that Barbara had ridden out on, but she was off the horse now and simply standing there holding it. Lenore was there, too, but she looked worried. She was wringing her hands. As Fraser drew near, a man suddenly appeared carrying a limp woman in his arms, and Fraser recognized him as the sick man who had come to Blackpool for help. The same man that Barbara and Lenore were supposed to be tending.
Only he wasn’t sick any longer.
It took Fraser less than a second to see that the woman in his arms was Isalyn.
He spurred his horse into a gallop.
Suddenly, he was plowing through Barbara and the horse she was holding, and he could hear screams as Barbara went rolling down the embankment towards the moat. The horse, too, slid down the embankment and Fraser heard a big splash as the animal fell into the water. Lenore screamed and ran back inside the postern gate as the man with unconscious Isalyn in his arms lost his balance and dumped Isalyn down the slope. Fraser leapt from this horse and onto the man, and the fight was on.
Since Fraser wasn’t armed, all he could do was throw punches at the man he had believed to be deathly ill. They all had. But clearly, the man was well enough and certainly hearty enough to fight back. Big fists were flying as Fraser got the upper hand, pummeling the man as he tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. But the minute Fraser threw himself onto the man to finally subdue him, the man produced a dagger and Fraser leapt right on it.
It sank into his body, by his hip.
Momentarily stunned by the pain, it was enough of a pause for his opponent to throw a fist into Fraser’s face. As Fraser snapped back, the man charged him, slamming him against the inner wall. Furious and in pain, Fraser ripped the dagger out of his body and turned it on the man, stabbing him in the shoulder by his neck. The man screamed as Fraser drove the dagger deep. It was disabling, but not crippling.
The battle went on.
Isabella awoke to the sounds of a scream, but not just any scream. There was a man screaming, somewhere, and she lifted her head, having no idea why she was laying in the mud. The last she remembered, she was walking with Isalyn towards the postern gate and then… nothing.
Lifting her head, she could see the postern gate in front of her, open, with Lenore standing there, weeping hysterically.
Something terrible was going on.
Head pounding, and feeling nauseous, Isabella staggered to her feet. She could hear sounds of a fight and Isalyn wasn’t anywhere to be found, so she went into panic mode. The buttery was immediately to her right and there were a couple of old wooden butter churns, one used to make the butter. They were big and heavy, but one of the paddles was partially chipped, which was why it wasn’t currently used. Grabbing the heavy butter paddle, Isabella wielded it like a club and staggered to the postern gate.
The first thing she saw was Lenore, weeping and gasping, and Isabella didn’t hesitate. She swung the paddle at Lenore’s head and hit her squarely on the side of her skull, sending the woman down the embankment towards the moat. Down below, Isabella could see a horse swimming in the moat, trying to pull itself up on the other side, and Barbara up to her waist in the murky water, trying to claw her way out.
But the noise was coming from the fight to her left and Isabella turned to see Fraser in a vicious fight with a man she didn’t recognize. They were both covered in blood and Isabella screamed at the sight, but her shock didn’t prevent her from acting. Convinced that Fraser’s life was in danger, she lifted the paddle high and charged the men fighting, bringing that heavy paddle to bear on the man locked in mortal combat with Fraser. She whacked him on the back of the skull, twice, and he released his grip on Fraser. But as he started to fall, a nasty-looking bolt plunged right into his back.
Down he went, face-first into the mud, never to rise again.
Still in panic mode, Isabella looked to see where the arrow had come from and she could see Christian on the wall above, crossbow in-hand. Realizing there were soldiers now rushing to help and protect them, Isabella