Briar Woods (Re-working)

Chapter 21: The Attack

At first his words did not penetrate, and I simply stared at Sir Gregory. Had he just asked me to marry him? The notion was so bizarre I was certain I had misunderstood what he said. He was nearly old enough to be my father after all.

I coughed, "I beg your pardon. I thought you just asked me to marry you." I laughed nervously hoping he would clarify the misunderstanding.

"Thea, this is no laughing matter. I am asking for your hand in marriage. I know how this must seem, yet it makes perfect sense for us to marry. Yes, you are much younger than I, but I am limited in the way I am able to protect you and everyone here at Dilston Manor. Our union would send a message that this land is protected and no one would come against us. We would be unstoppable." He continued to try and persuade me that it was the only logical thing to do.

I felt bile rise in the back of my throat and my hands were clammy. I suddenly felt trapped and wished to flee as far and as fast as I could and yet my feet remained were they were.

Shaking my head I argued. "What if my father is found? What would we do? We would have married for nothing and then what..."I trailed off as my thoughts were a jumbled mess.

Before Sir Gregory could reply, Sir Raulf called out to us and sprinted over to where we were. "My lady, Sir Gregory, we must hurry! There has been a report that intruders are as we speak terrorizing Kenton. They've already burned several homes and destroyed the crops. We must hurry!"

In a flurry of commotion we assembled the men, including the new additions to our ranks. I finally found Brom, but with all the commotion we had no time to speak. We rode toward Kenton as swiftly as possible. When we were approximately a mile out, we divided our ranks in two. Sir Gregory and Sir Raulf took half the men and Brom and I took the others. Among them were Warrick, Timothy, and the brothers Walton and Cooper.

As we neared the village, I could see black smoke rising into the sky. When we entered the village, all prepared to engage the marauders. The grisly scene made me queasy but I forced myself to hold it together. Several villagers were doing the best they could to fight off their assailants and many lay wounded or dead. Homes burned before us and the woman and children that could, found places to hide. Not all were so lucky and cried out in terror as they were attacked.

As soon as we appeared and began to engage the assailants, they fled from us like cowards. I charged after them not caring who followed. I was determined to stop the criminals and make them pay for what they had done.

I raced after the criminals, but I quickly saw that I would not make up the distance. Quickly changing tactics, I brought Genevieve to a halt and pulled my bow from my back. Positioning my arrow, I pulled back as far as I could. I narrowed in on one man trailing the others and looked to find where I could best penetrate his leather body armor. Taking a deep breath to steady my hand, I let my arrow fly. It penetrated deep into his upper arm and the force set him reeling forward and his horse bucked dislodging him from his back. The man went down hard and I raced toward him. I purposely avoided a fatal shot, as I need him alive. I was determined to get answers.

I dismounted quickly as he struggled to rise. Pulling my dagger from my laced boot I charged him, before he could reach for his weapon. I knock him back down with the force of my body, and with the butt of my dagger I slammed him in the back of the head, and he went down. I rolled him over and he appeared to be unconscious.

When I turned to see where the others were, something shiny flew past me and a dagger struck the unconscious man between the eyes. Thinking someone had meant to hit me I turned ready to fight them off. Sir Gregory came rushing toward me instead. He dismounted is stallion and approached me.

Looking back at the dead man, I noticed the dagger was Sir Gregorys.

He saw my questioning look and said, "He was about to attack you but you turned away and did not notice. I was so afraid he would have killed you!" He exclaimed and he removed his knife from the mans face.

"Why must you be so reckless all the time? Why do you feel the need to take on so many men all by yourself?" Sir Gregory fumed and looked as if he might consider strangling me.

"What do you mean all by myself? I assumed others had followed me." Looking about I saw Warrick a few paces off, he did not move but regarded Sir Gregory and I with an intent look.

Looking back at Sir Gregory I continued. "We had to stop at least one of them. How are we ever to found out who they are, if we can never capture one and then keep him alive long enough to extract information from him?"

Sir Gregory said nothing and stormed off, angry and upset. I turned back to the man I had attempted to capture. In confusion I shook my head.

"Warrick was now standing next to me with his horse. Turning, I commented more to myself than to him. "I thought I knocked him out? In fact I am sure of it." I said emphatically.

"You did knock him out. He was completely unconscious." Warrick confirmed.

"Then why did Sir Gregory kill him?" I asked perplexed.

"That my dear, is a very good question. One that I think needs answering, don't you?" he replied.

******

The after math of the attack left Kenton in ruins. Many lay dead and others were wounded. Many homes had been burned. I watched as the people cried over the loss of their loved ones.

For a time I could not move. I felt tears stream down my face. I could not understand why these people were attacked. They were innocent and had done nothing to deserve what had happened to them. Whoever was behind all of these attacks cared not who they harmed.

While the attacks previously had been violent and a lot of property had been damaged, the marauders had never purposely killed anyone. This was escalating to a whole new level of brutality.

I looked around and noticed my men had the same expressions on their faces as I did. My new recruits seemed most affected and I understood why. They knew many of these people personally. There were two men that were from Kenton and their anguish tore at my soul.

Pulling myself together, I rallied my men to help the wounded and care for those who had been slain. Throughout the rest of the day and into the evening we helped the people. I promised we would help rebuild everything that had been destroyed. It would take some time, but I vowed we would do whatever it took to help Kenton recover.

The loss of life was not something I could repair. I knew I could not comfort their loved ones, I could only promise to find who was responsible and make them pay for their crimes. Part of me wondered if it was a promise I could keep, but I would die trying if I had too.

With heavy spirits, we returned to Dilston Manor. I spoke to no one and went directly to my chambers. Climbing into bed, I hoped my exhaustion would allow sleep to claim me. I did not want to think about what had happened it was much too painful.

After tossing and turning for several minutes, I knew it would be a long night. My mind began to wander, and as it did, I found I could not stop the tears. I sobbed into my pillow and let all my pent up emotions and fears swell to the surface. I cried for Freddy, who was held captive somewhere I did not know, I cried for my father, and wondered if he had met the same fate as Freddy or worse. I cried for all the people who needlessly lost their lives that day, for no other reason than to scare and intimidate me.

I thought of Sir Raulf. He had behaved and acted as horrified as the rest of us. He went about caring for the wounded and tirelessly saw to their needs. My mind still rebelled at the idea of him betraying my family, and yet I witnessed his betrayal myself. How was I to stop him and the hooded man from succeeding?