For the Honour Of My Clan

Nolee nodded, "I...I thought I was to be locked away like a forgotten object until the wedding."

Sheamus shook his head. "I may have been a farm boy when I was young, but I was still taught proper manners."

"Better manners than some nobles. Sir Zachary Ryder of England..." she shivered when she thought of the man.

"What's he like?" Sheamus asked. "I've never met him."

"He is a pig..." Nolee softly said, refusing to say more.

"Oh." Sheamus said, hearing the tone of her voice and decided not to ask.

Nolee looked over at Evan and Kofi who were still lost in conversation, "They despise me..."

"What makes you say that?" Sheamus asked. "One...protected you, didn't he?"

"Evan may care but Kofi...Kofi hates me for giving in to you..." Nolee frowned.

"He doesn't know the whole story though. He judges you unfairly..." Sheamus pointed out.

"Still, your men invaded our village. They are captives of that invasion..."

"What was it exactly they both did in your village?" Sheamus asked.

"Evan was like a chamber maid. He helped clean my room and the home that I lived in. Kofi was like an errand boy. He would go to market and fetch things that I needed."

"Well...they can still do that for yeh, if you want them too...and they want to." Sheamus told her.

Nolee frowned, "They already said they wouldn't leave me. I tried to get them to run in the forest...but they wouldn't..."

"Then they mustn't hate you like you think they do," Sheamus pointed out. "Do you usually discuss things with them before making decisions?"

"Usually. Especially Kofi," nodded Nolee. "But this...this is something that had to be done by myself..."

"Hmm...Maybe he doesn't understand that?" Sheamus said, mostly thinking out loud.

"He probably doesn't. He knows that I've...I've never thought about marriage..." Nolee admitted.

"Maybe he'd talk to yeh again if he understood?" Sheamus suggested. He wasn't the best with these things, but he wanted her to actually like him, not just grudgingly do as he asks.

"I...do you want me to tell them? About when we were children?" Nolee softly asked.

Sheamus sighed "If that's what it takes to get yer friends to talk to yeh..."

Nolee looked at Kofi and Evan, "Boys...I haven't been honest with you. The...the reason I have agreed to marry Sheamus is that when we were children...I didn't always call Riverbrook my home. When I was a child I lived in a village near here...I think. Sheamus was the son of simple farm folk and my mother...she was a noble. One night I was playing in the woods and it got dark. I ended up lost and there were wolves...somehow Sheamus found me and saved my life. I never got to tell him thank you."

Kofi and Evan both sat there, staring at Nolee, both with shocked looks on their faces. Neither of them said anything for a while as the information sank in.

"So...you already knew him...?" Kofi asked slowly. "And...you feel you owe him?"

"Yes I already knew him and...and yet I thought I owed him," frowned Nolee. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth..."