“Hew did not think things through.” The man was rash and inexperienced. She’d seen it in the way he commanded his warriors to raid and burn fields, not thinking of the consequences or moral taint of random destruction.

Hannah smiled. “But he was gallant to try to save ye.”

Ella narrowed her eyes as they stopped before an open room with a fire inside, the smell of baking bread wafting from it, making focus on anything else difficult. But she met Hannah’s curious gaze. “His plan had more to do with taking Sutherland lands by forcing me to wed him than gallantly trying to save me from Cain.”

“So he does not desire ye?” she asked, her lightly arched eyebrows rising.

Ella frowned. “I have no idea what goes on in Hew Mackay’s mind.”

The girl pressed her hands together before her as if in prayer and raised the point to gently touch her lips. “He is a handsome man, even after being shut away in the dungeon.”

Hew, handsome? Perhaps in a grisly, rough sort of way. Shorter than Cain, wide and given to paunch if he did not train daily, Hew Mackay had never made a single part of Ella ache like she did in Cain’s arms. But to a sheltered woman, who’d grown up in the rough company of George Sinclair and her massive brothers, Hew may seem strong enough to be desirable.

She caught Hannah’s shoulder lightly. “’Tis not the outer appearance of a man that shows him to be worthy of a woman’s notice but the soundness of his mind and honor in his heart. I have never known him to act with honor, Hannah.”

“Ye do not look at Cain’s appearance?” Hannah asked, tipping her chin slightly higher.

God’s teeth. Cain Sinclair was a heady mix of brawn, masculine splendor, and power ruled by intelligence. With his thick waves of fresh-smelling hair, mesmerizing blue eyes, handsome features, and sculpted muscles, she would dare any woman not to look on Cain’s appearance. And he hadn’t raped her or tortured her or tormented her with threats, all of which she had expected when first caught. But did that make his heart honorable?

“Just be careful around Hew Mackay,” Ella said, warning in her voice. “I have seen him act with deceit and greed more than with honor. He may lie if he catches your ear and try to—”

“No man would dare do anything sordid or dishonorable to me, Ella, not with Heaven’s four horsemen as my brothers.” She smiled sweetly and tugged Ella’s arm toward the warm room. “Let us get ye some of Cook’s delicious fare.”

…

Cain stood in the great hall before the colorful tapestry that his father had commissioned that ran half the length of the wall, depicting the four horsemen. He stared at his own figure riding Seraph, his white horse, as if straight from Heaven.