"Ha! Come in alone and see if you can take her from me. Coward!"
"I'll be glad to! Open the door." Battle lust surging, Colin was ready to run the man through.
"Tell your other men to back away, or I'll kill her now!" Holme shouted.
Colin glanced around at Ralston and Bryce. Could Holme see them through the small glass windows?
"I'll slip around back to see if I can crawl in a window," Bryce breathed.
Colin nodded.
Weapons drawn, Ralston and the MacKenzies slipped farther along beside the church, out of sight, in the event Holme opened the door.
"I'm alone now!" Colin called out. "Open the door and fight me, man to man."
Scraping sounded, as if a large piece of furniture was being dragged across the wooden floor, then the door inched open. The building was dark inside.
He had no inkling what sort of weapons Holme had. The bastard could shoot him with an arrow for all he knew. Colin moved to the side of the door, so he would be out of the line of sight and lifted his targe and sword.
"Welcome, Cameron! Come on in," Holme taunted.
Why did this feel like a trap? He glanced back and met Ralston's gaze. He stood about ten feet away now. Looking intense, Ralston nodded.
Colin assumed that meant the young man who claimed to be Kristina's brother would be his backup. If everything he'd said was true, naturally he would want to rescue his sister. He had never done anything to cause Colin to mistrust him.
Colin turned his attention back to the open door and yelled, "Kristina?"
Inside, Holme laughed. "She cannot answer you. She's knocked out cold. Nearly dead. You'll have to hurry if you intend to save her life."
Dear God, nay!Fear and rage infused Colin's veins. As he took a step to charge through the door, someone yanked him back, sending him stumbling off kilter, and bypassed him.
"Damnation, Ralston," Colin growled low.
The younger man was already charging through the door, sword, targe and dirk in hand. Colin dashed after him.
Inside the building, swords clanged and the two men grunted and growled curses. A high, open shelf containing several items sat to Colin's right. Holme stood behind it. Ralston struck out powerfully, and his blade stabbed into Holme's shoulder. Face still covered in soot, Holme roared in pain and sliced his blade across Ralston's thigh. Ralston stumbled backward and fell.
"Holme!" Colin shouted, trying to take his attention from the younger man so he wouldn't deal a killing blow.
Blood ran from Holme's sword hand. Baring his teeth, he shrank back behind the shelf.
Before Colin could wonder what his strategy was, a blade slashed between the shelves toward Colin's gut. He brought his targe down just in time to block the sword's tip. Putting his shoulder and whole weight behind it, he shoved the targe against the heavy wooden shelf, toppling it onto Holme. The whoreson roared, his blade thrashing, but the shelf trapped him, constraining his movements. Colin positioned his sword and stabbed between the shelves, connecting with flesh. Holme shouted out in pain and fury. Colin further took advantage of Holme's trap of his own making, stabbing again and again until the man grew silent and still.
"I think he's dead," someone shouted. "I'll check him."
Pulling himself back from the intense battle rage, Colin glanced around to find Bryce behind him. Cyrus and Fraser knelt near Kristina, who lay unmoving on the floor. Her eyes were closed. Soot stained her white smock and pallid skin. Cold terror chilled Colin, and he dropped his weapons. "What the hell did he do to her?" He hastened toward her.
"She's alive," Cyrus said.
"Thank the saints." Colin fell to his knees beside her.
Fraser had already cut the gag off her and was now cutting the wrist bindings with his smallsgian dubh.
Sitting nearby, Ralston muttered a curse through clenched teeth while two of the MacKenzie clansmen bound his bleeding thigh.
Colin turned his attention back to Kristina, worried that Holme had injured her terribly.
"To be knocked out like this, she must have a head injury, but I don't see one." Cyrus ran the tips of his fingers over Kristina's skull, beneath her hair. When he reached the back, he cursed.
