DARE THE WILD WIND Read Free Page B

outrun the dragoons?"
    "My horse picked up a stone in his shoe just after I left the village.  I had to turn back for a fresh mount."
    Brenna thought how lucky it was he had.  "All the same I am grateful, Iain.  You didn't fail me when I needed your help."
    Iain flushed faintly at her praise.  "I made that promise to Cam, and long ago to you."
    They had all of them sworn eternal allegiance, when Cam and Iain had been ten, and Brenna only eight.  Brenna loved Iain as much as any kinsman.  He had taken the place of the brother Malcolm never had been.
    "What of Cam, Iain?" she asked softly.  "Why did he send you?"
    "He rides to Lochmarnoch Castle."
    "Now?" she cried, jumping to her feet.  "Why did he have you call me here?"  Did he mean to lay siege to her brother's keep, and w ant her safely out of its walls?
    "He won't arrive until the morrow," Iain said.  "And he couldn't trust the message I brought to a letter your brother might intercept.  He wanted me to prepare you.  And to tell you he won't be able to take you with him."
    Brenna stared at Iain.  "He comes to Lochmarnoch and means to leave me behind?"
    "He comes to treat with your brother, and to sway new support to the side of the Prince."
    "But he can't," Brenna burst out.  "The chiefs of the clans who gather tomorrow are loyal to King George.  They'll take him prisoner, or try to kill him."
    Iain responded with a crooked smile.  "You forget my cousin's charm.  Do you know any man in the Highlands who'd be glad to kill Cam?  They may dislike his politics, but he thinks they'll hear him out.  He'll ride under the white flag of truce."
    Brenna knew no man was better liked by his neighbors than Cam.  Or none had been better regarded before the Young Pretender landed on the white sands of Arisaig, and Cameron MacCavan had joined the Rebel cause.  But she knew Malcolm too well to believe he would listen.
    "My brother is treacherous as a viper.  He can't be trusted to honor a flag of truce."
    " Cam has a certain acquaintance with Malcolm's ways," Iain reminded her dryly. 
    Something ran up the back of Brenna's neck on small cold feet.  Malcolm would welcome another guest to the castle.  Suddenly she realized neither Cam nor Iain knew.
    "Iain, it won't be just Malcolm and his men against him at Lochmarnoch.  Malcolm expects an emissary from the Duke of Cumberland to arrive in the morning."
    Their encounter with the English dragoons abruptly made a chilling sense.  She looked up at Iain.
    "It must have been his guard we met at the abbey."
    And the man she had confronted in the glen could be one of the nobles riding with the Duke's messenger.  The English King's younger son had sent a high ranking peer from his camp south of the River Spey, and such men never traveled without the company of lesser nobles to attend their every whim.
    "A day early," Iain responded, "but you could be right."
    "You have to warn Cam," she said in a rush.  "He won't just face Malcolm's men tomorrow, he'll face English soldiers."
    For the first time, she saw her words had penetrated Iain's mask of calm.  He let out an uneasy breath.
    "I'll lead  my horse out as soon as it's full dark.  But I can't promise dragoons or your half brother will discourage Cam.  Bonny Prince Charlie is in sore need of every man who can wield a claymore. 
    "If the Duke of Cumberland crosses the Spey, we'll have to turn and fight.  Cam's mind is set on rallying any clansmen he can gather to the Prince's cause." 
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
    Against Iain's objections the British could still be close by, Brenna led Gypsy out from behind the waterfall as the sun began to sink over the ridge.  There had been no sign of the dragoons since they first kept their lookout from inside the cave, and Brenna was positive Iain's fears were unfounded. 
    There was still enough light to pick her way down through the forest, and the shadows falling over the moor would help to cloak her return.  Before she left,