Mike saw them coming on the horizon and felt his stomach twist into a knot. He turned to look at Declan, who was helping Fiona into the wagon. Declan had seen them, too.
“What is it, Mike?” Aideen asked. She was in the back next to Taffy, their few possessions stacked at her feet in the back of the cart. Mike saw her twisting around to try to see what had caught his attention.
Son of a bitch. We were so close. He climbed into the driver seat. Declan and Gavin stood by the small horse wagon and watched the riders approach. This was no message being delivered from Brian cantering down the twisting driveway to where they waited. This was a posse. Iain rode in front next to one of the twins. Behind him were Brian, Archie and the other twin. Even from here Mike could see they were armed.
“Whoa up there, Donovan!” Iain called to them as the five men entered the cottage forecourt.
Mike’s glance flitted to his rifle, shoved into its leather holster at his feet. If he was going to use it, he’d have to shoot every one of them. There was no way a heavily loaded wagon was going to outrun even one half decent rider on horseback.
He nodded grimly at Jamison but said nothing.
Fiona stood, but he saw Declan put a hand on her to pull her back to a sitting position.
“I’ll be needing you to step out of the wagon,” Jamison said. “The women and Gavin can stay where they are.”
“What’s this about, Iain?” Mike asked, feeling an immediate tightness in his chest.
Gilhooley urged his mount in front of Iain. Mike could see he wasn’t comfortable, but he imagined it had more to do with the fact that he was an inexperienced rider than the purpose of his visit.
“Michael Donovan,” he intoned, his voice cracking, “you and Declan Cooper have been found implicated in the recent jailbreak of one Ollie…Oliver…” He turned to look at Iain who shrugged. Gilhooley turned back to Mike, embarrassed now, his face redder and fierce. “Our recent prisoner, the gypsy found guilty of murder. You’ll come peaceful like.”
“And if we don’t?”
Archie, silent up to now, pulled out his rifle and jabbed the air with it. “You’ll be giving me the chance I’ve been looking for since the day you murdered my darlin’ girl, Ellen,” he shouted.
“Too right!” Cedric said, riding up next to his father. “If you can’t be gotten for justice for Ellie, then we’ll just have to do it another way!”
“Gonna hang your arse, Donovan,” the other twin, Colin, snarled. “One way or the other.”
Fiona screamed and tried to jump to her feet but Declan held her firmly. Mike could see Aideen was clutching Taffy, who had begun to cry. Her face, twisted in anguish, searched his for reassurance.
Mike knew there was nothing for it. If he didn’t have two women and a little girl to worry about he might risk a shoot out with the crazy bastards. As it was, he sighed and raised his hands. “We’ll come.”
Live to fight another day…
“Da, no!” Gavin ran to the wagon, prompting Brian to bring his handgun out of its holder.
Mike saw Iain lean over and pull Brian’s hand down. “Hold on, there, Brian. The lad’s not doing anything. Donovan said he’d come.”
Fiona was fighting with Declan, trying to prevent him from willingly leaving her. She buried her face in his chest, her hands clamped around his neck. He could hear Declan murmuring reassurances to her.
“We’ll get it sorted out, Fi,” Mike said to her, but he was looking at Aideen.
“At the end of a fecking rope, you’ll get it sorted out!” Cedric yelled.
Mike saw his father-in-law nod grimly but his eyes were on Gavin, his grandson.
Revenge isn’t always cut and dried, is it, you old bastard?
Mike dropped the reins and jumped down from the wagon, his eyes landing once more on the rifle.
Gavin grabbed his sleeve. “Da, what do I do? What should I do?”
Mike put a hand on his boy and felt a fissure of defeat. Was this the last time he would touch him? Was this goodbye? He forced himself to shove the thought from him mind.
“Take care of your Auntie Fi and Missus Malone and Taffy, aye?” Mike looked at Fiona, now sobbing in Declan’s arms. “In fact, start for the coast today. Dec and I’ll catch up with you.”
“Da, no,” Gavin said. His eyes were red as if he were struggling not to cry. Mike wished he could have all the answers for his son. Especially today.
“No, we will.” He spoke under his breath. “Take your auntie, Gav. It’s not safe for her here.”
“Hey! Hey! There’ll be no plotting,” Brian called to Mike. “Move away from the lad, Donovan, or we’ll bring him, too. In fact, we probably should bring him just to be safe.”
“Eh? What?” Archie looked at Brian and frowned. “There’s no call for that. But the boy should come with me. I’m his only kin now.”
“Fuck that,” Gavin said to him and spat in the dirt.
“Steady on, lad,” Mike said to him, giving his shoulder a hard squeeze before turning toward where the riders waited.
“Let’s go, Cooper. She can visit you at the jail. Start walking.” Iain’s voice was loud but Mike couldn’t help but think there was a forcefulness to it that was missing.
Almost as if he wasn’t completely sure.
Declan broke away from Fiona and joined Mike as Iain dismounted and approached the two with strips of leather in his hands. Mike knew it would be next to impossible to get out of leather binds. As soon as his hands started to sweat, they would grow even tighter. He held out his hands, his eyes on Iain’s face.
Iain bound Mike’s hands in front of him, concentrating on the task and refusing to meet Mike’s eyes. The morning air only heard the soft sounds of Fiona and Taffy’s weeping as Iain turned to Declan and bound his hands, too.
“Fecking wog,” Cedric spat as Declan walked in front of him.
Iain remounted and indicated that Mike and Declan were to walk together behind his horse and in front of the Kellys and Brian.
He forced himself not to look back at Gavin or Aideen. If, God forbid, this really was the last time he saw either of them, he didn’t want to remember the look of terror imprinted on both their faces.
***
Caitlin stood by the empty stocks and watched the men return. Annoyingly, it appeared that Mike and the filthy knacker hadn’t put up any kind of fight. The two looked boringly untouched as they sauntered into camp.
Iain hates that Pikey! And he couldn’t find a reason to rearrange the bastard’s teeth? And then there was her father. She looked at him with disgust as he rode solemnly by her—as if he were a part of something momentous. The old tosser. If he really cared about Ellen’s murder, Mike would be sporting a black eye or limping at the very least.
As usual, it was all going to be up to her.
“Hello, love, waiting for us?” Brian appeared from behind Cedric. His face regarded her with eager hope. Did the idiot really think she was out here waiting to greet him?
“The men in camp wouldn’t mind me while you were gone,” she said petulantly. “They said they don’t take orders from me. So now I’d like you to order them for me before you do anything else.”
She saw his face fall and his small, beady little eyes flit from side to side as if worried someone might be listening to their conversation.
Gawd! How could I have married such a spineless worm?
Iain rode up to her and swung down from his horse. Her heart beat a little faster to watch the muscles in his arms as he flipped the reins over the animal’s neck to hold in his hand.
“Iain,” she said to him in acknowledgement, a smile edging at her lips. She didn’t care that Brian was staring right at her—probably registering the fact that she was mentally stripping Iain down to his knickers and not stopping there.
Iain put a hand to her chin and frowned. “What happened here, then?” he asked gruffly. She pulled away from him, her mood blackening immediately. The scratch still stung and ruined all the work of dressing so pretty this morning.
As was its intention.
“It is the reason I needed men to act like men and assist me,” she said, forcing her eyes to fill with tears. Caitlin would need to make sure Iain saw how brave and injured she was.
Because it was a sure thing his bitch wife would be telling him her side of things fast enough.
She looked over Iain’s shoulder where Mike waited patiently, his hands bound and clasped in front of him.
“Iain,” Brian said, haltingly. “Go ahead and lock up the prisoners. I’ll be along directly.”
“Why can’t you do it?” she said to Brian. “I need Iain to sort out these boggers in camp who think they can ignore what I say.”
“Well, because Iain is the camp sheriff,” Brian said patiently, a thinly veiled whine fluttering in his voice, as he slid off his horse. “Excuse me, Cedric? Collect the horses, please and take them to the stables. If there’s nobody there, if you could untack them and rub them down, I would appreciate it.”
Caitlin nearly laughed out loud at the expression on Cedric’s face. He made a rude hand gesture to Brian’s back and turned away, ignoring the request.
“Cedric? Did you hear me?”
“Never mind, Brian,” Iain said. “I’ll see it done. But first let’s get the prisoners sorted out.” He nodded to Caitlin, the message in his eyes direct and clear: find me and tell me what happened. He turned away, gesturing to Mike and the gypsy to follow him.
“Now, my dear,” Brian said, still holding the reins of his horse. “What was this about the men in camp not minding you?”
Caitlin tore her eyes from Iain’s retreating back to look at her husband. “Oh, never mind,” she said. “Go untack your horse or something.” She turned to follow in the direction that Iain had gone.
The sun was setting earlier and earlier, proof that summer was racing away, taking with it the sunny afternoons and easy evenings of plenty to eat. Fiona poured the boiling water into the teapot. The leaves had been used and reused but it was still better to hold a hot cup in your hands that somewhat tasted of tea—than nothing at all.
Aideen came into the room and shut the bedroom door behind her.
“She asleep then?” Fiona asked, setting a mug down for Aideen on the table.
“Finally. Was that Gavin I heard? Did he leave?”
Fiona sighed. “He’s just out walking. I reminded him his da said no heroics and no jailbreaks.”
“I know he’s frustrated and scared.”
“As we all are.”
“What do you think will happen now?” Aideen sat down heavily in the kitchen chair. Fiona knew how much she loved Mike. Somehow it must be worse, she thought, loving and worrying over someone who wasn’t really yours.
“I have no idea.” She massaged the small of her back. “But Sarah would have an idea or two. Trust me on that. I know you didn’t like her. But she was resourceful as hell.”
Aideen nodded and sighed. “I’m sure you miss her.”
“It’s just, in a situation like this? She was in her element.”
“How so?”
“As scared as she might be, when she saw a thing needing doing, she didn’t worry about the consequences.”
“You really think she could do something if she were here? Something we’re not doing?”
“I do.”
“I think you’re just remembering her bigger than she was.”
“Maybe. When I first met her, she’d lost both her husband and John and she convinced Mike to go with her and attack a blood-thirsty pack of thirty men with just them and two others.”
“She sounds persuasive.”
“And then? When Mike got hurt and couldn’t go with her? She went anyway.”
“That’s all very impressive, but there is nothing Sarah Woodson could do any differently than you or I are doing, Fiona, were she here today.”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” Fi thought, frowning.
“You’re not thinking of doing anything crazy?”
“All I know, Aideen, is that Sarah wouldn’t just sit here and wait for word that her brother and husband had been killed by maniacs.”
“We don’t have a choice, Fi.”
“Why should I believe that when I know Sarah wouldn’t?”
“Because you want to live to give birth to that little one in there.”
Fi hesitated and put her hand on her stomach. She looked at Aideen. “And what will I tell him when he asks where his da is?”
***
“Don’t you even want to hear my side of things?” Caitlin hissed at Iain from where they stood on the perimeter of the north pasture. The edge of the woods was to their backs where the camp—and anyone coming—could be easily seen.
“Did you or did ya not tell my wife I was leaving her to be with you?”
Caitlin stopped. “And is that not true?”
“On what planet do you live where you think it might be true? I’m married, Caitlin. Come to that, so are you.”
“So what we have is nothing to you?”
“Oh, it’s something. Same as for you. Horizontal recreation.”
Caitlin felt her anger building in her chest as a rosy flush spread up from her neck to her face. “You have your position in this camp because of me,” she said hotly.
“I have this position, as ya put it, because Gilhooley can’t stand the thought of working with a Pikey.”
“I thought you and I might lead the camp together.”
“You’re as crazy everyone says you are, Caitlin,” Iain said, shaking his head. “I’m not even sure if I’m staying in the camp.”
“What are you talking about? You have to stay! What if…what if…” She looked wildly about them as if trying to find the answer in the bushes and the trees. “What if something were to happen to your wife? Would you want to stay then?”
Iain leaned over so close, Caitlin was sure he was going to kiss her.
“If something happens to my wife, you crazy bitch,” he snarled, his lips only inches away from her own. “I’ll kill you with me bare hands and won’t wait for no fecking trial, neither.” He roughly pushed her, rocking her back on her heels. She fought not to fall as he abruptly turned and walked away.
She watched him go and ground her nails into the palms of her hands in impotence and frustration. A burning flush of humiliation crept up her neck to her face.
Bastard! He’ll pay for this and that bitch wife of his, too. How about if your fecking kiddies are orphans, Iain? How would that work for everyone?