Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Dru let out a hardy laugh. “You prove your cowardice by demanding help and against who—a wee bit of a lass.”
The other warriors stepped back, one calling out, “She’s right, Elden. You shouldn’t need help against the likes of her.”
“My hand is injured,” Elden cried out.
“You’ve got another hand,” a warrior called out with laughter.
Dru realized how bad this could turn out if she continued to humiliate him and she had enough people hunting her. She didn’t need another one.
“What do you say we call a truce, and you have the healer look at your hand?” she offered.
“I don’t surrender,” Elden argued.
“Clean your ears out. TRUCE. I said TRUCE,” she shouted at him as if he were deaf. “And your word that you leave the lad alone.”
“He’s the one who bothers me with endless questions.”
She shook her head. “How he could think you have all the answers is beyond me.”
Elden looked ready to argue again and stopped, wrinkling his brow as he rested his burned hand against his chest. “That lad is a bright one, seeking wisdom from me.”
Dru took a chance and stepped towards Elden. “Yet you chase him. Shake him. Frighten him.”
Mara was suddenly at Dru’s side, handing over her cloak while her son clung to her leg. She looked nervously at Elden. “The healer is tending to someone. I can see to your hand if you’d allow me to.”
Dru admired Mara’s courage to make friends with him to keep her son safe.
“Best not let Penn ask him anything,” Dru warned, looking at Elden.
“Hold your tongue, woman, Penn can ask me anything he wants,” Elden said and looked down at the small lad and smiled. He raised his head after the lad returned his smile. “And you’re lucky I’ve agreed to the truce, or I would have given you a good beating.”
A commanding, powerful voice cut through the air. “If you had touched my wife, it would have been the last thing you ever did, Elden. And that would be a shame, the man who once saved your life ending it.”
Elden turned and stared wide-eyed. “Knox. I didn’t know, I swear. I didn’t know she was your wife. I never touched her. She kept me at bay. Burned my hand. Called me a coward.”
Knox turned to his wife. She was grinning. He flicked his finger at her. “Come here.”
Dru scooted past Elden, who stepped back to avoid her getting too close.
Brack hurried toward them. “What is going on here?” His glance caught Eldon’s burned hand. “What happened? Who did that to you? I will see him punished.”
Knox grabbed his wife’s arm when she went to step forward and claim the deed.
“A mishap that’s all,” Elden was quick to say. “Mara was about to tend to it for me.”
“Then go and be done with it,” Brack ordered. “And the rest of you get back to your chores.” He turned to Knox and pointed to a sole cottage sitting at the edge of the woods. “That one is for travelers. You can stay there until Torrance returns and there will be no interfering with village matters while you’re here.”
His warning was stern, but it didn’t deter Knox from issuing his own caution. “Then don’t give me a reason to.”
Brack tried to find a response, his mouth opened ready, but words failed him. He watched Knox and Dru walk toward the cottage thinking at least Knox would be no match for Torrance when he returned.
“What about be careful, do you not understand, wife?” Knox demanded once he closed the cottage door behind him.
Dru ignored his question on purpose and asked, “You saved Elden’s life?”
“That doesn’t work with me,” he said, shaking his head.
“What doesn’t work with you? Was it during battle you saved him?”
Knox grabbed his wife by the waist, lifted her off her feet to set her down on the table in the confined space, then he braced his hands on either side of her. “You will not avoid my questions.”
She went to kiss him, and he turned his head away.
“And you will not distract me.” He watched her eyes shift over his shoulder. “And there will be no pleasure in that bed tonight if you don’t explain and right now.”
“Oh, all right,” she said, capitulating. “Elden was about to give Mara’s son a beating simply for being curious, so I had no choice but to step in. I called him a coward, told him he was fat and ugly and that he stunk. Then I asked if he shite himself. I told him he could never catch me, and I threw whatever was bubbling in the cauldron on his hand to make him drop his dagger. He shouted for help to other warriors, and I may have said something about how he proved himself a coward needing help against a wee bit of a lass. The wise person that I am, realized things could turn badly if I continued to humiliate him, so I offered a truce.”