With her gaze centered on her young brother, she did not see the shock turn to vengeance on Randolph’s face. Blood reddened the man’s lips with a cough, and one hand reached out to grab Ella by the tangle of hair that had fallen to the side, yanking her against the low wall.

“Let go!” She struggled to use her feet to brace herself, but her slippers slid impotently against the stone.

“Together into death then, my bride,” Randolph said, glancing over the wall.

Cain rushed forward, but the pastor reached them first, his arms going around Ella’s middle to hold her from tipping over as she clawed Randolph’s arm away. Cain’s hand caught hold of Ella’s arm as his other palm slammed into the end of the short sword embedded in Randolph’s chest with such power that it threw him out over the wall. A sputtering scream descended as the evil bastard dropped, thudding below on the hard-packed dirt of the bailey.

“Ella!” the boy yelled, running toward her. Ella caught her brother in her arms, clutching him tight even with Cain’s hand still wrapped around her wrist.

Her gaze went over the boy’s head to Cain. “You came,” she said.

He gave a brief nod, his heart pounding with…fear. For the first time in his life, the feeling had nearly crippled him. He swallowed it down. “Aye, I came.”

Tears leaked from her eyes, her words a whisper. “I…I could not kill you. I was going to throw the poison away.”

Kenneth had yelled continuously that she hadn’t accepted his suggestion, but watching the pain on Ella’s face, her crumbled strength as she waited for his verdict, brought the truth into focus. Cain nodded. “We will talk.”

…

Ella turned in the warmth of the softness enveloping her, not willing to let go of the pleasant dream of riding across the moor on Gilla’s back.

She could hear a cat purring not too far off. She stretched, feeling aches across her back and in her neck. Her fingers rose to the line that extended across the skin of her throat, and her eyes opened. Where am I? Who…?

Pushing up from the covers, she jerked around, her breath flying out of her in a gust of relief. Jamie lay sleeping next to her in Cain’s massive bed. They were at Girnigoe. Little Boo raised her head from the pillow set between them, but then lowered it, her eyes staying open, watching her.