“Did any of them harm you?” he asked, his tone sharp.
She stared at him a moment and he could tell by the sudden worry on her face that she had recalled a disturbing memory.
Rannick stood and went to her. “Tell me.”
“One man frightened me.”
“Who?” Rannick demanded.
She shook her head. “I do not know his name. It was shortly after Kendesa died. I was called to the keep at night to tend a visitor. He had broken his finger badly and he ordered me to heal it. I warned him that the break was bad and that the finger might not heal properly.” Her hand went to her throat.
“He grabbed you by the throat?” he asked, and gently moved her hand away.
She nodded. “Aye, he did. He was a big, bald man with a scar under one eye and an ugliness to him that otherwise would have been good features. He warned me he would enjoy seeing me punished if his finger did not heal well.” She shook her head. “The finger was too severely broken. It would never heal well. I did what I could and told him to limit the use of his hand for several weeks. He laughed at me, and Chieftain Emory stepped in and sent me on my way. He left the next day and thankfully I never saw him again.”
“Did he have a thick dark beard and a thick body?” Rannick asked.
Bliss’s eyes went wide. “How did you know?”
“His name is Jaffee He’s the one who gave me the scar on my face.”
CHAPTER 14
Bliss ran her finger gently over his scar. “What happened?”
Rannick nearly shut his eyes against the enticing pleasure of her faint touch as it spread slowly through him alerting all his senses.
He quickly recovered seeing how she patiently waited for him to explain. “Jaffee caught me off guard. I was lucky it was only the tip of his blade that caught my face or else there would be little left of it. He is a wicked warrior to fight, unfair in battle. Though I will say, you had a hand in his hasty departure from our encounter.”
“Me?” she asked, lowering her hand.
He wished her hand had remained, warm and tender, on his face, though he was glad when she rested it on his chest.
“He paid no heed to your warning about his finger and had a difficult time fighting with the painfully crooked appendage. When I spotted the weakness, I took advantage of it, and he soon abandoned the fight.”
“Why did he attack you?” she asked.
“Jaffee is known to do anything for substantial coin.”
Her brow drew together tightly. “Then an attempt on your life was made before the ones that took place here?”
“Gossip spreads about a group that wishes to see me, Brogan, and Odran dead so that the curse dies with us and puts an end to the pain and suffering of so many. I assumed someone paid Jaffee to see it done.”
“And you waited to tell me this?” she asked. Her scrunched brow suddenly disappeared with the widening of her eyes. “You do not trust me.”
She went to move away from him, and he caught her arm in a tender grip. “This is not your fight.”
“You are my husband. Your fight is my fight but that does not answer my question,” she said. “Do you trust me?”
He wanted to trust her, but her priority was for her sisters. “Your love is for your sisters and their safety, and you will put them before anyone else. Does that answer it for you?”
She lifted a stubborn chin to him. “You are right. I wed you to protect them, but what good are you to me dead? I need you to fulfill my bargain with your father. So, I will fight by your side whether you trust me or not and hope that you will fight this curse rather than surrender to it.”
“I never surrender,” he snapped and released her arm and returned to sit on the edge of the bed, her remark annoying him.
“Rannick.”
“What?” he barked.
“There is something we did not consider,” she said, her brow once again pinched.
“What is that?” he asked, unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
“If Jaffee was paid coin for his services, what was he doing with Chieftain Emory at Clan Loudon?”
Bliss’s question continued to haunt Rannick the next day. He had laid awake thinking on it while his wife slept peacefully in his arms last night. He had grown more and more content with her in his bed. She had restored an ease in him he thought forever lost. Oddly enough, he was glad he had gotten this time with her without being completely intimate. When they coupled, they would not be strangers to each other. She would show no reluctance to stand naked in front of him or shy away when he was naked. They had grown and continued to grow comfortable with each other. He was counting the days, anxious for Lawler’s return.