Chapter Twenty-three
Tormod wasn’t surprised to find Aoife already washed and dressed, but he was surprised to find she had piled her clothes neatly on the bed and topped it with the small pouch of her valuables that she had arrived with. “What are you doing?”
She jumped and turned to look at him, grabbing the pouch and pressing it to her chest. She relaxed when she recognised him. “You are alive.”
“Would you have preferred it if I wasn’t?” He threw the fur over the end of the bed and strode to where a fresh set of clothes was laid out for him.
“No. I was worried. I…” She turned away from him as he dressed, and he wondered if the tears he had seen in her eyes were for him or herself.
“What were you doing?” he asked gently.
“Preparing to leave. To see my father. I have to ask him why…”
“Don’t.”
She froze. “But…”
“Why do you think he will help you now?” Tormod asked. “Besides, there is no one here that I can spare to take you. No one that I could be sure would come back to me from your father’s lands unharmed.”
Aoife remained still, biting at her lip.
“You heard those men last night. If they are willing to kill you, then what worse fate awaits any of us… barbarians?”
“You are not barbarians! But you have come here, taken our lands and—”
“These lands were empty, my lady,” said Tormod. “No one defended them. We only wished for a new place to call home.”
The two of them stared at each other across the room. Then she dropped her gaze.
“I wish for nothing more than a home, also,” she said quietly.
“Your home is here now, with us.” He didn’t examine why he felt the need to reassure her. How much easier it would be to simply let her go and find a wife from amongst his own people. And yet something about her called to him.
“I need to know why my father was willing to let me be killed. Something is not right at Car Cadell and I need to know what it is. Until I do, I don’t think any of us are safe.”
“I will keep you safe.”
For a moment her face lit up with hope.
Then there was a knock at the door.
“Come!” he shouted.
Bjorn entered. “Tormod, the prisoner. You need to hear what he has to say.”
“I will be there in a moment,” Tormod replied.
Aoife gaped at her husband. “There are prisoners?”
“One,” Bjorn said.
She turned away from him, shaking. “Is he to be killed?”
“Do you wish him to be?” Tormod asked.
“I don’t know,” she said after a long pause. “They came because of me. I heard them. They were going to kill me.”
“They came because of us. You and this village.”
Her face when she looked at him was a mask of anguish. “I can’t believe that my father ordered it. I think there is something very wrong at Car Cadell.”
Tormod couldn’t decide whether she was right, or simply clinging to a last remnant of hope for her father’s love.
Although… he thought back to the way Cadell had looked to Ula during their negotiations and wondered if Aoife was, in fact, correct.
Elisedd’s arrival seemed to prove that there was something wrong, too.
“I think so too,” he said. “Now we need to arrange a visit. But we will take the time to plan and prepare and be ready for whatever we find there.”
Aoife breathed in deeply, then nodded.
Tormod strode towards her and encircled her in his arms. After only a moment’s hesitation, she leaned into him. He closed his eyes, relaxing into her warmth. He was happy she was alive and sure that he was not willing to give her up.