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I accepted the ale with a nod of thanks.

“I would rather it buy me information.”

His gaze turned wary and I allowed him to wonder for a moment as I swilled the cat-piss he called ale and tried not to allow my distaste to show.

“Information about what?” he finally prompted, everything about him from his eyes to the way he gripped the cleaning rag betraying his nervousness. He knew something dangerous and was afraid I knew it as well.

Well, I cared not for human intrigue and politics, so I flashed him what I hoped was an easy-going smile.

“About Cataline. She and her son nae longer live in the same home.”

For a brief moment, something like rage flickered across the man’s bearded face. ‘Twas there and gone so fast another male might have missed it.

But I was Maardok the Terrifying, leader of the warriors of the Battleborn of Islay. I would not underestimate such a thing, and I vowed not to underestimate this human.

I had not imagined John’s response to my question, but it might have been possible to think I had, from the way the easy smile now crinkled the corners of his eyes as he switched his focus to wiping down the bar top.

“Aye, the slut was banished from town, so as not to contaminate others with her sin.”

I couldn’t help my response. I slammed the mug down on the wooden board, causing it to spill across the filth he’d only just finished wiping.

“Banished?” I growled. “Sin?”

“Fornication,” the other male said simply. “The bitch is a whore.”

I stared at the bastard, unable to find a way to respond to such slander.

He’d been the one to send me to Cataline. If she had whored, I was certain it had been a gentle sort of arrangement, as her time with me had been. She’d fed and sheltered me for a fortnight, and aye, allowed me to share her bed. In return, I’d left her with enough gold to feed her son all summer.

If she had whored, then John was as much at fault as she was, and here he was condemning her?

In truth, I had no understanding of how human society worked. Och, I’d seen it. I just didn’t understand it.

In my world, sex was natural and pleasure was celebrated. The thought of banishing a neighbor, much less for something as honest and freeing as sexual pleasure, was unheard of.

So I could do naught more than stare in shock, trying to find words to respond to the other male’s smug judgement.

“Aye, and I’ll wager you know it too,” John announced with a nod, lifting my mug to wipe the spill. “You spent time between her legs.”

Deep in my chest, my Kteer—the primitive part of my soul which focused on keeping me alive—began to growl inaudibly. Spent time between her legs didn’t begin to describe the pleasure Cataline and I brought each other, nor the fun I had teaching her son the few tricks and games I remembered from my childhood.

“Well, a whore is always discovered, eh?” He sent me a smirk, toasting me with my half-filled mug. “By the time her sin was discovered, the whole town knew of her shame.”

I forced my tongue to work. “Sin?” I croaked again.

“The slut is pregnant, but ‘twas to be expected, the way she allowed so many men to blow her stomach. She and that brat of hers were banished in late summer.”

Slowly, I exhaled, trying to keep my rage in check. Her desperation had led to some male’s seed taking, and John—who had all-but encouraged her actions—had banished her? My palms flattened against the bar.

“Banished where?”

John raised the mug from his own lips and jerked his chin toward the east.

“An old crofter’s hut mayhap ten miles toward the mountains. I know for a fact ‘tis not fit to survive in through the snows.”

“So ye sent them out there to die?” I asked, unable to hide the incredulity in my voice. “Because ye disapprove of her habits?”

Habits ye profited from at least once, ye bastard.