Free Well of the Damned by K.C. May

when you feel hurt, but let’s see if we can untie the
mystery o’who he is and what’s happened to him. There’s
probably a good explanation for why he disappeared.” He looked
up at Keturah’s mother as he stood. “What’s your
name, my lady?”
    “It’s
Nicholia Sparrohs, my liege,” she said with a curtsy.
    Gavin
sat one cheek of his arse on the table. “Nicholia, tell me what
you know about this man. When was the last time you saw him?”
    “It
must’ve been the first of Junis, around noon. He was regular,
like the sun rising in the east, always coming the first day of the
month. He would wrap coins and some small gift for Keturah in a piece
of cloth and leave it under a loose rock near my doorstep. Mostly
he’d knock and then leave before I could get to the door, but I
recognized him from behind as he rode away. Now and then he would
wait until I answered and ask how Keturah fared. He always had a kind
word for her, though I could tell it pained him to see her.”
    “Where
does he live?”
    She
wrung her hands. “I don’t know. He said he’s a
warrant knight and travels all over Thendylath, but I seen him taking
a bunch of arrows into the bowyer’s shop in Saliria once or
twice, so I think he might also be a fletcher. Over the years I grew
to suspect he had another family. A couple of years ago, I asked him,
and he admitted he has a wife and three sons.”
    A
fletcher in Saliria who looked like Gavin and had three sons could
only be one man. Rogan, what the hell did you do? He rubbed
his temples with the thumb and middle finger of one hand. This girl
was his niece. The question was: what was he going to do about it?
What would a king do?
    “Is
he a relative?” Nicholia asked. “You look like him.
Brother perhaps?”
    Gavin
patted Keturah’s shoulder. “Wait here for a moment. I
need a word with your mama.” He gestured for Nicholia to walk
with him. When they were out of the girl’s earshot, he said,
“Tell me how you met.”
    “We
met in the Old Oak Tavern in Saliria. I work there as a barmaid, and
it was slow that night. He seemed angry or upset about something, and
so I flirted a little to try to lift his spirits. He was such a nice
man, handsome. Anyway, he flirted back, and I shared a drink with
him. The next thing we knew, we were in the back storeroom…”
A flush rose in her cheeks. “It was only one time, but he came
back to the tavern several times over the next few weeks to
apologize. One day, he noticed my belly was growing. I was betrothed
at the time, but...” She hung her head. “...he broke it
off, with good reason. He didn’t want to raise another man’s
baby.”
    Gavin
nodded pensively. He didn’t know the details of Rogan’s
relationship with Liera, but he remembered there was a time when the
two weren’t getting along as well as usual. When he’d
gone to see his newborn nephew, GJ, the two hardly spoke to each
other. Did Liera know about her husband’s infidelity and the
resulting child?
    “I
don’t want to make trouble for him with his family,”
Nicholia said. “I never meant to come between them. I’m
fond of him — I won’t lie. He’s the father of my
child. We need to know what’s become of him. What’s his
true name?”
    He
looked into Nicholia’s eyes. “The man you’re
describing sounds like my brother, Rogan. He died three months ago.”
    She
slapped a hand over her mouth, and her eyes welled with tears. “By
the Savior! How did it happen?”
    He
knew she would ask this, but the words caught in his throat like a
piece of meat he couldn’t swallow. The image of his brother’s
severed head flared in his mind as it had in nightmares over the last
three months. She didn’t need the details, and he didn’t
want to speak of it. “He was murdered.”
    Nicholia
burst into tears. Keturah ran to her and threw her arms around her
mother’s waist. “Mama, what’s wrong? Is Papa dead?
Is that why he quit coming?”
    “Yeh, love. That’s
why.