He’d gained some ground, shortening the distance enough to see the black shadow of her horse. Ella’s hair streamed out behind her, a dark mass of silk in the night. “The cliff!” he yelled again. As if his voice finally penetrated the wind, she leaned left, and her horse veered along the edge.

He sucked in a large gulp of sea air and turned Hannah’s horse to follow Ella where she galloped farther out onto the moor that sloped above the village outside Girnigoe. The direct route cut off some of the ground between them. “Ella.”

“Who the bloody hell came up with letting all the horses go at once?” she yelled back.

“My father liked chaos. Slow down.”

She raced toward the southwest where Dunrobin sat at least two leagues away. He would stop her before then. Did she really think that he would let her ride away without bringing war on her people?

As she neared the middle of the moor, her horse slowed, turning in a wide circle. Coming to a halt, Ella stared straight ahead over the horse’s ears as they both sucked in large pulls of the cool night air. He could see puffs of it in the dim moonlight as he stopped beside her.

That far out from the fires, the sounds of his people were but a whisper. Ella’s horse snorted, lifting its head to sniff the salt coming from the sea on the breeze. Ella tipped her head back to look at the vast sky curving above them. “I have nowhere to go,” she said, her soft words breaking the silence. “I have too much of a need to live to plunge over the cliff, and I would never harm Gilla.”

She brought her chin level and tucked her hair behind her ears, still not looking at him. “I cannot run back to Dunrobin only to bring war to my people. And I will not go to the Mackays for help, because they want Dunrobin as much as you do.” She stared out away from him. “I have nowhere to go.”

“Ye will have a home at Girnigoe,” he said.

A dark bite of laughter broke from her, making her horse’s ears flick. “It is impossible to feel at home where one is forced to stay.” She sniffed, brushing the hair from her face where the wind sent it flying forward. Silence fell between them as he watched her. He wasn’t sure why he waited there, but rushing Ella back to the chaos of the fire wouldn’t give him any more insight about what she thought and felt. And somehow those things were important to him.