“I should make you chase them,” she called. “You’re supposed to be guarding me.”
“Guarding, not herding children,” came Caelen’s terse reply.
“I think we should attack him,” Mairin muttered.
“Oh, let’s do!” Crispen whispered.
“Aye, aye!” the children surrounding them chanted.
Mairin smiled as the evil thought coalesced. The image of the warrior on the ground begging for mercy would be a sight to behold.
“All right,” she whispered back. “But we must be stealthy about it.”
“Like warriors!” Robbie exclaimed.
“Aye, like warriors. Like your fathers,” she added.
The boys puffed out their chests, but the few girls who had assembled looked disgruntled.
“What about us, Mairin?” Gretchen, a girl of eight years, asked. “Girls can be warriors, too.”
“Nay, they can’t!” Crispen said in an appalled voice. “Fighting is for men. Girls are to be protected. My papa said so.”
The looks in the girls’ eyes were murderous, so to prevent a civil war among the children, Mairin gathered them all close. “Aye, girls can be warriors, too, Gretchen. Here’s what we must do.”
The huddled together and she whispered her instructions.
The boys weren’t happy with their role in the attack. The girls were delighted with theirs. After a quick recounting of their instructions, the girls broke away and skipped toward the keep. As soon as they were past Caelen, they halted and turned back to sneak up on him from behind. Caelen was too distracted by the crowd of rowdy boys approaching him from the front.
He looked suspiciously at Crispen and then over his head to Mairin. She smiled innocently and waited.
Caelen never knew what hit him. Screaming like banshees, the girls hit him from behind. They leapt on Caelen’s back and swarmed over him like a horde of locusts.
Shouting his surprise, Caelen went down amid a tangle of arms and legs and squeals of delight. The boys, not to be outdone, added their own war cries and leapt onto the pile.
After his initial surprise and much hollering and shouting, Caelen took his attack with grace. He laughed and wrestled with the children but was finally forced to cry mercy when the girls pinned him to the ground and demanded he surrender.
Caelen threw his arms up and laughingly offered his surrender. Mairin was astounded by the change in the warrior. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him smile, much less laugh with obvious enjoyment as he tussled with the children. She stared at the goings-on with an open mouth, shaking her head at how good Caelen was with the children. She’d imagined that she’d have to step in rather quickly to defend them against his anger.
The girls were quick to cry victory while the boys protested that they had been the ones to gain Caelen’s acquiescence.
“Caelen, Crispen said girls can’t be warriors, that ’tis the boys’ duty to be warriors and protect the girls,” Gretcen said in disgust. “But Mairin said that girls can be warriors, too. Who has the right of it?”
Caelen chuckled. “Crispen is right in that ’tis a warrior’s duty to protect his lady and those weaker. However, your mistress makes a very good case for a woman warrior. She may have us all begging for mercy before the month is out.”
“I think you speak the truth, brother.”
Mairin whirled around to see Ewan and his commanders standing a short distance away, looking in amusement at Caelen’s sound defeat at the children’s hands.
She swallowed nervously, sure she was about to be handed another stern lecture about her duties, but Ewan walked forward to pick up one of the children and give him a sound dusting off.
Gretchen beamed at Mairin as she sat on Caelen’s broad chest. “I want to be a warrior like our laird. Why, I beat up Robbie just last week.”
“Did not!” Robbie roared.
“Did so.”
To Mairin’s horror, Robbie flew at Gretchen, toppling her from Caelen’s chest. She needn’t have worried, however. The lass obviously hadn’t boasted in vain. She flipped Robbie over and was soon straddling him and holding his arms to the ground.
Mairin sighed and went to prevent an all-out war between the girls and the boys. Ewan got there at the same time she did and reached for Robbie as she bent over to pluck Gretchen off the struggling boy.
Pain seared through her side, and then to her shock, an arrow hit the ground right beside the children and embedded deeply into the soil. Why, it had passed just between her and Ewan!
She stared aghast, appalled at how close it had come to hitting one of the children. She whirled around to locate the offending archer but found herself toppled to the ground as Caelen dove over her.
“Leave off!” she exclaimed, as she beat at Caelen’s shoulder. “What on earth are you doing? See to the children.”
“Quiet!” he barked. “Ewan is seeing to the children’s safety.”
“This is inexcusable!” Mairin exclaimed. “How could they be so careless? The children could have been killed!”
Caelen covered her mouth and slowly moved his body from hers. He looked around and Mairin could see only Ewan with his arms full of children, as he, too, surveyed the area with sharp eyes. Gannon and Cormac each had a position over the remaining children and they lay still, awaiting their laird’s command.
Ewan cursed, and Mairin frowned at him for uttering blasphemies in front of the children. It was another thing she’d take up with him at first opportunity.
Ewan raised his head and bellowed an order. Soon the area swarmed with his men. The children were hustled back toward the kp under heavy guard, as Ewan stood and looked down at Mairin.