“The puss,” she said. “I call her Boo, short for Boudica, the great Celtic warrior woman.” She gently pulled the small kitten from her bodice, its round eyes wide as if it knew how lucky it was to still be alive. Ella set her down, and the kitten immediately started stalking a grasshopper, apparently forgetting its fear.

Damn, if the cat had made her lose her focus, Ella could have fallen. He made himself take another deep breath before speaking again. “I will be nailing the tower windows shut today.”

She shrugged. “I am very good at finding ways to escape.”

Cain’s face tightened as his eyes moved to her circular scar. “Is that why ye were branded on your face with the Sutherland crest? So if ye escaped, someone would return ye?”

Ella turned on her boot, traipsing back to the great hall. She looked like she would crash right through Gideon and Joshua, but they parted quickly to let her enter. Cain stopped with them, watching her walk through into the great hall where Merida greeted her.

“Have a guard posted below the tower,” Cain said.

Gideon crossed his arms. “I thought ye were nailing the windows shut.”

“Aye, but she probably has a way to work nails out.”

“Blast, brother,” Joshua said. “Ye aren’t nearly as furious as I thought ye would be.”

He was right. Cain let a grin bend the side of his mouth upward as he looked again at the height. Ella had known nearly as soon as she climbed out that she had miscalculated the timing of dawn. She hadn’t the strength to climb back into the room, but she could probably have lifted the kitten over the windowsill. Doing so would have left her dangling four stories up, all alone, knowing that she would be recaptured. If she had let go, she would have died from the fall.

“I just learned something very important about Ella Sutherland.”

“That she cannot tell the time,” Gideon said, making Joshua chuckle.

Cain rubbed the knot in his chest that was starting to relax with Ella safely on the ground again. “Aye, but also…Ella Sutherland wants to live.”

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Cain followed her upstairs to her prison room after gathering some boards. Ella watched the obvious strength in his back as he hammered the nails in, his wavy wheat-colored hair skimming the edge of his tunic. The muscles in his bared calves contracted as he worked to cover every part of the third window. Bam! Bam! Bam!

Finished, he turned. His pale blue eyes, legendary to those few who had seen them and lived, stared at her, his jaw firm. She held her breath as he walked past her, leaving the room without a word, the door remaining unlocked.

She dropped her face into her hands. I am so stupid. Even Jamie would call me a fool.