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“I am here to claim it in his name,” James argued.

“How can you claim the land when you are a prisoner here?”

“You cannot fight all of Lord Torrance’s warriors.”

“I don’t have to. I only need to fight one man, then the others will fall along with him,” The Monk said with confidence.

“Asher will stop you,” James warned.

The Monk’s sneering smile spoke loud enough, though his words carried a heavy impact. “I’m counting on it.” He looked at Nug and was annoyed when he didn’t see his wife there. A quick glance showed she was tending Angus’s wound and paying no heed to her own wound. “Is there a place these two can be imprisoned?”

“There are two cells in the dungeon in the bottom of the keep, but they haven’t been used in years.”

“Let these two ready the cells for themselves, though the one will not be in there long. He has a date with death today,” TheMonk ordered with a glance at the man now struggling to get to his feet.

Nug called out to a few warriors fit enough to help with the task and they hurried to see it done, James warning the crowd that they would all suffer when Lord Torrance found out.

The Monk went to his wife, people nodding to him as he did, expressing their thanks, though not hiding their fear as they begged him to stay and help them.

“Please stay.”

“Help us while Chieftain Ryland heals.”

“Forever grateful to you.”

“You can keep us safe.”

“Please. Please stay.”

The Monk ignored them. It didn’t matter that people knew who he was, the only thing that mattered was Shade. He felt as if the breath had been knocked out of him when he saw the man shove his wife so hard that she had hit the ground with force and blood began to pool. He wanted to choke the life out of the man when he got her to her feet and saw the blood running down the side of her face mixed with dirt from having fallen face down. He was looking forward to seeing the man dead for what he had done to Shade.

But right now, he wanted to throttle her for thinking of the wounded men before herself.

He watched her as he approached and could tell she was quickly assessing the degree of the various wounds on the men.

“Follow me to the healer’s cottage and I will tend your wounds. Afterwards, you will find food and drink in the keep.”

“They will wait. Ena will tend to you first,” The Monk ordered, when he reached her.

The wounded men stepped away, all but Angus.

“You’ll not harm Shade,” Angus said.

“Quint would never harm me, Angus,” Shade insisted, seeing The Monk’s anger had yet to quell.

“He isn’t Quint. He’s The Monk,” Angus said, never taking his eyes off him.

“Wise man, Angus, but Shade is right. I would never harm her,” The Monk said and took hold of his wife’s arm to see she got to Ena’s cottage.

Shade held her tongue especially seeing how people stared at them or how they would bob their head in respect, or was it fright? They had gotten to know Quint and saw he was a good man. Would that all change now that they knew he was the infamous Monk?

He all but propelled her into the cottage and down on a bench when they entered the cottage. Ena followed them in. Her face had paled watching them approach as a woman whispered the news to her.

“See to her wound, Ena,” The Monk ordered.

The older woman’s hand shook as she took a wet cloth to the wound to clean the blood away.

Shade finally took gentle hold of Ena’s hand. “I can see to this with my husband’s help, Ena. The wounded warriors are in greater need of your skills.”