“You’re awake.” The woman sounded relieved.
“Yes. I heard shouts,” Gemma said. “Who has arrived?” Her heartbeat grew faster as she imagined for a moment that Arne had come back for her. Then she remembered the grim look on his face as he had accepted the bag of gold.
“Two men arrived from the north. Your brother wishes to see you urgently,” the serving woman said. “Please don’t keep him waiting.”
“Who?”
But the woman shook her head and set about gathering Gemma’s clothes. “Hurry, I will help you dress.”
As soon as she opened the door dressed in a clean gown, she saw her brother marching towards her.
“What is taking you so long?” he demanded as he unceremoniously grabbed her wrist and dragged her along the passageway. The door slammed shut behind them and she fought an urge to pull away from Rhun and lock herself in the relative safety of her room with Caelin. But that would only delay the inevitable.
“Rhun, what has happened?”
He stopped and let her go, then turned to face her, anger etched on his features. She nursed her wrist. Both his hands were by his sides now, his fists clenched, and for the first time, she was truly afraid of her brother. “What have you done, sister?”
“What do you mean?”
“I sent men to every corner of my kingdom. To search for you. Tonight, two men who heard I was searching for you have travelled here to tell me where you are. Or where you were, rather.”
“But you already know where I was. I told you.” Her whole body tensed and she felt cold all over. If these men had seen Arne at the shieling, they would know at the very least that she had omitted to tell him about Arne being with her and Caelin. Or even worse, they might have been the ones who left footprints at the edge of the woods. They might have seen… She gripped her skirts and took a deep breath, but it did little to calm her pounding heart.
“These two men claim to have seen you the day before yesterday.”
Her breath caught; the last day she had been in the shieling with Arne. The day they had kissed and more outside. “But that is not possible. No… The snow—”
“No? Are you sure? Were you not out in a shepherd’s hut on the moors above Loch Long? That is where the Norsemen said you were, and you didn’t disagree. What you didn’t say was that there was a Norseman there with you.”
“Yes, I was at the shieling that day, but the snow was heavy. We couldn’t leave—”
“We?”
She swallowed. “Caelin and me.”
“So, there was no Norseman there? That Norseman. The one with the scarred face. The one who stood in front of me and took my gold when he already taken far more than that.”
Gemma took a step back, trying to stand as straight as possible although she was trembling so much she was barely able to speak.
“Who are these men?” She clenched her fists, angry that her voice was barely more than a whisper.
“Men who saw him touch you and more,” Rhun snapped. “How could you allow this?”
“I… I…”
“Follow me, or I will assume you are guilty of this fornication. I will have your son removed from your care. You are not fit to be his mother.”
“No! Please, you can’t—”
“I can, and it will most certainly be in your son’s interest for me to do so. Come!”
She followed him as he hurried through the residence. Tears welled in her eyes, and she dashed them away, forcing herself to calm down, to think clearly. If she lost Caelin, she would lose everything. The one thing she had never thought her brother would do was separate her from her son. How could she have been so naïve?
When they reached the great hall, she stopped. Just inside the door stood two men, dressed in damp, mud-splattered riding clothes. One a Norseman, the other a Briton, or a Dal Riatan perhaps. Both looked at her, then nodded at Rhun.
“Yes, that is the woman we saw with Arne Olafsson. One of the Brothers of Thunder,” the Norseman said.
“The scarred one,” the other man agreed, his accent confirming him as a Dal Riatan.
