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“And I know that you were betrothed at one time.”
“Drifa told you that?” I would not think it was something she would be inclined to boast about.
Wulf shook his head. “Her guard Ivar did. And he was not happy to discover you there.”
“Still trying to figure out how I got in, is he?” He chuckled. “Do you know the circumstances surrounding that betrothal?”
“Nay.”
“Why not ask Drifa?”
“I did.”
And obviously had no success if his frown was any indication. Sidroc had to smile at that. The wench was stubborn with others, too. Not just him.
“What are your intentions toward the princess?”
By thunder, he sounds like her father. “That is none of your concern.”
“It is if you mean her harm.”
It depends on your definition of harm, my friend. “I will do naught without her consent.”
“That is the worst non-answer I have ever heard.”
And the best you are going to get. “Drifa is no longer a young maid. At twenty and nine years, surely she has the right to make her own decisions.”
Wulf bristled. “Drifa is a princess with a powerful father. Her age has naught to do with anything. This is a great adventure to Drifa, one she will never repeat again, once she returns home to mother her child.”
Her child? Sidroc jerked back as if he’d been slapped. “Drifa is married?” He tried to recall if he’d even asked that question since she’d arrived in Miklagard. Probably not. He’d just assumed.
“Nay, she is not married, and if you say one word defaming her honor, I swear you and I will engage in swordplay, and it won’t be for practice.”
“First you offer me work. Then you offer me threats.”
“My apologies. I may have overreacted.”
“Dost think so?” But then Sidroc decided to end the argument ... for now. “Has she ever been married?”
“Not that I know of.”
“How old is the child?”
“The child is irrelevant to our discussion.”
“I beg to differ. How old is the child?” he gritted out.
Wulf shrugged, as if unsure. “Runa is four, I think, but I am not a good judge of children’s ages. She could be three or six, for all I know.” He threw his hands out in dismissal. “I have only been to Stoneheim once, and then only for a short time. I’ve never discussed the child with Drifa.”
So the bitch let another man swive her, possibly soon after she rejected me. He hated the fact that he cared. Another misdeed to add to her list. Oh, she will pay. She will surely pay.
“Mayhap she adopted the child,” Wulf offered.
And mayhap not.
“I expect she will wed on her return to Stoneheim,” Wulf added. “ ’Tis a promise she made her father in return for his permission to come to Byzantium.”
“And is there a man picked out for that honor? Perchance even her baby’s father?”
