Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 104340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Sloan waited until the two servants placed pitchers of hot cider, ale, and platters heaped with food on the table, only then did he answer Cree.
“She told me that Dawn is the bravest woman she knows. That she never let her affliction get in her way and that she has endured many taunts and endless ignorance with resolve and strength. Lila says that Dawn speaks better with her hands than most people do with their voices. That she is a loyal friend and has a caring heart and hadn’t that been proven with Dawn freeing Dorrie, a woman who has taunted Dawn endlessly. It is obvious that she is worried about her friend.”
“Dawn is far safer now under my protection than she has ever been,” Cree said as if he waited for Sloan to challenge otherwise.
Sloan looked ready to take the challenge, though seemed to think better of it. “Dawn is a unique woman.”
“You’re right about that,” Cree agreed and appeared to relax reaching for a piece of bread. “She is unlike any woman I have ever met.”
“And we’ve met many along the way,” Sloan said, grinning and raising his tankard.
Cree joined him in the toast to their past conquests and realized he was toasting, with no regret, the end of them. He wanted only Dawn, no other. The surprising thought did not disturb him. It actually gave him a sense of indescribable pleasure.
“What are your plans for Dorrie? Back in the stocks?”
“Ask it the way you truly want to ask it,” Cree demanded with a glint of anger in his dark eyes.
“Not how I want to, but how others will perceive it if you do not return Dorrie to the stocks.”
“And it should matter to me what others think? Has it ever mattered before?”
Sloan seemed to give it thought and then shrugged. “You’re right. It never did matter to you. But it is different now. You now hold a title; you are the Earl of Carrick.”
“Not officially. Not until I wed Gerwan’s daughter.”
“All the more reason to act like—”
“The men I despise?” Cree spat. “The men I pillaged and murdered for? I earned this land unlike them, but I will not treat my people with such careless disregard as they do.”
“You will allow Dawn’s blatant disregard for your orders to go unpunished?”
Remembering her silent tears had Cree saying, “She’s been punished enough.”
Sloan looked ready to argue but Cree’s dark scowl quickly stopped any retort that was on his tongue. “As you wish,” he said respectfully. “Dorrie is to be allowed out of her cottage?”
Cree nodded. “See that she goes back to doing her share and then some for at least a week, though she is to be confined to her cottage, after her chores are done. Turbett can always use extra help. Send her there. Let her see what Dawn had to contend with.”
Sloan nodded. “When do you wish to hear grievances and permissions?”
“Not for a couple of weeks. Let the villagers have time to see the way things will go and learn that they can speak if something seems unfair or troubling without threat of harm.”
The two men spent the next hour discussing what issues needed to be addressed over the next few days.
When they finished Cree asked, “Is Elsa set in her cottage?”
“She is and has two village women eager to help and learn from her. I’m still searching for someone to oversee the keep servants. Someone who eventually will report to your wife since the running of the keep will be her domain.”
Cree stood. “I’m sure you’ll find someone. I’ll be going with William to the site where the new castle will be built. See that six warriors are made ready to accompany me in an hour’s time.”
“They’ll be waiting,” Sloan said. “What of Dawn? Is she still to have a guard on her at all times? Is she restricted as to where she may go?”
“Keep Elwin on Dorrie and shift the men around to watch over Dawn. And find the damn culprit who shot that arrow so we can lay this matter to rest.”
Cree left Sloan to see to the day’s matters. He hurried to his bed chamber pleased to see that a fresh bucket of water waited for him. He stripped off his leather tunic and black shirt and proceeded to wash himself. He could not abide being dirty. He had spent his younger years in such squalor and hunger that he swore he would do anything never to live that way again, and he had. He only wished his mother had survived long enough to benefit from his wealth and power. She had literally worked herself to death in order to see that he and his sister survived, she being their only support his da having died from a fall when Cree was barely three years.