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Chapter Thirty-Three

Vanni

“My lord, there is someone here to see you.”

I ignore the squire, hitting the quintain again and again and again.

I should have gone to the forge earlier, before the tide rose again, but Thomas and I didn’t part ways with Stokerton and McGreghere for some time. And how was I to know she would hide from me for a second full day? When her father told me she was still at Nord Manor, I was of half a mind to tell him everything. Demand he send for her. Would he not agree we should marry if he knew the truth?

Restless in my need to strike something, I was almost jealous of the hammer he swung upon his anvil . . . so I decided to come back to the inn to await the opportunity to go to her at Nord Manor.

“My lord?”

I spin toward Christopher, prepared to share my displeasure at being interrupted, when I see the man standing behind him.

“Aldwine.”

I drop my sword.

“Why did you not tell me he was here?”

Christopher makes a strangled sound and marches off. I can hear the calls of men coming into port, indicating the end of the day for the fishermen of Murwood End. The end of another day without any communication with Aedre.

“Is she with you?”

Aldwine shakes his head. “Nay.”

Which means she is stranded at Nord. Did he take a boat?

“I need to speak to her,” I say, without preamble. “Take me back with you.”

Aldwine’s face is hard. “She does not wish to see you. So, no.”

I am liking Galfrid’s son less and less.

“I will not leave Murwood End without speaking to her.”

He approaches cautiously. “Does your king not anxiously await your return?”

“It matters not to you, as you’ve made clear.” I am angry enough to lash out at the very man I came here to woo.

He shrugs. “You’re right. It does not.”

My jaw aches from grinding my teeth together so forcefully.

Aldwine leans against the wall of the inn, crossing his arms. “If she were here, what would you say to her?”

I refuse to answer.

“I know about your tryst, d’Abella. And would challenge you because of it if Aedre had not convinced me ’twas her idea.”

She told him.

“What did she say to you?”

Before the words are even out of my mouth, I know he will not tell me. The man would no sooner betray Aedre’s confidence than he would return with me to claim the throne.

I grit my teeth even harder, biting out, “I would tell her to marry me, that I refuse to leave Murwood End without her.”