Instead of Cain reeling back at the insult, his lips softened the slightest amount, as if he would laugh if things weren’t so dire. “Ye have skill with strategy yourself, Arabella Sutherland, but I am not falling prey to it.” He turned on his heel, his back broad and muscular as he walked away, holding his heavy sword in one hand. “I have no need of Varrich’s details. I will tear it apart stone by stone to reclaim Hannah.” He turned to look back at her from the doorway. “And ye will stay safely within the walls of Girnigoe.” He snapped his fingers at Thomas, who ran toward the gate, planting his bulk in the middle of the open archway.

As Cain and Joshua left the bailey, Merida flew from the keep’s doorway. She panted, shaking her head at not finding Hannah within. Ella turned back to the gate guarded by a nervous-looking Thomas, her temper boiling like the black pitch her father had once poured down upon those trying to breach Dunrobin. “Hew Mackay has her,” she said.

“I saw the four herds of the horsemen gathering on the hill from the tower walk,” Merida said, catching her breath. She exhaled a rush of air. “They all go to war at Varrich.”

“Good,” Ella said, yanking her gloves up her arms and narrowing her eyes at Thomas. “Then there will be no one to stop me from following.”

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Cain leaned low over Seraph’s neck as they raced the last league toward the Mackay fortress. In the past, Hew Mackay’s father had formed an uneasy alliance with the Sutherlands, trying to combine their strength to attack the Sinclairs. Since the old man’s death, a year ago, Hew had continued to court that alliance.

Was he changing tactics? There was no reason for the idiot to believe that wedding Hannah would bring about peace with the Sinclairs. ’Twas true that Cain and his brothers valued and cared for her much more than their father had, but he was a fool to think that Cain could be forced into an alliance by threatening her.

“A cheannsachadh agus a mharbhadh!” he yelled, raising his sword high in the air. To conquer and kill! His men repeated the war cry at the top of their voices. The thunder of hundreds of horses followed him and Joshua. The rest of Bàs’s and Gideon’s herds rode, too, divided behind them both. The vibration of power surged up through Seraph, making the horse toss his head in wild anticipation. If it were possible, surely his steed would snort fire.

Cain wore the damn crown that his father had forced upon him, because the look of the horsemen added power to their surge, bringing the biblical warriors of God’s wrath to life. He would use every advantage in regaining his sister.