Ewan, in the meantime, had untangled his hooks and was paying us no attention as he pulled up clods of earth in the hunt for worms. I watched idly as he caught one fat grub and threaded it carefully onto a hook attached to a long length of twine, then cast it out into the gentle current of the stream. He, too, had Fortuna on his side that afternoon, and between his efforts and Alec’s, we ended up with six fine trout, all about a foot in length. I foraged for firewood and suitable firestones, then kindled and tended the fire while Ewan mixed a dough for bannocks and set them to bake on a flat stone among the coals. When the time was right, Alec, who had cleaned the fish and flavoured them with salt and wild onions, spitted them expertly on sticks and arranged them over the fire, tending them carefully.
We ate surrounded by a magnificent panoply of birdsong, and none of us spoke a single word throughout the meal; we were too appreciative of God’s bounty, savouring every delicious mouthful, and when nothing remained but the fish heads, skins, and bones, Alec sighed blissfully and tipped those into the fire.
It was yet early, with a good six hours of July daylight left to us, and we decided to walk again, for the sheer pleasure of it, and so I shouldered Ewan’s quarterstaff, leaving him to carry his bow in its long case. Alec had his own staff, and so we walked for an hour or so, seldom speaking but enjoying our companionship and the beauty of the terrain that surrounded us as the deer path we were following led us gradually higher until we reached a rock-strewn hilltop from which we could look down on the greenwood spread out at our feet.
“Look at yon beauty,” Alec said, nodding downhill to our right, to where a fine stag stood poised in an open glade, his head high as he sniffed at the breeze for any hint of danger. He sensed none, and we watched as he lowered his head eventually and grazed, following the lure of the richest plants until he vanished among the surrounding trees. I was turning to look behind me when I saw Ewan freeze. “What?” Alec asked before I could even think to speak. “You see something?”
“Aye, but I don’t know what … Something, though. A flash, yonder between the hills, about two miles out.”
“Hmm. Jamie, did you see anything?”
“No, but I saw Ewan see it.”
“Right, then. Between the two hills. Three pairs of eyes are better than one …”
Several minutes passed before the next visible stirring occurred, but I saw it instantly.
“There!”
“Aye,” Alec growled. “What did you see?”
“It was a man, I think, but it might have been two.”
“Two it was,” Ewan said in his soft voice. “Two men, one right behind the other, coming towards us. They crested a small ridge, I believe. One head visible for a speck of time, followed by the other. Coming this way now, but headed where, I wonder …” He coughed gently, clearing his throat. “I don’t know the path they’re on, don’t know where it goes or whether or not it forks, but if it keeps coming straight this way, then it will have to go down there to our left, parallel to the way we came. We’ll stay here and wait for a closer look, and if we think that’s where they’re going, we can cut back down and catch them as they come out into the water meadow where we ate.” He shook his head. “Two men? Alone? They’re either mad or they’re looking for Will’s lads.”
A short time later, the two appeared again.
“One of them is wearing armour.”
“Aye, and the other is not. And one’s on a horse, the other on a mule.”
Alec jerked his head around to stare at his cousin. “How can you tell that?”
“I can see its ears. Can’t you?”
The other man looked at me and rolled his eyes. “No, but I’ll take your word for it. A horse and a mule. That means a knight and his servant.”
“It might,” Ewan said. “Then again, it might not. The man is muffled in a heavy cloak, so his armour might be no more than a breastplate, and the servant might be a woman. Would you care to make a wager?”
I had been half listening to the pair of them, keeping my eyes on the newcomers. “They turned right,” I said. “Their right, our left. I saw them go, and then they disappeared. If we’re to be in place by the time they arrive down there, we had better go now.”
Within moments we were striding back along the path we had followed on the way up, moving twice as fast as we had earlier.
“Damnation,” Alec growled. “We only have the one bow.”
“It’s all we’ll need, believe me,” Ewan answered. “Give me an open space in which to aim and shoot, and this bow against two men is far more than we’ll need.”