‘What, have you brought a bodyguard this time?’ one of them asked her, tartly.
Furious, carefully holding his temper in check, Ralph gestured the woman forward with a finger.
‘How would you and your co-workers like to have a private chat with the Thane?’
The woman paled, becoming very still. Her companion coughed nervously, and began to move away with alacrity, sandals slapping her heels.
‘Excuse me!’ Ralph said, raising his voice, bringing the woman to a halt, as though she had run into an immovable, invisible barrier.
‘That includes you. All of you.’
Swallowing, the first woman said, trying to appear angry to cover her fear, ‘You have no authority here! You do not speak for the Thane.’
‘As a matter of fact,’ said a voice from behind them, ‘he does.’
It was Pran, who had come to visit his wife. Without another word, and without acknowledging or greeting Ralph and Malina, he left.
‘Probably too worried about Theuli to think about much else,’ Ralph thought to himself. Turning his back on the two women, he took Malina by the hand once more.
‘C’mon,’ he said in English, ‘let’s get something to eat.’