Free DARE THE WILD WIND by Kaye Wilson Klem

gone. 
    New oaths rose from below, and something heavy thumped up the stone steps.  She risked a look.  The soldiers at the armory door used a stout wooden table as a ram.  In three hard blows the door splintered open, and they poured inside.  The dragoons began to pass swords and muskets down the stairs, and quickly she drew back against the clammy stones of the niche.  She was trapped on the open walk circled by the parapet.  The dragoons were between her and the stair.  She would never get past them to warn Cam.
    Then pandemonium erupted from the the great hall.  Brenna said a prayer for Cam and Iain, thankful not to hear the sounds of muskets.  Shouts and cries erupted from the assembled guests, but the Earl's dragoons couldn't shoot into the crowd.  As long as they could rely on their swords, Cam and the rest had a chance to get away.
    Closing her eyes, Brenna knew she could do nothing but stay where Cam said he would meet her.  Nothing mattered now but keeping her promise to Cam.
    The English soldiers and Malcolm's guards had emptied the armory of weapons and plunged back down the tower stair.  Frantic at the sound of fighting from below, Brenna could guess what had happened.  The Earl had made a show of accepting Cam's pretext of truce, and quietly sent his escort of minor nobles to search out his missing men.  Cam would never have left the cells holding the dragoons unguarded.  Drake Seton's aides somehow had overpowered the sentries Cam had posted and freed the soldiers from the dungeon.
    Suddenly Brenna heard loose tiles rattle and skitter down the roof above the armory.  Booted feet slid and scrambled down the slant of the gable beyond the tower.  Then Cam swung down onto the wide walkway, softly calling her name.
    Brenna ran to his arms.  " Cam.  Thank God."
    He held her tightly for a second, and Brenna drank in the familiar, solid feel of him.  Then he released her.
    "You were right about the Earl," he said grimly.  "We should have watched him more closely."
    "Did you win any of the other clans to your side?" 
    "The Earl didn't give me time."  He caught her by the hand.  "We have to go before the Earl's men reach the postern gate." 
    In the confusion, there was a chance they hadn't.  And the main portcullis below them was almost certainly already under guard.  They turned toward the stairs, and Brenna froze. 
    Sword drawn, Drake Seton stood silhouetted at the top of the steps.  Cam thrust Brenna behind him, and drew his broadsword.
    "Have you come after me alone, Stratford?" he asked, his voice taunting and deceptively soft.  "If you have, I advise you to step aside."
    "I need no help to stop you," the Earl shot back. 
    Instinctively Brenna shrank back to give Cam room to deal with the Earl.
    "I've cut my way through three other Englishmen tonight.  Don't force me to carve you in half in front of my bride."
    The Earl stepped out onto the wide stone walk that ran around the tower. 
    "I haven't found the lady squeamish at the sight of blood," he said, his tone dry and as dangerous as Cam's.  "Or you about your given word.  Did you forget your promise to repent your vows to the Pretender?"      
    The two men circled warily.
    "I never promised to break my vow to the Prince.  And I take it ill that you threaten an innocent girl with a ch arge of treason."
    Drake Seton lifted the stiletto   sharp blade of his rapier and pivoted toward Cam in a fencing stance. 
    "If you  mean your affianced bride, she's hardly innocent. And I hang no woman, even t he most treacherous of her sex.”
    The Earl feinted, and Cam parried.
    "Brenna didn't plot to waylay your men," Cam ground out, taking the offensive.  He advanced on the Earl, but the Earl dodged the first slice of his sword by inches and landed in a lethal crouch, coiled to spring.
    "Plead for your own skin," he snapped, thrusting swiftly.
    In horror, Brenna saw the tip of his sword flick at Cam's shoulder.  But Cam moved as