Page 21 of The Flame and the Forsaken

“Aye, even the ones who know better,” Erran quipped, and they both laughed. “Ken he’d notice if we left?”

“Doesnae miss a whit, our Khal,” Hamish said, slopping ale all over the place as he wedged between them. “Remembers every one of their names too. Stunning commitment, innit?”

“I prefer fealty to home and hearth, but it suits him,” Samuel said, conceding as far as he ever would. “And Gwyn doesn’t seem to mind.”

“She minds,” Erran said. “But what can she do about it? She didnae choose the marriage any more than he did. She’s a Northerland lass. Might not be their way.”

“It’s the way of all men,” Hamish retorted. “Until they find themselves, course.”

“Not all of us can just stumble upon a beautiful, helpless woman in a port and marry her.” Erran laughed. Hamish hadn’t told them the full story of Yanna, only the parts they’d seen themselves: she’d been homeless, abused, desperate... and pregnant. But Hamish had seen something in her eyes that had turned his entire world on its head. He’d taken her back with them that very day, and they’d been wed within a fortnight. Their oldest son, Jesse, as far as anyone else knew, was Hamish’s. Erran and his friends were quick to shut down anyone positing otherwise.

“Mariel is lovely, Erran. I’m sorry we didn’t get to meet her sooner,” Samuel said. “Reminds me of Yesenia, but with fewer, ah... spines.”

“Aye, but the lass was prickly tonight,” Hamish replied. “Erran likes ’em tha’ way, I ken. Flogs himself for sport.”

“Isshe lovely?” Erran swallowed a mouthful of ale to drown his distaste. “Cannae see past her displeasing attitude.”

“And you have accentuated our point.” Samuel shook his head at Khallum, who was still winning over the lasses he’d bed later. “I’d think you two would get on swimmingly. Remind me, Hamish, who his first infatuation was, before Yesenia?”

Erran shook his head tightly at them both in sharp warning.

“Oy, Esta Garrick!” Hamish boomed, slapping his knee. “Course, she wasnae half as hairy then...”

“Feck off.” Erran grunted at him. “I was a bairn, you tosser.”

“Still plowed her,” Hamish muttered, cackling into his ale. “Bairn or nay.”

“Fourteen is plenty old to know better,” Samuel replied, grinning with mischief. “Is that why you didn’t attend her handfast? Were the feelings too... raw?”

“I didnae attend her handfast because the Garricks are uncivilized.” Erran groaned through his teeth, remembering how Yesenia had taken a dagger to Esta’s brother, Lem, for bullying her brother. Maybe Mariel was right and he did always find a way to work Yesenia into a thought. He only knew he missed her still. “I expect this nonsense from Khallum but not you two.”

“We’re just trying to cheer you up, mate.” Samuel leaned over the table and slapped his shoulder. “Did you at least talk to her? Was it an attempt at humor?”

“She’s like walking into a storm without a cloak. All I can think about is how I can get to safety without losing too much in the doing.” He eyed Khallum, still smoothly charming his chosen ladies, wishing, for a moment, that his own needs were so simple. “She says it’s about Yesenia and some maids I allegedly consorted with at the Spires, but I donnae ken I believe her.”

“What maids?” Hamish asked, his eyes growing wide. “Donnae recall anything about pretty maids.”

“Therewerenone.”

“Why don’t you believe her?” Samuel asked.

“Because to care about who I spend my hours with would require some sort of harmony or attraction, and she has neither. And aye, feeling’s mutual. So feckin’ mutual.” Erran sputtered into bitter laughter. “She doesnae evenknowme, and you’d think I’d murdered her family, down to the last.”

“Did ye?” Hamish waggled his brows. Ale foam stuck to his beard.

“Be serious,” Erran gruffed. “Never even met her until Father came home one day and told me he’d picked me a wife. I had no choice in the matter.”

“Where did your father find her?” Samuel crossed his arms and leaned back. “I don’t remember you saying.”

Erran pursed his mouth. “All he’d say was that she was ‘unproblematic.’ What he really meant was ‘lowborn’ and ‘easy to control.’ Suppose he was right on one point.”

“Must’ve been right cross wit’ ye to pair his only son wit’ a lake rat,” Hamish said. When Samuel shot him a look, he asked, “What? Donnae mean nothin’ by it. It’s what they call lake dwellers, innit? Leastways the ones with no family name?”

“Ashdown is a name, Hamish.”

“Aye, never said otherwise.”

“You know they used to be barons, the Ashdowns?”

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