Chapter Five

Cain frowned as he tried once again to coax the black and white feline off his head while balancing a tray of food. The large splash on the other side of the door made him lay his ear against it.

“Cac!” Ella’s voice held fury, and she coughed, cursing further.

“Mo chreach,” he murmured as the kitten pierced his scalp with her needlelike claws. Perhaps the kitten and her new mistress had things in common, namely a hatred for him.

“I brought ye some food. Are ye well?” Cain called.

“Leave it outside the door,” she yelled.

“I also have a gift for ye, Ella.” His frown relaxed. “Are ye in need of assistance?”

“No,” she said, and he could imagine her snapping gray eyes trying to skewer him through the oak. “What I need is to be released from Girnigoe and for you to leave Clan Sutherland alone.”

She may as well have asked to have wings to fly. “I will not bother ye,” Cain said. “I want only to deliver my gift and your food.” And for ye to surrender long enough to marry me. He had boasted to Gideon he could convince her within the three weeks that the banns were posted. And he would see the challenge won.

He had changed into a fresh white tunic and clean kilt after bathing, and the key to the door sat tucked into his sash. As if reading his mind, she yelled again. “Do not pretend that you don’t have a key to the door.”

What did that mean? Of course he had a key. “Do ye want me to come in with my key?”

“Do what you want, Sinclair. Leave the food and gift or use your key. I will not be letting you into my cage.”

Needles pierced his head, startling him so that he bumped his forehead into the frame of the door. “Blast, ye wee beastie.”

Enough of this. Leaving the cat to cling to his head, Cain fished the iron key out of his sash and jammed it into the lock. The kitten flexed her other paw, jabbing him with more needles. The key turned, and he pushed the door inward.

Ella stood wrapped in the blanket from her bed, warmth from the fire filling the small room. She watched him warily. “My gift is misbehaving,” he said, his teeth clamped together as he tried to force a smile. It felt like a grimace.

Cain bent his knees to lower enough so that he could walk through the small doorway with the kitten hissing on his head. The tray wobbled slightly as he entered, but he kept his gaze on Ella’s face.

Her glare melted into a look of surprise. For a long moment, she stared at the two of them. Cain waited, and the kitten pricked his scalp again, making his eye twitch as he tried to hold his smile.

Walking forward, he set the tray on a small table near the hearth. “A gift for ye, Ella. The kitten is the smallest of her litter and has weaned from her mother. The other barn cats are not letting her have as much food, so she needs a protector, someone to make sure she eats.”

“I…I suppose I can watch her…while I am here. You said it is a her, a girl?” Ella moved closer, and the smell of the floral soap Merida had given her floated from her wet hair that was twisted up in a bathing sheet.

“Aye, and as ye see, she has spirit.”

“And she is scared to death, way up there on top of a giant,” Ella said, chastising him with a frown. Tucking the blanket tighter around her, she walked to him, dragging the length behind her like a cumbersome train. “Bend,” she demanded and reached high to disentangle the kitten from Cain’s head, her arms shaped with slender muscles. “Here sweet thing,” she whispered. “Let me take you away from the big bad Sinclair.”

Cain bent his knees so she could pull the cat from him, its paws and claws extended wide. “Ye know, the kitten is also a Sinclair,” he said, watching her bring the ball of black and white fluff to her face, touching her nose to the cat’s little white one.

The heavy blanket around Ella loosened, and she gasped as it fell to the floor. Stepping back, Ella tripped over the wool mass tangled around her feet. Cain’s hands shot out, grabbing her arms to keep her from falling backward. The kitten yowled and jumped from her onto the bed.

The feel of him steadying her yanked back a long-ago memory. She had been young and smiling at the festival when he’d bumped into her, making her drop her bouquet of Scottish thistle.

“Thank you,” she said and frowned as if she wished she could pull it back, yanking out of his grasp.

“Ye are all wet.” Water drops sat along her collarbone, making him very thirsty. Och. What would the lass taste like?

She clutched her arms over her breasts and squatted to grab up the blanket to hold before her. “You startled me when you knocked.”

“And…” He looked from her to the tub and back. Water was pooled across the floor. “Ye fell in the tub?”

“No, well…yes. Somewhat. Not all the way.”

He took a quick mental inventory of the room. It was small, too small for his bulk, but it suited Ella. “Ye need a robe and another bathing sheet, a rug for the floor, and some rags for the water.”

She picked the kitten from the bed to hold before her, but the wee beast wiggled until Ella let her jump down to prowl about. “Do not forget a sgian dubh or mattucashlass,” Ella said and clutched the blanket up to the base of her throat.

Even half drowned, she was bonny and brave. Although she had little defense in being alone and half dressed with him in a small room, she was not cowering or weeping in a corner. Nay, the lass was asking for weapons. The side of his mouth tipped upward. “I will keep your request in mind.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Yet you ignore my other request.”

His smile faded. He would no more kill her than he would kill the kitten. “I am not going to execute ye, Ella Sutherland.”

“Your brother—”

“And I will not let Bàs execute ye, either.”

“Then release me,” she said. “Because I will not marry you. I will not marry anyone.”

“It would be the best outcome for all those involved, both Sinclair and Sutherland,” he replied. And he wanted another chance to kiss her. Not like the kiss in the tree, but a real kiss that would make her forget about strategy and escape. His gaze slid along the blanket covering her body.

Mutiny tightened her gaze. “The best outcome would be for the Sinclairs to leave Dunrobin and Sutherlands alone, to live apart but as allies, letting the feud fade away, since both old chiefs are dead.”

“Allies can turn against one another, like our allies, the Mackays, who are now trying to weaken us by burning our crops. Uniting under one clan, however, is firm and strong. It would strengthen our herds and increase the number of warriors. I could live at Dunrobin with ye, and Joshua and Gideon would continue to live here at Girnigoe.”

It was a sensible plan that would save her people’s lives. He would accomplish what his father had not been able to do, taking Dunrobin and Sutherland lands, and he would prove to his brothers and clan that he deserved the highest respect.

Ella shook her head at him. “You think you have it all figured out.”

Confusion bent his brows. “I do have it all figured out.” He would continue to grow the Sinclair clan, making it the most powerful in Scotland. Maybe one day he could even rule Scotland like his father had hoped.

“How could you without even discovering anything about the Sutherlands, who we are, and why your plan will not work?”

He crossed his arms to match her stance. “Very well, tell me about your clan, Ella Sutherland, and why my plan will not work.”

She exhaled through her teeth, and the cloth she’d wrapped around her hair unraveled, dropping to the floor with a thud. “I cannot.”

“Ye cannot?” he repeated. Or will not. “’Tis fairly easy, lass. Just open your lips and—”

“I made a promise to someone.”

He narrowed his eyes, studying her. “So ye accuse me of not asking about your clan, but ye refuse to tell me anything about it.”

She turned away, flipping the end of the blanket around her back. The kitten chased the frayed corner as it dragged across the floorboards. “It is complicated,” she said. “And I do not trust you.”

“I did not kill or harm ye. Ye have been given clean things, a comfortable room, food, and a gift. Perhaps ye could let go of some of your anger to see the logic behind our union. Even though ye killed my father.”

She pivoted toward him. “And you killed my father.”

“Aye, but your father was a foking bastard who branded ye.”

A flush heated Ella’s cheeks. “And your father was a foking lunatic who thought his sons were the four horsemen of the apocalypse.” She kept her blanket gripped with her arms but managed to raise her forearms. She opened her eyes wide and wiggled her fingers upward. “Sent to earth on a heavenly cloud from God.”

She mocked him and his brothers. Irritation tightened his jaw. “But…he never raised a hand against a Sinclair, neither person nor horse.” Cain crossed his arms over his chest. “Once ye get to know us, ye will see that Sinclairs are actually quite likeable people. Some are a bit eccentric but still likeable.”

She huffed, spinning away to pick up the kitten. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes growing wide. “Are you giving me a kitten to make me like you?”

He was not sure what to say. His experience with wooing a lass’s good opinion of him was completely lacking. As long as he had the respect of his people, he had never cared if they liked him or not. “I would answer truthfully, but I fear ye would make me take the beast away, and it was hard enough to get her up here. She will likely scratch my eyes out if I attempt to carry her down.”

“Bloody hell,” Ella murmured. She traipsed past him to the open door. “Goodbye, Cain.”

He walked slowly across, and as he drew closer, he inhaled the fresh, warm scent of her. What would it be like to have her soft and willing, moaning his name as he shattered her world with pleasure? He stopped before her, staring down into her frowning face over the threshold of the small tower room. “We will wed, Ella, and I will take your clan. It is the way of war for someone to lose. I can make your surrender as peaceful as possible, but that all depends on ye.”

Her eyes narrowed into near slits. “Death before surrender,” she said and pushed the door shut in his face.

…

“Bàs and Joshua are posting the wedding banns, which I wrote out last night,” Gideon said, as he sat across from Cain by the cold hearth in the great hall. “The celebration for Da will begin at noon. Hannah and Merida have gone to oversee the cooking and baking to be done this morn. Joshua brought down a stag for the feast before dawn, and I sacrificed a few chickens to be plucked and roasted into pies. Viola Finley and several lasses from town are helping in the kitchens.”

Cain’s gaze flicked across to the arched alcove where the stairs began. Was Ella awake? It was still early, slightly past dawn. He’d walked up the circular tower steps as far as his father’s chamber where he’d stationed a rotating guard last night in case the lass thought she could sneak out. Perhaps, unlike Cain, she had succumbed to sleep immediately and slept deeply all night. He glanced at his brother when he realized Gideon had grown silent.

“She tried to leave only once, before midnight,” Gideon said. “Thomas stopped her.”

Cain frowned, meeting Gideon’s amused gaze. “How?”

“She opened her door, stepped out with her kitten, and took ten st—”

“Ye arse, how did Thomas stop her?”

“Ooooooh,” Gideon said, a broad smile irritating Cain. Unlike Joshua, Gideon was the peacemaker, so his teasing had caught him off guard. “He told her that he was stationed there to make certain she did not leave, and that food would be brought to her in the morning. She turned around, without a word, and climbed back up to the tower chamber.”

“Has anyone brought her food yet?”

“Merida stopped Joshua from taking it up and said she’d take it up after dawn,” Gideon said, his smile thinning out. “I think he has become interested in her.”

“He bloody hell better become disinterested fast,” Cain said, his hand squeezing into a fist.

The rivalry between the oldest and second oldest had always been fierce, with Cain being the one in charge as the firstborn and Joshua being excellent at starting wars. They would always have each other’s backs, though, in and out of battle. Loyalty to one another flowed through their blood.

“I already talked to him,” Gideon said. “The last thing we need is a civil war over a lass.”

“I would win,” Cain said. He always won.

“Speak the devil’s name and ye summon him,” Gideon said under his breath as Joshua strode briskly into the great hall, saw them, and came directly over.

He smiled and nodded to Gideon before meeting Cain’s angry gaze. “Have ye seen the Sutherland lass yet today?” Joshua asked. “She is looking quite lovely in that blue gown Merida found for her. Although I still prefer those tight trousers.”

Cain stood, his chair scraping back across the stone floor. Gideon leaped up, ready to break up what was about to escalate. “Ye were told not to go up to her chamber,” Cain said. He did not need Joshua interfering in his strategy to gain Ella’s trust.

“I have not gone up to her chamber. In fact, I just returned from giving your wedding banns to Pastor John.” Joshua made a show of stepping around Cain to flop down into the chair he’d vacated.

Cain spun on his heel. “And yet ye saw Ella this morn? She has not yet come down.”

“Ho, she is right now, stuck in the process of coming down,” Joshua said, making Cain and Gideon look to the steps. “Not that way.” Joshua pointed toward the entryway. “She is climbing down from her window.”

“What?” Cain didn’t wait for further explanation but ran toward the entryway. He heard Gideon curse as he followed.

“I thought to assist, but ye told me to keep away from her,” Joshua yelled from his seat.

Cain grabbed the rough stone of the broad doorway as he rounded the corner, surging out into the morning air and turning immediately to the right where the tower rose four stories straight up. There were a half dozen soldiers underneath staring up, their arms out as if preparing to work together to catch the lass. “Let me through,” Cain commanded.

“Joshua said he would tell ye,” Keenan said, the men parting.

He looked up the smooth curve of the tower. Ella was halfway down, with what looked like strips from a blanket braided together and wrapped in a crossed hold around her back while her booted feet stepped down the curved granite. The blue gown was tucked around each leg, but part of it still hung down. Meow. The kitten was somewhere on her person and quite vexed.

“What the bloody hell are ye doing?” he yelled.

She stopped, one hand at her back where she held the rope as easily as if she sat on a swing. She frowned down at him. “Coming to breakfast.”

He stood below her with the rest of the onlookers, heart pounding in his chest. One slip and she could drop to the hard dirt of the bailey below. “We have stairs inside.”

She took another step down the wall, and his arms rose as if to catch her. “Stairs that are guarded.”

“Merida was about to bring something up.”

“I was hungry.” She yelled the words succinctly as if rebuking the wall. With a big inhale, she continued to step down while leaning back, letting out the long rope she’d braided as she went. She’d been busy last night.

Each step down seemed to take forever as he waited, his own arms out and ready. But she continued without fault, stubbornly lowering herself until the tips of Cain’s fingers could reach her.

Meow, the kitten called, but he still didn’t see it. “I will catch ye,” he said, his thick arms out and ready.

“I am fine on my own.”

He caught her around the waist anyway, pulling her into his arms, her back against his chest. “God’s teeth, Ella,” he cursed, guiding her feet to the earth and turning her toward him. “What the hell were ye doing?”

Ella’s face was flushed with exertion, and mutiny shone in her eyes as she shoved away from him. “Dawn came up faster than I anticipated,” she said, her words almost like a snarl, and she yanked her braided hair around to her shoulder. The front of her bodice moved, and the kitten’s head popped out the top.

Cain looked up at the open window above and then to her. “Ye wished to escape while it was still dark.”

Her hands perched onto the curves of her hips. “I wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of climbing out if I knew everyone was going to see me. I might be a slow climber, and apparently unable to judge the sky, but I am not an idiot,” she murmured, her cheeks flushed from exertion or embarrassment. She glanced away. “Well, maybe I am,” she added under her breath.

The kitten, its small head popped out of the valley between Ella’s breasts, reached a paw out to bat at a stray curl that lay along the curve of her cheek. “I must have fallen asleep for much longer than I thought,” she said, not looking at him. “I swore it was closer to three in the morning when I first climbed out. The blasted clouds were blocking the start of the sunrise in the east.”

The woman was brave, clever, and strong. She was also used to berating herself. Cain glanced at the men who were still gathered, their expressions somewhere between amused and shocked.

Keenan looked…damn interested. “She is certainly not frightened of high climbs.”

“Go on,” Cain ordered, and they turned away reluctantly, walking toward the morning training session that Bàs would begin once he returned from the Sutherland chapel.

Cain ignored Gideon and Joshua, who stood at the keep doors, anger at her risk still strumming through his veins. “Ella,” he said and waited until she lifted her gaze to meet his. He wanted to curse at her for risking her life, to demand she promise to not try to escape by insane means, and to threaten that he’d tie her to her bed tonight. The look in her eyes said she expected all of that.

He glanced at the windows way up the tower and then back at her. “Ye are a clever and brave prisoner.” He scratched his bristled chin and slid his gaze along the height again. “Most of my men would not have even attempted that climb, let alone with Puss stuffed down their tunic.”

“Boudica,” she said.

“Boudica?” As dawn flooded the courtyard with misty light, he could see the darker flecks in Ella’s gray eyes.

“The puss,” she said. “I call her Boo, short for Boudica, the great Celtic warrior woman.” She gently pulled the small kitten from her bodice, its round eyes wide as if it knew how lucky it was to still be alive. Ella set her down, and the kitten immediately started stalking a grasshopper, apparently forgetting its fear.

Damn, if the cat had made her lose her focus, Ella could have fallen. He made himself take another deep breath before speaking again. “I will be nailing the tower windows shut today.”

She shrugged. “I am very good at finding ways to escape.”

Cain’s face tightened as his eyes moved to her circular scar. “Is that why ye were branded on your face with the Sutherland crest? So if ye escaped, someone would return ye?”

Ella turned on her boot, traipsing back to the great hall. She looked like she would crash right through Gideon and Joshua, but they parted quickly to let her enter. Cain stopped with them, watching her walk through into the great hall where Merida greeted her.

“Have a guard posted below the tower,” Cain said.

Gideon crossed his arms. “I thought ye were nailing the windows shut.”

“Aye, but she probably has a way to work nails out.”

“Blast, brother,” Joshua said. “Ye aren’t nearly as furious as I thought ye would be.”

He was right. Cain let a grin bend the side of his mouth upward as he looked again at the height. Ella had known nearly as soon as she climbed out that she had miscalculated the timing of dawn. She hadn’t the strength to climb back into the room, but she could probably have lifted the kitten over the windowsill. Doing so would have left her dangling four stories up, all alone, knowing that she would be recaptured. If she had let go, she would have died from the fall.

“I just learned something very important about Ella Sutherland.”

“That she cannot tell the time,” Gideon said, making Joshua chuckle.

Cain rubbed the knot in his chest that was starting to relax with Ella safely on the ground again. “Aye, but also…Ella Sutherland wants to live.”