Hello :)

The next chapter and my thanks for your support.

Reviews:

MohawkWoman: Unfortunately I made some bad experiences with flame reviews where they tried to find every tiny "mistake" or inconstancy to criticize the whole story and talk bad about me. It´s sorted out by now but I guess it made me very careful. But thank you for saying that adjustments like this are okay. ;) And thank you very much for your regular reviews.

Luthlien: Don´t apologize, I really don´t mind. ;) Thank you for this honoring words. They are a huge compliment.

Intruders

It felt like I had experienced this before. Moments of togetherness with Connor which were interrupted by the bearer of terrible news. Back then it had been Caleb who had called Connor´s and my names to tell us that the templars had just attacked his grandfather´s house. On this day the boy had lost everything. And today? As if I was frozen I was sitting upright in bed and watched Connor quickly putting on his shirt, pants and shoes, before he stormed through the door. Only when I heard his loud steps on the staircase, life returned to my body again.
I jumped out of the bed, tore the closet open, slipped into my nightgown and also wrapped myself into my dressing gown before I left the room, too and ran downstairs. Connor stood in the front door, an exhausted and heavily breathing Dr. White in front of him.
"Go to Myriam and Norris. They need to know, too. Myriam shall bring her rifles. It is never too late to fight", Connor was just saying, his voice totally sober. White nodded and ran off towards the forest, to the house of the hunter and her family.

"What happened?", I asked and couldn´t stop my voice from sounding afraid. Why did the doctor come to us in the middle of the night? Why was Connor talking about fighting?
"Come", Connor said shortly and crossed the hallway with large steps. I followed him, even when he opened the hidden door to the basement and went downstairs. With quick and precise movements, Connor slipped into his coat, buckled on his weapon belt and took tomahawk, pistol and even his rope dart. A long rope with a sharp blade on its end. I had never seen him fighting with it before.
"What happened?" The fear in my voice became panic while I watched Connor and his preparations. He didn´t look at me, concentrating on each movement as he answered: "Do you remember the gang which attacked the villages in the frontier before our wedding? The one that escaped me?"
I nodded.
"They are here."
It felt like my heart would stop for a moment and the colour vanished from my face. Here? Those bandits were here and plundered Davenport?
I stared at Connor with wide eyes when he stepped to me and put his hands onto my shoulders.
"Lillian. I want you to take Caleb and hide with him down here. Close the door and don´t come out. No matter what happens. Understood?"
I nodded, still paralyzed. Connor gently put a hand to my cheek and kissed my forehead.
"Konnorónhkhwa", he said and hurried upstairs one moment later. He didn´t hear my quiet "I love you, too" anymore and if I had known what was going to happen, I would have shouted it to him.

I ran upstairs as quickly as I could, hurried along the hallway, climbed the stairs to the first floor and stormed into Caleb´s room. The boy was sleeping like a rock and hadn´t noticed anything.
"Caleb. Wake up." I shook him by his shoulders until he woke up grumbling.
"What is it?", he mumbled but I had already grabbed him by his wrist.
"You have to get up. Now."
The urgency in my voice made him wide awake in an instant. He let himself be dragged out of his bed by me and with his hand in mine, I led him quickly out of his room and downstairs into the basement. There I paid careful attention that the door was closed and hoped that no one would notice the inconspicuous sconce next to the staircase, if someone should enter the house who wasn´t supposed to be here.
"Come", I grabbed Caleb´s hand again and led him into the back of the basement, where Connor was storing his weapons. Normally this room scared me but now it appeared like the safest place on earth to me. But I couldn´t forget what was possibly happening outside. I still hadn´t told Caleb why we were hiding but of course I could feel that I was afraid myself. His blue eyes were full of panic and no matter how often he tried to play the strong young adult, it was obvious now that he was just a child. A scared eleven-year-old boy.
"Lillian, what is this about? Where is Connor? Why are we hiding?"
I could barely bear it how shaky his voice sounded and I gently wrapped my arms around him and pulled him to me. Should I really tell him what was going on? Wouldn´t I scare him even more? But Caleb was a smart boy. He wouldn´t believe me, if I would tell him that everything was not as bad as it seemed. He had experienced enough already to know it better.
"The homestead is under attack", I said flatly and stroked through his blonde hair. A tremble ran through his body.
"Under attack? By whom? The templars?"
I shook my head. "No. They are just men who want to profit from the sorrow of others."
"But Connor will beat them back, won´t he?" Caleb raised his head and gave me a hopeful look. I could see the glowing admiration for the assassin in his eyes. Connor was a hero for him. Inviolable and unbeatable. But even though I knew what a talented fighter my husband was, I had already seen him going down.
But I tried to smile anyway and said: "He will do the best he can, as always."
Caleb was satisfied with this answer and cuddled up to me. Silently we sat there and listened into the night. There was nothing to hear of what was happening outside. But I prayed inwardly that all our friends would stay unharmed. That this nightmare was over soon. I asked myself shortly if it was right to hide here while our friends needed help and other women and children weren´t safe maybe. But I hoped they were.

I didn´t know how long we were sitting here as I suddenly heard heavy steps over our heads. First my heart skipped a beat with joy because I thought that Connor had come back and was going to tell us that everything was alright again. But this hope was destroyed as I heard that the steps belonged to two men and their muffled voices were unknown to me. They were here. In our house.
Pure fear spread through me and I pulled Caleb closer, who was as paralyzed as me.
"Hush", I said unnecessarily because he didn´t make a sound.
The men above us crossed the ground floor and I winced as I heard the cracking of wood, the clashing of broken glass and the clanging of objects which were thrown to the ground. Tears rose into my eyes. Where they here because they wanted to devastate everything? I felt sick with the thought that some strangers were walking through our home and showed no respect for our property. But this sick feeling became worse when one of them went upstairs to our private rooms. Were they going to rummage through our closets? Our clothing? I didn´t care if they would take something of my jewellery, the only material wealth I had. I just wanted them to leave or even better: That Connor came and drove them out. But now they were still moving through our house without hindrance.

The man who had gone upstairs came down again and this time I could hear their voices clearly because they seemed to stand right in front of the hidden door.
"Did you find her?", one of them asked with a heavy accent which I didn´t recognize.
"No." A nasal voice. "She must be with the other women who ran away."
"Tom was sure that she wasn´t."
"Maybe she ran somewhere else. To the coast or into the forest, who cares? I don´t waste my time with searching some hussy. Especially not if this savage could turn up here in every moment."
"He´s busy. Has enough to do with the others."
"But did you see him fighting? He´s an animal! Broke Grayson´s neck with his bare hand when he attacked him. Zap, he was gone. I don´t want to know what he would do when he finds us here. Especially not because of a woman. The boss isn´t quite right in his head. We never kidnapped any women before."
"Damn it, Nick. Stop wailing." I heard a muffled noise and a quiet yelp from the nasal one.
"We´re not here just because of the girl. The boss said, if we find her, we shall take her with us and if we don´t, we have done our job anyway."
"Yes and she´s not here. So we can go. Who knows when the savage..."
"Shut up!" The one with the accent seemed to have a quick-tempered soul because he was almost shouting. But even worse was the familiar cracking that sounded all of the sudden.

"Damn it, Pete!", cried the nasal one. "What have you done?"
"Nothing! I...just wanted to strike this candleholder over your head."
My heart beat painfully fast in my chest when I saw the flickering light of lamps that was shining down the staircase. They had opened the hidden door without knowing it.
A tremble ran through Caleb´s body. "What now?", he whispered but I indicated to him to stay silent and kept listening. The men seemed to be unsure what to think about the staircase that was leading into the dark.
"Maybe they have a torture chamber down there. Or the savage slaughters his victims for his dinner there. Scalps them or whatever."
"Don´t talk such nonsense, Nick. The savages don´t eat men."
"But you don´t rule out that they scalp people!" A muffled noise and a yelp again.
"When you are such a coward, stay here. I will have a look around down there and you will keep watch."
"You mean I will stay as the sacrificial lamp when the savage returns."
Another yelp, then heavy steps which were coming downstairs.

Hastily I pushed Caleb into a corner between wall and shelf and indicated to him to press himself against the wall quietly. I did the same on the other side of the room and hoped that the darkness would help us hiding. A strong built man came down the stairs and stopped on the landing. The lamp in his hand flickered as he lifted it to enlighten the room. He uttered a whistle between his teeth and the voice of his comrade sounded from upstairs.
"What is it, Pete? Torture chamber? Slaughterhouse?"
"Looks like a training room." Pete approached the straw doll and punched it with his fist. "And here´s another coat with a hood like he wears it."
He stepped to the opposite wall and tugged at the clothes on the wooden scaffold. They had belonged to Connor´s mentor once.
"I would like to know what madmen are running around like this", he mumbled and stepped further into the room.

The light of his lamp shined into our direction now and I pushed myself closer against the wall. He uttered a whistle again.
"Nick, you should see this. The savage has a complete arsenal." He stepped closer to the shelves and I held my breath anxiously. Now he was only a few metres away from Caleb and me. But for now he had only eyes for the weapons.
"Pistols, swords, these strange axes...everything in a perfect state and of best smithery", Pete shouted to his friend upstairs and took one of the rapiers out of its holder and examined the blade in the light of his lamp. "If I wouldn´t know it better, I would say the savage is a soldier."
"Do you think we could take something?", sounded it from upstairs but Pete had already put the rapier back. "We don´t need this stuff. Our equipment is good enough."
He had a short look around the armoury and for a short, terrible moment I thought that he had seen us. He lifted his lamp shortly and held it into the room. Holding my breath, I pressed myself against the cold wall and stared at the light that stopped right before my feet. Caleb had also pulled back into his hideout and our scared gazes met each other for a short moment. But Pete lowered the lamp again and I heard him going back to the staircase. I allowed myself to take a deep breath as his heavy steps faded away. I heard how he said something to the nasal one but I couldn´t understand what it was. Had he spoken in another language? It didn´t matter. The most important thing to me was that their steps moved to the front door and finally weren´t to hear anymore.

"Thank God", I whispered and relaxed. Obviously the hidden door was still open and I asked myself, if it was wise to leave the basement. I doubted that they would come back because they hadn´t found what they had been looking for. Or whom...but I didn´t want to think about it. After a short consideration, I took a rapier out of a shelf and sneaked to the staircase. I listened closely but couldn´t hear anything that would indicate that there were still intruders in our house. Silently I beckoned Caleb over to me, who was still uncertain.
"We will go upstairs and check if we can get into the homestead somehow."
Caleb gave me a doubtful look. "But it´s safer here..."
"Not when they come back. They know this room and here we have no possibilities to escape."
I made a first step towards the staircase but Caleb grabbed my arm.
"Lillian, I think...that´s not a good idea."
He appeared entirely uncertain when I looked at him.
"Well, the man...when he went upstairs, he said something on Gaelic. Almost everyone on Unst speaks Gaelic but because my family came from England, we only spoke English."
I cocked my head. "Yes...and?"
"I know some Gaelic and I think...well I only understood a few things but he said he had found something and that they want to bring it to their boss."
I frowned. But the man hadn´t taken anything. So what did he want to bring to his boss? But no matter what it was, they were gone now.
"Like I said, it´s easier to escape when we go upstairs. We will worry about the other things another time." I gave him a reassuring smile but Caleb didn´t seem to be convinced. But he followed me upstairs anyway.

It was still at night and because there were no lamps lighting up the house, I had to rely on the moonlight when I slowly walked through the hallway and had a look at each room, the rapier firmly in my hand. I wasn´t able to fight with it but nevertheless the blade gave me a feeling of safety and support as I saw what the men had done. The kitchen was covered with the fragments of broken dishes, they had smashed some of the old chairs in the dining room and in the parlour they had thrown almost all of the books from their shelves onto the floor. They had caused havoc randomly. But why? Why all the trouble without taking something? At least I thought that they hadn´t stolen anything. I hadn´t been upstairs by now.

I just wanted to do so, followed by Caleb, as my gaze fell onto something shining close to the open front door. I approached it slowly, kneeled down and took the small object. It was my wedding ring which I had put onto the washstand before going to bed like I always did. Had one of the men taken and lost it? I put it on frowning and just wanted to stand up when Caleb uttered a scared noise behind me. I whirled around in an instant, raising the rapier but froze nevertheless as I saw the tall, thin man who wore a scarf over the lower part of his face and had got Caleb in a headlock from behind. The boy was writhing in his grip and stared at me, his eyes wide in fear. But when I wanted to attack the man, I was also grabbed from behind and my right arm, which was holding the rapier, was painfully torn backwards. My hand opened reflexively and the rapier fell to the ground.

"Well, I wasn´t mistaken", the voice of Pete sounded in my ear. "First I thought I would see things in the shadows but obviously there was more hidden down there than I thought."
He had got me in a headlock like his comrade had done with Caleb and I struggled for breath in panic while I tried to free myself from his grip. But the more I wriggled, the firmer Pete´s arm pressed against my throat.
"What now?", the other asked, his name was Nick as I remembered, and pointed at Caleb. "We don´t need the boy."
"So lock him up downstairs then. Or do you want to kill a child?"
Nick shook his head but when he just wanted to drag Caleb to the basement, it felt like a sudden strength flowed through me which I hadn´t known until now. Instead of fighting against Pete´s grip, I tensed my whole body and thrust my head backwards in a jerky movement. The back of my head hit Pete´s nose and he let go with a loud curse just to find my knee in his most sensitive body region.

Groaning he slumped and I heard Nick swearing, too. I took the rapier from the floor but when I wanted to attack Nick again, he had pulled out a knife and held it against Caleb´s neck.
"I would think twice", he growled with his nasal voice and I stopped. Pete behind me recovered slowly and so I didn´t have much time. Just on an impulse, that could have gone terribly wrong, I jumped forward and to my own surprise, the blade really hit Nick´s armed hand. Probably "hit" was the wrong word but it brushed it at least and caused a bleeding cut which was painful enough to make the man drop the knife and be distracted enough so that I could snatch Caleb away from him and storm towards the back door with the boy.
"Here!" I pushed the rapier into his hand while we ran outside. "You´re faster than me. Run and get someone. If you see those bandits, forget it and just run away. Do you understand?"
Caleb looked at me with wide eyes while we ran towards the main path to the homestead.
"And what about you?", he asked. I heard how the men stormed out of the house behind us.
"I will come after you, as good as I can. But you´re a faster runner than I am."
It wasn´t even a lie. I could neither run really fast nor I could run with stamina and if Caleb should meet any enemies on the way, he was definitely better in avoiding them than I was. It was easier for him to reach our friends and just in case that Pete and Nick caught us, he wouldn´t get into their hands at least.

"Now run!" I gave Caleb a push into the back and the boy quickened his pace and ran down the path quickly. I for my part doubled back and ran over the wet meadow back to the house in one big curve. Pete and Nick followed me, not Caleb. As I had expected it. They really had been looking for me. For whatever reason, but now I had to try to escape them until Caleb had got help. But I soon realized that I barely had a chance. My pursuers weren´t faster than me but had a lot more stamina. I was already breathing heavily, I felt a stabbing pain in my side and my legs began to burn. Why the hell must I have such a weak condition? A glance over my shoulder showed me that Nick and Pete had split up. The latter had disappeared but where...?

A scared scream escaped my lips as I was suddenly torn to the ground from the side. Pete must have run a curve and now pressed me down with his whole weight. I kicked around wildly, screaming, beating him but he just kneeled onto my legs and pressed my arms to the ground.
"Prickly bitch", he growled and glanced at Nick. "Give me your scarf so that at least this screaming ends."
Nick did as he was told, pulled the scarf from his face and gave it to Pete who rolled it up a bit and gagged me. At least he tried. I threw my head back and forth but sometime Nick grabbed my hair roughly and forced me to keep still like that, when Pete pushed the stinking piece of fabric between my teeth and knotted it behind my head.
"All right then. Much more pleasant." Even though his face was laying in the shadows for the most part, I could see his wide grin and felt how panic was spreading inside of me which I had suppressed in the first place. What did they want from me?

"And how are we supposed to get her to the meeting place?", Nick asked and Pete gave him an annoyed look.
"Well, she´ll walk."
"But she won´t do it willingly."
"She doesn´t have to." Pete pulled out a knife, stood in front of me and pulled me by my arm onto my feet, pressing the blade against my throat.
"One wrong wince and you´re dead, sweetheart", he growled and dragged me towards the forest and with that to the edge of the homestead. I stumbled beside him while I tried to catch a glimpse to the homestead. But we departed more and more from it and the manor quickly disappeared between the trees and from my view. Pete and Nick led me through the forest and I desperately thought of a possibility to escape. But with every step I felt the cold steel of Pete´s knife pressing against my throat and he was right. If I did one jerky movement, I wouldn´t be able to escape anyway. So my only hope was that Caleb had managed it to get help and that this help was Connor at best. He was capable of finding our trace in the forest in the middle of the night. I had once joined him on a hunt and had been fascinated of how he had read whole stories in every broken twig, every gnawed leaf and every tiny trace on the ground. He was able to tell exactly into which direction the animal had run and in most of the cases he was right. But would he be able to find people so quickly, too? I hoped so.

My hope vanished when we reached a small clearing where almost twenty horses were grazing. Five men were keeping watch over them and startled when we stepped out of the thicket. But they recognized their comrades and as their gazed fell upon me, they grinned.
"Is this the girl the boss wanted?"
"Yes, she is", Pete growled. "Where is he?"
"Should be here soon. Already heard the signal for the retreat."
Pete mumbled something and went to one of the horses. He took the knife from my neck but kept my arm in a firm grip while he began to rummage around in a saddlebag with his free hand. He pulled out two ropes, turned towards me and roughly began to tie my wrists together with one of the ropes. I wanted to pull them away but his grip was of iron and I whimpered when he pulled the rope so tight that it cut into my skin painfully. Then he grabbed me by my hips and lifted me onto the horse so that I sat sideward behind the saddle. He tied the other rope to the first one and knotted it at the saddle knob. The rope was long enough so that I could sit upright but if I should try to jump off the horse, my feet probably would be barely able to reach the ground.

Pete gave me another grim gaze before he turned his attention towards the forest. I heard the voices of several men and shortly afterwards, armed figures left the thicket. They ran directly to their horses and leaped into the saddles, even Nick and Pete turned away from me and mounted their horses.
"Was everything alright?", one of the men who had watched over the horses asked nobody on particular.
"We lost seven men but yes. Everything went according to plan. We roughed them up as we were supposed to do. Now let us go before someone follows us."
This answer came from a man who wore a scarf over his mouth like Nick before and now approached the horse I was sitting at.
"And I see, the other part of my plan worked as well", he said muffled under the fabric and when he pulled it from his face, I looked into a widely grinning face. "Hello, beautiful."
Nathan.