“Go,” Sorrell said as if granting him permission, and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be good.”
Ruddock reluctantly placed her on her feet when he would have rather kept her in his arms.
He ran a tender hand over the welt on her face and anger sparked in him again. “You are always good, Sorrell, always ready to defend. That’s what worries me.”
“Go see to your duties and worry not about me.”
“That is impossible, wife,” he said, shaking his head slowly, then kissed her gently before going to Erland.
Erland kept his voice low. “The two warriors who guard your wife need to speak with you. They await you in the solar. I must see to your father.”
He turned to ask his wife what else she had done that brought the two warriors to him, but she was gone. She could frighten the hell out of him at times while also making him proud. It wasn’t so much her fearlessness that worried him as it was her sense of injustice. She refused to standby and do nothing when confronted with it. She was a true warrior.
Ruddock entered the solar and looked from one warrior to the other. “Did the task I give you of guarding my wife prove too difficult?”
Both warriors had similar responses, their words tripping over each other. “No, my lord. No. Not difficult.”
Ruddock stared from one warrior to the other until he pointed to the shorter and thick-chested of the two. “You’re Hollis.”
“You remember, my lord,” Hollis said surprised.
“I could never forget such a skilled warrior.”
Ruddock’s praise brought a proud smile to Hollis’s face.
“You’re Bruce,” Ruddock said, turning to the other warrior, tall and lanky in stature. “You have skill with a bow and arrow.”
Bruce nodded. “You remember well, my lord.”
“I don’t forget those who rode and fought with distinction beside me.” He walked over to stand in front of his desk. “Now is there a problem with my wife?”
“No, my lord,” Hollis assured him. “There was an incident we felt you should know about.”
“Concerning my wife?”
“Aye,” Bruce said, sending Hollis a quick glance that had neither man speaking up.
“An incident you both seem reluctant to tell me about,” Ruddock said.
“We don’t think any harm was meant, but after what happened with Coyle, we thought it wiser to tell you about it,” Bruce said.
Ruddock folded his arms across his chest and waited.
“It concerns Hugh, my lord,” Hollis said.
“Hugh,” Ruddock repeated pleased to hear his good friend’s name, though truthfully he had been more like a brother.
He and Hugh had been inseparable since they had been wee lads. Hugh was the only one who openly defied Lord Finn, accused him of telling lies when he claimed Ruddock wasn’t his son. Hugh had defended him to the very end and would have left with Ruddock when he had been banished if he hadn’t been wed to Lana.
Ruddock had thought Hugh would have presented himself by now and since he hadn’t, he got the feeling something was very wrong.
“Tell me,” Ruddock ordered.
Bruce delivered the news as fast as he could. “Hugh called your wife a harlot and you the devil.”
Hollis was quick to add, “He was well into his cups, my lord.”
Ruddock shook his head, it difficult to believe what he’d just heard. What had happened that had changed things between them? He had never thought, not once, that Hugh would turn against him.
“Why?” Ruddock asked, looking from one to the other.
Bruce and Hollis stared at him speechless.
It was easy for Ruddock to see that they knew something, yet neither spoke.
“Bring Hugh to me,” Ruddock ordered since he was the one man who would speak the truth.
Ruddock poured a much needed drink while he waited for the two warriors to return with Hugh. Hearing that Hugh turned against him was like the final blow. All this time, he believed he had one loyal friend, someone who would never doubt him. Now even he was lost to him.
He had tried to imagine who would do this to him. Who would want to rob him of his life? And after all this time, he still didn’t know.
Anguished tears from outside the door interrupted his musings and he wasn’t surprised to see Lana precede her husband into the room. She was still the pretty woman he remembered, though she had grown thin and lines marred her face for one so young. What did surprise him was that she dropped to her knees in front of him and begged for no harm to befall her husband.
“Please, please, my lord, don’t harm him. He meant your wife no harm. The ale caused his tongue to be foolish. Please, I beg you, please.”
“Get up off your knees, wife. You’ll not beg to him for me,” Hugh said, raising his chin to glare at Ruddock defiantly.
Ruddock tried to hide his shock at seeing the changes in his friend. He was half the man he remembered, his body lacking the girth it once had and his face gaunt from what he could see of it, a bushy beard covering half of it. His left arm hung loose at his side and it was obvious it was lifeless.