Chapter Seventeen

Fourteen days after being summarily dismissed from Stafford Castle, Cristano and his cousins, along with Rotri and Domnall and about fifty men from Dordon Castle, were ready to move.

Those fourteen days had been full of planning, of discussions, and in the end, the scheme they came up with was a solid one. The only person not actively part of the scheming was the woman who called herself Madam Madonna, and she was more concerned with finding another position as a nurse or tutor to children of nobility. She didn’t seem to have the same sense of vengeance that the knights had. To be truthful, Rotri could see that there wasn’t any love lost between the knights and the old woman.

Hearing them discuss their respective positions at Stafford Castle led him to believe that there might have been a power struggle between Cristano and the woman. Now that Cristano was determined to seek vengeance, she didn’t seem interested. It was evident that she would rather look for another opportunity than try to reclaim what she had, so twelve days after her arrival at Dordon, Madam Madonna departed with a small escort for Whitby Abbey, where she had served as a postulate long ago. Whitby had connections with every noble family in Northern England, and she wanted to find another family through them.

And with that, Madam Madonna was gone.

Rotri didn’t care one way or the other. He sent the woman on her way, leaving him with the de Lucera cousins, who were more determined than ever to stage an ambush a means to their end. Their target for the action was the village of Millford, to the east of Stafford but in sight of the castle. The plan was to burn all they could, raise a ruckus, and then wait for the garrison at Stafford to come to the rescue of the villagers. Thor would undoubtedly be leading them and would walk right into an ambush.

It was a simple plan, but one that had to be carefully orchestrated because Stafford would roll out hundreds of soldiers while Dordon didn’t quite have those numbers. They didn’t want to be massacred, so the men had been instructed to burn and flee—run circles around the Stafford men and try not to actually engage them. Most of the Dordon soldiers hadn’t seen a battle in years because Dordon had been peaceful for that long, so the raid confused them. Rotri assured them that it was a necessary task, so they asked no questions.

They simply prepared to ride.

There was great anticipation in the air as they prepared for their night raid. Rotri wanted to make sure that there was nothing on the soldiers to identify their loyalty, so the men were instructed not to wear Dordon standards as they usually did. They were only to wear clothing that had no identification on them at all, another thing that confused them, but another thing they simply didn’t question. Rodri had told them that if they saw something they wanted that they could simply take it, so there was a little more enthusiasm when they realized they’d be getting something out of this.

Still, no one knew why they were really doing this, but most of them thought it had something to do with the new knights Rotri had acquired.

No one recognized the men who had come to visit a few days earlier until an older soldier mentioned that they had seen them at Stafford Castle. That rumor ran through the ranks like wildfire, but they still couldn’t make heads or tails out of the new knights and the event of a raid on a Stafford Castle. It seemed quite odd, but Rotri was quite odd, so it was simply in line with the man’s strange and demanding behavior.

Shortly before dawn on the following day, the men were satisfactorily dressed and prepared for the coming skirmish. Although Dordon was a functional castle and theoretically at the ready for any attempts made against it, the truth was that many of the men had dull swords and hadn’t used a shield in years. Even their crossbows were only marginally functional. That meant that the entire day before the raid had seen the smithy forge blazing at full steam as swords were sharpened. As the horizon turned shades of pink, the Dordon men had very sharp blades, and more than one man had cut himself as a result. Blood was already being spilled and the men laughed nervously about that. They hoped it wasn’t a bad omen. But the moment came when the column was formed and Rotri led the charge across the drawbridge and out into the road beyond. They would reach the village in two days—or less—and the madness would begin.

Rotri was counting on it.

It took the Dordon men a day and a half to reach Millford because Rotri had driven them so hard and, truthfully, the raid was like taking candy from a baby because the villagers of Millford hadn’t seen an attack in many years. The area had enjoyed years of peace and tranquility, so the inhabitants were caught completely off guard as the Dordon men rolled in. They were beginning to close up shop for the night as farmers returned from their fields and merchants returned to their home. Wives who were waiting for their dinners to cook stood in their front doors and gossiped with other wives simply to pass the time, and they paid little notice to the group coming in from the southeast. They were unarmed and unprepared when Rotri gleefully gave the command to charge.

But all did not go as planned.

The first thing that happened was Domnall charging into the village and taking a corner too quickly. He was caught off guard by the overhang of a two-story shop that was located on the corner. His head slammed into the protruding second story and he was knocked off his horse, unconscious, as his men continued on their raid. There had been so many men rushing in that no one really noticed he’d fallen. To make it more difficult, night was falling and people were running. It was chaos.

No one bothered to check on Domnall as he lay in the gutter.

It was instant confusion. Rotri’s men lit up the main avenue of the village, setting fire to businesses as the merchants and owners tried to take their inventory out of the backs of the shops. One of them came out of an alleyway with a heavy cart, full of anything the man and his family could grab, and they charged around the corner right where Domnall was lying, crushing him under the weight of the wheels.

But no one could see him because it was dark.

Rotri, in fact, was at the other end of the village, keeping an eye on the distant castle of Stafford. It wasn’t so far that he couldn’t see the torches on the wall of the structure, and he knew he’d see the approaching response because they would all be bearing torches on their way down the hill. Having no idea that his son was dying in the street on the other side of the village, he told his men to continue burning and gave them permission to take anything they could carry.

As far as Rotri was concerned, it promised to be a glorious night.

But it was a costly one.

The entire village was in flames by the time Rotri and Cristano caught sight of the torch-laden army that was coming down the hill from Stafford. Knowing that Thor was approaching gave them the time to plan for the moment he arrived, so Rotri had his men hide away from the avenue, tucked into dark corners of the village, away from the burning as they awaited the arrival of the Stafford response. Rotri began to think it strange that he hadn’t seen Domnall since they entered the village, but he didn’t think much of it. He assumed his son was handing the south end of the village.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

As he was about to find out.

*

“It’swhat?”

“Going up in flames,” Thor said quickly as he started grabbing for his battle protection. “The entire village to the southeast is going up in flames. Our sentries can see it from the wall, so I can only assume it is either under attack or someone’s cottage caught on fire and is burning down the rest of the village. In either case, I must go and do what I can. What can you tell me about that village?”

Caledonia was dumbfounded by the suggestion of disaster at a nearby village. “There are two of them on the road south,” she said. “We passed through them. One is Millford and the other one is Rugeley.”

“Which one is closer to Stafford?”

“Millford.”

“Then it must be Millford because it is quite close,” he said, pulling a heavily padded tunic over his head. “I must get to the armory and dress, my love. Since I am not entirely sure what the trouble is, I would ask that you stay in the keep. I will put men on guard and we shall lock up the gatehouses, but you and the children are to remain in the keep. Have you ever been at a castle on alert before?”

Caledonia shook her head. “Never,” she said. “This is a first.”

He smiled and kissed her forehead as he headed for the door. “Then I will tell you not to worry,” he said, opening the panel. “It is more than likely a cooking fire out of control, but we must make sure.”

She nodded, following him as he went out onto the landing. “I know,” she said. “You are the earl and these are your vassals. You must ensure their safety.”

“Exactly.”

She looked at him a moment, a smile on her lips, before shaking her head in a wry gesture. “Robert would have simply let them burn,” she said. “He would not have cared. I find it remarkable that you do.”

He smiled and kissed her again, this time on the lips. “I’m sure I will not be long,” he said. “But do as I tell you. When I leave the keep, throw the bolt and lock it up. You will also secure the shutters on the windows.”

Caledonia followed him down the stairs to the entry level below. “I will,” she said. “Please be cautious, angel. Remember that there are those who would rejoice if you were injured or worse.”

He looked at her, frowning. “Who?” he asked, but the question was barely out of his mouth when he realized what she meant. “Ah. Those two. Well, I will be happy to disappoint your greedy uncle.”

He was nearly to the entry door when it flew open and Nicola rushed in. She almost smashed into her brother in her haste.

“There is a villager at the gatehouse,” she said quickly. “Darius sent me to tell you that someone is raiding Millford!”

That settled the question of what, precisely, was happening, and Thor could feel himself tensing for battle. Determination filled him as well as a sense of duty. He’d been through this more times than he could count. But he knew his wife hadn’t and she had heard the news. He suspected that she was frightened now. He turned to Caledonia to find Nicola standing next to her, holding her hand.

“Then El Martillo rides,” he said, smiling at his wife as he said it. “I cannot imagine who is attacking my property, but they had better prepare themselves. This hammer is deadly.”

Caledonia wasn’t amused. “It is my uncle,” she said, frightened. “It has to be. They are trying to harass us.”

Thor put his hands on her face and looked her in the eye. “Or it could be outlaws from the forest to the north,” he said seriously. “We know they are there. The Stafford soldiers have told us as much. I will not know anything until I get there, so do not jump to conclusions yet.”

He didn’t seem concerned that he was facing a battle in the least. If anything, he seemed oddly happy about it. El Martillo, indeed.

The mercenary was ready to fight.

Reluctantly, Caledonia nodded in agreement, and he kissed her one last time before quitting the keep. Caledonia and Nicola shut the door and bolted it, calling to the servants because the shutters needed to be closed as well. Soon enough, several house servants were closing up the shutters in every chamber as Caledonia and Nicola went upstairs to the level above, shutting the heavy door on the stairs and bolting it as well.

Now, all they could do was wait.