chance to. It was a skill… she was beginning to feel a little guilty for how often she’d assumed that the parents at work had an easy go of it, getting all that time off when they had children. Chasing Eamon around was a full-time job and then some — she couldn’t imagine coming home from a day’s work to do more of this.
They were exploring the castle together when Helen heard the low voices of servants, whispering about something, and something made her pay closer attention, letting Eamon take his time examining a suit of armor they’d found on the fourth floor. It seemed that something was happening — a prisoner was being released? Her heart jumped in her chest as she realized what it must be — they were letting Perry return to the village. Already? Was that really wise? She grabbed Eamon by the hand and hurried him downstairs, making some vague promise about Blair’s famous shortbread as she did to keep him compliant.
There were several guards in the hall downstairs, each of them keeping a wary eye on the prisoner. Perry. Her jaw tightened when she looked at him. He seemed a little more subdued than he had when she’d seen him, but that arrogant, furious gleam was still in his eye and he looked at Niall with utter loathing on his ugly face. The harbormaster was standing in the door of the castle, presiding over the guards as they escorted him toward the door. Eamon, seeing his dad, pointed and cried out — and Perry’s head swiveled to take in the child, and Helen behind him.
“Oh, it’s Niall’s little brat,” he sneered.
Eamon stiffened, clearly angry, and Helen picked him up, hoping to distract him from the man’s unkind words.
“You’re letting that whore touch your child, Niall? That’s not good parenthood —”
“You watch your tongue while you’re in my son’s presence,” Niall said sharply. “How dare you speak of Helen Washington like that. Get moving.” He was holding his sword, Helen realized with a shock, and she gasped as he jabbed at Perry with it — only to realize that the sword was still in its scabbard. No damage done by a sharp steel blade, then — but the message was clear, and though he grumbled, Perry kept walking.
“Wanna see,” Eamon insisted, and she followed the procession at a distance, curious herself to see what would happen when Perry was set free.
To her surprise, she could see a gaggle of villagers gathered at the open gates, looks of mistrust on their faces. None of them seemed willing to actually set foot on castle grounds, though they were all clustered close to the gate. Had they come to pick up Perry? That was strange. She scanned their faces from a distance, trying to recognize them — presumably some of them were the men from the little gang they’d met earlier, but there were women among them, too. Just how many sympathizers did Perry have among the folk of the village? She felt worry gnawing at her stomach as she thought about what Elena said about the villagers operating more on feeling than on logic. What if they felt that Perry had been poorly treated?
The guards released Perry’s bindings, and Niall pointed toward the gate, a mute admission that he was free to go. But Perry didn’t seem to have finished with the people of the castle. He took a few steps toward his little fan club at the gate, then turned back, raising his voice to be heard above the whistling wind.
“The people of this castle are all scum,” he proclaimed, loud and sneering. “I curse them, every single dog among them, down to the lowest cur — whose name is Niall,” he added, glaring at Niall as he spat onto the stone of the courtyard. “I hope your brat of a child is eaten by the Monster.”
She saw something snap in Niall. Before anyone could react, or even cry out, she saw him lift his sword — and bring it crashing down onto Perry’s side, making him exhale with surprise and recoil. Niall chased him from the castle grounds, flogging him with the sheathed sword as he went, roaring in fury at what he’d said — Perry stumbled out of the castle gate and into the arms of the villagers, who jeered and booed at Niall as he stepped back, letting them leave unharmed… though Helen could tell by the set of his jaw and the