Chapter 72: Chapter 72"Over two hours later you finally return. I was starting to think that you were running from telling us why we did what we did. And you brought fruit. Let me have a bit," Finn said, trying to get one of the slices Zayne had left over but the bowl was moved. "After what I did for you, you won’t give me a piece?"

    "Since when did you eat fruit at this time? You won’t touch them at dinner but you had time to cut them up?" Liam noted.

    Finn might be onto something that Zayne was being strange these days. Liam could only hope it wasn’t something in the air that would have all of them changing. Or had Zayne found a woman like Finn was suggesting?

    "I am in the mood for something sweet tonight," Zayne said, continuing to eat the fruit by himself.

    He didn’t need them at first but with everything peeled and cut up for him, Zayne had eaten most of what Rose prepared for him without noticing. He rode slow on the way back so he could eat the fruit as he looked around the town.

    "You must tell us now. We deserve to know why you have this sudden interest in a brothel. I heard the owner suggested that you like men. Do you?" Finn asked. It would come as a surprise but still makes sense.

    Zayne stopped to look at Finn who was just as stupid as Graham.

    "Allow me," Liam said, hitting Finn on his arm. "It was an order from the general."

    Finn grabbed Liam’s shirt. "He didn’t say a word."

    "I got the order from the look in his eyes," Liam replied.

    "Shut up," Zayne ordered the two. "What you did tonight has more to do with my dislike for Graham. The woman who was found wandering the mountains near our camp came from that brothel. I had come across her during my visits there. You should remember her, Liam. She is the woman that ran into me when I opened the door."

    "She is? Did I not get a good look at her then?" Liam wondered as he did not recognise her when she was here.

    Liam had been present when the intruder was brought to Zayne but he didn’t see her as familiar.

    "She walked with her head down so you might not have seen her face. She is quite harmless and present in the home I bought. Her name is Rose as you now know," Zayne revealed. Sear?h the n??el Fire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Finn massaged his temple. When he assumed Zayne had a woman this wasn’t the story he put together in his head. "Zayne, you have this love for picking up stray things but I am confused as to how you have gotten yourself so deep into this that you killed the man."

    "She is not a stray. Unless you want to be on the next boat out, you will not describe her as that. Our land or not, he was abusing children. Stealing their youth from them. Was I to sit by and do nothing?" Zayne asked.

    "No, but it is obvious that you did it for this Rose person. I am used to you being impulsive and killing others who harm the innocent but this time, it is because you care for this woman, isn’t it?" Finn asked, wanting to see if the truthful general would deny it.

    "I do," Zayne admitted, looking down at the almost empty bowl of fruits. "It is not what I thought of finding when I came here but she is quite special."

    Finn turned to Liam to check that he had heard it right. "You have fallen for a woman here? The very man who forbids us from going to brothels and meeting with women?"

    "I never said you couldn’t meet with who you want. It is only the brothels you are to stay away from as the women there are slaves turned to workers. And you are getting ahead of yourself with what I feel. Now that you know why you went there, leave me be," Zayne said.

    Zayne was ready to have his dinner and go to bed.

    Unfortunately, Finn was more interested in getting more news about Rose.

    "You cannot just walk away from us after this. I have been calling Lucy crazy but she was right that you have started to like someone from this land. Why was it that I had to be busy during the time this Rose was here? I missed seeing the woman who has such a hold on you," said Finn.

    He needed to become good friends with Rose to get her to free him from Zayne’s cruel training days.

    Liam continued to follow Zayne as there was one thing he was concerned about. "It is inevitable that you must travel to go to the palace. You cannot continue to push back meetings with their king. What will you do then or are your feelings not that much to be worried about this?"

    "You two do not need to concern yourself about my feelings. I have only admitted to feeling something for her and you two are acting as though I said I am in love with her. She will join us and should any word of this be spoken to her, I shall have you sent to our battles in the north," Zayne threatened the two.

    Finn was the first to stop as he had voiced many times that he did not want to go to that cold barren land. "How can you think so low of us? You can trust that when she comes, we will watch over her for you and not say a word that you have started to like her."

    "Rose is not comfortable around men and you are loud. I know that it is hard for you, but try to be quiet and leave her alone. Liam will be her guard when I am not around. I will need the others warned not to treat her badly because she is an outsider. She is not a spy," said Zayne.

    Finn tapped his chin as he thought about something. "So, if we had turned down their request for a truce, being that this town is right at the docks, you could have led the way for us to storm the town she lives in. She might have gotten hurt. Life indeed has other plans."

    "I do not care where she is from. All that matters is that she doesn’t try to hurt our general and prince. She does know that the man doing all of this for her is a prince, right?" Finn asked, curious to how she felt being around Zayne.

    "No," Zayne answered. "And it will stay that way."