Page 163 of Bride of Ice
“It has?” Colban asked.
Jenefer crossed her arms. “Well, ’tis put you back inmygood graces, and if anyone wants to challenge me on that…”
Colban frowned. “But what about Archibald?”
“He deserved to die,” Hallie said.
She’d never uttered those words before, and they shocked Jenefer and Morgan.
Morgan narrowed his eyes. “What did he do?”
When Hallie refused to say, Morgan looked to Colban, who also sealed his lips.
Jenefer defended her. “If Hallie says he deserved to die, then he deserved to die.”
“That’s what Ian said as well,” Hallie told Colban. “He said if Colban the Champion thinks Archie did something bad, then logic dictates he did something bad.”
“Ian said that?” Colban breathed.
“Aye.”
He looked as if a yoke had been lifted off his back. “I’m truly forgiven?”
She nodded.
Colban let out a relieved breath. “Then there’s somethin’ I’d like to ask ye.”
“Aye?”
Morgan cleared his throat. “Would ye like us to—”
“Nay,” Colban said. “Stay. Ye can bear witness.”
Hallie stiffened. Bear witness? What was he going to say?
“Hallidis Cameliard o’ Rivenloch,” he said, “if ’tis your will, ’twould be my great honor to be a husband to ye…and a father to your bairn.”
His confession, at first so sweet and adoring, twisted quickly into a mortifying revelation of her secret. Bloody hell. How had he found out she was with child?
“Wait,” Jenefer burst out. “You have a bairn, and you didn’t tell me?”
Hallie blushed in answer, clasping a defensive hand across her belly. But her heart was breaking. Was that the only reason Colban was asking her to wed him? Out of honor?
“How did you know?” she mumbled.
“Isabel may have said something,” Colban admitted.
“And how didsheknow?”
Morgan tried to explain. “’Twas through a tangled web o’ gossip. But the point is Colban knows, and he wants to do the honorable thing.”
Jenefer smacked her husband on the shoulder. “The honorable thing? A marriage is based on more than honor.”
“How can ye say that?” Morgan asked. “After all, Hallie’sfirstmarriage was based on honor. She honored the king’s bidding.”
Jenefer scowled. “And you see how that ended up.”
“And what about us?” Morgan said. “Our marriage was ordained by the king as well.”
