“You were not whispering, sir, and I have very good hearing,” Flora informed him. “Now sit and tell your tale, for I grow impatient to hear it.”
Torin shook his head as he watched the large man obey his wife as if he feared her. He went and sat beside her, close enough so that their arms touched, and it pleased him when she pressed even closer against him and rested her leg next to his.
Walsh gulped down a good portion of his drink before he was ready to speak and stopped when he saw six warriors enter the Great Hall and divide to sit at the tables to either side of him, Kinnell joining them.
“I bring no trouble to your clan, Lord Torin,” Walsh said, acknowledging Torin with respect.
“I am pleased to hear that and hope it is true. I am as impatient as my wife… tell the tale.”
He nodded and kept a grip on his tankard as he spoke. “I had hoped to get to the lowland before winter set in, but my departure was delayed. I can feel when a snowstorm is not far off and sensing one approaching, I made haste to find shelter. The Isle of Outerson was the closest place and I hoped you would allow me to winter here since trying to travel could prove deadly.” He took another generous swallow of his ale. “It was when I approached the bridge to the isle that an arrow simply fell from a tree a few feet in front of me. It had not been shot from a bow. It simply fell from the tree. Curious, I glanced up and I thought I spotted a man perched high up in the pine tree. It took some maneuvering around the bottom of the tree to spot him clearly and sure enough he was there, bow and arrow in hand.”
“Are you saying the man perched in the tree shot the arrow that killed the cleric?” Flora asked.
“I did not know at the time who the arrow was intended for or if it was possibly one of Lord Torin’s warriors attempting to see if such a shot would reach a particular distance. I waited under the tree and surprised the man who was not happy to see me. We fought and I realized he had every intention of taking my life, so I had no choice but to kill him. I left him where he fell and hurried across the bridge to inform the guards what happened. They had me take them to the dead man and then I was brought here.”
“Quite a tale,” Torin said.
“A tall tale for sure,” Kinnell agreed.
“Can an arrow travel that far with accuracy?” Flora asked of no one in particular.
“A skilled marksman can hit his mark from even a greater distance,” Walsh said, “though I would not have believed it if I had not seen it once myself.”
“But did he hit his mark?” Flora asked.
“That I would not know, my lady,” Walsh said. “I had no time to ask him what he was doing here, and I doubt he would have offered an explanation.”
Torin remained silent, knowing his wife would continue to question and with Walsh responding so easily to her, he chose to listen. His wife did not disappoint him, she went right on questioning.
“Why did you wait and watch the man in the tree and not advise the guards immediately of his presence?” Flora asked.
Walsh scratched at his bushy beard. “I suppose at the time I thought it was the right thing to do.” He grinned when bowls of food were placed on the table and quickly snatched up a hunk of cheese. “I did fetch them as soon as the fight ended.”
“Do you often travel alone?” Flora asked.
Walsh shook his head as he chewed the cheese, then spoke. “Nay, my lady. I am often with a group, but as I said my departure was delayed and the others left without me.”
“Why?” Flora asked and as was her way went right on talking. “If you were with a group, why would the group not wait for you? Of course, they could have been wise, knowing the winter would make travel more difficult, and not want to waste time, but that could very well mean that they thought your delay unnecessary, so they left without you. But what could make them think that… oh! A woman. It must have been a woman that delayed you.”
Torin laughed when Walsh stared opened mouth at her. “My wife is skilled at deducing things quite easily.”
“She is at that,” Walsh agreed.
Flora scrunched her brow. “Yet you wound up leaving. Why when you could have wintered with the woman?”
Torin had not thought of that, but his wife was right. What would have a man leaving a willing woman’s warm bed with winter settling in?
“It sometimes takes time to discover a woman is not who you thought she was. Once I discovered that I took my leave,” Walsh said and hurriedly speared a piece of meat with his knife and took a good-sized bite of it.
Torin glanced at his wife and thought of the similarity of his and Walsh’s situation and could not help but think that the woman could also turn out to be even more pleasing than first believed.
“So, you braved the winter instead of a woman,” Flora said, staring at him. “How strange for a man of your size and confidence to be frightened off by a woman.”
Walsh drew his shoulders back, his chest expanding. “I was not frightened off. I chose to leave. She was looking for a husband. I was not looking for a wife.”
“Wise man,” one of the warriors called out.
“Precisely,” Walsh said and raised his tankard.