He walked down the steps to Slatter while the two women continued to hug and laugh and wipe tears away from each other’s faces.
“I couldn’t keep her away, not after Lord Polwarth stopped at our home and told us what happened. I seriously thought my wife was going to strike him, she got so mad. I was grateful the old fool redeemed himself by the tale’s end.”
“She would have done me a favor by striking him,” Tarass admitted.
Slatter laughed. “Snow forgave him easily, didn’t she?”
Tarass nodded. “She did.”
“Polwarth also mentioned something about pools of blood and dwarfs?” Slatter said with a scrunched brow as if it made no sense.
“Let’s get our wives inside where it’s warm and I’ll explain, since I’m sure Willow is looking for a reasonable explanation,” Tarass said, aware she was the most practical of the three Macardle sisters.
“She can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it,” Slatter said with a laugh.
Both men went and collected their wives.
Slatter kept a firm arm around Willow’s waist, not wanting her to slip on the icy steps and harm herself or the bairn growing inside her.
Tarass did the same, though it proved more dangerous for Snow, since she couldn’t see the steps for herself, or so he thought.
The two couples settled at a table close to the hearth. After Thaw made his rounds to each one of them, getting a pet from the men and hugs from the women, he went and laid on the warm hearth stones until he couldn’t keep his head up any longer, then he slept.
“I could not believe what Polwarth did to you,” Willow said. “I wanted to thrash him senseless.”
“I would have been ever grateful if you had,” Tarass said and got a poke in the side from his wife.
“Has your leg healed?” Willow asked.
“It’s fine,” Snow said as if dismissing it as unimportant and not mentioning that she was probably with child. She would save that for when they were alone. “How are you? Are you feeling well?”
“I do well and so does the bairn, but we can talk about such things later when we get time alone,” Willow said. “Right now I’m eager to hear about the pools of blood and the dwarfs that Polwarth mentioned. Whatever was he rambling about?”
“So he told you about them,” Snow said, having wanted to do so herself and get her sister’s perspective on the situation.
“You better tell your sister before she explodes with curiosity,” Slatter warned with a smile.
Tarass detailed the myth and the pools of blood that had been found, starting with the first one they had come across when returning home after the wedding, to the last small one found as if cradled in a goblet.
“So you have no idea why these pools of blood have appeared?” Willow asked.
“It could be to cast doubt on Tarass as a leader and his ability to protect his clan,” Slatter said.
Snow nodded. “We’ve thought of that.”
“Or it could have more of a meaning,” Willow said. “From what you’ve explained the first pool of blood was large, the second smaller than the first but not as small as the last one. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that each one is a different size?” She didn’t give anyone a chance to respond, she continued, “You say the pools of blood represent knowledge gained. If that is so then with such a large pool of blood how many would have died for the knowledge gained there? The second pool is not as large and could very well represent the knowledge gained from Finn and the marked man. The last pool of blood is a puzzle.” Willow shook her head. “It would represent something small and since there are no deaths associated with it, it greatly puzzles me. But there is one more thing you should consider. Your people believe the myth is about the dwarfs gaining knowledge, but it’s more about jealousy, about the knowledge the man has that the dwarfs don’t have. So you might want to ask yourself, what do you have that this person is jealous of or thinks he deserves to have more than you?”
Snow and Willow sat in Snow’s solar, blankets tucked around them and their feet stretched out to the heat of the hearth. Thaw had gone with Tarass and Slatter for a walk through the village, Slatter interested in seeing the improvements made since Tarass’s return home.
“I believe I’m with child,” Snow said, unable to hold it in any longer.
Willow jumped out of her chair and hugged her sister. “That’s wonderful. We will have our bairns close together. They will grow to be like sisters and brothers.”
Tears threatened Snow’s eyes. “You don’t know how happy that makes me.”
“How are you feeling?” Willow asked, returning to her seat and tucking the blanket around her.