Everyone was leaving, just as MacDuff had promised if she…
…if she…?
“Tell me what you know, Gaia,” she turned to her sister and hissed. “If you do not tell me, I will start screaming and possibly they will stop this caravan to discover what is the matter. And I shall tell them that my sister is ill and they will…”
Gaia cut her off. “Shush!”
She put a hand over Corisande’s mouth, but it was only a temporary measure. Gaia knew Corisande was serious. In fact, she knew she should probably tell her before someone else did. When she’d returned to the wagon, wrapped in MacDuff’s blanket, several English soldiers had seen her, including the de Bourne soldiers. They had seen her coming from the direction of MacDuff’s tent.
But they’d also seen Corisande and Gaia coming from his tent the night before, which could have also meant something lascivious. Two women coming from the Earl of Fife’s tent, unchaperoned, and then the captives being released at daybreak could start a myriad of dark rumors.
It had to be addressed.
But that was more terrifying than the actual deed for Gaia. Now that it was over with, she wondered if she was brave enough to face what she had done. Perhaps she had hoped to keep it from Corisande, but the truth was that it simply wasn’t realistic. Corisande had to know. Last night, Gaia had been courageous, but this morning…
Not so much.
“Please, Cori,” she said softly, pulling her hand away from her sister’s mouth. “Please be quiet. I will tell you want you want to know, but you must be quiet.”
Corisande’s gaze was intense. “What do you know?” she demanded. “What happened?”
Reaching out, Gaia took her hand and squeezed it tightly. “Let me do this for you, Cori,” she whispered. “I had to do it.”
“Had to do what?”
Gaia took a deep breath. “It did not matter which sister warmed his bed, only that one did,” she murmured. “I could not let it be you. Not when you have a future with Cole. You wanted to protect me, but not this time. Not like that.”
Corisande’s eyes widened when she realized what her sister was telling her. Then, she slapped her own hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. As she looked at her little sister, her eyes filled with tears.
“Nay,” she breathed. “Oh, Gaia… nay. Tell me that you did not.”
Gaia squeezed her hand again. “It is not the end of the world,” she said. “Look at me. I am uninjured. You are uninjured. We are going home and you will marry Cole. Everything will be as it should be. That is all we should be concerned with.”
The wagon bumped over the ground as they entered the trees, dripping wet from the mist. Water fell on their faces, but Corisande didn’t even bother to wipe it away.
She was far too devastated.
“But you…” she wept softly. “You should not have done that. It is my duty, as your sister, to…”
Gaia cut her off. “You have always protected me,” she said. “I have been a silly, worthless fool, but you have always protected me. It is my turn to protect you.”
Corisande didn’t know what to say. It was the most selfless, brave act she’d ever heard of. From Gaia, no less. She had no idea her little sister was capable of such things. She pulled Gaia into an embrace, holding her tightly and feeling like a failure. She was horribly torn. She loved Cole, but she loved Gaia, too. Now, Gaia had done something no woman should ever have to do, all to protect her sister.
It was shattering to realize that.
But that grief, that deep agony, was Corisande’s last coherent through before the forest around her exploded.
They’d found an old man who knew the land around Berwick extremely well.
While chaos was going on in the town of Berwick and Scots were being captured or killed by the dozens, a very old man who lived in a hovel to the north of the town had been sitting in the tavern called Blankenship and drinking to his heart’s content. When the English had come looking for someone to tell them about the hills north of Berwick, he’d been more than willing to come out with the information for the price of another drink. Three drinks later, Kress and Achilles had what they needed to know.
When the Scots began to move through the mist at dawn, the Executioner Knights were ready.
The old man had told them about a portion of the hills that was rocky and protected by a ring of trees, trees that would protect the Scots from English eyes or bombardment. He even drew a crude map for them in the dirt floor of the tavern, describing a stream that dumped into the river from the northeast, leading straight into the area where the Scots were most likely gathered. All the Executioner Knights had to do was find that stream that fed into the River Tweed.
It wasn’t that difficult.
Heading out of Berwick city in the mist, they crossed the bridge and came to a road that led to the Ord Crossing. All they had to do was follow it. Once they made it to the bridge, they crossed over and began to search the bank on the other side where the old man had said the stream was located. They found it, though it was disguised in a marshy area, but the stream itself headed northeast, right into a forested area.
As they approached, they could smell the smoke from the cooking fires.
They knew they’d found the encampment.
At that point, the sun was rising further and there was more light to work by. And be seen by. They stashed the horses near the edge of the trees and made their way inside the forest, picking through the wet undergrowth, until they finally began to see signs of human habitation. An entire Scots encampment was beginning to awaken.
They spread out inside the tree line to see if they could find the women.
That proved to be a little more difficult and they hunted and hunted until, finally, Essien spied Gaia heading for a wagon. She was all wrapped up in a blanket, shuffling through the muddy, smelly camp. He passed the word to Cole, who came running. In fact, all of them came running. Where there was Gaia, there had to be Corisande, but they hadn’t spotted her yet and Cole’s heart was in his throat. He’d done a thousand dangerous missions, but not one as nerve-wracking at this one.
Then, the Scots started coming.
They were heading over to the wagon where Gaia was now sitting. There were other wagons around and they realized that they were looking at the wagons that had been stolen in the raid on the English. There were also English soldiers milling about, most of them wounded, all of the looking haggard and beaten. A man with a dark beard and expensive clothing began directing them to hitch the horses to the wagons.
Something was happening.
But their unimpeded view of the situation was disturbed by Scots patrols, who were prowling through the undergrowth with torches. It was that spot of light that gave them away, so the Executioner Knights had to hide until the patrol passed and then they’d go right back to spying.
Cole saw, very clearly, when Corisande sat up from the wagon bed. Evidently, she’d been there all along and he simply hadn’t seen her. She and Gaia sat in the rear of the wagon bed as activity went on around them and the man with the dark beard directed men to drive the wagons into the trees.
Suddenly, they were coming in their direction.
With that, Alexander took charge. Using hand signals, he sent Cole, Addax, and Essien into trees to the south. Kress and Achilles weren’t too far from them. Alexander took Peter, Bric, and Dashiell with him to the north as they hid out on the opposite sides of what was a clear wagon trail through the forest. That was where the Scots were heading.