way only briefly and flashed a sheepish smile.
"She belongs with her mother," Wulfgar said. "With her real mother."
"I had thought her father had demanded her to raise as his princess in Icewind Dale," came a sharp retort from the side, and all three turned to regard the entrance of Lord Feringal. The man twisted his face tightly as he moved near to his wife, all the while staring hatefully at Wulfgar.
Wulfgar looked to Meralda for a clue, but found nothing on her shocked face. He struggled to figure out which way to veer the conversation, when Meralda unexpectedly took the lead.
"Colson is not his child," the Lady of Auckney said. She grabbed Feringal by the hands and forced him to look at her directly. "Wulfgar never ravished - "
Before she could finish, Feringal pulled one of his hands free and lifted a finger over her lips to silence her, nodding his understanding.
He knew, Meralda realized and so did Wulfgar. Feringal had known all along that the child was not Wulfgar's, not the product of a rape.
"I took her to protect your wife...and you," Wulfgar said after allowing Feringal and Meralda a few heartbeats to stare into each other's eyes. Feringal turned a scowl his way, to which Wulfgar only shrugged. "I had to protect the child," he explained.
"I would not..." Feringal started to reply, but he stopped and shook his head then addressed Meralda instead. "I would not have hurt her," he said, and Meralda nodded.
"I would not have continued our marriage, would not have borne you an heir, if I had thought differently," Meralda quietly replied.
Feringal's scowl returned as he glanced back at Wulfgar. "What do you want, son of Icewind Dale?" he demanded.
Some noise to the side clued Wulfgar in to the fact that the Lord of Auckney hadn't come to the garden alone. Guards waited in the shadows to rush out and protect Feringal.
"I want only to do what is right, Lord Feringal," he replied. "As I did what I thought was right those years ago." He shrugged and looked at Colson, the thought of parting with her suddenly stabbing at his heart.
Feringal stood staring at him.
"The child, Colson, is Meralda's," Wulfgar explained. "I would not cede her to another adoptive mother without first determining Meralda's intent."
"Meralda's intent?" Feringal echoed. "Am I to have no say?"
As the lord of Auckney finished, Meralda put a hand to his cheek and turned him to face her directly. "I cannot," she whispered.
Again Feringal silenced her with a finger against her lips, and turned back to Wulfgar. "There are a dozen bows trained upon you at this moment," he assured the man. "And a dozen guards ready to rush out and cut you down, Liam Woodgate among them - and you know that he holds no love for Wulfgar of Icewind Dale. I warned you that you return to Auckney only under pain of death."
A horrified expression crossed Meralda's face, and Wulfgar squared his shoulders. His instincts told him to counter the threat, to bring Aegis-fang magically to his hand and explain to the pompous Feringal in no uncertain terms that in any ensuing fight, he, Feringal, would be the first to die.
But Wulfgar held his tongue and checked his pride. Meralda's expression guided him, and Colson, clutching his shoulder, demanded that he diffuse the situation and not escalate a threat into action.
"For the sake of the girl, I allow you to flee, straightaway," Feringal said, and both Wulfgar and Meralda widened their eyes with shock.
The lord waved his hands dismissively at Wulfgar. "Be gone, foul fool. Over the wall and away. My patience wears thin, and when it is gone, the whole of Auckney will fall over you."
Wulfgar stared at him for a moment then looked at Colson.
"Leave the girl," Feringal demanded, lifting his voice for the sake of the distant onlookers, Wulfgar realized. "She is forfeit, a princess of Icewind Dale no more. I claim her for Auckney, by Lady Meralda's blood, and do so with the ransom of Wulfgar's promise that the tribes of Icewind Dale will never descend upon my domain."
Wulfgar spent a moment digesting the words, shaking his head in disbelief all the while. When it all sorted out, he dipped a quick and respectful bow to the surprising Lord Feringal.
"Your faith in your husband and your love for him were not misplaced," he said quietly to Meralda, and he wanted to laugh out loud and cry all at the same time, for never had he