Liam had given Hugo good advice. His words were practical and clear-eyed, delivered with the conviction of a man who believed in the path they were walking because he could see where it led. But Ollie could see that the words, for all their truth, slid across the surface of Hugo's pain without quite reaching the wound beneath.
Ollie stepped forward and placed his hand flat against Hugo's chest, just over his heart. The gesture startled the older man, who flinched at the contact before catching himself, and Ollie held his hand steady, feeling the rapid beat of Hugo's heart through the thin layers of wool and linen of the laborer's clothing that Ashlynn's Steward wore as a disguise.
"Follow your heart," Ollie said quietly. "And do what it demands of you."
Hugo blinked, his dark eyes searching Ollie's face as he struggled to understand what the young knight meant.
