He warned in such a menacing way that she held her tongue.

“Explain,” he ordered, “and silence your pup’s growls or I will.”

“Thaw wouldn’t growl if you weren’t so belligerent,” she said with a wag of her finger at him.

“Don’t wag that finger at me, woman,” he ordered.

“Then don’t order me about. You have no right. You’re not my husband and thank God you never will be,” she said and gave one last shake of her finger.

He was suddenly right in her face, his hand swallowing her fingers in a tight grasp while Thaw growled threateningly at him,

“You would learn obedience soon enough if you were my wife,” he said, his face so near that the tip of his nose touched hers. “Now silence that pup of yours.” He stepped away from her.

“Quiet, Thaw,” Snow ordered three times before the pup settled into a low growl.

It was getting hot in the small space and Snow slipped her cloak off and felt for the back of one of the two chairs to drape it across.

“Tell me what happened, since there is no way your family would let you go off on your own and while you’re often more foolish than not, I don’t believe you’d be that foolish.”

“Your compliments always overwhelm me,” Snow said.

“Sarcasm will not help your situation.”

“You’re right,” she agreed with a nod, thinking it would do no good to antagonize him in her current dilemma. She needed his help in getting home.

“Finally, you speak words that make sense.”

Snow bit her tongue so hard she thought she’d make it bleed.

“I’m waiting,” he said impatiently.

She caught his movements and she surmised he was shedding his furs as she had done with her cloak.

“Light flurries were falling when I left Willow’s home with Finn,” she began. “The snowstorm seemed to come from out of nowhere. He stopped and tied a rope from my horse to his so he wouldn’t lose me,”

“That was wise of him. So what happened?”

“After a while his horse stopped and so did mine. I called out but got no answer. Thaw jumped out of my arms and I went after him. He led me to Finn.” Sorrow had her pausing a moment. “He was on the ground dead. I felt no wounds on his chest and head. I assumed his heart simply stopped as my mum would say.”

“Finn was a good man.”

Snow was surprised he knew Finn and that he offered even a small bit of condolence. Did the Lord of Fire possibly have a heart?

“Of course, you foolishly didn’t think to keep hold of the horses when you went in search of Finn.”

Nope, he had no heart, she thought and bit her tongue again.

“I tried to find them—”