He knocked, and a growing rage filled him as he waited for an answer.
“Gemma?” he yelled, knocking on the door again.
Rhiannon pulled it open. “She’s not here yet. Can you ask her to come?”
Arne cursed. “She is gone.” A mixture of guilt and anger flooded him.
“Gone?” Rhiannon paled and chewed on her bottom lip, looked at him, then away. “I think this is my fault. I… I think I might have upset her last night.”
“What did you say?”
Rhiannon peered at her hands, then into the room towards Aoife. From inside the room, Arne heard his mother speaking reassuringly to Aoife. Arne touched Rhiannon’s chin to make her look at him, but she jerked back and he held up his hands.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I said Aoife and I were in more danger because of her presence here. If she has run away—” Rhiannon glanced at him as she rubbed at her chin where he had touched her.
“I think she has more likely left with her kin and gone back home.” Arne dismissed Rhiannon’s statement with a wave of his hand.
“No, I don’t think… she wouldn’t put Caelin in danger like that.”
“Surely he is not in danger returning to his own lands?”
“Without a husband to protect her… I don’t know. Why do you think Gemma is here? No, I should not have said the things I said to her last night. She only wants to keep her son safe.”
“I understand. I want to make sure Elisedd and Einar are safe, too.”
“I know,” Rhiannon said, finally looking at him again. “It is not the same with foster children, Arne.”
“No,” he said and spun away, resenting once again the terrible truth he must keep hidden. He hoped that once Tormod’s child was born, the guilt would lessen.
“There… there have been soldiers looking for them in Ir Ysgyn.”
Arne turned slowly back to face her, his heart beating faster in his chest. “You think she has gone to meet them?”
“What? No!” Rhiannon shook her head. “I think she has run from them.”
“From her own people?”
“But… you can’t think… Arne, she was scared when I told her. She didn’t want them to find her. Especially as—” Rhiannon stopped but Arne waited and eventually she added, “they wereoffering a reward. Gold. She will be worried that someone will betray her for the gold. Or… or perhaps she has just hidden from the fishermen. If she has left, there will be items missing.”
Arne nodded at her. “I will look.”
“And Arne?” Rhiannon called after him as he headed towards Gemma’s room. He stopped, his hand on the door. “If she has gone, no matter where or with whom, please find her. Make sure she is safe.”
For a moment, Arne considered refusing, then he nodded and pushed open the door. He looked around the room. TheHnafetaflgame board was gone from the table and it looked like some clothes and blankets were missing.
“Gemma, Gemma, Gemma.” He shook his head. Had she gone with the fishermen? He needed to find out. But if Rhiannon was correct, it was unlikely. Where would she go? Or had the fishermen managed to pass on a message to her before leaving? Was there someone waiting for her somewhere else to take her to safety?
The more he thought about it, the more he thought it unlikely she had gone with the fishermen. She had spoken to him and her door was still barred when he had found the fishermen missing. Could they have passed on information to her? Doubtful. He had been in front of her door all night. If she was worried by the soldiers searching for her as Rhiannon believed, then she would most likely have headed away from Caelin’s lands, not towards them.
If she hadn’t gone by sea, she might have gone west towards the abandoned church site at Nevyth. Or north, towards the isthmus. Or perhaps east before reaching the isthmus to head for Car Cadell. He just needed to work out which way she would have chosen. Why? Why was he going after her?
He tried to tell himself it was because Rhiannon had asked him to, or because he thought that once she had left, the settlementmight be in more danger… but mostly, he just wanted to know if she was safe.
He met Tormod as he closed the door to Gemma’s room. “She is gone.”
“Gemma?”
