”
Then he turned his horse and rejoined the fight.
Alison scrambled to her feet and strained to see where her daughters were.
“There!” she screamed when she saw a rider galloping off with Margaret down the path through the wood. A moment later, Patrick and his brother galloped off in the opposite direction with Beatrix.
“Ach, he’s split the lasses up to make to make it harder for us to catch them both,” Ian said beside her. “And he’s left the rest of his men behind to hold us off while they escape.”
David was the first to break through the Blackadder warriors, and he rode after Beatrix. Though it had not taken him long, Patrick and his brother had gained a good deal of distance.
The other Humes were bogged down in the fight.
“Someone must go after Margaret before it’s too late,” Alison cried in frustration.
Robbie, who was not in the fight—probably at David’s order—was close to the path through the wood. She watched him skirt around the fighting men, then take off at a mad gallop down the narrow path. He disappeared into the wood.
“Robbie is just a lad. Ye must help him!” she said, pulling at Ian’s arm. She was frantic.