Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
F reya had never had this much difficulty leaving her house before.
She was a very social, friendly woman and she liked interacting with the other villagers. But now, her heart was pounding over the fear that something would happen to Nathan while she was away. If Tristan was still spying on her despite her firm warnings, would he attempt to break into her home and do something terrible? She didn’t even want to think the man who had once been her friend would be capable of something like that, but now she just wasn’t so sure.
Every few moments, Freya’s hand dipped into her pocket to reassure herself her key was still there, for she had locked the door behind her. It had only been a few days since the incident with the council and while she had waited as long as she could, her hut was empty of supplies. She needed proper food to feed the recovering man now that he was sleeping on a more consistent pattern. He needed his energy restored and that was no simple thing.
She said nothing to those she passed. It wasn’t as if she would have had kind words to say to them in the first place. She moved through the village market, glancing over the wares at the stalls and picking up things here and there. She placed an order for meat to be brought to her hut, as she wasn’t going to even try to carry such an amount on her own. More things that she would never allow Tristan to do for her again.
There was more commotion surrounding her than normal as she moved, and for a moment she presumed it was about her and her mystery man. But there were three strangers making their way around the square, pausing to stop to people here and there. When had they arrived? Just how much had she missed in the weeks she had been secluded in her cabin? Her brow furrowed, finally breaking her self-imposed silence to speak to Ann, one of the other villagers about her age. One of the few that never spoke untrue, and she knew it.
“What is happening?” Freya asked.
“Nae sure,” Ann started, bundling herbs and sorting fruit to place in Freya’s basket for her. She worked slowly so that they would have more time to speak. “Those men have been stopping just about everybody this mornin’.”
“What dae they want? I ken the elders arenae keen on outsiders mucking about in our business.” Freya offered, waiting for more information.
“They have been prodding about, seeking information about the shipwreck and if anyone has seen anything suspicious.” Ann shrugged.
The moment she finished speaking, Freya’s heart dropped down into her stomach. “It’s an island. Shipwrecks happen all the time…”
Ann nodded. “Aye, that’s true. But they seem like they are looking fer something in particular. They willnae say what.”
“Or someone, perhaps?”
“Could be.” Ann’s eyes widened, a knowing smirk growing over her lips. “Could it be yer mystery man?”
Freya motioned for her to hush quickly.
“They havenae been here very long.” Ann continued, moving her hands over Freya’s order a touch more slowly. “They brought with them a bit of flag that, washed up ashore.”
Freya nodded, feeling more nauseous with every word. It could only possibly mean one thing – they were looking for Nathan. He would be the only one who survived the storm. If there had been another survivor, they would have found them by now.
“What are they saying?”
“Nae sure. They ask many questions but they dinnae seem tae want tae answer any of ours. Nae matter who asks, they are tight lipped,” Ann sighed.
“Surely they have said what clan the flag must have come from?” Freya pushed. She thought if there was a ‘J’ somewhere in the name, then she would at least know for certain it was Nathan they were speaking of.
“Nay, nothing of the sort.” Ann sighed, tying the knot on Freya’s bundles and pushing Freya’s basket back toward her.
She had to hurry. Those soldiers could only want one thing and it wouldn’t be long before he was discovered. It was a wonder Tristian hadn’t been the first in line to run his mouth about the stranger in the village. They might not have spoken about him yet by some miracle, but she knew they would. Nobody in the village wanted trouble, and they had already decided Nathan was just that.
She bowed softly toward Ann and tried to make as casual of a retreat as she possibly could. She didn’t want to take off running and look even more guilty than she was feeling, but the moment she was close to the edge of the village, she couldn’t stop her pace.
Before long, she unlocked the hut’s door hastily and threw her basket of supplies down. “We have tae hide ye.”
Nathan looked up from where he was leaning up against the wall of the house, for he had recently started trying tae stand on his own two feet again. “What’s the matter?”
Freya shook her head. “Nay time, we have tae hide ye. Ye have tae trust me.”
“I dae.” He answered, and with great labor and difficulty, the pair of them got him to his feet. He towered over her and made the damned floorboards creek as she grunted under the strain of him. But, to his credit, he didn’t make a single sound despite how much she knew he had to be hurting.
She nudged open her small storage under her floorboards. It had been meant to be a root cellar of sorts, once upon a time. But now, it was just empty earth. It would be cramped, and she was going to have a hell of a time cleaning him off afterward, but she had no choice. It was grueling labor to lower him down without dropping him, but he helped as best he could. When he was down, she grabbed his clothes and threw them at him. He could barely clutch them to his broad chest before she slammed the door shut, huffing and puffing as she attempted to make the rest of the hut look like normal. She quickly remade her bed, kicking the bandages and dressing under her bed just as there was an insistent knock against the door.
Her heart was racing. She felt as if she had been running for hours on end.
Wiping the sweat from her brow, she smoothed down the front of her dress before opening the door slowly, clearly irritated by the interruption. Her eyes widened at the sight of those men standing there, her guilt growing with every passing moment. “Aye?”
“Pardon us miss, but we are looking for information.”
“Well, ye arenae likely tae hear it here. I’m a healer, so if none of ye have any injuries, then I have work tae dae.” Freya bit out her words.
One of the soldiers leaned around her, looking into her small cabin as if implying she couldn’t have anything better to do than to stand there and talk to them. “We need but a moment of yer time. We are just looking fer information about a shipwreck that happened in the storm a fortnight ago. Dae ye ken anything about that?”
Freya’s brow arched, and she folded her arms defensively over her chest, clearly unamused by the whole situation. “I ken of the storm. What of it?”
“Nay need tae be defensive, lass. Have ye seen anything suspicious since then?” Another one of the soldiers asked.
“Ye are strange men intruding upon me home. ‘Tis a small island and we are nae accustomed tae strangers,” Freya insisted, clearly irritated.
“Shall we mark that as a ‘nay’ then? We have plenty of reports from the villagers that ye have had a man here, washed up and in need of yer healing.” The middle solider continued, looking rather proud of himself.
“And? What of it? I dinnae ask me patients why they need healing, I just heal them.”
“Ye mean tae imply that the man came here tae ye fer healing, and then has been on his way?”
Freya hoped she looked a lot braver than she currently felt as she stepped aside. “As ye can see, I am here alone.”
“Then why nae tell us what ye ken?”
“Because, as I said, I dinnae trust ye. Ye are a stranger tae me,” she replied, feeling bolder as they started to shrink away from her temper. “But since ye willnae leave me alone until ye’re satisfied, the man I treated woke up the other morning, saying he had an urgent need tae return home and left before the sun was up.”
The three of them exchanged nervous glances, shifting from one foot too the other before turning back to her. Clearly, they were very displeased with that information indeed. “And where did he go?”
She shifted her hands to her hips. “How should I ken?”
“Because ye had tae see him leave! Tell us what direction he went!” They demanded.
“And that is how ye speak tae a lady? I’m sure yer maithers are all right proud of yer tongues.” Freya chastised.
“Can ye give us the direction?”
Freya rolled her eyes and nodded her head in a random direction to lead them far away from the village.
“And he went on foot?”
“Unless he pulled a horse from somewhere unmentionable, then aye.”
“Ye have quite a mouth on ye.” One of them said as the others started to move away from her. She didn’t dare push them any further as they finally turned to leave. She waited until they had long since disappeared over the far hill before shutting her door and locking it once more. She hurried around the cabin, yanking all the curtains shut and ensuring there was no way snooping ears or eyes could see into the hut before she opened the root cellar, exposing the cold, paling man below.