Page 112 of Sighs of the Highland Wind
“Dinnae be stupid, Norah!” he snapped. “I was goin’ in the mornin’ anyway. I just decided it would be safer for everybody if I left now.”
“Do what you like,” Norah said disgustedly. “To think I once cared for you, Tearlach McLachlan. What was I thinking? Go on your way, but hurry up.” She turned to walk away, but at that moment two redcoats came stumbling out of the pub, laughing and staggering a little, obviously much the worse for wear. Nevertheless, they were still sober enough to see Tearlach with the horse he was about to steal, and they both ran towards him, their shouts ringing into the still night air.
Norah did not think twice. She ran towards one of the men and pushed him backwards as hard as she could. The speed of her run gave it extra force, and since he was already half-drunk, the man, already off-balance, stumbled backwards for a few steps before falling down. However, he took his comrade, who hadbeen right behind him, down to the ground with him. They scrambled to their feet straight away, but both were inebriated, and dithered about what to do for a moment. Should they try to stop Tearlach or concentrate on Norah?
Their furious shouting had alerted their comrades, and a moment later, four more redcoats burst out of the tavern, yelling, muskets at the ready.
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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 soldierswatched, 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 oncebeen 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.
