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‘You are about to see first-hand what a brute I am when defending my wife and her good name,’ said Wolfric with quiet menace.
‘Her good name! Do not pretend you wanted her, Munro. You were after that land and nothing more.’
‘Outside, now,’ shouted Wolfric, peeling off his jacket and marching to the doors.
The crowd surged after him, and as Orla turned to follow, she was confronted with the shocked faces of both her parents. Her mother had a hand to her mouth, and her father was puce with outrage.
‘I always knew you would turn out to be a bad lot,’ he howled, holding a handkerchief to his nose as if she were something rotten.
‘How could you, Orla?’ bleated her mother. ‘Shaming us like this, and before all the assembly.’
‘Oh, get away from me, both of you,’ she snapped, pushing against the rush of people funnelling out of the doors. Orla was swept along and paid no heed to the stares and tutting around her. She had to stop Wolfric, for he would surely kill Robbie Dunn this day, and all because of her faithlessness.
Outside in the market square, under a pewter sky, the two men circled each other with fists up while the high and low born of Inverness encircled them, elbowing each other for a better view.
‘Beating me to a pulp won’t make me wrong. I saw what I saw. Your wife is a shameless slut,’ shouted Robbie in a quavering voice.
If Robbie expected a gentlemanly duel, he was sorely mistaken. Instead, Wolfric charged at him head down like a raging bull and hurled Robbie into the muck and manure of the square. They rolled around, trying to get punches into each other.
The fight was short-lived but brutal. Wolfric was bigger, stronger and infinitely more vicious. Robbie barely got a punch in, but Wolfric landed several crushing blows to Robbie’s face with a crunching sound that made Orla wince and one lady in the crowd swoon. Blood spurted everywhere. There came a sickening crack as Robbie tried to rise, and Wolfric stomped on his fingers. Faced with such violence, even Major Sutherland took a step forward, on the point of intervening, but he held back. It seemed he would do nothing, nor would any of Robbie’s cronies, who were engrossed in the horrible spectacle unfolding.
Robbie hardly put up a struggle when Wolfric rolled him over, face down in the dirt, his legs thrashing wildly.
‘Stop, Wolfric. You will kill him,’ Orla shouted. ‘Stop now. I beg you.’
‘Not yet. I am not finished,’ snarled Wolfric. ‘Let him choke on filth for spreading filth.’
‘You have punished him for insulting me and exposed his lies. That should be enough for your honour and mine. Please. Enough now.’ Orla bit her lip, praying he would listen, or else she would be responsible for the death of an innocent man.
But Wolfric was like a man possessed. He lifted Robbie out of the dirt and shouted into his face. ‘You made up a tale just to wound me. Admit it, you resentful bastard.’
‘Stop, please,’ sputtered Robbie. ‘I cannot breathe. The muck….’
‘Oh, is the muck choking you? A thousand apologies. Shall we wash it off?’ Wolfric hauled Robbie to his feet and dragged him over to the horse trough. He pushed his face down into the slimy water for the longest time, then lifted him up again.
‘Confess to the lie, Dunn, or there will be more of the same.’
Thankfully, Robbie was too cowardly to take more of a beating and gave in. ‘Alright, I admit it. I was mistaken in what I saw.’
‘It was not my wife you saw with Captain Nash, was it? Just some doxy with loose morals. The truth now,’ he said, shaking Robbie hard.
‘Aye. It must have been some other lass. I was not close, and it was a dark day. It was not your wife. It was not Orla.’
Wolfric let go of Robbie, who slid to a bloody heap on the floor.
‘Take this wretch out of my sight,’ snarled Wolfric to Robbie’s cronies. ‘Anyone else who insults me, Clan Munro or my wife, gets the same beating.’
Wolfric stormed up to Orla and Rufus and spoke loudly enough that everyone would hear. ‘Father, please take Orla home. She is sorely wounded by this terrible slight today. It is something no lady should have to suffer. I will follow soon.’
Wolfric took her hand in his own bloody one. ‘Do not vex yourself over that worm. Your honour has been avenged, my love, and he does not deserve your pity, though it does you credit.’ He planted a kiss on her hand, yet his eyes blazed with barely-contained anger when he looked up at her.
‘Are you not coming with us, son?’ said Rufus.
‘No. I must have words with Captain Nash and Major Sutherland.’
‘Is that wise when your blood is up? Be careful,’ said Rufus.
‘The Captain’s honour has been besmirched as much as my wife’s has, Father. And we can’t have that, can we?’ said Wolfric glaring straight at her. ‘This must be put right, one way or another.’ He glanced over at Robbie Dunn, who was being dragged away, muttering and coughing blood out of his mouth. ‘I have made a start, and now I must finish this.’
