“I dinnae want my people slaughtered to save this keep. Aye, we had to fight, to try, and I grieve for the ones lost, but, if defeat is staring us in the face, I dinnae want them to keep fighting. I will confess that the plan to take all we can of what is valuable here did please me. As Big Mary said, we will leave Sir Adam with only empty buildings.”
As if conjured up by hearing her name, Big Mary burst into the room through the doorway down to the cellars. The woman nearly found herself skewered by Harcourt’s sword, which he had drawn even as he had pushed Annys behind him. Annys grabbed his sword arm out of fear for Big Mary but could feel the taut readiness to strike already leaving him.
“Mary,” she said, speaking as calmly as she could while stepping forward, a little closer to the obviously frantic woman. “Were ye attacked?” she asked.
“Nay, ’tis nay me,” Mary said. “’Tis Geordie. I need to find Geordie.”
“He is on the wall,” said Harcourt as he sheathed his sword.
“Aye but they have wounded him.”
“Ye cannae be certain of that.”
Big Mary stood straight, squaring her broad shoulders as if prepared for a blow and looked at Annys. “I will understand if ye wish me gone after I say this, but I do ken that Geordie has been wounded. I ken things from time to time. I was securing my flock in the bothy and kenned that I had to get back here as fast as I could, that Geordie was going to have need of me.”
“Ye have the gift?” asked Harcourt.
Big Mary nodded but kept her gaze fixed on Annys.
Annys stepped over to her and patted her on the arm. “That is why your clan sent ye away, isnae it.” Big Mary nodded. “I am nay certain what he means by saying ye have some gift but if ye have warnings about things, I should think ye had best heed them.”
“If Geordie has been wounded then the battle has resumed.” Harcourt gave Annys a brief, hard kiss. “Ye should stay back, Mary,” he said as he started out the door only to sigh when the woman rushed right past him.
“How odd. Geordie and Big Mary. I best go and join the others in the hall,” Annys said as she walked past him and disappeared down the hallway.
Harcourt shook his head and hurried to get to the walls, going through the door in Annys’s bedchamber to save time. He had just reached the area close to where Geordie stood guard when he saw Big Mary tie a bandage on the man’s upper left arm. If the wound was deep and painful, they had just lost their best archer. He was only steps away from them when Big Mary took up Geordie’s bow.
“What do ye think ye are doing, woman?” demanded Geordie.
“Taking your place until ye can do it again. Quiver?”
Geordie moved his arm so that she could reach the arrows more easily. Big Mary readied the bow and Harcourt could see the strength in the woman’s arms as she drew back and then sent the arrow into the advancing men. He cursed softly when a man fell, a curse echoed by Geordie. One arrow, one dead enemy. Harcourt looked at Big Mary in amazement tinged with admiration.
“It appears we have us another archer,” he said and almost laughed when Geordie removed his breastplate and put it on Big Mary.
“Dinnae get your fool self killed,” Geordie said as he headed down from the walls.
“Late in the day to attack,” Harcourt said as he took up his post by her side.
“Then t’will be a short battle.”
Harcourt kept her as shielded as he could while she efficiently took down soldier after soldier in Sir Adam’s army. Twice they crouched behind the wall huddled under shields as Sir Adam’s remaining archers tried to end the new, clear threat presented by Big Mary. And there was no question that she was indeed a threat. Harcourt instinctively wanted to get her off the walls and back inside the keep where it was safe, where the other women were, but the warrior inside him recognized what a useful weapon she was. It was evident Geordie did as well, or at least knew there would be no arguing with her, for he returned with his newly bandaged arm, a lighter bow, and a quiver full of arrows. Without a word, the man stood by Big Mary’s side whenever she rose to her feet to end the lives of more of Sir Adam’s men.
The light of day began to fade as they fought and Harcourt knew it would be their last battle. There were too many empty places on the wall, the men still able to fight now having to watch larger and larger areas. He prayed they could keep Sir Adam’s men out of the keep until the dark of night drove them back to their camp. Then he would order everyone to grab what they could and leave.