“Sorry, Gillian. We have our orders. Ye saw your da—I’m not going to disobey him when he’s already angry.” He looked at Hew, the man who rode beside him, his sword in his hand, ready for trouble.
“The Fearsome MacLeod is never wrong,” Hew said.
She blinked back tears. “Will you let him kill an innocent man?”
“He must have done something worth hanging for—he’s a Sassenach,” Cam said.
Hew grunted agreement. “We’ll be lucky if the MacKenzies don’t kill him first. They won’t take kindly to him hanging their laird.”
“They’ll be pleased when Gillian marries their laird,” Cam said.
“I won’t—” Gillian began, but the two warriors stiffened at the sound of hoofbeats on the track ahead. Cam tightened one arm around Gillian’s waist and drew his sword. “Don’t worry, you’re safe with us,” he murmured.
“I was safe with John,” she snapped.
Her sisters rode through the trees, Meggie and Aileen first, and Isobel and Aoife following. Cam and Hew lowered their swords.
“There you are,” Meggie said to Gillian. “We thought you’d eloped. Och, you look terrible, Gilly!”
“Does your da know you’re here?” Cam asked, striving for a stern tone.
Meggie batted her eyelashes at him, and Cam blushed. “Of course not. We found a garron on the track. There’s a dead boar on his back. We tied him up.”
Isobel looked at Gillian. “Gilly—you’re all bloody. Did you kill that huge boar? I wouldn’t have believed it a month ago, but—”
Cam and Hew gaped at her.
Gillian ignored them and gave her sisters a radiant smile. “John must have killed it. He killed it for me.For me—oh, Papa—” She twisted in Cam’s grip. “Take me back, I have to tell my father.”
“The Sassenach killed aboar? When did he time for that—before or after he hanged the MacKenzie?” Hew asked.
“Hanged the MacKenzie!” Aileen exclaimed.
Gillian rolled her eyes. “John didn’t hurt anyone—”
“Except the boar,” Aoife said.
“Anyone could have caught it. It was probably a MacLeod,” Cam said.
“Callum told John where to look for it,” Gillian said, glaring at her clansmen. “And while he was killing the boar, Rabbie Bain was trying to hang Davy MacKenzie, and murder Callum and me. John arrived just in time. If it hadn’t been forthat Sassenach, we’d all be dead. D’you still think he should hang?”
Hew looked sheepish.
“Aye, you should look ashamed, Hew MacLeod! John Erly has saved me twice!” Gillian yelled. “I’ll not letanyonehang the man I love, not even my father.” She wriggled out of Cam’s grip and slid off the garron. “Help me, or get out of my way.”
“She’s as fierce as her da,” Hew said. “I’ve never heard her yell before, or even speak above a whisper.”
“English John is Alasdair Og Sinclair’s captain,” Meggie said, climbing off her own garron and going to Gillian’s side. “He bested Padraig Grant and Davy MacKenzie with his sword, and it appears he hunted down a boar that probably outweighs the two of you together.”
“And he did it alone,” Aoife said, joining her sisters.
Isobel held up her hands two feet apart. “That boar has tusks this long.”
Cam frowned.
“Hew, take the garron with the boar home. Cam, you’ll escort us back to where you left Papa. We need to speak with him before it’s too late,” Aileen commanded, since she was the eldest.
Hew shook his head. “I’d rather hang than disobey my laird.”
