“So Wren told me. Why then did you request to see me?” he asked. “And have you seen my wife?”
“She walks with Clive, Brod, and Iver,” Greta said. “Fyn and George mind Tait for me. You wanted to know when the leper visits. He’s in the woods and I am having food and drink prepared for him now.”
“I will take the food and drink to him,” Wolf said, glad to visit with the leper since it had been a while since their last visit, and he always enjoyed talking with him.
“I will have both brought to you as soon as it is ready,” Greta said and took her leave.
Wolf sat alone in the common room. While his wife had brought Iver to him the day after the attack for him to tell them both what he had found, he still harbored doubts that she and her men were as forthcoming as they should be.
He had to admit that Iver had been open about what he had discovered. He had tracked the culprit who had harmed his wife to an area where signs of a campfire confirmed that men had been camping there, no doubt in wait for their cohort. It had been difficult to track after that since the various tracks had gone in different directions.
At least it confirmed what Wolf had surmised. The man had not acted alone. There were others involved. He had thought to assign some of his warriors to follow Raven but it proved senseless since he had seen for himself that her men had taken it upon themselves to make sure they followed wherever she went, except when she entered the longhouse. He felt she was safe with them so he didn’t have his warriors follow, though he had told them to keep a good watch when she was around. He’d also placed more warriors on the battlements. From there they could see a group of men coming from afar except where the forest was the thickest.
Once food and drink for the leper were brought to him, Wolf took it to the woods, to the spot by the stream where he had met with him several times.
Wolf left the sack of food and skein of wine near the tree where he’d always left it and moved to sit on a stump a good distance away. When the leper didn’t appear, he called out, “Brother Noble.”
A cough sounded before a brown-robed cleric, slightly stooped, emerged from behind a thick tree. His hood hung down to hide his face and gloves covered his hands. There wasn’t any part of him that wasn’t covered.
“How are you?” Wolf asked, still surprised at their friendship, since they had little in common and held different beliefs. But perhaps the link that connected them as friends was their differences.
“Kind of you to ask, Wolf, I do well enough,” Brother Noble said in his raspy voice. “And you? Have things finally settled for you?”
“Not as I expected, but for now there is peace—I think. I wed Raven of the Clan MacKinnon.”
“Don’t you consider her your enemy?”
No judgment, no disparaging remark, or condemnation, a question that simply gave thought and that was what Wolf enjoyed about the leper. His words always gave him pause to think and he did so now aloud. “I actually never gave thought to her before the attack. She was meant to wed a Northman of my choice after my warriors conquered her clan, just as I had done with the other conquered clans. I never expected her to escape and become a thorn in my side these last five years. Though I will admit she was constantly on my mind and not in a good way. I couldn’t understand how she avoided capture. Now I know. She dressed like a lad and joined a band of thieves.” He shook his head. “But you must grow tired of hearing me complain about her.”
“Not at all. I hoped to see peace brought to this area once again and it would seem your unselfish act in marrying Raven has answered my prayers.”
“It wasn’t my unselfish act. It was Raven’s. It was her unselfishness and courage to seek a marriage with me as a solution to freeing her brothers and regaining some of her land for her family.”
“Raven proposed this odd union?” Brother Noble asked.
“That was what I was told when I was approached about the agreement, though I did not take kindly to it at first. After some thought and discussion with my grandmother, I realized it was for the best. I could finally settle and live with less strife.”
“She is a good wife then?”
“I haven’t determined that yet,” Wolf said.
“She is troublesome?”
Wolf scratched his close-cropped beard. “She has a mind of her own which can prove troublesome at times. She also has a fierce loyalty to those she cares for and loves.”