For a moment I could not react. I was twenty years old and although we had lived with the constant possibility of danger, I had never experienced it first-hand. I had been too young to remember the excitement of the days when Queen Mary had been in power and armies had marched and countermarched across the country, and as I have said, the Lethan is a bit too far north to be raided by the predatory riding families and any Veitch raid had merely reived a few cattle or burned the odd cot-house.
Yet here they were now, reivers were loose in our valley and all its men were deep in the hills. All that was left were the women, children, and old men.
"Get the spears." Mother was surprisingly calm. Raising her voice, she shouted out: "Riders coming up the valley! Spears and bows! Take your places
