35

Mike never heard the gunshot that saved his life. He felt the blade fall against his chest as it tumbled from Hurley’s fingers.

Followed by Hurley’s body.

Brady stood six feet away pointing a pistol at arm’s length. He didn’t look at Mike. His eyes were solely on his leader. Two soldiers appeared behind him. Over their shoulders Mike caught glimpses of men running, stumbling, falling. The screams and the gunshots filled the air around him but the tree blocked his view of the castle.

Brady lowered his arm and jammed the gun into his shoulder harness. He walked over and tugged Hurley’s body off Mike so it lay facedown beside him.

Mike was amazed to see that Brady was really just a kid. He didn’t look old enough to be out of school let alone in the army.

“Can you stand up?” Brady asked him.

Mike climbed unsteadily to his feet.

“Anderson! Jamison!” Brady shouted before turning and spitting on Hurley’s body. “Grab this piece of shite!”

Brady leaned down to talk to the back of Hurley’s head.

“How’s the field promotion feel, Commander?” he said with a sneer. “You were in charge and now you’re dead.” He straightened, keeping his eyes on Hurley as he muttered to himself, “Fecking lunatic parks us out in the open to be picked off one by one.”

The two soldiers lifted Hurley’s body under the arms. They looked expectantly at Mike.

“After you, squire,” Brady said wearily, waving toward the front of the castle. “Your lot will shoot our fecking heads off unless you go out first.”

It was then that Mike realized the sounds he was hearing was a steady line of rifle fire coming from the castle.

The castle was shooting down on the men camped outside the walls with no benefit of cover. He and Hurley had been behind the only protected spot anywhere near the castle.

His heart pounded as he realized what was happening.

Head of the snake. My God, this has Sarah’s name written all over it.

He stumbled out from around the tree and raised his hands to the castle.

“Don’t shoot!” he called. “They’re…they’re leaving.” He turned to glance at Brady and the young man nodded.

“Aye we fecking are. As long as we can do it without a bullet or a fecking arrow in our backs.”

The two soldiers dragged Hurley’s corpse to the drawbridge as it was lowering and dropped the body face down in the dirt. Mike looked up to see five figures in silhouette on the parapet—each with a rifle or long bow. One of the figures waved. Gavin.

Mike grinned which made his face ache. His right eye was already swollen shut. He turned to see the drawbridge fully open and Sarah flying across it. Toward him.

“Mike!”

She hit him solidly, nearly knocking him off his feet but then pulled back and began touching his chest, his face, and his neck. She was looking everywhere at once as she gently assessed his wounds. The fear in her face dissolved as she realized what he didn’t have the breath to tell her.

He was okay.

With his last ounce of energy, he opened his arms to her and she slipped into them. His battered face was buried in her hair. And when the trembling began she held him. Like she would never let him go.

Which was just fine with him.

---

Sarah didn’t know who was shaking more—her or Mike. As he talked with the tall soldier who walked out with him, she checked him for any injuries and found nothing serious. Forcing herself not to step on the so-called commander’s body as she pulled Mike back toward the drawbridge, she signaled to Kevin to get ready to close the drawbridge behind them. She wanted the soldiers to leave immediately. But Mike was already telling the soldier they could take the time they needed to collect their dead and pull down their tents.

She looked up at the parapet and saw the men and women lined up there with bows and arrows and rifles pointed down. She could only imagine what it must have felt like for the soldiers, to be down here—completely vulnerable—while bullets and arrows rained down on them.

As soon as she and Mike were inside the castle, Mike was swarmed by their people who slapped him on the back and embraced him. She could see the pain in Mike’s face with every hug, but he was grinning too.

When he finally extricated himself from the crowd to find her again, she stood waiting for him in the courtyard with Nuala and Sophia, who added their hugs and kissed him soundly before scurrying off to the dining hall and the nursery.

Mike eased himself down onto the garden bench that abutted the eastern castle wall. Three women walked past them toward the kitchens to start the afternoon meal.

Just a normal Tuesday afternoon, Sarah thought, after everyone thought we’d all be dead for Wednesday morning.

The men resumed their positions on the parapet and watched as the army packed up and broke down their tents.

“Tell me,” Mike asked.

“Tommy had some C-4,” Sarah said as she slipped a hand inside Mike’s shirt. The stitches on the gash in his shoulder had pulled apart. “He found a way to put a fuse to it and we hurled that into the middle of them.”

“That explains the big boom,” Mike said wincing.

“And all the women who’d been practicing like maniacs with their bows and arrows all week didn’t see any reason not to use them.”

“Did they hit anyone?” Mike shook his head and laughed.

Sarah frowned as she slid her hand gently along his collarbone. “Maybe one guy? In the leg? But it didn’t matter. We scared the crap out of them. The soldiers didn’t know we couldn’t hit a target at ten paces.”

“I felt like I was looking up at the fecking Alamo,” Mike said. “With everyone lined up there on the parapet.”

“I think the Alamo is an unfortunate reference,” Sarah said and wiped her bloody hands on her jeans. “We need to get you sponged off and bandaged up. Your nose is broken again.”

“What’s wrong with the clinic? There’s got to be a reason we’re not there right now.”

Sarah sighed. “Mike…”

“What happened?”

“The bastards got inside the castle. There’s a secret tunnel that comes through the clinic.”

“Shite.”

She squeezed his knee as she watched his face register that Fiona and Declan and Beryl had been in the clinic.

“Fiona…?”

“She’s fine,” Sarah said. “But Beryl, no. And Declan.”

“Oh, Jaysus. I need to go to her.”

“Not yet, Mike. She’s pretty raw. Although it helped to get you back inside. A lot.”

“What a disaster,” Mike said, shaking his head.

“No,” Sarah said, standing up and tugging on his sleeve to get him to his feet. “One thing today was not was a disaster. We repulsed an effing army today when we were totally unprepared. And while we did lose two precious members, it could have been much, much worse. We live to fight another day.”

---

An hour later after Sarah had cleaned his cuts, loaded him up with painkillers, restitched his shoulder and bandaged his other wounds—his wrists, his throat, his broken nose, and a gash over his eye—Mike insisted on seeing Fiona and Shaun before going in to dinner.

Both she and Shaun were in the room that had been used as Shaun’s cell before he’d been thrown out of the castle weeks earlier. Someone had set a line of candles on the built-in stone bookshelves in the room and a small fire burned in the hearth. The bodies of Declan and Beryl lay side by side on twin tables. Their hair was combed and hands arranged as if in prayer.

Mike put a hand on Shaun’s shoulder and the man turned and nodded. Fiona stood up and went to Mike and hugged him. As he held Fiona, Sarah could hear him murmuring to her in Gaelic.

Sarah’s own eyes stung with tears. It was true that Declan had been in the process of leaving them for a long time. Ever since the day he’d been taken from the compound last winter. After being shot and left for dead, he’d never fully recovered.

Her heart was broken when she remembered the Declan she had known—the gypsy king so full of life and verve who’d loved Fiona and Ciara so dearly and who had been the best of friends to her and a brother to Mike and young John.

And he would always be the man who’d saved Sarah’s life years ago on a cold, wet day deep in the heart of the Welsh wilderness.

We’ll remember you always, Dec, Sarah thought, wiping the tears from her eyes. And we’ll make sure little Ciara never forgets you.

Mike and Shaun stepped outside the room and Sarah hurried to join them. She knew there was still the matter of the two soldiers in the tunnel to resolve.

“Where are they now?” Mike asked Shaun.

“One of them is injured,” Sarah said. Mike gave her a baleful look but if he thought she would keep quiet, then he’d taken too many pain pills.

“As I understand it,” Shaun said as they walked down the stone corridor toward the room where they’d locked up the soldiers, “these weren’t the ones who shot Declan or my mother. Declan killed those two and we still have to clean up the clinic.”

“There are bodies still there?”

“Aye. There were four soldiers in the tunnel. The two who opened fire on everyone in the clinic, and these two bringing up the rear.”

“Mike, you can’t kill them,” Sarah said.

“I can’t let them leave here alive knowing about the tunnel!” Mike said in frustration. He nodded to Tommy who stood outside the door. Tommy unlocked the door.

The two soldiers sat next to each other on the floor. Sarah had patched up the arm of one which had a ricochet wound from a bullet bouncing off the stone walls. They were brothers. Both stood as Mike, Shaun and Sarah entered the room.

“We can destroy the tunnel,” Sarah said. “Then there’s nothing to know.”

“That tunnel might save our lives one day,” Shaun said.

“It didn’t help much today,” Sarah said.

The two soldiers listened but their eyes were on Mike. And he didn’t look happy.

The taller of the soldiers—the one with his arm in a sling—cleared his throat.

“Me brother and I would like to formally request prisoner of war status,” he said. “We don’t have family any more and if that wanker Hurley is really dead…”

Sarah noticed the younger man was missing two fingers. It occurred to her it might be the result of an instance of army “justice.”

“Are you asking to live with us?” Mike said, dumbfounded.

“I…I’m really strong,” the younger soldier said, “and neither me nor Frank are married. Frank here was a grammar school teacher before the bomb dropped and I’m dead clever with mechanical stuff.”

“We could use a few more men,” Sarah said. She glanced at Shaun who shrugged.

“Can’t argue with that,” he said.

“Are ye both mad?” Mike said. His face was flushed and Sarah wondered for a moment if perhaps she’d overdosed him. She should at least have let him have his dinner before asking him to play King Solomon.

“These bastards raped and murdered everyone at the convent!” Mike said.

In a flash, Sarah felt the ground push away from her. It felt like someone just doused the lights. All the lights in the world.

When she came to seconds later, she was on the floor with Mike kneeling beside her and everyone talking and shouting at once.

“We never! It didn’t happen!”

“I swear on me life! No one touched the Sisters!”

The nausea swam up from Sarah’s stomach until it lodged in her throat.

“Sarah, lass, I’m sorry,” Mike said, patting her hand. His eyes were distraught with guilt. “I may be wrong about that. The lads say the nuns are fine.”

“We swear it’s true!” Frank said.

“Well, we’ll know soon enough,” Mike said gruffly over his shoulder to him. He turned back to Sarah and tried to smile reassuringly. “We’ll head back there straightaway and see for ourselves.”

Sarah steadied herself with a hand on the cold stone floor. Her forehead felt damp but her stomach was settling down.

Yes. They would go back to the convent. Soon. Tomorrow.

“Promise me you didn’t hurt them,” she said in a hoarse voice.

“We swear, missus!” Robby said. “Not a hair!” But Sarah saw a quick, guilty glance to his brother.

“What are you not saying?”

Mike helped her to her feet.

“It’s just that…” Frank said as he looked at the floor.

“Out with it!” Mike barked.

“It’s just…that bastard Hurley shot two of the nuns right off and then made us torch the place,” Robby said. His eyes welled with tears. “And…and when me mate Denny wouldn’t do it right off, the fecker shot him too.”

“And stuck his…his head on a pole,” Frank finished.

“Jaysus,” Shaun said. “What was that? Motivation? Jaysus.”

“All right,” Sarah said and patted Robby on the shoulder. “It’s all right. If you had nothing to do with it—”

“We swear, missus!”

“I believe you,” Sarah said tiredly, feeling a throbbing ache in her temples. “Do you want to sleep on it, Mike?”

“Sleep on what?” he asked with exasperation. “About whether or not they can stay? Are ye serious?”

“You can see they’re harmless.”

“I don’t see anything of the sort, Sarah. I’m sure some people thought that monster Hurley looked normal too.”

“Oh, no, never,” Frank said, shaking his head.

Robby shook his head too. “No way was that berk ever normal.” He shivered.

“You can stay,” Sarah said firmly.

Frank looked at Mike with wide eyes. “Squire?”

“You heard her,” Mike said. “You can stay. But I’ll be watching you.”

“Thank you, sir! Thank you, missus!”

“Go on down to the dining hall,” Sarah said. “Might as well start today being a part of things.”

“No,” Mike said. “First you can spend an hour filling in the tunnel.” He looked at Shaun and raised his eyebrows.

Shaun nodded with resignation.

“Sure, might as well,” he said, “since having it so far has only worked against us.”