“Makes me no never mind if he is a paladin or a palamino. He has been named a murderer and I’m taking him in.” The Sheriff said, with no ounce of emotion. It was obvious that he wasn’t leaving without Faren. The strange man shouldered his way into the house, carrying the dead body. Without permission, he slung it down on the long bench by the table.<br/><br/>“Boy she is as heavy as that mare in the paddock.” He sighed as he dropped her. He stuck out his hand to Nimue, “ I’m Rolph the Smith.”<br/><br/>Nimue barely allowed him to press her fingers before she backed away from the man. He made her skin crawl. She took in the dark blue discoloring around the woman’s throat and the purple color around her mouth. Something didn’t ring true about the assertion that she had been poisoned, she thought. But then she might have dug at her collar is a poison made it difficult to breathe.<br/><br/>“What are we supposed to do with the body?” Nimue asked. “That is a job for the nuns or the monks, laying her out that is. I seriously doubt Reigna wants to be interred by pagans.”<br/><br/>Samantha stood at the door, blocking the child’s view.<br/><br/>“You can’t leave her here!” she hissed. “Maisie doesn’t need to see this.”<br/><br/>The man leered at the child.<br/><br/>“She has seen many things in her short life and in all likelihood, she will see more before she is grown. Her mother dead. Her father in jail and soon to be executed.”<br/><br/>The man’s laughter was harsh.<br/><br/>“I have me a piece of paper saying that Reigna wants me to take the child back to their home village. It is all legal with her signature and I aim to leave in the morning. Have her ready.”