“I will fetch your kitten if ye stay with Ginny and her foal. There is a stack of clean tunics in the room next to the birthing paddock.” He stepped before her so that he could loom down, staring into her eyes. He was bare and so very close, making her stomach flutter. Good Mother Mary. She swallowed and gave a stilted nod.

“If ye try to escape tonight, Ella, I will hunt ye down. Wolves roam the woods at night, wolves who crave horseflesh, and I will mount a siege on Dunrobin before dawn, whether ye are there or not.”

Threats? Of course. Despite the night, she was still his prisoner, her clan at stake. And damn it all that her thoughts had been about his muscular frame and not about fleeing. The joy of bringing the horse into the world had clouded her focus.

She frowned up at him. “You like to loom over people, don’t you? Try to scare them with your grisly frown.”

“Ella?”

She huffed. “Very bloody well. I will not leave them if you bring Boo back here.”

He nodded and walked away down the long corridor of stalls to the gates at the front. Lord help her. She couldn’t look away. Power seemed to radiate off him while he strode with purpose, as if he had so much strength inside that it seeped from his skin. His kilt sat low across his narrow hips, and the muscles in his back moved with an easy grace, the edge of his hair falling just above his shoulders.

He stopped to look over his shoulder toward Ella. “What is her name?”

“Who?”

“The foal,” Cain said. She could barely see his expression in the darkness by the barn door. “Aye, Ella Sutherland. Ye gifted the wee filly with life. She is yours to keep.”

…

“There ye are, ye wee beastie,” Cain murmured, shrugging into a clean shirt that he’d retrieved.

He scooped up the black and white kitten who was seated on top of a pile of split logs along the bailey wall, tucking her against his side where she couldn’t scratch him as easily.

Kitten under one arm and two wool blankets under the other, Cain strode back out under the portcullis, nodding to the gatekeeper, and continued over the drawbridge. On the far side he saw the familiar bulk of Joshua in the shadows. He didn’t bother to stop, and Joshua fell swiftly into stride.

“Ye left her out there alone,” Joshua said. “In a barn full of horses.” Cain didn’t say anything but readjusted the squirming cat. “Let me guess. She promised to stay.”

“I have her kitten and her horse.”

“Horses are not family to Sutherlands like they are to us.”