“You are welcome to stay,” Cree said, “though all your warriors are not. You do not need the size troops you have waiting elsewhere. Send them home, including Owen McBride.”
Kellmara looked ready to argue when he saw Wintra enter the room and quickly said, “As you wish.”
Torr stood and went to his wife. She looked beautiful in a dark green wool dress that tied just below her neck, and he liked that she wore no shift over it. She held her hand out to him as he approached and he laced his fingers with hers and gave her a gentle kiss. They walked to the dais together.
Kellmara stood and Dawn noticed the pride in the man’s eyes when he gazed upon Wintra.
“You look so lovely,” Kellmara said when Wintra drew near.
She was a bit startled by his compliment, though thanked him.
“Torr tells me that you and he are eager to speak with the emissary. He will speak with you today.”
“First, I will speak with my brother privately, then with you. Only then will I speak with the emissary,” Wintra informed him.
Kellmara was pleased that she would speak with him, though annoyed that she dictated to him. Something he was not accustomed to. “That can be arranged since the emissary arrived late last night and is still abed. You and I could talk after you finish breakfast, giving your brother time to see to daily matters.”
Wintra placed her hand to her stomach. “I have no want of breakfast, and if it pleases my brother I will speak with him now.”
“It pleases me,” Cree said. “We can talk in my solar.”
“First, a word with Dawn,” Wintra said and did not wait for permission. She stepped away from Torr and hurried over to Dawn, and the two women walked a few feet away to talk in private.
“I told Torr what you said about speaking with the Earl of Kellmara and he feels you are a wise woman. I chose to follow your advice since I agree with my husband. His sister is a wise woman. We can talk after I have spoken to the Earl.”
Dawn smiled wide and nodded vigorously, letting Wintra know how much she looked forward to it.
Wintra hugged Dawn. “I will come find you when I am done.”
Cree and Torr stood next to each other watching the women.
“I do not trust them. They conspire. I know it,” Cree said for Torr’s ears alone.
“I would have to agree with you on that. We should keep an extra watch on them.”
“I have found that it is easier going into battle than it is keeping watch over the woman you love,” Cree admitted.
“Again I agree, but we should at least try.”
“I have my warriors keeping an eye on them, but I think, after last night, Kellmara does the same. His warriors now keep a watch on them as well.”
“And still the two of them will somehow manage to avoid them all,” Torr said, and Cree nodded.
The two women rejoined the men and Cree gave his wife a quick kiss and with a whisper warned her to behave before he took hold of his sister’s hand and strode off to his solar.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Flanna stepped out of the shadows as Cree approached his solar, though she did not startle him. He was pleased that he did not always have to summons her. She had the uncanny ability to sense when she was needed.
She bobbed her head. “May I get you anything, my lord?”
“Food and drink,” Cree said, then entered his solar.
Wintra walked over to the hearth, extending her hands out to the heat and rubbing them, though her chill went far deeper. She had been eager to speak to Cree about her father, but now that the moment was here she found herself concerned.
Food and drink arrived and right after the door closed behind the servants, Cree approached his sister.
Wintra turned before he got a few feet in front of her. “Is it true? Do we have different fathers?”
Cree pointed to a chair by the hearth. “Sit.”
She shook her head. “Why did you and Mum not tell me the truth?”
Cree had promised his mum that he would never reveal the truth to Wintra. But under the present circumstances, he believed she would understand the need for him to do so. “Mum had come home one day beaten and bruised. I had thought she had been raped, but she denied it. Then when she began to round, I knew I had been right. But she had insisted she had not been raped, though she offered no other reason for her being with child. She told me that it would be best for all concerned that the babe be raised believing that my father was also her father, even though Da had been dead far too long for that to be possible. I was a young lad then, though,” —he smiled— “old for my years as Mum often reminded me. I did not argue with Mum. She had suffered enough and when you were born she was so happy. I was too. You brought life back into our troubled existence.”