He sized Peter up before answering. “I’m Cole.”
Niall grunted but held his temper in check.
The bald man finally spoke. “You’re far from your home to be making accusations against us.”
Niall spat on the ground. “No,you’rethe one far from home—”
Peter had to shove Niall back again. “Sit—Sit ! Now! All of you.”
With the swords out of harm’s way, Peter rubbed his chin and thought about how best to handle this. “Do you all know each other?”
Niall glared at Cole. “I know a whoreson when I see one.”
Peter shoved Cole back down with the toe of his foot before he could get all the way up.
“Enough. Or should I just be on my way? And let you all kill each other?”
Aldred moaned where he lay unmoving. Niall quickly crawled over to his friend.
“Aldred? You got a hell of a lump on your head.” Concern for his friend came through in his tone. The other men looked concerned as well.
“Do you all know each other?” Peter repeated.
The bald man covered his concern with a snicker. “Know is such a strange word.”
“A poet!” Mort said. He hooted. “Here in the wilds of England. Imagine that.”
Lachlann wiped at the blood dripping from his mouth. “We’d shared a meal together last night. Like friends. Even enjoyed our time together.”
“Friends? Not likely,” Cole said.
“Clearly not you!” Niall tossed back just as vehemently from where he was helping Aldred sit up.
“You got that right,” Lachlann agreed.
The conversation made little sense to Peter but he wasn’t sure he wanted to understand. It seemed nothing more than a family spat and yet there was a man bleeding profusely not three feet away.
“Mort, can you help our Scottish friend?”
It was going to be a long day.
Brighit shifted on the hard floor of the carriage, afraid to move. She did not want to call attention to herself. She’d stayed squatted in the small space through all the fighting and arguing. Surely they’d all settle down and go back to drinking as they’d done the previous night. Wouldn’t they?
She shook her soaked chemise out again and tried to work her way down to the opening. It had seemed a simple enough task. Get the water. Bring it to the carriage. Wash as quickly as possible. Get dressed.
Spilling the heated water onto her chemise had not been part of the plan. Then the loud men from the night before came traipsing back into camp. She had questioned her own hearing. And this just as she’d pulled the sopping wet material off, over her head.
Urgency slapped her in the face. It set her fingers to quivering. It also made it even more difficult to move quickly.
“If they gave you friendship last night, why are you fighting so early this morn?”
She stilled. The voice was that of a man she didn’t know. Brighit shivered. She tried to calm her nerves and focus on her task.
“We find their ways offensive and told them so.” That was definitely Niall’s voice. She’d had to listen to him enough the night before, trying to woo her after he’d had too much to drink. Why hadn’t Ivan just allowed her to leave them?
“Are you jesting? Those aren’t our ways. Those areyourways.”
Cole sounded extremely angry. In the short time she’d known him, he got irritated easily enough, but never angry.
