Blair gave a small sigh of relief. She was not too late.
“Aye,” one of the bandits slurred, “I doubt he’ll be goin’ gentle with her even though it's her first time. Serves the jade right. She cursed me with her evil eye, I’ll swear to it.”
The men roared at their secret joke. “Ye drunk galoot, she didnae curse ye...ye were too pished to stand, never mind relish the wumman!”
Oblivious to the men’s sneers and jibes, the woman set to peeling the carrots.
Blair crouched behind the bush and dithered. The woman was not chained and she had Angus’s filing to thank for that. But how to get her away from the others? She could only sit and wait for her chance.
It seemed like hours before the opportunity came.
“I am goin’ to the privy,” the woman announced, and stood up.
“Dinnae ye go far, now, y’hear?” one of the men said as he tipped his mug back to empty it. “Head out to where we dug the new pit. There’s a sack o’ lime powder if ye need it.”
That was all Blair needed to know. She began to creep around the encampment, looking for the latrine. She got there just as the woman had finished crouching amidst the bushes.
It was a bizarre meeting. Both women were crouched down, and both gave small gasps when they laid eyes on each other.
“Run, girl,” the woman said, hastily rearranging her skirts and standing up. “Ye are in the lion’s den. Go as quiet as ye can back the way ye came.”
Blair was astonished the woman thought only about saving a stranger. She must be as good and noble in spirit as she looked in person.
“I’ve come to get ye,” Blair whispered. “I’m Angus’s daughter. He told me of yer plight, and I couldnae leave ye here. Come away with me now. I have a horse waiting nae far from here. We’ll be gone before those men even realize it.”
Hope seemed to spring into the woman’s slanted green eyes. “I ken a way around the camp which will keep us out of sight.”
She grabbed Blair’s hand, and the two women began creeping around the camp’s perimeter.
“Where’s yer horse tethered?” she asked Blair.
Suddenly, Blair saw the flaw in her plan. She had no idea where she had tied Pooka to the tree branch. All the woods looked the same, no matter in what direction she turned in bewilderment.
The woman saw her confusion. “Never mind. Let’s just get a bit further away, and then we can catch our bearings and give more thought to yer horse’s location.”
As quiet as cats in the night, they made their way slowly out of range from the camp.
Then the sounds they had been dreading were heard in the distance. Shouts and cries echoed in the woods, too loud and raucous to be swallowed up by the trees.
“They have discovered me flight,” the woman said calmly. “Run on ahead in a straight line and make for the loch. Forget yer horse.”
Blair had never felt such fear as the stifling horror which now gripped her.
“I cannae, ye must come with me,” she begged.
“When they have me, they will be satisfied. Now go.” The woman gave Blair a little push, breaking their handhold and stepping away from her.
Blair stood rooted to the spot. It was too late. Four men dashed out of the bushes and grabbed them both.
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” one man said with a cocky grin.
“Two birds an’ many hands,” another said, and they began to drag the women back to the camp. The tall woman did not struggle or shout; she simply followed the man who had her by the arm in silence.
Blair put up as much resistance as humanly possible. She scratched, bit, kicked, and gouged at the two men who dragged her toward a fate worse than death, but it was all in vain. The men were used to women fighting them, and Blair’s actions only seemed to make them laugh all the harder.
It was only when they reached the campsite when all of Blair’s fight left her.
Standing in the middle of the clearing was a huge man with an enormous potbelly. His face was puce with anger, and in his hands was a whip.
