Here we go again - let's get right back to Shakespeare!
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"Othello?" The young captain looked up and saw Iorik, his commander's husband and a good friend of Desdemona's. If there would be anyone who knew the truth...?
Before he knows it, Othello found himself drawn in by the strange charm of his commander's husband - that almost hypnotic ability the man possessed to make anyone trust and confide in him - and he was spilling the entire story into his sympathetic ear. About Cassio and the fight and his subsequent demotion and Iago's stories and how Desdemona's handkerchief had ended up with the now demoted younger man.
Through it all, Iorik was listening silently, head tilted slightly, not saying one word all the while. When Othello finally finished, looking up from his glass and asking, "Well, what do you think?" not really expecting an answer, he got what was almost a smile in reply. "You know I am a friend of your wife's, don't you?" At Othello's nod, the slightly older man smiled slightly more widely. "I am also a friend of Emily's - you know her, don't you? Iago's wife."
"Of course," Othello agreed, slightly puzzled. "She attends on Desdemona.""Quite. And so it is no wonder that she found that handkerchief when Des dropped it - I am sure she did not know what Iago intended to invent when she gave it to him, though. At Othello's upset and surprised expression, Irorik merely smiled. "I hear a lot. People say I am a good listener." He managed to say this, still smiling, without looking the least bit smug. He really was a throroughly decent man.
"By the way," Iorik noted, rising, "I don't think Cassio meant to start a rattle the other day. Others saw Iago ply him with drink. My husband is dealing with it already - others have bore witness that the wrong men have gotten the blame - but I will assure him he needs not blame you. He is not so inclined, anyway." And with those words, the most sympathetic man in the regement - though he was not a soldier, but married to one - left to answer his husband's call. He had given Othello much to consider, anyway.
Othello stayed in the bar, watching as Iorik continued to charm the people around him - now on his husband's arm - suddenly smiling a little bit. Iago was a liar. Desdemona was (like he had used to be so sure of, and now was again) his angel, he was a very lucky man (who had not been wrong about either his wife or Cassio), Cassio would get back his rightful title soon enough, and it was true, what they said: Iorik really did know everything.