Snow didn’t need to see her husband’s face, or even hear the powerful command in his voice to know he had frightened Abbot Bennett. She heard it in the way the man took several unsteady steps away from her husband.

A knock sounded at the door before any more could be said and Rannock entered along with one of the clerics that had accompanied the Abbot.

The short, wiry cleric spoke before Rannock could. “Cleric Norman has been found. He’s dead,” —he paused his eyes turning round with fear— “the clan’s people want to know if his body was drained of blood like the others.”

Tarass looked to Rannock and caught the slight shrug to his large shoulders. Rannock had no answer for him.

“What others?” Lord Polwarth asked. “Have you had other deaths where the bodies have been drained of blood?”

“That is the whispers I hear. I also heard them say it is dwarfs seeking knowledge,” —the cleric shook his head— “but it is not so. It is the work of heathens with heathen beliefs.”

A chill ran a shiver through Snow. This had to stop. They had to find out the truth to these killings. Or unrest would continue to mount in the clan and spread beyond, and that would bring bigger problems.

“What heathen practices do you bring here?” Abbot Bennett demanded his eyes suddenly going as wide as the cleric’s had. “Is this what Cleric Norman had discovered and bravely left here in a snowstorm to warn me about?” He didn’t wait for an answer, he turned to Lord Polwarth. “We cannot leave this poor soul here to suffer at his hands. She must come with us until this can be settled.”

“I warned you far too many times about making demands in my home.,” Tarass said, his voice rising in anger. “You will leave now!”

“Not without Snow,” Lord Polwarth said.

Fear rippled through Snow at the tenacity in Lord Polwarth’s response.

Not so Tarass, he walked over to the man, stopping right in front of him. “My wife stays here with me. You will leave now!” He looked to Rannock. “See them all escorted off my land.”

Rannock gave a nod and turned to carry out his orders, the cleric following after a shooing wave from Abbot Bennett.

“Let us at least take Snow to stay with her brother James until this matter can be settled properly,” Abbot Bennett said.

His attempt at a conciliatory tone sounded only half-hearted to Snow’s ears and she was glad to hear her husband’s voice sound more tenacious than Polwarth’s had.

“You try my patience, Abbot, and I warn you that is something you will live to regret. I will repeat yet again what I have repeatedly told you only because you’re such an idiot that you can’t understand it.”

Snow heard the Abbot and Polwarth gasp at the insult.