Chapter 4

It had been so long since Tearlach had had any proper sleep that when he crawled into the bush and pulled his cloak around himself, he was hard put to keep his eyes open. He knew he should be wary, should keep his ears and eyes open for the enemy, but for the life of him he could not keep his eyes open, and after a few moments of struggling, he drifted into a light doze.

He was in his home village of Dunnaird, running around the marketplace with a crowd of other children as they chased a leather ball around the square in front of the church. It was a bitterly cold day in the middle of winter and the ground was rock hard, but no one was cold: the children had been running around for hours working themselves into a sweat.

Tearlach was always ready for a challenge, and today the challenge was to kick the ball at a target that someone had drawn on the church wall. Since Tearlach had the strongest kick of any of the children in the village, it was assumed that he would be the winner. However, today he was not, since strength did not matter in a contest like this.

He tried five times, cursing himself each time the ball came bouncing back, and the cries of derision from his playmates when he failed became louder every time. This did not sit well with him, since he was not good at losing.

He was just about to try for the sixth time when a gentle hand was laid on his shoulder, and he looked around to see Norah's silver-grey eyes gazing into his. But she was not asking him if she could play with the ball. Instead, her voice was urgent as she cried, "Tearlach, wake up!"

Norah pulled her cloak around herself and ventured into the woods, stepping over rocks and around boulders. There were many places to hide here, but there had been three redcoats and only one Scotsman, and Norah had no idea if any of them were still crouching behind a rock or under a bush somewhere. They could be in hiding, waiting for the red-haired man to show himself so that they could pounce on him and drag him back to whatever hell they had in mind for him.

Treason was a capital crime, and she knew that the likely outcome would be a swift show trial before an immediate hanging, because the result would never be in doubt. It was always ‘guilty'. If a few hours of torture could be thrown in for good measure, so much the better. A wave of anger swept over Norah as she contemplated the prospect of this happening to anyone. No one deserved treatment like that.

Sometimes, she thought how wonderful it would be to be a man just for one day. Then she could use her strength to get revenge on all those men who had ever hurt or offended her and those she held dear. As well as that, she would not be dismissed as ‘just a woman'. That was the single thing she hated most: not being as strong as a man did not make her worthless.

But, of course, all this was fantasy. She loved being a woman, and always would, but now and again, if she became angry enough, strange thoughts like this came into her mind. She shared them with no one, of course, because they would think she was mad.

She stopped for a moment to survey her surroundings. She was going in the right direction, she was sure, but what if the red-haired man had turned back, or the redcoats had captured him? This was madness. She should turn back and go home, and she was about to do just that when something stopped her.

Suddenly, she saw, half-hidden under a bush, the figure of a large man, curled up in a fetal position with the hood of his cloak covering his face. There was no doubt that it was the man who had bumped into her.

"Wake up!" Her voice was a hoarse whisper. "The redcoats will find you!"

The man jerked into wakefulness, his hood falling off as he sat up. His eyes were bright green and widened as they met hers, and it would have been hard to say which one of them was more shocked.

"Tearlach!" Norah cried, her heart thundering. She would know those eyes anywhere.

"Norah!" Tearlach gasped at exactly the same moment. "How did ye find me? Why are ye here?" He looked around himself desperately. "Are the redcoats gone?"

"Yes, but we have no time to worry about that now." Her voice was urgent. "We need to hide you, and I know exactly the right place, but we will have to be very quick and very quiet."

Tearlach got to his feet cautiously, looking around himself warily the entire time.

Norah grabbed his hand and began a half-crouching walk between the trees, keeping to the shadows as much as possible.

Tearlach followed her, letting her take the lead, until something occurred to him. "My horse, Rory," he said urgently. "I have to go and get him. You know how much he means to me, Norah!"

"I am afraid he will have to wait." Norah was firm. "We don't have time to go and get him. The redcoats know the area you are in now, and they will soon be back in greater numbers than before. We can come back for your horse later."

"But Rory has been my horse for seven years!" Tearlach protested, stopping in his tracks. "We are friends! You know we are!"

"Then go and get him by all means," Norah growled, "but do not ask me to go with you. Your horse will survive, but we might not if we stay here much longer." She let go of his hand and began to walk ahead as fast as the undergrowth would allow her.

Tearlach followed her reluctantly. He had left the big horse with extreme reluctance, and hoped that Rory would not think he was abandoning him. The thought of that almost broke his heart, yet he realized that he would have to leave him where he was, at least for tonight.

For the first few minutes they walked in silence. However, Norah could not hold back for long. Her curiosity was becoming too much to bear.

"Where have you been? I have wondered and worried about you all these years." Her tone was colder than she anticipated.

"I am sorry, Norah, but I learned that a dear friend of mine had been killed by the English." His voice was a low rumble of anger. "I had to fight an' avenge him. I joined the forces against the British."

"I thought as much," Norah admitted, keeping her gaze straight ahead. She looked at him closely as they walked. The shock of seeing him had abated somewhat, and now what was coming back to her, as well as all her other feelings, was a hungry curiosity. She was impatient to find out what he had been doing and what had happened to him since the last time she had seen him.

But most of all she wanted to know if there was a woman in his life who held him in her heart as she did. He had been seventeen when he left, a very young man, and she was not sure then that he had been capable of feeling what she felt. But it had been six years now, and he was - what - twenty three?

Yes, at that age he was mature enough, Norah was sure. Now that she was twenty one she was sure that she could judge these things properly. However, now was not the time to be thinking about such matters.

"How far do we have to go?" Tearlach asked, in the deep voice that had always thrilled her.

"Not too far now," she answered. "We will have to stay away from the main path. The redcoats will likely be looking for you, and if they find you - well, you know what will happen."

"I dinnae want to think about it," he said grimly. "I will kill myself before I let them take me."

"No!" Norah cried, then slapped her hand over her mouth as she realized that she had spoken too loudly. She turned around and glared at him. "You will do nothing of the kind. I am taking you somewhere safe."

"Where?" Tearlach asked, his voice deep and angry. "Is anywhere safe fae the redcoats?"

"It is best that you don't know," she replied. "You will find out when we get there. Until then, I think it is best that we both keep very quiet."

Tearlach nodded. She was still as fascinating as ever, he realized, but she had changed in one way: she was no longer as lacking in confidence as she had been when they were children. Granted, as he had come to know her a little better, she had gradually come out of her shell, but the old Norah would never have been brave enough to put herself in danger like this.

Perhaps it was because she had grown up, or perhaps it was for some other reason, but she was no longer the girl he had left, but a lovely, kind, and courageous woman. She was risking her life for him, he realized. If she was caught with a fugitive like him, she would finish her life at the end of a rope too. He shivered at the thought.

They walked on in silence, keeping to the shadows of the trees and picking their way through the rocks and boulders, with Norah leading the way. Suddenly, they heard the sound of English voices talking, laughing and generally making merry. They could see, through the undergrowth, that the redcoats were sitting around a campfire passing a bottle of whisky around, slugging it straight from the bottle.

Tearlach hissed with anger, looking as though he could spring out of the bushes and attack them at any moment, but Norah clamped her hand around his wrist and shook her head. She put a finger over her lips for silence then they crept as noiselessly as they could around the campfire, giving it a wide berth.

Then Norah stepped on a twig, which cracked loudly under her feet. At once, silence fell, and the redcoats jumped to their feet, each man racing for his musket.

Norah could feel her heart racing, her whole body trembling with fear. She was sure that at any moment they would be discovered, then both of them would die together.

Tearlach grasped Norah's hand tightly and slowly drew out his dagger from its sheath, but at that moment a wild boar came crashing through the undergrowth on the other side of the campfire. It did not go near the redcoats, but as soon as they realized what it was, they flopped down on the ground and began to pass the bottle around again.

"It's only a pig!" one of them said, laughing drunkenly.

"Not just a pig!" one of the others retorted. "Have you seen the tusks on those things? They can kill a man!"

There was much scornful laughter at this suggestion, and the noise provided enough distraction for Norah and Tearlach to make their swift but quiet escape.

It had been a long time since Tearlach had been so terrified, and when they were safely out of the way of the enemy, he stopped to rest his back against a tree, pulling Norah with him. "I have no' been so frightened since a musket ball flew an inch fae my head in battle," he said, drawing in a ragged breath and closing his eyes.

"I have never been in battle." Norah's voice was trembling. "But if it feels anything like that I am glad I'm not a soldier."

They stood, breathing hard for a moment, while they recovered their composure, then they resumed their journey, with Norah taking the lead. This time they were even more careful, and although she could hardly see her feet, Norah tiptoed along soundlessly. She had been badly frightened, but she did not want Tearlach to see that and lose faith in her. She might be quivering inside, but she needed to at least appear strong even though she did not feel that way.

"Are we nearly there?" Tearlach asked in a whisper.

Norah pointed out the twinkling lights of the village between the trees. "Yes, we are," she replied. "And you are about to meet one of the best people you will ever encounter. She is old, but she is very fierce, and she doesn't suffer fools gladly, so be prepared."

Tearlach privately thought of some of his own comrades whom he had fought with over the years. He doubted that any old woman could be more fearsome than any of them. "Are ye sure it is safe? Is she trustworthy?" He was uncertain.

"She is more trustworthy than anyone else you are ever likely to meet," Norah replied with a short laugh. "If she could, she would be a warrior!"