A muffled voice came through the thick heavy oaken door. Jean couldn’t make out if it was friend or foe.
A fist pounded several times, and then a sharper hammering, like the hilt of a dagger. The muffled voice suddenly grew clearer, as it came through the keyhole.
“All is well,” the voice said. “You are safe. We’ve driven them away.”
Robert and John looked at each other. It could be a trick.
“The Gunns could have found these passageways,” John whispered.
“How can we know?” Robert squeaked back.
Jean ran forward and squatted down to speak into the keyhole. “Da? Is that is you? Tell me what nickname you use for me?”
“Pet, it’s Jean Bean to be sure. Truly, it is safe to come out.”
Jean nodded to the men and they lifted away the bar. Staying behind the door, Jean slowly pulled it open while the men prepared to fight, just in case her father was held against his will.
From behind the door she saw them relax.
“Are you okay?” Robert asked.
Jean stepped out to find her father, Boyd, and three other men in the doorway.
“Mostly,” her father said. “Alick is injured, but no one else.”
Annis let out a terrible wail and pushed through the crowd to get out the door.
“Don’t fash overmuch,” her father called up the steps after Annis. “It doesn’t seem too serious.”
Annis disappeared as if he’d said nothing.
“What happened?” Jean asked. “How did you avoid worse happening?”
“It was you, Jean Bean. When you said to leave the drawbridge, it suddenly made sense to me that we had no time. We’d waste effort on something that we couldn’t do. They were coming on too fast. So we established our defense just inside the entrance and met them straight on before they could overwhelm us. It took them by surprise that we would head them off so fully. A group of them broke through and crashed in the side door, but we caught up to them before long. Three Gunns were struck down at the gate, and one in the yard, but the rest got away—though with plenty of wounds to plague them.”
Jean fell into her father’s arms. The strength of his embrace was comfort beyond her comprehension and drove away the pain she’d carried for so long.
“I can’t believe it’s true,” Jean said.
Jean’s mother and sister joined her next to her father and he enfolded all three of them into his strong arms.
“There, there. We’re all fine now. Don’t you fash. Nothing too awful happened. Nothing we couldn’t handle. Let’s get above stairs now. We have a wedding to prepare for. We’re not going to let those vile Gunns take this time of happiness from us.”
Jean truly smiled for the first time in weeks.
REDEMPTION