Chapter Fourteen #2
Rand frowned. Svanna was right again. Bandits did not leave swords, nor did they fold cloaks. They also didn’t drag corpses to ditches after search parties had departed.
Rand walked over to the tree. The niggling thought that had plagued him throughout the long journey here, the seed that Svanna had planted, burst into full flower.
Thorarinn wanted to disappear and didn’t trust him to protect him and his bride.
He had asked someone to inform him when Turgeis left, or possibly returned.
This meant that Thorarinn must have suspected Turgeis would come looking for him.
A bleak coldness settled over him. Thorarinn and Rhiannon had departed to save their own skins. Was Thorarinn that selfish and devoid of all feeling to put a child in danger? He knew what Svanna’s answer would be and hated that the evidence gave it credence.
Rand narrowed his gaze, methodically searching for any clue to what had happened to the missing lovers, ruthlessly turning his mind from Svanna and the peace he’d found with her.
The ferns were disturbed a little further away.
‘I believe we have picked up their trail.’
‘Whose trail?’
‘Whoever Thorarinn has fallen in with.’ Rand unsheathed his sword.
‘You doubt he is dead.’
‘He wants me and others to think it, and that bothers me. Shall we go and properly search this time, instead of making assumptions, men?’
* * *
‘What do you wish, my lady?’
‘We are going to do two things,’ Svanna said, settling Birdie on her hip.
After her father had left, the little girl demanded to be near her Mor Svanna.
But simply sitting around and playing with the little girl was not going to ease her mind.
Someone was coming and Donaghmoyne needed to be ready.
‘First we prepare for a feast, including bringing all the animals in and making sure they are properly fed.’
‘Who might be attending the feast?’
‘The high king.’
The nurse’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘Why do you think he might be coming here?’
‘A possibility, no more than that, but if a rumour reached me that my daughter had married, I would want to speak to her and discover what was truly going on.’
‘Why do you think the rumour has reached the King?’
‘We don’t know why Thorarinn and Rhiannon left and must plan for all eventualities. If I was Rhiannon and had gone against my father’s wishes, I’d make sure there was a spy who could tell me if my father was on the move,’ Svanna concluded.
The woman’s cheeks became entirely pink. ‘Oh, my, the King coming here! I hadn’t even considered it. Now it makes sense why Rhiannon was speaking about our Birdie going to court.’
Svanna held up two fingers. ‘But it also could be Turgeis and a small war band coming. Either could happen. Someone made Thorarinn and Rhiannon scamper. We don’t know who, as Thorarinn failed to leave a clue.’
She fancied a new respect in the woman’s eyes. ‘I see that. We should also prepare for siege.’
‘Preparing for a siege is much like preparing for a feast, in my experience.’
The nurse smiled. ‘I like you, my lady. You keep your head. More importantly, Birdie likes you.’
Svanna smiled back before pressing her nose into Birdie’s hair. Birdie put her arms about Svanna and hugged her tight.
‘You won’t leave me, will you, Mor Svanna? Everyone always leaves. Papa left. Auntie left. Why?’
‘I won’t leave, Birdie. You can go with me when I do, though. Your papa and I will have a little discussion about it first.’
The little girl gave a sigh. ‘I love my papa.’
Svanna rubbed her back and resisted the sudden urge to say that she did as well. He had not asked for the love, but her heart refused to listen.
‘I think she probably needs a nap, my lady,’ the nurse said, holding out her arms. ‘Always when she gets like this, I know she is tired. She needs to go to the round tower, where she can be quiet like. I’ll look after her there. The tower is the most secure place at Donaghmoyne.’
‘She isn’t a burden.’ Svanna rocked Birdie gently as the little girl snuggled down into the crook of her neck.
‘Even a cup of ale is a burden if you must hold it aloft for an entire feast.’
Svanna reluctantly handed the little girl over. ‘You do have a way of putting things.’
‘You are all right for a North woman,’ the nurse said. ‘I will ensure the high king knows that when he arrives.’
* * *
When Rand spotted a charcoal burner’s hut with a tumbledown roof, a short way from the clearing, he gritted his teeth. ‘Please tell me that someone bothered to check the hut.’
His men shook their heads. ‘The body distracted us. We found it and the cloak and scarpered.’
‘I didn’t realise my men were cowards.’ Rand marched over. His gaze swept around the hut. Little signs of recent occupation, like fresh ash and breadcrumbs on the swept floor, were evident. ‘Thorarinn, come out and face me.’
No answer, but he heard a faint scuffling noise. He motioned to his men to go around the back. In the gloom, he spied a small cave with artfully draped ferns.
He strode over. ‘How are you going to play this, Thorarinn and Rhiannon? You can come out with dignity, or we can come and drag you out. I want answers and I will get them one way or another.’
Some shuffling at the back of the cave. Rand prayed that it would not be a wild boar which trotted out.
Eventually, a dishevelled Rhiannon emerged.
‘He has been hurt in the side,’ she announced, sticking her nose in the air. ‘He is going to need help. I can’t move him any more. Rand, you must do it.’
Rand motioned to two of his men to go into the cave and bring Thorarinn out.
‘He was the one to kill the Northern warrior?’ he asked in a low tone. ‘To protect you?’
She nodded. ‘We were supposed to start a new life in the North, but that man arrived and began issuing orders.’
‘Orders—like what?’
‘He wanted us to separate.’ She raised her chin defiantly and Rand could see the resemblance to the King and his late wife.
‘I refused to be separated from my Thorarinn. We belong together. Thorarinn fought back.’ At the sound of a loud groan, she hurried over to the cave.
‘You be careful with him, you hear, or you’ll answer to me. ’
‘He became rough, unlike his brother Turgeis.’
Rhiannon stiffened. ‘Who told you about Turgeis and me?’
Rand silently blessed Svanna and her instincts. ‘You had a flirtation with him, didn’t you?’
Rhiannon chewed her bottom lip. ‘He wasn’t Turgeis’s brother, was he?’
Rand narrowed his eyes. Rhiannon appeared to think she could play games with him. She knew who Turgeis was and he would get the truth out of her before they left this place.
‘He was, but why should you worry? You broke with Turgeis.’
‘Not exactly, cousin,’ Thorarinn said, emerging from the cave, supported by Rand’s men.
‘Did you know Turgeis expected to marry Rhiannon?’
‘Not marry!’ Rhiannon laughed. ‘Obviously not. I married Thorarinn, the only man I’ve ever cared about.’
Thorarinn gave her a ridiculous lovesick grin.
‘You told him secrets, like the fact that your father wanted to marry you to an old man. If you require help with Thorarinn, I require the truth.’
He waited. Rhiannon finally sighed.
‘And that the dowager Queen and her daughter from where he had to leave were there,’ Rhiannon added. ‘He and my father were particularly interested in that fact.’ She deliberately yawned. ‘Who cares about some old woman and her daughter, who I bet is ancient as well?’
Rand struggled to control his surprise. Máel Sechnaill had known that Svanna and Astrid were there, but neglected to inform him. ‘I’d have found it interesting.’
‘You too?’ Rhiannon put her face in her hands. ‘Trust me. I’d no wish to marry an old man.’
‘Ingebord, the Queen’s daughter, was indirectly responsible for Rand’s scar,’ Thorarinn said quietly. ‘I swear that I didn’t know she’d be there, Rand. I’d have warned you. That gold enabled us to get away, remember that. We escaped together.’
‘Her name is Svanna,’ Rand said, not commenting on the fact that if Thorarinn had kept quiet, Drengr and his sons would never have attacked him.
‘You and your Svannas.’ Thorarinn gave a feeble laugh. ‘You went on about one in your delirium after you were beaten. Some serving girl eager to open her legs, I suppose. Don’t worry, Rand, she will be long married.’
‘The Ingebord whom we encountered in Agthir bears the real name of Svanna. And no, she was never eager to open her legs as you ungraciously put it.’
Thorarinn’s mouth dropped open. ‘How do you know this?’
Rand put his face close to Thorarinn’s, struggling to contain his temper. An ice-cold fury descended on him. Thorarinn did not care about anything or anyone except his own skin.
‘Because Svanna is now my wife. And she was a virgin when I married her. Clear enough for you?’
‘A virgin? But the gossip…’ Thorarinn turned his head away and retched. ‘Lied…’
‘Thanks to your wagging tongue, Svanna was attacked and abused in that garden the day we departed. Thanks to her dog, she wasn’t raped,’ Rand continued relentlessly.
Thorarinn went pale and scuttled backwards. ‘I didn’t know, Rand. Honestly, I didn’t. I mean she was beautiful. It made sense that she would have serious flirtations. Everyone did in Agthir. Virginity was not prized like it is here.’
‘Her virginity mattered to her.’ Rand bit out each word with care. ‘That is what counts. Don’t you think I knew the difference?’
Rhiannon grabbed Rand’s arm. He shook it off. ‘Can’t you see that Thorarinn is injured? You are upsetting him.’
‘Something that he must live with. His selfish actions caused this.’ Rand touched his scar. ‘He caused an innocent young woman to be sexually abused and forced her to live in fear.’
Rhiannon put her hand over her mouth. ‘You married this Svanna, the one who pretended to be Ingebord? Bridget used to say that you had unfinished business with a Svanna and until you had finished it, you were never going to be free.’
He stared at her in astonishment. ‘How would Bridget know her name?’