face lit up in response. "A pretty name for a pretty girl." He grew more serious as he turned back to Wulfgar, though, and asked bluntly, "What would you have me do?"
"Get us to Meralda. Let me show her the beautiful child her daughter has become. She will not part with the girl again."
"And what of Lord Feringal?"
"Is he worthy of your loyalty and love?"
Temigast paused and considered that. "And what of Wulfgar?"
Wulfgar shrugged as if it did not matter, and indeed, regarding his obligation to Colson, it did not. "If he desires to hang me, he will have to - "
"Not that," Temigast interrupted, and looked at Colson.
Wulfgar's shoulders slumped and he heaved a deep sigh. "I know what is right. I know what I must do, though it will surely break my heart. But it will be a temporary wound, I hope, for in the passing months and years, I will rest assured that I did right by Colson, that I gave her the home and the chance she deserved, and that I could not provide."
Colson looked at Temigast and responded to his every gesture with a delighted smile.
"Are you certain?" the steward asked.
Wulfgar stood very straight.
Temigast glanced back at Castle Auck, at the short keep where Lady Meralda kept her flowers. "I will return this way before nightfall," he said. "With an empty carriage. I can get you to her, perhaps, but I disavow myself of you from that point forward. My loyalty is not to Wulfgar, not even to Colson."
"One day it will be," said Wulfgar. "To Colson, I mean."
Temigast was too charmed by the girl to disagree.
One hand patted the soft soil at the base of the stem, while the fingers of Meralda's other hand gently brushed the smooth petals. The tulips would bloom soon, she knew - perhaps even that very evening.
Meralda sang to them softly, an ancient rhyme of sailors and explorers lost in the waves, as her first love had been taken by the sea. She didn't know all the words, but it hardly mattered, for she hummed to fill in the holes in the verses and it sounded no less beautiful.
A slap on the stone broke her song, though, and the woman stood up suddenly and retreated a fast step when she noted the prongs of a ladder. Then a large hand clamped over the lip of the garden wall, not ten feet from her.
She brushed back her thick black hair, and her eyes widened as the intruder pulled his head up over the wall.
"Who are you?" she demanded, retreating again, and ignoring his shushing plea.
"Guards!" Meralda called, and turned to run as the intruder shifted. But as his other hand came up, she found herself frozen in place, rooted as if she was just another plant in her carefully cultivated garden. In the man's other hand was a young girl.
"Wulfgar?" Meralda mouthed, but had not the breath to say aloud.
He put the girl down inside, and Colson turned shyly away from Meralda. Wulfgar grabbed the wall with both hands and hauled himself over. The girl went to his leg and wrapped one arm around it, the thumb of her other hand going into her mouth as she continued to shy away.
"Wulfgar?" Meralda asked again.
"Da!" implored Colson, reaching up to Wulfgar with both hands. He scooped her up and set her on his hip, then pulled back his cowl, revealing himself fully.
"Lady Meralda," he replied.
"You should not be here!" Meralda said, but her eyes betrayed her words, for she stared unblinkingly at the girl, at her child.
Wulfgar shook his head. "Too long have I been away."
"My husband would not agree."
"It is not about him, nor about me," Wulfgar said, his calm and sure tone drawing her gaze back to him. "It is about her, your daughter."
Meralda swayed, and Wulfgar was certain that a slight breeze would have knocked her right over.
"I have tried to be a good father to her," Wulfgar explained. "I had even found her a woman to serve as her mother, though she is gone now, taken by foul orcs. But it is all a ruse, I know."
"I never asked - "
"Your husband's actions demanded it," Wulfgar reminded her, and she went silent, her gaze locking once more on the shy child, who had buried her face in her da's strong shoulder.
"My road is too arduous," Wulfgar explained. "Too dangerous for the likes of Colson."
"Colson?" Meralda echoed.
Wulfgar merely shrugged.
"Colson..." the woman said softly, and the girl looked her