Chapter 12

Norah had acted purely on instinct when she attacked the redcoats, but she had put herself in an impossible situation. Now she was surrounded by hostile soldiers and she was terrified, not being able to see a way out. One of the redcoats grabbed at her, but she managed to dodge him by ducking under the belly of a horse and coming out on its other side.

"Get her, men!" the soldier barked. He was obviously an officer, because several of the men immediately jumped to obey his order, and Norah felt a large arm snake around her waist to try to pull her back towards one of them. She drove her elbow backwards as hard as she could and heard the satisfying sound of the man grunting with pain as air whooshed out of his lungs.

There was a horse straight in front of her, and without another thought, she unhitched it, leapt onto it and immediately urged it into a gallop. Several of the redcoats tried to grab at her as she moved past them, but Norah had often found that kicking from the saddle of a horse was an effective way to disable people. It had worked in the past and it worked now, and the soldiers watched, enraged, as she rode away. She heard the sound of a musket being fired behind her and she ducked instinctively, but the shot was so wide that it came nowhere near her.

Tearlach had been about to intervene to rescue her, but it seemed that Norah had no need of help. She flashed past him, not even turning to look at him as she rode down the broad path out of the village at a furious speed. He followed at once, grinning as he admired the skill with which she handled one of the biggest horses he had ever seen. She had not shown any fear, or at least he had seen none; horses sensed fear, and knew when they were being ridden by an experienced rider and not a novice.

The redcoats immediately scrambled to mount their horses to follow her, but an argument broke out immediately about who should go and who should stay behind, since there were now only four horses between six men. They were an ill-disciplined lot anyway, and most of them were drunk, so the matter took a while to resolve. This worked in Tearlach's and Norah's favor, since they were quite far ahead by the time the men had sorted themselves out.

They could not afford to slow down, however. Despite their current state, the redcoats were still professional soldiers and Tearlach knew that it would be foolish to underestimate them. He had fought against them before and narrowly avoided death more than once. Eventually he caught up with Norah then drew abreast of her. He saw the grim determination on her face as she moved forward, and reminded himself never to underestimate her again. She was a truly amazing woman.

"Norah!" he called. He needed to get her attention. "Norah!"

She turned and looked at him, frowning. Her long hair whipped over her eyes and she flicked it out of the way, looking annoyed.

"Follow me!" he cried.

She nodded in understanding.

A few hundred yards further on the road forked, and Tearlach steered them onto the left hand path. He did not know how well the redcoats knew the area; perhaps they would take the wrong path, or split up. Either way would be to Tearlach and Norah's advantage.

For once, they were right to be optimistic. As they reached the split in the path, two of the redcoats went on one path while the others took the one Norah and Tearlach were on. Having only two horses behind them lessened the odds against them considerably.

They were obliged to slow down as the path became narrower and darker, and they could hear the redcoats behind them closing the distance between them until they too had to slow down. In that moment, however, each of their pursuers managed to let off a shot, and Norah thought she heard Tearlach give a loud grunt.

Her heart skipped a beat. She could not lose him now. "Tearlach?" she cried. "Are you hurt?"

"No - I'm fine!" he called back. "Dinnae slow down, Norah!"

Norah did as she had been bidden, even though she was not convinced by Tearlach's denial. She tried to keep one eye on him as they rode through the night, although she heard no further sound from him. She was desperately worried, but they had to ride on. They had no choice.

After a while, their horses began to tire, and they were forced to go more slowly, but thankfully when they did, they heard no sound of their pursuers.

"Are we close to your hideout yet?" Norah asked urgently.

"Aye, it is near here," he replied. "But we will have to slow down a bit more. The horses willnae be able to run a' night. But we will be safe there."

Norah thought that she heard his voice cracking a little bit, and felt even more uneasy. "Tearlach, are you sure you are feeling all right?" she persisted.

"Norah- stop fussin'!" he replied, his voice irritable. "I am fine!"

Norah was quiet after that, although she was still deeply worried.

In fact, Tearlach was not fine. He was in agony, as one of the redcoats' musket balls had pierced his right shoulder, leaving a great circular wound in which the ball was still embedded. Blood was seeping into his shirt and he was doing his best not to cry out with pain, but he had no idea how much longer he could hold out before he fainted with pain and loss of blood.

He had seen men with injuries like this before and knew that, as bad as his agony was now, there was worse to come. The bullet would have to be removed then the wound would have to be cauterized with a hot instrument before it was bandaged. There was only one man in the entire band who could do it, and Tearlach hoped he was in the hideout, because he was the only one with any medical knowledge or experience.

The rest of the men were good lads and would do their best, but Tommy McAllister was their unofficial surgeon, having once been in charge of a troop of soldiers in the Prince's army. When he had been injured, he had been obliged to leave the military. However, he had proved to be just as good a surgeon to them. As well as all his other attributes he had a good working knowledge of herbs and their properties, and had an excellent success rate at saving arms and legs that might otherwise have had to be amputated.

The horses were so tired that they could no longer gallop, so they proceeded slowly and carefully at a trot or a walk until they came to a small stretch of marshy ground.

"We must leave the horses here," Tearlach told Norah. "We leave them here so they will no' draw attention tae the hideout, but as well as that it is dangerous for them to cross the marsh. We might be able to pick our way across this durin' the day, but not at night. I have seen a horse gettin' stuck in this mud an' only just escapin' wi' its life. We can come back for them in the mornin'. The rest of our horses will be restin' around here somewhere too."

Norah dismounted quickly, eager to be on her way again, but when she turned to look at Tearlach she could see at once that her worst fears had been confirmed. He just about managed not to fall off the horse, but stumbled as his feet hit the ground and landed on his knees on the grass.

Norah rushed over to him to kneel beside him. He was moaning piteously and was holding his hand to his right shoulder, his face contorted with agony. As she gently moved his hand away she could see that a great patch of blood had spread over his shirt, and more was trickling out by the second.

"My God, Tearlach!" she cried. "Why did you not let me tend to this?"

"The redcoats wouldnae let me," he replied, with a grim attempt at humor.

"We have not seen or heard a redcoat for miles!" Norah replied angrily. She examined the wound as best she could in the dim light, shaking her head. She had nothing to bind it with, so she tore a strip off the bottom of her linen petticoat and rolled it up so that she could make a pad out of it, then she pressed it to the wound. It was the best she could do, although it was nowhere near enough.

"Come on," she urged. "We must reach your hideout as fast as we can. Will there be anyone there who can help you?"

"I hope so," Tearlach whispered faintly. "One o' our lads is a healer. We cannot stop now, anyway, Norah. We will both hang now, if we are caught."

The words struck terror into Norah's heart, but she knew that they had no time to lose. Now she was a wanted criminal, but she had got into this state of her own accord and had no one else to blame. She wrestled the thought out of her mind. She had other things to worry about now.

Somehow, with a concerted effort, they managed to raise Tearlach to his feet. He stood swaying for a moment, his eyes closed, face screwed up in pain.

Norah looked up into the face that had always been so dear to her. She could hardly bear to see him in such agony, so she put her shoulder under his arm then began to lead him, painfully slowly, in the right direction. If determination could get them to their destination, she thought, they had nothing to fear; Norah had enough for both of them.

After half an hour or so, every part of Norah was sore. Her shoulder ached from the strain of the weight of Tearlach's large upper body, her feet were blistered from walking in the wrong shoes and her legs hurt from the constant effort of pulling them out of the mud. As well as all her physical suffering, she was finding it very difficult to listen to Tearlach's grunts and groans of pain, which were another kind of torture to her.

"Not far now," Norah encouraged him. "Then we will see your friends and get this ball out of your shoulder. I am sure they will be glad to see you too."

Tearlach appreciated that Norah was trying to egg him on and keep his spirits up, but he wished that she would just be quiet, because her constant flow of chatter was really beginning to annoy him. However, he gritted his teeth and kept quiet, since he knew that he would hurt her, and she did not deserve that. No one else he knew would ever help him at such risk to themselves.

They struggled on, and at last Tearlach said the words Norah had been longing to hear.

"We are nearly there," he said hoarsely. He nodded in the direction of a small hill which was surrounded by thick trees. "Through those trees is a half-ruined hut, and behind it there is a man-made cave that was dug out ages ago so that a number of men could hide in it." The effort of telling her all this had exhausted him, and he leaned on her even more heavily as they went into the woods.

Norah could hardly stand up under his weight now, and just as she felt her knees beginning to buckle she saw the sandstone walls of a small cottage. It was in bad shape, since the shutters on the windows were splintered and the thatch in dire need of repair. At that moment, however, it was as good as a palace. They had reached their destination.

Now, with one last heroic effort, Norah staggered towards the sturdy wooden door, which seemed to be the only part of the building that was in good repair.

Norah knocked the panels as hard as she could.

"Lads! It is Tearlach. Can ye let me in?" Tearlach called out.

A moment later, the door opened and Tearlach fell over the threshold.