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Rune shook his head. “She’s not just Morton’s sister. Who is she?”
His bottom jaw shifting back and forth, Wes exhaled a long sigh. “She’s the one I was to marry. We obviously didn’t.”
Rune stared at him for a long second, then looked to his plate, stabbing a chunk of meat. Silent bugger.
“What?”
His old friend shrugged, picking up his silver tankard and sipping his ale.
“Say it, Rune.” Wes slammed his fork onto the table. “You’ve never been shy about telling me exactly what you think.”
Rune sighed and set his mug down onto the table with athunk. “I only heard the last of what she said to you, so I can only imagine what preceded it.”
“She wants to know where we’re going.”
“Seems a reasonable request.”
“It would require explanation.”
“She’s carrying the damn box and she doesn’t know what it is?” Rune’s jaw went slack as his hand clutching his fork clunked onto the table. “You haven’t told her? Haven’t told her anything, have you?”
“Tell her what I’ve been doing for the last seven months with her brother? Tell her what I’m doing with her?” His head shook. “No. No, I haven’t told her.”
Another low whistle slipped through Rune’s teeth. “Only you could get yourself in this deep with no plan for escape.”
“Because you always have a plan of escape?” Wes’s eyebrows lifted high. “Your opinions on the matter aren’t welcome, Rune.”
Rune picked up his fork, spiking it through a morsel of meat. He took the bite, staring at Wes as he chewed. “You’ve always been a man looking at what he’s lost. Instead of a man looking at what he could have.”
“And?”
Rune’s head angled to the stairs in the far corner of the inn. “And it seems like what you could have might be worth forgetting about what you lost.” He forked another piece of meat. “I watched the lass watch you all day long. She didn’t bother giving me one undue glance and you know well which one of us is admired by the ladies.”
“Your point?”
“She only looks at you, Wes.” Rune pointed the tips of his fork at Wes. “Bizarre—I realize. No matter how irate she is with you, you are what she looks to. What she trusts, regardless of what she says on the matter. So you might just want to share with her a few details about what’s really going on.”
Wes shoved his chair back, standing up. “And you’ve always been an idiot, Sin. Pontificating where it’s not welcome.”
Rune’s palms flew up. “You asked.”
Wes turned from the table, storming toward the stairs.
Idiot.
What did Rune know? What did Rune understand about losing everything in one’s life?
A whole damn much, actually. Rune had lost just as much as him.
“Wes—before you escape me, I know.”
Rune’s words stopped him and Wes turned back, stepping toward the table. “Know what?”
“You haven’t slowed down all day—not enough for me to tell you out of earshot of Lady Helena,” Rune said, his voice just above a whisper. “That was what you pulled me away from at the Purple Hen—I was getting information.”
“From a whore?”
Rune shrugged. “I go where the trail leads. It led to Miss Fiona. I know who is after the box—who sent the man after Lady Helena on the bridge.”
