She pulled away and waited for his nod. “I love ye, Ella,” he whispered.

“I have always loved you, my sweet brother.” Ella clasped Jamie’s hand, turning quickly as another Mackay guard barreled into the great hall.

“The Sinclair armies are riding across the moor.”

“How many?”

“Horses of gray,” he said and shook his head. “Or pale green, I cannot tell. And a second army of black.”

“Green and black,” Randolph said. “That would be the youngest brother and third eldest. They have split forces, with Cain riding to Dunrobin.”

Ella’s heart pounded with rapid fire. Had Cain sent Bàs and Gideon for her even after she ran out of the wedding? Her breath came quickly with the thinnest renewal of hope. “He sent them for me.”

Randolph’s gaze snapped to her, his face pinched. “He wants ye only to gain Sutherland territory and Dunrobin. It is what he wanted in the first place, to avenge his father, to conquer as he was raised to do. Half his men ride here while he rides to Dunrobin. He thinks to win ye and Jamie as well as your lands today. Cocky bastard.”

Ella’s chest tightened. The pressure of tears built in her eyes, but she would never let them fall. Cain had not come himself even if he sent his armies to Varrich. There had been no words of love between them, but she had grown to know him. Cain was not the brutal conqueror his father had raised him to be. What would make him abandon her to ride on Dunrobin today?

“We will go to the wall walk,” Randolph said, grabbing Ella’s hand. The goblet dropped from her fingers, the red wine splashing across the beautiful silk of the bodice and skirt that had belonged to Cain’s mother, ruining it. He yanked her behind him as they went through an archway to the castle steps, his fingers digging into her flesh as if punishing her. Jamie clung to her other hand. The lecherous Iain followed behind.

“I want the Sinclairs to see ye have chosen me,” Randolph said. “Let them tell Cain that ye spoke the vows without me holding a knife against ye.”

“But you are,” she said.

“They do not know that.” He laughed, the edge of insanity in the inflection.

Even if she was to profess her love of Randolph Mackay, Cain would never believe it. But she would not persuade the madman with that.

Randolph paused, glancing down the darkened stairwell past them. “Bring the pastor,” he yelled and then continued.

“Are you not worried about your sister?” Ella asked as her own plan began to take shape in her mind. She trudged up the curving stone steps. She could not yank away from him here, or he would pull her and Jamie down with him.