Chapter Eighty-six

A loud series of knocks sounded on the thin wooden door, echoing into the small room of the inn. "Libelle! Lady Libelle!" a young voiced called.

Libelle rolled over in the bed, grumbling in her slumber. "Eskil, get that will you?"

She heard a throaty groan, and in the chair across the room, her companion stirred in his sleep. She looked up at Eskil who was rubbing his aching head, and with a sigh, he pushed himself up and walked towards the door to open it. Vigdis and Brynhild stood in the doorway crying.

Libelle sat up in the bed, rubbing her eyes. "Girls? What is it?"

Vigdis sniffed, "It's Ingrid. She didn't come home last night!"

"We can't find her anywhere!" Brynhild added.

Libelle stood up beside Eskil who glanced at her curiously. "Have you asked around?"

They both nodded. "No one has seen her, not since last night by the fire."

"Could she have gone elsewhere? I mean, with a man?" She doubted it, but she felt it needed to be asked.

The girls glanced between each other and then shook their heads. "No, I don't believe so. Not after...everything that happened," Vigdis said.

Libelle motioned for them to come into the room. She shut the door as the girls sat themselves on the edge of the bed, and Eskil returned to his chair to close his eyes as he felt the deathly side effects of the alcohol. "Tell me what happened last night."

Vigdis took a slow breath. "After you two left, we danced together with Lord Gaalin for quite some time. Eventually, we exhausted him and he sat down for a drink. Brynhild wanted to eat in the inn, but Ingrid said she would stay with Lord Gaalin. When we came back, Lord Gaalin was still sitting where we had left him, but Ingrid couldn't be found. He told us she came looking for us, but other than that, he didn't know where she went off to."

Brynhild cried loudly. "I'm worried something has happened to her."

Libelle sighed heavily. "I'll help you look for her. I'll speak with Gaalin as he was the last one to have seen her by the sounds of things. Wait here with Eskil please."

The girls nodded at her.

"Eskil, keep an eye on them."

He gave her a weak wave as she exited the room. Her manservant had rented a room down the hall, and he better still be there, she cursed. She knocked heavily on the door and a sleepy groan came from the other side. She knocked again, and this time the shuffle of bed linens could be heard as footsteps moved to the door.

It creaked open and Gaalin stood there wrapped in a sheet. He rubbed his eyes, his silver hair disheveled around his shoulders. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" he grumbled.

Libelle rolled her eyes. "We need to talk."

He looked up, realizing it was his lord who had knocked on his door. He straightened up. "Right now?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Um, can it wait a moment?"

"No."

He gritted his teeth, and Libelle heard another shuffle approaching the door from behind him. His eyes widened as he froze. "Who's at the door, dear?"

Feminine hands wrapped around his waist, and he looked away from Libelle when an attractive woman peeked her head around his arm. "Who's this?" the woman jealously asked.

Libelle rolled her eyes again. "Get rid of your woman. We need to talk. You have five minutes."

The woman scoffed, offended and about to say something when Gaalin shut the door. Libelle leaned against the wall, and she could hear the two arguing behind the door, something along the lines of the woman wanting to know who Libelle was and wanting Gaalin to return to bed. Gaalin lost his patience and snapped at her.

"I'm telling you, you need to leave. Get dressed!"

"No, I don't want to!" Her voice turned seductive. "We had such a wonderful night last night, why don't we continue?"

The door flew open, Gaalin now wearing pants and the woman still wrapped in a sheet as he pushed her out the doorway, tossing her clothes with her. She screamed at him when he pulled Libelle into the room by her wrist, slamming the door behind her. He sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry you had to see that."

She shrugged. "A man has desires. It's no surprise that you'd have them as well."

He awkwardly brushed his nose and looked away. "What is it you needed to talk about so urgently?"

"Ingrid is missing."

He stared at her blankly for a moment. "The young blonde-haired lass?"

"Yes. Her sisters came pounding at my door looking for her, she's been missing since last night."

He shrugged. "She could have gone off with someone."

"I highly doubt that. After what those three went through together, I don't think she would have gone off with a man. Neither do her sisters."

"May be sleeping off all the ale she drank last night somewhere. She had quite a lot to drink," he said as he crossed the room to collect his shirt.

"If that's the case, I would like to find her," Libelle said coolly.

"My lady, what concern is it to you if some lass wanders off by herself?" he asked, pulling his shirt over his head and looking at her over his shoulder. "It's not like you owe them anything."

"You're right, I don't owe them anything. However, I do consider them friends, and when my friends need me, I will be there for them." Her eyes went cold for a moment. "Do you know anything, Gaalin?"

"Why would you say it like that? No, I don't know anything. Last I saw was her wandering off into a crowd saying she was going to go find her sisters."

"You let her go alone?"

"I'm not her babysitter."

Libelle stared at him for a moment, analyzing his tense expression and his defensive responses. She sighed. "Finish dressing and join me downstairs. I am going to gather the guards and form a search party."

Gaalin flinched at her words. He looked like he wanted to speak, but he held his tongue. She shook her head, disregarded her thoughts and left his room. She returned to Eskil and the two sisters and instructed them of her plan.