"Jeez." He coughed. A rasping bite that seized his throat and shook his shoulders for what seemed an eternity. "Only time you came up empty handed."

"Lord Hawley's the man I left them with, after I was forced to walk a mile along the freezing highway in the pitch dark looking for you, because you messed up. And you know what that night cost me in terms of Matthew and what Starkadder did to him. How I found him. How he lay there. How he'd died. So if you think you can beat Lord ...