“Aye.” Randolph’s thin lips twitched up into a smile. “And I will serve as regent until he comes of age. If he comes of age.” He shook his head. “But children die so easily.”

“No!” she yelled, struggling. Two of Randolph’s men dismounted and grabbed her, their hands grazing her breasts and waist without care. One wrapped both of his thick arms around her, pinning her own to her sides.

“Perhaps we can work something out,” Randolph said, bending to look into her face, her hair tumbling free to hang before her eyes. “If you behave and your brother asks King James to let me unite his clan and mine, then Jamie might live a long life unburdened by the weight of leadership.” He straightened and flapped his fingers toward the horses. The man lifted Ella forward. With a flick of her wrist, she dropped the bouquet of flowers that she had been clutching.

The man carrying her hoisted her and the many layers of her costume into the arms of a large Mackay warrior who smelled of sweat and smoke. Randolph mounted his own horse, bringing it near her. “We will discuss it tomorrow, for today we have our wedding to celebrate.”

…

Cain crashed through the open door at the bottom of the hidden steps, the smoothly polished wooden queen that he’d unwrapped, toppled on the chessboard above, still clutched in one hand, the bottle of poison in the other.

Had she planned to use it on him? The note saying that it was for him had been crumpled, and she’d obviously spent hours making the queen, a perfect match for his knight. It was enough hope for him to hold onto while everything else fell apart.

“Ella!” But the only answer was the sound of the waves hitting the rocks edging the land. “Bloody foking hell!” He ran first to the water’s edge, his heart thumping with the fear that she could have drowned, but she wasn’t there. “Ella!” he roared, hurling the vial of poison into the waves. His fingers raked his scalp as he drew in deep breaths. Even if she refused to wed him, she would not kill herself or she would have drunk the poison when it was delivered.

Damn it all! She had sworn to die before wedding him, but that was before. Before they had spent two weeks loving each other. The time spent together could not have been all lies. Could it have?

He turned back, his gaze dropping to the damp ground where at least five horses had stood not too long ago. Joshua ran up behind him. “Someone met her here. Sutherlands?”

“Nay,” Kenneth said as he stumbled out of the door at the bottom of the steps, his hands already bound. Bàs’s grip pinched his shoulder. “I would know, and she had no plans other than wedding ye.”

Cain turned to him. “No plans to kill me, then?”