“Disturbed?”
“He was convinced he had failed in some duty and that his end was coming without having the opportunity to carry out some task. It brought to mind a holy vow made and broken.”
“But to whom would he make such a heartfelt promise? His wife before she died? Their son?” Ran watched Ingeborg’s face as she shook her head. “Then who?”
“That I know not. Mayhap Soren does? Einar left a packet for him.”
Ran did not speak then, thinking on seeing Soren again, at the broch. Mayhap Soren did know more? In the silence, she took a deep breath for courage and asked the question she wanted most to know.
“How does she fare?”
Ran could not speak the name of the woman Soren had seduced and ruined, then had to marry. Not yet. Not ever. Ingeborg’s face lost all its color and she dropped the cup she held. Tea splashed on her skirt and the floor, but Ingeborg only stared at Ran.
“You do not know? Your father did not tell you?” Ingeborg asked. Ran found it difficult to breathe, knowing that whatever Ingeborg said was going to be terrible. She shook her head and put her cup down.
“Tell me what, Ingeborg?” At her request, Ingeborg slid from the stool and knelt in front of her. Taking Ran’s hands in her own, she met Ran’s gaze and whispered the news.
“Aslaug is dead. She died just after you left, falling from the cliff near her father’s house.”
Ran gasped and shook her head at this. Dead? Her brother Erik had loved Aslaug for years and planned to marry her. When his best friend Soren betrayed all of them and seduced Aslaug, all their neatly made plans for the future fell apart. In one act of betrayal, Soren had torn apart three lives and his own. When her condition was made known, her father disowned her, forcing Soren to marry her or lose all honor.
“She was carrying . . .” Ran could not finish the words.
“Aye. Both gone in a moment.”
Ran’s throat was thick with burning tears as she thought on the ending of the young woman’s life. And that of the babe she carried. No matter what she may have blamed Aslaug for, Ran had never wanted her death or that of an innocent life either.
“Soren?” she asked, using only his name.
“He was not there. ’Twas said that Aslaug went to beg her father’s forgiveness and he denied it. They found her body the next day when Soren went looking for her. He was . . .”
The opening door stopped her words.
Soren stepped inside and looked at Ingeborg and then Ran. When no one spoke, the uncomfortable tension told him that he was the subject under discussion.
From the pale look on his aunt’s face and the shock on Ran’s, he knew exactly what had been said.
Aslaug.
Aslaug’s death. And her babe. There was nothing he could say. Not then and not now.
He noticed Ran clutching a wooden box and nodded at her.
“Are those Einar’s letters?” he asked.
She blinked several times and seemed to realize she was holding the box. Ran looked at it and then at him and nodded her head. Ingeborg released her hands and sat back on her heels.
“Aye. I think you should see them,” Ran said, holding out the box to him. Did she know that her hands shook? Or that she would not meet his gaze?
“My thanks,” Soren said, taking it from her. “I will return them as quickly as possible.” He understood she was giving him a precious gift, made even more so because she did not and could not trust him.
The color that shimmered around her pulsed brighter when she did look at him. There he saw disappointment and anger and hurt, but mostly he read sorrow in her gaze. When he began to say something, she shook her head and walked past him. Soren reached out and touched her arm to make her stop.
“Ran, wait. I would speak with you before you go,” he said.
She pulled free and walked out. He nodded to his aunt and followed her. Ran was almost to her horse when he caught up to her. He wanted to tell her what had happened but could not. When she stopped and turned to face him, the sorrow was ebbing away from her eyes, but the aura around her did not lessen.
“Why did you not tell me? Why did I have to learn this from your aunt?” she asked in a furious whisper. “Even Einar kept it from me.”
