She took a deep breath. “I do not believe he is trustworthy.” The words came out in a rush that made her pulse pound. But at least the deed was done. There would be no hiding from it now.
Jonah took a long swig of wine. “I admit that when he first arrived, I too had my doubts.”
“I thought you were wrong at the time,” she interjected.
Jonah silenced her by leaning forward and taking her hand in his. “I believe I was.”
Nonplussed she could only sit back in her chair, gaping at him. A log cracked in the fire and the dog’s tail thumped lazily against the floor.
Jonah flashed her a smile. “On the day the young boy was stabbed, I was resting in the solar. I heard a disturbance and decided to listen by the open window.” Jonah released her hand, opening his palms before him. “What I heard was reassuring.”
Frida felt her head beginning to spin. This was not the conversation she had been anticipating.
“What did you hear?”
“I heard the other man, Gregor, threaten you. I heard Callum answer that threat with the same valour and determination that I would have voiced myself.” Jonah’s smile became pinched. “Aye, sister, e’en our esteemed brother Tristan could not have defended you more vigorously.”
Frida’s heart was beating heavily now.Can this be true?
But she directed a level glare at Jonah, pretending that her very soul was not clamouring for Callum’s innocence. “Can we leave your eternal feud with Tristan out of this?”
“I find that Tristan enters everything, in the end.” Jonah paused. “I wrote him into this tale myself.”
Frida took a moment to digest this. In the background, she heard swift footsteps walking along the passageway to the kitchen.
Mirrie.
She would dearly love to hear all Jonah had to say before Mirrie came upon them.
Not because Mirrie was not a cherished friend and confidante. But because Mirrie knew how Frida felt about Callum. And right now, Frida could not manage Mirrie’s disappointment alongside her own. Although perchance therewas no need for disappointment. Her brother had offered her a lifeline, but she had not yet reached out to grasp it.
“You are speaking in riddles, Jonah,” she declared.
Jonah pushed a hand through his thick blonde hair. “It comes down to this. When Callum and his men first arrived, I was suspicious of their story. When I entered the solar and found you and Callum there alone, I grew ever more suspicious of his motives.”
Frida took a breath, keen to dispute this implication, but Jonah caught her eye with a questioning smile.
“Do you want me to finish or not?”
“I want you to finish,” she allowed.
“I dispatched a message to Tristan, checking Callum’s claim that he had been sent here to provide additional defence against Scottish unrest.”
Jonah reached for his wine, allowing Frida’s thoughts to race unchecked.
“I had only fleeting doubts over that tale,” she breathed. She had been more concerned about her old history with Callum.
About protecting my heart.
Jonah inclined his head. “You have not been trained to doubt.”
She suppressed a desire to kick him. “Just because I did not train as a knight in Lindum does not mean that I am not capable of rational thought.”
“Nay indeed.” The glimmer in his blue eyes told her he was teasing.
“What did Tristan say?”
Jonah shrugged. “I have not yet received a response. But ’tis no matter. For after hearing Callum’s words in the courtyard to the man Gregor, my doubts are eased.”
