Free The Wild Rose of Kilgannon by Kathleen Givens Page A

until he surrendered, leaving all four of us and most of the room wet.
    I shooed the boys out of the tub and Alex shed his clothes quickly and climbed into it. I insisted on washing the blood and grime out of his hair and tried not to comment on the bruises that covered him and the new long scar that ran from his breast to his waist, jagged as it crossed his ribs, the healing barely begun. And he tried to ignore my tears and compressed lips, but he saw them and he kissed my hand as I gently sponged his battered cheek. He joked and teased the boys until they were giggling again.
    In our room Alex dressed quickly, his mood growing sober. When he was dressed he kissed me and then sat on the edge of our bed, gesturing the still- damp boys to him. I sat next to him, suddenly reluctant to hear anything he had to say. Think of something, I commanded myself. Think of something to convince him to leave. Alex looked from one boy to the other.
    "Ye ken we won the battl e at Sherrifmuir, lads?"
    "We heard no one won, Da," said Ian.
    "We won," Alex said firmly. "We won." Two little heads nodded solemnly. "And then we lost in a different way. The Stewart ran away, leaving us to fend for ourselves." My heart sank at his words. He will not even try to escape, I
    thought. He will never run away. I have known that all along. I patted the dripping ends of his hair with the towel.
    "Thomas told us," whispered Ian.
    Alex nodded. "Aye. James Stewart called us all to fight for him and we did and then he ran away and left us to take care of ourselves. So the English won the war after all."
    "Ye lost the war?" asked Jamie.
    "Aye. We lost it when the Stewart ran away. And now the English king and his soldiers are in control of Scotland once again. We had to come home from a long way away and we got separated from each other. That's why Angus and the others came home first." His eyes met mine over his sons' heads as he continued. "But I canna stay. I have to go with the soldiers tomorrow." The boys exclaimed.
    "Where, Da? Where will ye go?" Jamie tugged at Alex's sleeve while Ian watched with troubled eyes. "Ye just got home!"
    Alex ruffled Jamie's hair. "I ken that, lad. Do ye remember when we talked a long time ago about giving yer word?" The boys nodded. "Well, I gave my word to Robert Campbell. I dinna wish to go, but I must. If I go with them no one here will be hurt and if I dinna go many people will die. So I will go with them."
    "Where will ye go?" Jamie asked.
    Alex's tone was quiet. "The English will put me in prison."
    "Prison!" Ian cried. Alex nodded.
    "Da," Jamie said in horror. "They'll hit ye again."
    Alex smiled wryly and put his hand to his bruised cheek. "Do ye mean this?"
    Jamie nodded.
    "They might." Alex suddenly grinned. "But, Jamie lad, I knocked the man who gave me this senseless, so perhaps they'll think twice before trying that again, no?" Both boys nodded and I rose and walked to the window, unable to bear another moment. I traced the lead of the window with a finger. I knew Alex watched me but his voice behind me was calm.
    "Ye must understand something else as well. I may no' ever come home again. I made an agreement that I would do as they asked." The boys cried out and I turned and met Alex's eyes.
    "Will they kill ye?" Ian whispered.
    Alex looked at me over Ian's head. And then he looked at his oldest son and nodded. "Aye," he said slowly. "It is most likely."
    "No!" Ian shouted, pulling on Alex's arm. "No, Da! Don't let them kill ye!" Next to him Jamie wailed. Alex hugged them fiercely to him and sank his face in their hair as they cried.
    "I ken it is hard to understand what happened," he said. "I hardly understand it myself. But ken this, lads: I made this decision. It was my choice, and it is the correct thing to do. If I go to prison, even if I die, and ever y one else here at Kilgannon lives, that is a good thing. If I run away like James Stewart and leave the people behind me to fend for themselves, then I would be