“Kill them!” Keegan shouted.
Most of the men leapt down from their horses and, with swords and targes in hand, charged Haldane’s outlaws. The MacKay archers nocked arrows and sent them soaring toward the enemies.
“Protect the women,” Keegan ordered, then sidled his horse up next to hers. “Seona, get on in front of me.” The look in his eyes was so fierce, she dared not disobey him.
She offered her arm and he dragged her onto his horse. “You hold the reins.”
His basket-hilt broadsword was in his right hand and his targe strapped to his other forearm. He locked this arm around her. She felt safer with the shield protecting her chest and Keegan at her back. But he put himself in far more danger acting as a human shield to her. Haldane would want to move the obstacle to get to her.
“Five of you stay with me and help protect Seona,” Keegan told the guards. “Haldane has a habit of attacking at the rear.”
“Aha!” Rebbie said, off to the left. “Here they are now. Guards!”
Around a dozen men charged them from the opposite direction.
“Saints,” Seona hissed. So many. Haldane must have hired more men.
Rebbie and several of the guards met the outlaws thirty feet away. Men who had been fighting the other contingent ofHaldane’s gang soon joined them. Chaos erupted, swords clanged, men yelled out battle cries, vulgar names, and howls of pain.
“Come. Let’s move away from the skirmish,” Keegan called to the five guards surrounding them.
Seona glanced around, wondering where Aunt Patience was… and the maids. Behind her, MacMillan and two other guards had taken the women onto their horses with them. They all quickly moved forward along the road, farther from the fighting.
Though Seona hated watching men die, she was glad to see that several of Haldane’s men fell under the onslaught of the MacKays and MacKenzies. The brigands were outnumbered. Keegan was canny to bring so many men with them.
Finally, the remaining outlaws gave up and fled, Haldane and McMurdo with them.
“Damnation,” Keegan muttered. “I should’ve killed him myself.”
Seona shook her head, not wishing to see Keegan engaged in one-to-one combat with Haldane. Certainly, she believed Keegan could best him, being five years his senior and more highly trained, but she didn’t want Keegan in that kind of danger.
“Are you well?” Keegan asked, his warm breath fanning the hair at her ear.
She shivered, relief flooding through her. “Aye. I thank you for protecting me.”
“’Tis my pleasure and a great honor.”
Six of their men were injured—cuts, stab wounds, an arrow protruding from one man’s shoulder—but they all remained on their feet.
“How far are we from Gillenmor?” Keegan asked her.
“About a mile or two. ’Tis over the next rise.”
“Does your father employ a healer?”
“Aye, there are two. I’m certain they will help your men.”
“Mount up,” Keegan called out. “’Tis about a mile or two to Gillenmor. The healer there will see to your wounds. And I thank you for your fearsome fighting skills. You have protected these ladies well.”
As they rode forward, Seona savored Keegan’s warm, hard body at her back. She prayed this would not be the last time she rode with him.
Once they’d topped the rise and Gillenmor Castle came intoview in the distance, Keegan helped Seona back onto her own horse. The other women returned to their horses as well.
Seona was glad the danger from Haldane was behind them for the moment, but a new danger grew closer with each step they took toward Gillenmor—her father.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Keegan’s stomach knotted as they entered the dimly lit great hall of Gillenmor Castle, but he didn’t let his unease show. He tried to focus on doing his job, his duty for Dirk and the clan, and not the fact that he was bringing the woman he loved to a place where he might have to leave her. Nay, he would not. He was taking her out of here, one way or another.
