Knight Triumphant by Heather Graham Page A

wary. It’s your very life you must guard. That’s why we came. If you are wary, you can survive. There’s help that will come to you. You must only be on guard, and . . . there’s nothing else we can really tell you. If you are wary and protect yourself, then you will survive. We must go now. Father Padraic is a wonderful man. But he has doubts about Gregory’s visions. And there are those who would accuse him of dangerous witchcraft. There are many things he sees which he feels he can never say . . . Father Padraic has been too good to us. But you have been so kind . . . and you must understand, in the way that you speak, walk, and even in your manner, it is easy to see that you are no orphan of the poor, the landless, the luckless or the downtrodden.”
    They turned to leave. Igrainia caught the girl’s arm. “I don’t even know your name.”
    â€œRowenna,” the girl said. “And I must go now.”
    â€œThank you. Both of you. I will repay you, when I can.”
    â€œYou owe us nothing. We would give you more, if only we could. Please, just believe what we tell you. We must go. Father Padraic sleeps lightly.”
    They slipped from the room in a silence as deep as the darkness.
    Igrainia lay back against her pillow, staring into the shadows. The strange ripple of unease seeped down her spine again.
    He was coming after her, she thought.
    They were warning her, because Gregory saw . . .
    Why?
    Why would such a man, who sorrowed so deeply and loathed her with such a vengeance, take the time and trouble to come after her now?
    He had told her from the beginning what her fate would be if she didn’t keep his wife and child alive.
    And the poor little girl had died before they had even returned.
    Margot had died in her care.
    She didn’t need Gregory to see for her.
    There was no great mystery to her fate. Eric intended to hunt her down. No matter how long she was gone, and no matter how far she traveled.
    And what he intended then . . .
    She didn’t know.
    But sleep eluded her for the rest of the night.
    As did her dreams.

CHAPTER 5
    They had drawn up before the walls of Perth. The Earl of Pembroke had ridden hard into Scotland at the bidding of the English king, his army of six thousand men drawn from the northern counties of England and the lowlands of Scotland.
    Robert Bruce, knowing of Pembroke’s advance and his own dire circumstances and lack of men, had gathered forces for the country north of the Forth and Clyde. He had managed to raise an army of about four thousand, five hundred men. Having received word that Pembroke was at Perth, they had ridden there hard, ready to do battle. But he hadn’t the necessary siege engines to batter down walls or gates, nor could he afford the cost in human life it would take to send a relentless stream of men to scale the walls. Bruce and his advisers had argued their tactics, many doubtful of the honor of the Earl of Pembroke, yet many equally convinced that he was a man who would not give his word lightly. In the end, Robert Bruce insisted that he knew the Earl of Pembroke, and many silently agreed. He should know many of King Edward’s men, since there had been a time when he had given his allegiance to the English king.
    â€œI know Pembroke!” He stated firmly in the copse where they had come to talk. “And there is also the matter that we have little choice. I will challenge him, in the chivalric code, and hear what he has to say.”
    Old Angus spat into the grass. “It doesn’t matter what he says.”
    Eric shrugged when Robert Bruce stared his way. “It’s true, we haven’t the means to lay siege to the castle. That is the only real and substantial fact we have.”
    So Bruce himself rode to the gates, and issued his challenge. And he was so convinced that the Earl of Pembroke would honor his promise to bring his men forth and do battle in the morning, that no