The wind busting the door open jerked Brighit upright and out of Peter’s embrace. He slept with his back against the wall. She had been against his chest. Snow blurred her vision but there appeared to be a man standing in the doorway. She shook Peter.
“Peter! I think someone is here.”
“What the hell are you doing with my sister!”
Peter pulled himself to standing, the tip of a sword pointed at his chest.
“Answer me or I’ll run you through.”
Brighit stood as well. “Sister?”
Covered from head to toe with a thick coating of snow, Brighit could not make out the man. The voice was familiar.
Peter raised his hands. “Do you know this man, Brighit?”
“Do not be disrespectful to my sister by using her given name.”
Brighit got up close to peer through the single opening around his face which revealed the brown eyes she knew so well. “Tadhg! What are you doing here?”
She reached around to hug him but he refused to lower his sword. She moved to shut the door and cut off the heavy snow. It left a coating everywhere and threatened to smother the fire struggling to survive.
“What are you doing here?” she asked again.
“Perhaps you could tell him that you know who I am,” Peter said, his eyes on the unwavering blade.
“Tadhg, I do know him.”
“Yes. I could see that youknowhim. I want to know why that is and what is going on here.”
Standing akimbo, she stared him down. How dare he insinuate anything about a situation of which he knew nothing. She didn’tknowhim, even if that was her deepest desire and she would never deny it.
“Please lower your sword.” Her voice was low and menacing. “This is the man that offered me his protection.”
Tadhg snorted. “Protection? He appears to have taken full advantage, dear sister.”
Brighit fumed. “And you do not know of what you speak. That slippery uncle of ours put me in harm’s way and Pet—Sir Peter saw me to the Priory.”
She hoped he hadn’t heard her slip.
Tadhg lowered his sword, suspicion still etched on his face. “Yes. I found our uncle was not true to his word when I found him at the O’Brien’s.”
“You went to the O’Brien?” Her voice rounded in sympathy. “Oh, Tadhg, why would you do such a thing?”
Peter did not wait for the sword to drop completely before shoving Tadhg against the wall and using the same weapon against him. “Explain yourself.”
“Peter!” She yanked on his arm where it held the sword against Tadhg’s throat. “Do not kill my brother.”
“Did you not hear him? He insults you!”
She threw her arms in exaggeration and half turned before stomping her foot. “Please! Desist!”
With Tadhg’s sword grasped firmly in his hand, Peter jerked away. A stern visage. A man of duty. “Reveal yourself.”
Standing as stiffly as a man about to be given his last rights, Tadhg yanked his hood off.
Peter narrowed his eyes and peered closely as if he could decipher for himself the truth of the statement. Brighit waited, nibbling the inside of her cheek. He finally turned toward her. “I see a resemblance. Not much.”
Peter felt an overwhelming need to deck thisbrother. The first words out of his mouth had been an insult to Brighit.
