“I have no way of knowing if you tell the truth and I will not turn my sister over to you on your word alone,” Cree said.
Torr stepped forward then. “Wintra is not going anywhere. She is my wife and neither of you have say over her.”
Wintra listened to the three men argue about her. She wondered for a moment if she was in a nightmare and could not wake, for this surely wasn’t real. Her father had died. Cree would never tell her such a lie. This man was not her father. Cree was not her half-brother. The Earl of Kellmara was a charlatan just as Owen had been.
“It does not matter,” Torr said. “Father or not, I am her husband and my right comes before all others.”
“Not unless the King annuls the marriage,” Kellmara said as if it was already done.
Wintra felt a deep chill run through her and she hugged herself tightly as her worry grew, and rightly so. She had learned even while secluded at the abbey that men had power over women and the more powerful the man, the more power he wielded.
“I have petitioned the King to annul your marriage to my daughter,” Kellmara said to Torr. “The King has sent an emissary to determine my request and, if he so chooses, the emissary has the authority to grant the annulment posthaste. He will question you both and make the decision over the next few days. Until then, you are ordered by the King to keep your distance from my daughter.”
Torr laughed in Kellmara’s face. You are a fool if you think that you can keep me from my wife.”
Kellmara glared at him. “The King orders it.”
Torr’s arm shot out, his finger poking Kellmara hard in the chest. “I do not give a bloody damn. No one is taking my wife away from me.”
“Wintra should have never been forced to wed you. She is my daughter and deserves better.”
Torr clenched his hand into a tight fist, but kept it at his side. “She also deserves a father who cares more about what she wants than what he wants.”
“What have you promised the King in exchange for a decision in your favor?” Cree asked, stepping between the two men. “Wait, let me answer for you. You are a powerful Chieftain to the far North where the King has fewer allies and with you as one, it will strengthen his reign and borders.”
“I simply presented my petition to the King, no more. I have no sway over what he thinks. But any resistance to the emissaries decision will be dealt with swiftly,” Kellmara warned.
“You can count on that,” Cree said.
“Now I would like to meet my daughter.”
Wintra stepped around the dais, though kept her distance from all three men. She raised her chin and narrowed her eyes at the Earl of Kellmara. “I am not your daughter. I never have been and I never will be. I love my husband and I intend to stay wed to him. And you will have to lock me away to keep me from him. I would advise you to leave now, for I will never acknowledge you as my father.”
“You are my daughter for sure, bold and demanding just like me, and your eyes are the same blue as mine. Speak as bravely as you wish, but you will follow the King’s command, you have no choice.”
“That is where you are wrong. I will not listen to this nonsense and I will not talk with you ever. You are a cold, heartless man to come here and make demands of me, especially if I were your daughter. This is no way for a father to show his love for his daughter. So I tell you one last time—leave, or better yet—go to hell.”
Wintra walked past Kellmara and one of his warrior’s stepped in front of her, blocking her path. She did not wait. She stomped on his foot as she grabbed his nose, yanked and twisted it. He hopped on one foot while one hand covered his bleeding nose. Then she skidded around him and hurried past the startled warriors and out the door.
“That’s my wife,” Torr said with pride.
“And my sister,” Cree beamed.
“And definitely mine and Colleen’s daughter,” Kellmara said adamantly.
~~~
Dawn hurried out of the Great Hall through the hallway that led out to the kitchen shortly after Wintra left. The men might admire Wintra’s brave tenacity, but Dawn knew just how fragile that tenacity was. She knew that Wintra was now plagued with thoughts and questions, but worst of all she was probably asking herself if it could possibly be true. Was the Earl of Kellmara her father?
It did not take long to get to the cottage that Cree had once assigned her. She had loved its solitude, and the time she and Cree had gotten to spend there. It was a place of comfort and love and Dawn was pleased that Torr and Wintra were making it their home, if only for a while.