She stared into his kind gray eyes.

“Ella,” Kenneth started and stopped. “Your mother did not make ye promise to keep Jamie a secret to protect the lad. Keeping him a secret was to protect ye.”

“I…” She shook her head. “I do not understand.”

“Mary Sutherland…” he started, and she saw the shine of unshed tears behind his spectacles. He looked upward toward the heavens. “I loved her,” he said, his voice dropping into a whisper. “Such kindness and beauty.” His gaze lowered back to Ella. “And she loved me. I tried to protect her from Alec as much as I could without making him suspicious, but that became harder once she…became with child. My child.”

Ella’s heart began to beat faster. Kenneth’s eyes softened, his lips tightening for a moment. “We celebrated in secret when our beautiful daughter came into this world, even as Alec raged that ye were not a son. And as ye grew, looking not like either he or Mary, his suspicions grew.”

Ella’s lips parted as she stood rooted to the dirt. Men and horses and the rest of the world sat at her back, but it all faded to nothingness as she stared at the man who had helped raise her, the man who had wiped her tears, picked her up off the ground, taught her to shoot a bow and throw a dagger.

Ye cannot escape me. Ye are mine. Alec Sutherland’s furious words pressed through her mind. “He—” She drew in a thin breath. “He branded me to mark me as his because he was not sure.”

Color drained from Kenneth’s face, his strength seeming to fall away. He leaned back against the wall as if it was what held his large frame up. Ella grabbed his hands. “But you helped me heal from it, you and Florie.”

Kenneth’s words came faster then, as if once started he couldn’t stop until all was spoken. “Alec started searching for your true father, Ella. He pressured Mary continuously, stopping only each time she was with child so as not to cause her to lose it. When Jamie was born alive, Mary knew she was dying. She also knew if Alec had his legitimate son, he would have absolutely no need for a daughter who may or may not be his.”

“He would have…killed me?” She dropped his hands as memories came back to her. How Alec Sutherland hid her away much of the time. How he wanted to use her only to marry away as if she were a commodity to be sold. How he would stare at her as if doing so would give him some answers to questions she knew nothing about.