Chapter Twenty-Five

Cain didn’t dare look at Ella or he might weaken in his resolve. The same with his brothers to the right of him. Gideon held the rolled parchments for him to take, but he ignored the wide sheaves with his brother’s neat script outlining the surrender of Ella to him and the Sutherland lands to Clan Sinclair.

Ella moved her horse up to the line next to Jamie, the lad being quite brave there among the deadliest warriors in Scotland.

“We are here, Sinclair,” Ethan called across. “We know ye have the strength to conquer or kill. Be done with the conquering then.” His tone showed begrudging surrender. It would be an easy conquest, one without much bloodshed, if any.

Cain drew his sword and moved into the center. He raised it high in the air and inhaled to fill his words with force. “From this day on, the Sinclair and Sutherland clans will be united as allies.” He turned his gaze to Ella. She sat regally in her blue gown on her horse, lovely curls blowing in the breeze, her face tense and brows furrowed.

“Clan Sinclair under my leadership,” Cain continued. “And Clan Sutherland under the leadership of…Jamie Sutherland, thirteenth Earl of Sutherland. Until he comes of age, Kenneth Macleod will act as regent.”

He heard one of his brothers curse behind him, likely Joshua. But Cain watched only Ella’s face. Her beautiful gray eyes blinked as her lush lips parted. Hands clenching together before her, she shut her eyes, bowing her head.

“What are ye about?” Ethan asked, making Cain drag his gaze from her.

He looked across at the frowning man. “The full force of the Sinclairs supports Jamie Sutherland as chief with Kenneth Macleod acting as regent, and any act to dissuade or hinder this will be met with deadly force from Girnigoe.”

Cain looked to Jamie. “Advance,” he said. Kenneth nodded to the lad, and he tapped his mount to stand before Cain’s horse.

“Bring the chief’s sword,” Cain said to Ethan. The man pushed his mount closer, drawing out the Sutherland sword that Cain had asked him to bring. Cain held out his open hand, and after a pause, Ethan passed the hilt to him.

He looked to Jamie. The lad kept a straight spine and a serious squint to his eyes. Cain nodded to him. “This sword rightfully belongs to ye. Kenneth Macleod, Ethan Sutherland, and I will teach ye to wield it well. May ye take the advice of wise men and women and rule with keen strategy and an unselfish heart.”

The lad pressed his horse forward, and Cain laid the blade of the sword across his other palm to hand it over to him. Jamie’s arms were thin, but he would grow muscle. Cain would make certain of it.

Kenneth nodded to Cain and moved closer to Jamie, who wasn’t quite certain where to put the massive weapon. Kenneth pulled a short length of plaid off the back of his saddle and passed it to the lad. “Wrap the blade in this for now and balance it in your saddle,” he said quietly. “We will get ye the scabbard for it from Dunrobin.” Aye, the man would be a wise advisor for the new chief.

Jamie turned to meet Cain’s gaze. There was maturity in his eyes. “I do not know why ye have done this,” Jamie said, “but I am grateful there will be no bloodshed for my people and yours.”

Spoken like a chief already. Cain felt his frown relax. Jamie turned his face toward the Sutherland Clan. “Clan Sutherland will call Clan Sinclair our ally from this day forward,” the boy said, each word rising in volume.

Bow to no man. His father’s words echoed in Cain’s mind, but the rules of the game had changed. To win, he must give. Cain brought his fist to his chest and bowed his head briefly. Jamie did the same, as did Kenneth.

Kenneth glanced over his shoulder at Ella and then looked to Cain. “And what of Arabella Sutherland?”

Cain swallowed hard. Even with his brothers’ stares boring into him, it was Ella he worried over. He turned to her. The breeze blew her curls about her shoulders, the muted sun shining down on them. She had risen again to sit straight, her expressive eyes narrowing.

“And for me?” she asked, guiding her horse forward.

Ye are mine. The words fought to come out of his chest as if they were buried blades anxious to slice through his sinew and skin.

Conquest takes. Love gives. Merida’s wise words overrode his selfish dictate, a dictate that had always ruled Ella’s life. But he would not be Ella’s cruel father, demanding ownership over her. He was a conqueror, but he would never have Ella’s love by taking it.

Cain moved Seraph alongside Gilla so that Ella and he sat only feet apart as she waited for his demands. “I was wrong,” he said, meeting her gaze. “There are not just two choices, Ella, one of which I took away for good.” He released a deep exhale. “Apart from death, all the other choices in the world are yours.”

He pulled the queen from his sash, along with the other piece he had retrieved after leaving the chapel. “Ye have never had your own choices. Your bastard of a father—”

“Actually, Kenneth is my father,” she said, interrupting. “I did not know until an hour ago,” she said swiftly. “I would have told you—”

“That is…good,” Cain said. He glanced at Kenneth and then back to her.

“Go on,” she whispered.

His mind stumbled over the words he had planned. He always had a strategy when playing a game, but this was not a game. In a game, the winner took the prize. The only way he could win with Ella was to give away the one thing he wanted above all else.

He cleared his throat. “Ye have never had choices, Ella, and now…ye do. Ye always should have had them.”

He held the two carved chess pieces in his hand, the queen she had made and the white knight that she had hollowed out earlier in her fury. “And ye were right. I was hollow without knowing I was.” He set the knight in her palm and tucked her queen back in his sash. “And I do not want to be only about conquest and war and taking. Love requires giving. I have never had the need before.”

Ella’s eyes had gone wide with the word, her hand closing around the white knight.

“Is…is this a game?”

“Nay, lass. No game.” Cain inhaled deeply. He must finish his words and leave before his discipline deserted him and he grabbed her up to carry her back to Girnigoe.

“I want ye, Ella, more than land and horses and castles. If this is a game, I forfeit it all.” He stared hard into her eyes, gray with little flecks of blue, and his throat constricted. He kept his hands fisted so he would not reach for her. “I want ye in my life for now and always. I could carry ye away right now.” He watched her lips part, their softness drawing him in. But he held back and shook his head. “But my whole life has been about taking. I will not take ye. The choice, Ella, is yours to make.”

His chest felt tight enough to burst, and he inhaled to prevent himself from flying apart as he stared into the depths of her eyes. “Do ye understand?”

“Cain,” Gideon yelled, his voice full of barely contained fury. No doubt both of them would end up needing stitches by the end of the night. Right now, Cain welcomed the promise of physical pain as his heart struggled to beat in his clenched chest.

With one last look into Ella’s wide eyes, he turned Seraph and touched his heels to the horse’s sides. The horse moved forward in his usual gait, and Cain closed his eyes, every muscle in his body tense.

Thunder rumbled over the sea in the distance as if his father bellowed down from the heavens. His brothers came up to ride alongside him in their birth order as they had always done. Horses all around him pivoted in tight circles to leave the moor, parting the clans as allies instead of conquered and conquerors. His warriors closed in behind him while he rode through their lines, bridles jingling, ready to follow him back to Girnigoe.

He was encircled, and yet he had never felt so alone.

…

Ella watched Cain’s broad back until his warriors surrounded him.

The choice, Ella, is yours to make. Do ye understand?

A small sob escaped her as she repeated his words in her head and in her heart. Yes, she understood. Cain Sinclair was showing her he loved her.

Heart thudding, she looked down at her fisted hand. One by one, she uncurled her fingers to look at the beautiful white knight. It was the one she had carved out when she’d accused Cain of being hollow inside, caring only about conquest and the material spoils of war.

Turning the knight over to see the space beneath, she saw that something filled it. Pinching her fingers, she plucked out a flower, a crumpled thistle. A purple Scottish thistle.

Her other hand fisted against her mouth. Prickly in nature, but with the heart and beauty of a Scottish lass. In that moment she knew what her choice was. She snapped her gaze back up to the mass of Sinclairs riding away. “Cain!” Her voice was loud, but he could not possibly hear her over the sound of hundreds of horses. “Cain!” she yelled again.

“Ella, what?” Jamie asked, his gaze going back and forth between her and the Sinclairs riding away.

“I need to get to Cain.”

“But he is letting ye go home,” Jamie said.

Kenneth sat beside him on his own horse. “Aye, Ella,” he said, drawing her gaze. Her father smiled warmly at her. “He is letting ye go home, lass. Ye need to figure out where home is.”

“That is at Dunrobin,” Jamie said, frowning. “The Sinclairs captured her, and then their chief said she could go.”

“Come along, Chief Sutherland,” Kenneth said. “Your sister has to think without anyone jabbering in her ear.”

Ella looked across the field laid out before her, hundreds of mounted Sinclairs moving across in their color divisions: white, bay, black, and the smaller group of pale green horses. She leaned left and right but could not see Cain’s back anymore. He must be up in front with his brothers. Pushing up higher in the saddle, she still couldn’t see him. “Cain,” she whispered, her heart full.

Her fingers wrapped around the knight in her hand as she leaned over Gilla’s neck. “Falbh! Go!” Gilla leaped forward, barely needing Ella to guide her, which was good, because the field was flooded with trotting warhorses. She strained to see Cain up ahead, but the front of the four armies had begun to enter the forest, making the mass halt as the front horses slowed to weave around the trees and summer-thick bramblebushes. Gilla was forced to slow and finally stop.

Ella’s feet went under her, boots slipping into the toeholds, and she pushed up into a stand. Men were all around her as she tried to see the front of the mass. “Cain Sinclair!” She tucked the knight into the top of her bodice and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Cain Sinclair!”

Faces turned in her direction, but her words did not penetrate the crowd or the trees. She could see Hannah and Merida riding off to the side. “Cain,” Hannah yelled, but her voice hardly moved through the heavy air that smelled of rain and sea. Keenan, who rode partway to the trees, cupped his hands, standing in his stirrups. “Cain Sinclair,” he repeated, facing forward.

Hamish, the elderly man whom she had helped guide the horses at Midsummer, pushed up in his stirrups. He cupped a hand and faced the forest. “Cain Sinclair!”

Thomas waved to Ella from the other side, a grin on his round face. He looked toward the forest. “Cain Sinclair!” Next to him, several of the guards who had stood below her when she’d foolishly climbed out her window did the same.

The wind blew and thunder rumbled. Would their words be blown away? Cain had gone against everything he had been taught. Conquest was his world, and yet he had given. Love requires giving. Ella’s heart thudded, and her knees felt weak as they held her there above her saddle. Gilla knew the feel of her standing and kept still, and Ella cupped her hands again. “Cain Sinclair!”

As one massive unit, the warriors before her cupped their hands around their mouths and yelled. “Cain Sinclair!” His name crashed through the air like the thunder overhead, making her breath catch in her throat. She blinked back tears of gratitude and watched the tree line. Horses began to spread out, filling all the space between them as the warriors opened a path.

“Cain,” she whispered as he emerged from the darkness of the forest, the sun having been covered by fast-moving clouds. Sitting straight and proud on his white stallion, even without the crown, he looked like a mighty messenger from God. Strength evident in the set of his shoulders and the lines of his face, he moved closer, his three brothers following.

“Come along,” she heard Merida yell as she beckoned to Hannah to maneuver closer to Ella. “Move aside,” she ordered the men.

Ella continued to stand on Gilla’s back, frozen by her hope, her breaths shallow as he approached. Cain stopped Seraph and swung down off his back to stride through the crowd of mounted warriors. She was reminded of the first time she’d seen the ferocity in his face. She’d been standing on Gilla’s back to order her men to fire upon the Sinclair armies in the west, and then he’d charged across the field and up the bank after her. She’d been desperate then to escape. Now…she was desperate for him to reach her.

Cain stopped beside her horse, his face tipping back to look up at her. “Ella?”

She wet her dry lips and swallowed, standing high above all four armies, who sat silent. “You said I have a choice.”

“Ye have all the choices,” he answered.

She stared down at him, their gazes connected, and the rest of the world around them meant nothing. The thunder overhead, threatening rain, hundreds of warriors seated and watching, the scowls of his brothers as they sat their mounts directly behind Cain. All of it disappeared. Only the piercing blue of Cain’s eyes remained. She inhaled. “I choose you, Cain Sinclair.”

His lips closed, and he took two steps closer. “Ye have all the choices in the world.”

“So I have been told,” she said, a hopeful grin spreading across her face. “And I choose…you.”

In three powerful strides he stood directly below her, his face tense with a mix of disbelief and joy. She lowered into a squat on Gilla’s back. “Will you catch me?” she asked, putting her arms out toward him.

He stepped up to her, a smile finally sweeping across his face, his strong arms reaching. “Always and forever.”

Her feet touched the trampled grass of the moor, and Cain’s hands cupped her face as he gazed down into her eyes. “I love ye, Ella. I give ye all of me.”

Ella blinked as tears of joy broke from her eyes. “I love you, too, Cain.” She caught the back of his neck as he bent over her, his lips covering hers to seal their declarations. A warmth spread through Ella as he held her, kissing her with gentle thoroughness.

Caught in the joy that bubbled up inside her, Ella did not hear the roar around them at first. But as Cain raised his face to look again into her eyes, the full force of Clan Sinclair cheered around them.

Ella’s heart overflowed with such happiness.

Cain wrapped her up again, enveloping her in his strength and love, right where she belonged.