man close to me muttered. He called up to the guards above, "How close are they, lads? How many?"
Before an answer could come, I saw the flash of a red coat in the trees on the far side of the gully, a mere stone's throw away, and then came another terrifying crack as the soldier, steadying himself against a tree, took aim with his musket and fired.
He would have hit Mr. Renwick if the preacher hadn't at that moment bent down to pick up his fallen Bible. The man hid behind the tree to reload his musket. Dandy Fleming, from his high vantage point, had a good sight of him and fired. I saw that the ball had hit its mark, because the soldier toppled forward and, slowly gaining speed, rolled down the slope to splash face-down and motionless in the stream below.
"Well done, Dandy! You've killed the scunner!" one of the lads shouted, but then I noticed nothing more, for the panic all around me swept me up in a great whirl of terror. I wanted to hit out at everyone in front of me and scratch and claw my way out of that narrow place, and I would have lost control completely if Aunt Blair hadn't screeched in my ear, "Take Nanny! Get her home! Go the other way, up the gully and over the top. Martha! Where's Martha?"
I saw at once that she was right, because everyone was trying to rush down by the lower way, and they were caught in the bottleneck of the narrow little valley. Now that I had a clear idea of what to do, I felt steadier. I picked up Nanny, who was crying hysterically. I hugged her to my chest, ran low to the ground like a hare, then up the slope, ignoring the gorse thorns that tore at my gown and my skin.
"It's all right, Nanny. Be quiet darling," I kept saying. "We're going home."
We were up on the level ground a few moments later, from where I could see right across the hillside. Aunt Blair had been right. The twenty or so red-coated soldiers, who had fanned out across the moor, were leaping down toward the lower end of the gully, from which people were running as fast as they could get away. I could see Ritchie and the other young men forming a kind of guard, their muskets to their shoulders, but I didn't wait to watch.
"You've got to be quiet now, Nanny," I said sternly. "If you don't stop screaming, the nasty men will catch us."
She gulped and hiccupped, terrified, and her arms tightened so hard around my neck, I was afraid I would choke, but at least she was quiet.
Ducking and weaving from hollow to bush, around boulders, and through bogs, we reached the farm at last. In the distance I could hear shouts and screams and the occasional crack of a gun. Though the soldiers might burst into the farm at any moment, I felt safe in the calm enclosing walls of Ladymuir.
"Here we are, Nanny. Good girl. There you go," I said, peeling the little girl's arms from my aching neck and setting her down in the yard.
"Where's Mammy?" she whimpered. "I want my mammy!"
"Well, now look! Here she comes."
Aunt Blair was indeed running into the yard with Andrew in her arms and Grizel behind her.
"Oh Nanny! Thank goodness! But where's Martha? And Annie?" She was at the entrance to the yard again, looking wildly around. "Oh! Annie's down there! But who's that with her! It can't be!"
I looked over her shoulder down the track that led from Ladymuir to the lane. There was a tree on the corner to which a horse was tethered. Annie was standing with her back to it, deep in what was obviously a willing embrace with Lieutenant Dundas. As we watched with open mouths, he pulled away from her, patted her on the bottom, then cupped his hands for her foot and threw her up onto his horse's saddle. She bent down for a last kiss before he smacked the horse's rump, and Annie, her cap ribbons flying, her skirt billowing out around her, trotted away and disappeared down the lane into the hollow at the bottom of the hill.
Aunt Blair staggered as if she'd been struck.
"Oh!" was all she could say. "Oh! I can't believe it! It can't be true!"
I couldn't help the smile of grim, justified triumph that I knew had lifted my mouth. Unfortunately, Aunt