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the men clearly enough to identify later. Of them all, the one he most likely had seen plainest was Allan, and of them all, Allan would be the most careful, for his very life depended on it.
    Many people in Appin country knew him, and although most would not betray him, he was well able to look after himself. That he was still alive after six years of paying cat-and-mouse visits to Scotland from France proved that much.
    Still, she said, “We cannot steal their horses.”
    “Not steal, borrow,” he said, smiling at her. “The men from Stalker are coming from the south, so we shall ride north for a mile or two before we turn the beasts loose in the woods. When they find them, they’ll scour the area thereabouts, searching for these two, because I’ll wager anything you like that they will pass by here without seeing them.” Signing to Fergus, he said, “You’ll ride with me, and you,” he added with a nod at Neil, “will ride with her.”
    Diana said, “But what about—?”
    Quickly cutting in, Bardie said, “I’ll look after myself, lass. I’m as safe in the woods as anyone could be. I’m sure,” he added dryly, “that himself knows that as well as anyone. Always thinks of others, he does, so large of mind as he is.”
    Allan shot him a sour look but said calmly to Diana, “He hates riding. You know that. He is afraid of horses and boats, and God knows what else.”
    “He risked his life to save yours, however. You might show more gratitude.”
    Ignoring Allan, Bardie said, “Don’t fret for me, lass. I have my own trails, and I’ll be home through the forest before anyone knows I’ve been away.”
    Allan said no more, and once Neil and Fergus had dragged Calder and Thomas well off the path, Neil mounted Thomas’s horse and reached down a hand to Diana. “Hurry,” he said. “I can hear them now. I thought they were all moving south, but one party must have turned back this way.”
    “Patrick Campbell knows Calder is riding toward Balcardane,” she said, letting him pull her up behind him. “Doubtless he diverted a few men to keep an eye on him. We can be grateful he did not think to do it before now.”
    “Don’t stand about gabbing,” Allan said, reverting to English. Setting Calder’s gray to a trot, he led the way with Fergus clinging behind. The last glimpse Diana had of Bardie was as he scrambled up the hillside and burrowed into the thick bracken beneath the densely growing trees. He would be safe, she knew. The woods thereabouts were too thick for riders, even for most men on foot, and if soldiers later chanced to see him in the forest, they would have no reason to accost him.
    Leaning forward, she hugged her brother, saying, “I’m glad to see you, but you took a dreadful risk. I’d have got away on my own eventually, you know.”
    “We didn’t know,” he retorted. “Allan said he did not think Patrick Campbell would suspect you, but I wasn’t as certain, so if we are to talk of taking chances, we’ll soon be at outs with each other, Diana. Did they give you any trouble?”
    “Not until last night,” she said. “Some tried to take liberties, of course, but I expected that, and the only difficulty was making myself remember that I could not just tell them to keep their hands to themselves. But last night was different,” she admitted with a grimace she knew he could not see.
    “What was different about last night?” Neil sounded merely curious, but she was glad he was the one asking, and not her cousin. Before she had thought of an acceptable reply, he added, “I expected your greatest trouble to come immediately after they discovered Allan had got away.”
    “Well, it didn’t, for I was lucky. No one saw me near the tower, so no one had cause to suspect me. They would have got round to me soon enough, but Calder’s arrival made rather a big difference.”
    “Why were you riding with him today? If he is kin to Argyll, I should have thought you’d keep well clear