The Hellion and the Highlander (Devil of the Highlands 3)

The moment the man nodded and dropped back off his horse to hurry away toward the other men, Will turned his mount and set out for home at a gallop. Averill immediately urged her mare to follow and quickly wrapped her arm around Laddie when he nearly bounced his way out of the saddle. It was an automatic, almost absent action. Averill's mind was on Domnall and all she would have to do for him when they got him home...as well as the question of where Ian and Angus were.

"The men will ha'e to pledge their fealty to ye," Gawain pointed out as he followed Kade down the stairs.

"Aye," Kade muttered, but then paused abruptly and simply stared at the activity in his great hall. "What the devil?"

"It looks like yer lady wife has the English soldiers a-cleanin' again," Aidan commented with amusement, as Kade glanced over the mass of bodies in the room. They were not all Mortagne soldiers. There were also women dressed like peasants and even a few men in peasant garb working among them.

"Again?" Gawain asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Aye, she had 'em removin' the dirty old rushes the other day," he explained, then added with approval, "I notice she hasna set our men to the task. A sensible woman is yer wife. She kens what an Englishman is good fer but doesna make the mistake o' thinkin' a Scottish warrior is o' the same weak ilk."

Kade grinned at the comment but then stifled it, and said, "Will is a friend to me, and a damned fine warrior. His soldiers are capable men. Doona let them hear ye insultin' them so, no when they traveled all the way here to back me up."

"Aye, me laird, ye be right," Aidan said solemnly, then added on a sigh, "though 'twill be damned hard no' to tease 'em over this."

"Aye," Kade said, allowing his grin to escape as he continued down the stairs. After talking to his father since Averill and Will had left, he, Gawain, and Aidan had decided to have a drink at the trestle tables and discuss what he should do first now he was laird; but the idea was no longer appealing, what with the noise and bustle in the room, so he headed for the doors instead. "We'll take ourselves to the inn fer a drink rather than trouble the workers."

Aidan and Gawain murmured their agreement, and they had just reached the doors when one was tugged open, and a Scottish warrior started to hurry in. He paused abruptly when he saw Kade however, and announced, "I was sent to tell ye Lady Averill, her brother, and five o' his soldiers are chargin' up the hill at breakneck speed. Something is wrong. And it looks like Lord Mortagne has a wounded man on his mount with him."

Kade was moving right after the part about there only being five soldiers and their moving at full speed. He had watched them ride out from the window in his father's room and knew thirty-six men had ridden out. What the hell had happened to the others?

The party charged into the bailey as Kade was rushing down the stairs. He wanted to run to meet them but knew if they had some wounded with them, they would just charge past him, eager to get to the keep and tend them. So he waited at the foot of the stairs, straining his eyes to try to make out if Averill was all right. Much to his relief, she appeared healthy and well. She had Laddie before her on the mount, but there was color in her cheeks, and she didn't look to be in pain. He turned his gaze to Will then, his eyes automatically dropping to the body draped across his lap in the saddle. When he saw the plaid the man wore, he frowned, wondering who it could be.

Curious as he was, it was still Averill's mare he moved toward when she and Will pulled up before him at the base of the steps. He reached up to pluck Laddie from the saddle, set him down, then turned back just in time to catch Averill as she swung her leg over and dropped off her mount.

Kade kissed her quickly on the forehead for being safe and well, then turned toward Will to find that Aidan and Gawain had already handled the matter and were carrying the man up the stairs between them.

"Who--?" he began.

"'Tis Domnall," Averill interrupted quietly and squeezed his hand in brief and silent sympathy before sliding past him to chase after the men.

"Domnall?" Kade echoed with amazement, staring after her.

"Aye." Will leapt to the ground beside him. "He has a sword wound in the side. 'Tis a few days old, but reopened. There is old blood on his tunic and new."

Cursing, Kade started forward. Will at his side, they hurried up the stairs even as Averill slipped through the doors and disappeared. "Did he say what happened?"

"Nay. He has not been able to tell us anything. I think he just stumbled up and passed out at Avy's feet."

"Ye think? Where were ye?" Kade demanded. "Ye were supposed to keep an eye on her."

"I was on the other side of the bush, waiting for her to finish relieving herself. I trust you did not expect me to hold her hand while she did that?" he asked dryly.

"We made her keep talkin' so's we kenned she was a'right, me laird," Laddie told him quickly, making his presence known as he chased them up the stairs. "She was a-talkin', then screamed, and we rushed around the bush to find Domnall lyin' there and her lookin' shocked."

Kade nodded at the boy's explanation as they reached the door, pulled it open, and hurried in to follow the procession across the hall and up the stairs. They caught up as they reached the large, empty room at the top of the stairs and watched silently as the men laid Domnall down and Averill immediately began bustling about, ordering water and linens to use as bandages, and her medicinal bag. Aidan and Gawain automatically responded to her requests, Aidan moving out to the hall to bellow below for water and linen to be brought. Gawain asked where her medicinals were, then rushed over to the chest to find them. Kade left them to it and moved up to the side of the bed and peered down at Domnall.

"Is it bad?" he asked, peering down at the pale man in the bed.

"Bad enough," she said carefully, applying pressure to the wound.

"Will he live?"

Averill bit her lip as she worked, then sighed and shook her head. "I do not know, husband. I will do what I can...and then we must pray he gets no fever and has not lost too much blood."

Knowing she could not do any better than that, Kade nodded and fell silent as Gawain rushed over with her medicinal bag. Moments later, Aidan was ushering in Bess and Lily with water and linens. Both women took one look at the man in the bed and started to shoo the men out.

Kade could have countermanded them but did not. The women would do what they could, and the men's presence there would only distract them, so he merely headed for the door, saying, "Send for me if he wakes."

Will, Aidan, and Gawain were already in the hall waiting when he stepped out of the room. Their expressions were grim.

"It doesna look good, me laird," Aidan said grimly.

Kade glanced to Will. "Did ye search the area?"

"I set the men to it as we left. If Angus and Ian are out there, they will find them."

Kade nodded, but his hands curled at his sides. He wanted to be out there looking, too.

"Doona e'en think about it," Gawain said grimly, apparently knowing what he was thinking. "Ye're no' e'en healed from the last time ye sallied out of the bailey. Leave it to Lord Mortagne's men. If Angus and Ian are there, they'll find 'em."

"Aye," Will agreed. "Besides, I do not wish to be chasing after Averill when she hears you have gone out and chases after you."

Kade smiled faintly at the suggestion but reluctantly nodded. "I'll wait till they finish searchin' the woods, but do they no' find them, I'll no' wait till morn, as planned, to send the search party to check the way to England. They'll leave tonight."

The men all nodded and turned to head below.

The sound of a door opening drew Averill from the light doze she'd been enjoying in the chair beside Domnall's bed. Rubbing the weariness from her eyes, she sat up and glanced to the door nearest the bed, only to frown when she saw it was still closed.

Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her gaze to the second door to the hall just as Kade closed it. The door was at the opposite end of the room, and Averill had been told that the chamber had

originally been two very tiny bedrooms but that the dividing wall had been damaged some years back by Gawain and Brodie, who had been drunk and wrestling. Rather than repair the wall, Merry had ordered the rest of the wall knocked down to make it one large guest chamber. So it was now the only room in the house with two entrances. That had been rather handy earlier today. While the men had clogged the one door as they slowly maneuvered the unconscious Domnall into the chamber, Averill had simply rushed to the second door and bustled inside to tend to readying the bed for the injured man.

"Wife." Kade paused at her side, bent to kiss her forehead, then straightened to peer at the pale man in the bed. "He's no' stirred?"

Averill shook her head, and said, "I heard a ruckus out in the hall earlier. What--?"

"Brodie," Kade answered grimly. "He was wantin' to try more whiskey, sure he could keep it down now. The fool," he added dryly.

Averill frowned as she recalled she had no tincture for the whiskey. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him we were all out, then had Aidan fetch him up a tray o' food and said to tell him that I would see about gettin' more whiskey for him on the morrow."

"Did he eat it?" she asked curiously.

"Aye. The tray was empty when Aidan went to fetch it. He said he looked much better for havin' it, too. He was up and dressed and walkin' about without needin' to hold on to things. He hasna come below, though," Kade added. "The men brought back a bunch o' the weeds ye said ye were lookin' fer. Can ye make a batch o' yer tincture in the mornin'? I'll no' give him untainted drink."

"Aye. I will make it," Averill assured him.