Torin was quick to follow.
“Would this have been the most likely way for him to have come from the loch?” she asked.
“Aye, it would have been.”
Flora peered along the ground as she walked.
“What do you look for?” Torin asked.
She stopped suddenly and squatted down to examine something. “The dying man spoke about the giant saving him. Could this be the giant’s footfall?” She pointed to a spot on the ground.
Torin squatted down beside her to see a sizeable partial footprint. “Someone pulled him out of the loch and dragged him to the spot.” He looked to where the man had been found.
“Perhaps someone knew him and offered what help he could?” Flora suggested.
Torin scowled, annoyed. “That could be only one person.”
“Walsh,” they said in unison.
* * *
“I supposeit would be useless of me to tell you that I will speak with Walsh alone,” Torin said as they entered the keep.
“Of course, it would,” Flora said. “I may think of questions you fail to ask or questions I ask may have you asking others questions you had not thought to ask or the same of you for me. It would be foolish of us not to speak with him together.”
As usual his wife took no offense to his suggestion, she simply pointed out the reason for it being otherwise.
“Bring a hot brew to my solar for my wife, Anwen,” Torin called out, spotting the woman in the Great Hall when they entered. “A shawl as well,” he added when he saw Flora shiver.
Torin led her to his solar where he moved a chair closer to the fire and made her sit. “You will warm yourself.”
Flora did not argue, a chill having felt as if it soaked down into her bones. She rubbed her hands together warming them while her mind got busy with questions for Walsh and was grateful for the hot brew when a servant handed her a tankard.
Torin took the shawl from Anwen when she entered the solar and draped it around his wife’s shoulders.
“All goes well with the work, Anwen?” Flora asked when the woman turned to leave.
“Aye, my lady. The furnishings you chose are being moved to your solar and Hadwin has a mortar and pestle he thinks will suit your needs. He also has a few other things he thinks might interest you.”
“We will go see him as soon as I get a chance, Anwen,” she said, eager to see what the merchant had.
Anwen went to leave and stopped, the door blocked by Walsh, Kinnell standing behind him, Torin having sent him to fetch the man.
Flora caught the way Walsh stared at Anwen for a moment, then gave her a nod and stepped aside. He always seemed to linger on Anwen when he looked upon her and she wondered over it and if Anwen noticed it herself.
Kinnell stepped aside to let Anwen take her leave, then shut the door behind her.
“You wished to see me, my lord?” Walsh asked.
Torin did not waste any time, he was blunt. “Did you pull the mercenary from the loch?”
Walsh raised his chin. “It would be foolish of me to deny it. I did pull him from the loch. His name was Tilden. He went where the best coin was offered. I knew him only in passing. We never worked a mission together.” He ran his hand roughly over his beard. “When I heard that two men had been found trying to enter the isle from the loch, I went and walked some areas I thought might easily be breached. I found Tilden and dragged him to where you found him.”
“Why not tell me?” Torin asked.
“I knew what you would think, what you think now, that I have lied to you, and I am here to carry out whatever mission these men took on.”
“Are you?” Torin demanded.