He sat, hoping, praying, and thinking that he didn’t know how he’d live without his wife. She had become such a vital part of it. How would he ever get into bed at night without her there to take in his arms or wake in the morning without her curled around him? He shook his head. And how unfair that now with her sight restored, she would never get to see the love and passion he has for her in his eyes.

Thaw whined and whimpered and Tarass did his best to soothe him, but they both found it difficult. He didn’t know when Slatter had appeared. He was suddenly there or perhaps he’d been there for a while and had said nothing.

“Tell me,” Tarass said.

“I took care of the two that watched to see if anyone followed you. Rannock sent a troop of men to collect all the bodies and one was found alive, though not for long. The fool thought he’d run far enough.”

“Don’t return the bodies here. Have Rannock burn them all in the woods,” Tarass ordered.

“Aye,” Slatter said.

“You have something you don’t want to tell me,” Tarass said, hearing reluctance in his one word.

He nodded slowly. “Runa is dead… by her own hand. It took little persuading to get her to confess. She told Rannock and me that her father had paid three men to help them. They helped with the pools of blood. All the blood came from animals they killed in the woods, except for a small amount from Finn. She posed as the dwarf and helped fake Fasta’s miscarriage, hoping it would put fear into Snow, and more fright into the clan, but she hadn’t counted on Snow’s courage that left the village praising her bravery. It also served another purpose. It gave Fasta an excuse to be absent from the keep so she could finalize plans with the culprits.”

“Now I know how Thaw knew it was Runa… the smell. Snow had told me she had smelled a terrible odor when the dwarf was near her when Fasta had supposedly suffered a miscarriage. I wonder if it was something that caused Fasta to lose some blood, since Runa was about to do the same to my wife. Thaw had smelled the foul odor that night as well as just moments ago in my bedchamber.”

“You were suspicious of someone when you rushed into the keep?” Slatter asked.

“Twilla.”

Slatter thought a few moments. then nodded. “It all falls into place now. I would guess the man who caused all the harm was Twilla’s son who wasn’t dead after all, and you thought she had helped him.”