A flush heated Ella’s cheeks. “And your father was a foking lunatic who thought his sons were the four horsemen of the apocalypse.” She kept her blanket gripped with her arms but managed to raise her forearms. She opened her eyes wide and wiggled her fingers upward. “Sent to earth on a heavenly cloud from God.”

She mocked him and his brothers. Irritation tightened his jaw. “But…he never raised a hand against a Sinclair, neither person nor horse.” Cain crossed his arms over his chest. “Once ye get to know us, ye will see that Sinclairs are actually quite likeable people. Some are a bit eccentric but still likeable.”

She huffed, spinning away to pick up the kitten. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes growing wide. “Are you giving me a kitten to make me like you?”

He was not sure what to say. His experience with wooing a lass’s good opinion of him was completely lacking. As long as he had the respect of his people, he had never cared if they liked him or not. “I would answer truthfully, but I fear ye would make me take the beast away, and it was hard enough to get her up here. She will likely scratch my eyes out if I attempt to carry her down.”

“Bloody hell,” Ella murmured. She traipsed past him to the open door. “Goodbye, Cain.”

He walked slowly across, and as he drew closer, he inhaled the fresh, warm scent of her. What would it be like to have her soft and willing, moaning his name as he shattered her world with pleasure? He stopped before her, staring down into her frowning face over the threshold of the small tower room. “We will wed, Ella, and I will take your clan. It is the way of war for someone to lose. I can make your surrender as peaceful as possible, but that all depends on ye.”

Her eyes narrowed into near slits. “Death before surrender,” she said and pushed the door shut in his face.

…

“Bàs and Joshua are posting the wedding banns, which I wrote out last night,” Gideon said, as he sat across from Cain by the cold hearth in the great hall. “The celebration for Da will begin at noon. Hannah and Merida have gone to oversee the cooking and baking to be done this morn. Joshua brought down a stag for the feast before dawn, and I sacrificed a few chickens to be plucked and roasted into pies. Viola Finley and several lasses from town are helping in the kitchens.”