Read Doctor Who: The Highlanders for Free Online

mean, you steal people’s cattle?’
    Kirsty, startled, stood back. ‘Och, no! What do you take us for? We’re no thieves. We only steal from those who take from us... like the McGregor clan.’ Kirsty walked forward and opened the nearest of the small wooden chests.
    ‘We keep our food in here.’ She looked in it hungrily, and rummaged among some old parchments, then brought up something that to Polly looked suspiciously like a large, hard dog biscuit. ‘Och,’ said Kirsty, ‘we’ve only one wee biscuit left. The men must have got here before us.’
    Polly looked suspiciously down at the biscuit. ‘When was it left here?’
    ‘About three months past,’ said Kirsty, and started gnawing hungrily on a corner of the biscuit. Then, remembering her manners, she offered it to the stranger.
    Polly wrinkled her nose in disgust and shook her head.
    ‘Ugh,’ she said, ‘dog biscuits!’
    Kirsty looked up, annoyed. ‘Biscuits are no bait for dogs,’ she said, and set to work on it.
    ‘Well, not for me,’ said Polly, ‘please go ahead. I don’t want to lose my fillings.’
    Kirsty looked blankly up at her.
    ‘Oh, teeth, you know... fillings, teeth. Never mind, I’m not hungry. We must make a plan. We saw them being marched away; now, where would they be taking them?’
    Kirsty burst into tears. ‘To Inverness gaol. They’ll never leave that place alive.’
    Polly looked down at the dishevelled, weeping girl, annoyed. ‘Oh don’t be such a wet. We must get them out.
    Have you any money?’
    Kirsty looked up, shaking her head. ‘For what do we need money?’
    ‘For food, of course,’ Polly returned. ‘That biscuit won’t last us long, and we need something to bribe the guards with. What have we got to sell then?’ Polly looked down at her bracelet, which was of twisted silver. She shook it.
    ‘This won’t fetch much, but it’s a start, anyway.’
    ‘Why would you help us?’ said Kirsty. ‘You are English, you’re not one of us.’
    ‘They’ve got my friends, too, remember,’ Polly rejoined.
     
    She shivered. The air in the cave was chill and damp. ‘And I must get myself some proper clothes to wear.’
    ‘Aye,’ said Kirsty curiously, her tears forgotten. ‘Why do you wear the short skirts of a bairn? Ye’re a grown woman sure.’
    Polly looked down at her mini-skirt and the torn and laddered tights. ‘Well,’ said Polly, ‘you see... Oh, it’ll take too long to explain.’ She looked over at Kirsty and spotted a large ring on the girl’s middle finger. ‘Ah,’ she said, ‘that ring, it’s gold.’
    Kirsty immediately covered the ring with her other hand and turned away.
    ‘Oh come on,’ said Polly crossly, ‘can’t I even look at it?
    You’ll have to trust me, you know.’
    Kirsty shook her head. ‘It’s no mine, it’s my father’s.’
    ‘Well let’s see anyway.’
    Kirsty reluctantly stretched her hand out and Polly examined the ring. ‘Oh, it’s a gorgeous seal. We should get a lot for that.’
    Kirsty snatched her hand back and looked up, frightened. ‘We’re no selling it.’
    Polly stared back at her in disbelief. ‘Not even to save your father’s life?’
    ‘No.’ Kirsty shook her head firmly. ‘He’d no thank me.’
    Polly shrugged her shoulders. ‘Oh, you’re hopeless.
    Why, for goodness sake?’
    ‘He entrusted it to me before the battle. He’d kill me if I ever parted with it.’
    ‘I don’t understand you people,’ Polly sighed. Then with sudden resolution she held her hand out. ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘give it to me.’
    Kirsty scrabbled away across the floor, reached out and grabbed the dirk that Polly had been wearing and had set down on one of the chests. ‘I will not!’ she said.
    Polly stared at her for a moment, and then shook her head in disgust. ‘Keep your ring,’ she said, ‘you’re just a wild wailing peasant. I’m off to help my companions. You just stay here and guard your precious ring.’ She turned back towards the