What was he doing, attacking the lamb?
Ignoring the pain, she shoved to her feet in time to see Gavin strike a man's forehead with his fisted talons. The bearded man toppled backward to the ground. Two other kilted men shielded their heads with their round targes while they swung their swords at Gavin.
"No!" she yelled. "Don't you dare hurt him!"
With powerful wing strokes, Gavin lifted himself toward the sky again. They hadn't harmed him, thank goodness. Neither Alpin nor Wilona had come with these men. Who were they, and what was Gavin's dispute with them?
She had to get back to the castle. But first, she had to climb this embankment. When she took a step in the gravelly scree, her feet slid downward. She couldn't climb this. Turning to find an alternate route, she noticed the men trotting toward her.
Did they mean her harm? The stones shifted beneath her feet, and she staggered. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't run or climb the slope. She couldn't get a foothold in the deep scree.
"Hello, lassie," the tall kilted stranger called with a faux smile.
"Who are you?" Remembering the lamb, she glanced around, trying to locate it. "Did you see an injured lamb?"
"Oh, aye. It went that way." He pointed to one side. "Come, and we shall help you find it."
She did not trust their forced grins but saw no way out of this rocky pit without scrambling past them.
"Thank you, but I'll be fine. I don't need your help."
"Are you the new Lady MacTavish, then? We'd heard the MacTavish chief had married, but we did nay ken you'd be so bonny."
She didn't buy his ridiculous sweet talk in the least. "No, I'm her maid."
The men laughed. Dammit, she sucked at lying, just as they did.
"Back up and give me room. I'm going back to the castle. I don't know what you have in mind, but Laird MacTavish is watching our every move."
The men grinned and glanced up toward Gavin, soaring in a circle over them. They knew all about him.
"Do you work for Wilona MacRae? Or Alpin?" she asked.
"Who?" All of them cackled with laughter.
"Jerks! Laird MacTavish will rip the flesh from your bones!" she yelled, mimicking Ewan. "He has not a speck of mercy in his heart."
The outlaws' tall, skinny leader bared broken brown teeth in a grin while they inched closer in unison, blocking her escape. Even at ten feet away, she smelled their stench. She doubted they had bathed in months.
She bent, picked up a rock, and threw it at the grinning idiot. He dodged, and it flew past his shoulder. Surely she could throw better than that; she used to play softball.
"Back off!" She chose two more fist-sized stones and waited for the right moment.
Overhead, Gavin drifted lower, screeching out warnings. He dove toward the men again, but they ducked to the ground.
"A mhic an uilc!" the bearded man yelled.
Taking the opportunity, she darted past them and threw a rock, hitting one on the side of the head. He yelped.
Her heart pounding, she was both shocked at her own violence and terrified they would catch her.
One of the uninjured creeps, younger and brawnier than the other two, sprang to his feet and chased after her. She threw the other stone but missed his head by an inch. Cursing, she scrambled for another, but he grabbed the tail of her skirt. Turning, she lobbed the rock, struck his shoulder, then kicked him. He clung to her like a leech.
"Let go, you bastard!" she shouted, grabbing another sizable stone and intending to use it like a club at close range. But before she could put her plan into action, his cohorts joined him, even the brute she'd conked on the head.
One clasped her wrist in his vice-like hand. The more she fought, the tighter they held her. Icy cold fear engulfed her. She would yell for Gavin to help her, but she didn't want him injured. A bird was no match for these three savages.
Chapter 19
