Branded by a Warrior (16 page)

Refusing to give up, she assured the sniffling lass beside her they’d find her father and continued on towards the stables
.

Hearing his voice, the two walked towards him at the end of the stables. Elisabeth hailed to him and quickly explained
Isobel’s dilemma, “Can you ride us out there so we may
look? She’s quite upset Kendrix
.
”

Looking down at his blonde daughter’s swollen eyes, he looked up at Elisabeth, “Have you asked Broderick?”
he asked, crossing his arms.

“Nae, I haven’t seen him since I found Isobel. How far of a ride is it to the creek?” she
questioned
, she had yet to set foot outside the walls of the castle
since she’d been brought here. The idea of riding a horse made her yearn for a good outing.

Looking across the yard for his brother, he answered, as he scanned,
“Quarter hour there, not far
.
”

Kendrix signaled a nearby stable hand and ordered him,
“Saddle my
horse
and L
ady Elisabeth’s stallion please
.
”

Running his hand through his hair, he looked over at Elisabeth, “I’ll go make a quick round to see if I can f
ind him, go ahead and get ready
.
”

With that he walked away and went in search of his
absent brother
.
Elisabeth and Isobel prepared for their expedition outside of the highly protected walls of Castle MacMillan.

Kendrix appeared empty handed a half hour later, “Can’t find the man anywhere, we’ll go
,
and I’ll notify the gua
rds in case he finds us missing
.
”

Mounting his horse, he signaled for Isobel to join him in his saddle. Elisabeth
easily mounted her
brother’s w
arhorse, and situated herself for the ride. The excitement of riding, and seeing outside the walls made her giddy. Never before had she been this restricted in all her life, yes, her injury was still very sore and painful but she wanted nothing more than to feel the wind in her hair once again.

“
Kendrix, do you have a spare sword? I dislike the idea of going out of the walls unarmed,” she asked as they walked their horses to the drawbridge.

Ordering the drawbridge lowered, he looked over at her and asked knowingly, “Why hasn’t my brother seen you fitted for a sword Elisabeth?”

Watching the massive wooden drawbridge lower, she heard Kendrix tell the tower guard where they were headed. Waking their tall horses across the lowered drawbridge she admitted
in a hushed tone
, “Bec
ause he doesn’t think I’m ready
.
”

“Surely you can’t ask me to defy his wishes Elisabeth, even if I agree with you,” he chuckled as they cleared the bridge, signaling for
the guards to lift the drawbridge back up
. “You’ll convince him soon enough, I think he knows it’s only a matter of time before yo
u order your own weapons forged
.
”

“You can have my sword Aunt Elisabeth,” Isobel offered happily as she sat in her father’s saddle and listened to the conversation.

Since the announcement of her impending marriage to Broderick, Isobel had insisted upon calli
ng her Aunt Elisabeth. It warmed her heart to see how easily Isobel accepted her into the family.
For five years, Isobel only knew her father and Broderick as her family; she had no mother, no grandmother. The only constant female in her life had been Old Rhona, and the elder loved the child as her own. It was a bittersweet reminder of how fragile life was, how quickly lives were taken from all of them.

“Keep your sword my sweet
, Uncle Broderick will
get me a sword
…
eventually,
” she smiled at the innocent child
who
happily
rode with her
father beside her. The sun broke from the clouds and rare sunlight warmed their faces as they galloped away from
the mammoth castle behind them.
It felt incredible to be back in the saddle; Duncan’s horse was now hers, a magnificent beast indeed.

Smiling into the wind, the chilly Highland air whipped through her hair as she rode beside Kendrix and Isobel towards the creek in search of Isobel’s treasured locket.

Broderick was walking up from the cellars when t
he loud noise of the drawbridge
lowering and raising up again
. It drew
his attention
;
curious
,
he made his way out to th
e battlements. Increasing his pace, he
walked
out of the castle
towards the drawbri
dge tower in search of answers, his wolfhounds by his side.
Crossing the bailey he looked around for Kendrix as he came up
to the front gate.

Calling up to his guard in the tower, “Who left?” he
questioned his senior guard.

“Kendrix and Isobel with L
ady
Elisabeth
bound for the creek. Miss Isobel left something there. Kendrix looked for you before they left,” the guard called back down.

Nodding to his man, “Alert me when they return, I’ll
be in the stables,” he ordered, the ride to the creek wasn’t far and Elisabeth’s health had never been better.
Jealous he didn’t get to take his future wife on her first horseback ride, he marched back to the stables, debating if he should join them. He worried about her, she had no weapon, and they took no guards with them.
Calling to the stable hands he ordered his horse brought around, fetching his own saddle he tried not to overreact to the situation.

In the snowy woods, the two horses and their riders easily navigated the thin trails that led down to the creek at the base of the mountain, high in the air a bird sounded. 

Elisabeth and Kendrix’s attention was captured at the sound of the predatory bird soaring above them
when
an
arrow
flew right past Kendrix’s face landing in a tree to the right of him.
Elisabeth watched in horror as t
hree more arrows
flew from the woods directly at them.
She watched helplessly as Kendrix turned his horse to protect Isobel. An arrow buried deep
in his shoulder, throwing
him and Isobel from the saddle into the snow.

Jumping off her horse she ran over to them as the enemy rode down fast towards them, “Get her out of here Elisabeth!” Kendrix ordered as he pulled
the arrow
from
his own shoulder and pulled out
his sword.

Picking up the sobbing lass, she ran ove
r to her stallion and placed Isobel
on the saddle, “Look at me Isobel, Aunt Elisabeth needs your help, I need you to ride as fast as you can back t
o Uncle Broderick, go my pet! Go, do not stop for anything my child
!
” Slapping the horse’s rear she s
ent the small child off on the
massive stallion bound for the castle.

Watchin
g her fly through the woods, Elisabeth
quickly turned her attention back to Kendrix
. Picking up her skirts she ran through the deep snow back to his side. He struggled to stand, k
neeling beside him she watched at four
warriors on chestnut horses
nearly upon them.
Quickly assessing the situation, she knew
Kendrix’s wo
un
d was enough to disable him from fighting hand to han
d combat with the oncoming men. Moving quickly she leaned over him and pulled
his longbow off his shoulder
along with his
quiver full of arrows. Notching
an arrow
,
Elisabeth focused as the Douglas warriors were advancing on them rapidly.

“Elisabeth, it’s strung for a man lass, there is no way you’re strong enough to pull it b
ack, get on my horse and go!” Kendrix
ordered as he watched her take aim.

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do Kendrix, stuff it!” she bit out as she focused.

Inhaling a large breath she closed her eyes and pulled back the tightly strung longbow as the first rider approached, the pain in her shoulder raged through her as she let her first arrow loose, flying directly into the eye
of the rider. Dropping him dead, instantly.

Stringing a second arrow she took aim once again, survival outweighed her pain, behind her Kendrix’s shoulder
poured blood as he struggled to stand.

Letting her second arrow fly, it found
its
mark in the neck of the second warrior.

The last two men were upon them in seconds, on the ground Kendrix and Elisabeth stood beside each other as the Douglas men came into view.

“Look at that Ian, a redheaded lass who can use a bow! Looks like we found the missing Drummond wench after all,” the fat Douglas warrior sneered as he walked closer.

With only her dagger, she held it behind her skirts. Kendrix
held his broadsword out to the men and warned, “Get off MacMillan lands now or you will die!”

“We’ll just be taking Laird Douglas’s betrothed with us and we’ll have no problems, will we?” the tall redheaded warrior said, the warning in his tone wasn’t lost upon Kendrix and Elisabeth.

“We have no such betrothed on our lands
, this is
my wife
! B
e gone before my patience wears off,” Kendrix ordered as the men continued to gain ground.

“
If you won’t give her over, th
en we will just take her,” the fat warrior said as he rushed towards Kendrix
. The
other Douglas eyed Elisabeth, his sword pointed at her.

Kendrix clashed swords with the plump Douglas warrior as the taller warrior approached her with caution
.

Since she only had a dagger, she needed him to be close, allowing him to get within arms reach she moved like a viper, sending her long golden dagger up through his chin into his brain. Pulling out her blade quickly, he dropped at her feet.

Across the field
Kendrix was slowly losing his battle against the large warrior; his good arm was
too damaged from the arrow
. Running to fetch
an
arrow, she dropped to a knee on the
ground as
she watched
the large warrior b
ring up
his broadsword up to deliver a fatal blow across Kendrix’s neck.

Pulling the longbow back one more time she fired her last arrow as the Douglas warrior’s arms were high in the air, directly to his heart.

Before her
,
she saw
the Douglas warrior drop dead, Kendrix
looked back at her before he himself also dropped to the snowy forest floor.

Screaming his name she crossed the blood covered snow and slid next to him, cradling his head, “Please hang on, p
lease don’t die Kendrix, please stay with me
.
”

Pushing on his wound to control the bleeding, she prayed
for Broderick to find them soon. L
ooking around
,
she saw the bodies of four fallen Douglas warriors, their blood splattered all around her
in the white snow
as she held onto the shallow breathing MacMillan warrior.

Cradling Kendrix, she begged him to stay with her as the sun fell behind a cloud and snow began to fall. In the silence of the forest, she sat on the ground praying for Kendrix’s survival, the arrow had been so close to his heart.

At the castle,
Broderick was in the stable saddling his stallion; they had been gone too long. Something was wrong; he could feel it when he heard the tower guard calling his name.

“Laird Brod
erick, Isobel returns alone
, on Lady Elisabeth’s stallion
!” his guard
cried out from the tower.

“Lower the drawbridge man!” running back to his horse he jumped into the saddle, his heart was pounding.
What the hell had happened?

When Broderick saw Isobel come riding over the drawbridge crying, saddled upon Elisabeth’s stallion, his heart sank.
There was no good explanation for what he was seeing.

“Uncle Broderic
k! You have to save them, Douglas warriors are after them by the creek
!” she cried as he rode up to her.

Ordering a guard to take her up to O
ld Rhona, Broderick kicked his s
tallion and followed the tracks. Galloping as fast as his warhorse would go
,
his wolfhounds trailed close behind
.
Why hadn’t he given her a sword or bow?