“You’ve sincerely no need to defend your sister’s honor.”
Tadhg’s mouth tightened perceptibly. “I’m sure you can understand my own misgivings about believing you in this instance.”
“Of course.” Peter glanced at Brighit. She was about to become very angry with him, but he saw no other recourse. “If I had trusted my sister’s protection to a relative who cared so little about her welfare, I’m sure I would be defensive as well.”
Tadhg’s face turned darker and darker red with each word Peter spoke.
“A relative that would allow her to be insulted and mistreated.”
Tadhg’s eyes bore into Brighit who stood rigid between them. “Of what does he speak?”
Brighit glared at Peter before answering her brother. “Fear not. Sir Peter protected me. I was not harmed or molested.”
“What have you been subjected to? Who insulted you? I came as soon as I realized how false Ronan was.”
“Uncle Ronan’s lackey—Ivan.”
Tadhg took her in his arms. “Tell me he didn’t touch you.” His whispered words were spoken in sincere desperation.
“He did not.” Peter didn’t flinch under the man’s scrutiny. “I found an innocent woman in the care of a lecherous whoreson and his men. She was an innocent who needed protection from those men. I rectified the situation.”
Brighit looked into Tadhg’s face. “He speaks the truth. Sir Peter vowed to get me to the Priory unharmed. He never broke that vow.”
“Did you learn why our uncle abandoned you?”
Brighit shrugged. “No. He must have had other plans. He met with a man at the inn while we waited for the curragh to bring us over. Uncle Ronan was arguing with him, assuring him I wouldn’t be a problem. The man hid his face from me.”
“You? He saidyouwouldn’t be a problem?” Peter asked. She had not been so certain earlier.
“Well he said ‘she will not be a problem’ so I assumed it was me. I think he called him Leo-something.”
Peter’s mind reeled, every one of his senses alert. “Leofrid?”
Brighit lit up as if he’d guessed the right answer in some game. “Yes! That was it.”
Peter raked his hand through his hair. Leofrid Godwinson was connected to their uncle? He’d actually met with him?
Peter’s closest friend, John, had exiled the man to Ireland against the King’s expressed orders that if Leofrid were found to still be alive, he was to be put to death. The man was cousin to John’s wife, Rowena. Her entire family had been defeated and killed when William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned as King of England. John didn’t want to increase her loss. He’d sent him to Ireland with another thorn in his side, Abigail, a mad woman from John’s past, who was obsessed with him. They’d all believed that would be torturous enough.
Surely Leofrid was not so well connected that he could seek support against King William in Ireland.
“And your uncle’s man was looking for Tostig’s soldiers. I believe that is Leofrid’s father. What do you know of this uncle.”
“Very little,” Tadhg answered for the both of them. “I don’t think my father cared for him overmuch but when he needed to get Brighit safely out of harm’s way, he called on him.”
“And he abandoned you at first chance,” Peter said to Brighit.
Tadhg rubbed his lower lip. “Ronan had been the one to bring our mother to the Priory. That was where my father met her. I think our mother’s clan had bad feelings with my father from that time on. She never spoke much of them even though she was Celtic royalty.”
Peter could definitely see Brighit as royalty. It fit her.
There were many powerful families across Ireland. If their uncle was one of the forces in Ireland still working to overthrow King William, that could pose quite a problem. A problem for Peter. A problem for Tadhg. A problem for John who had allowed him to live.
“Did your father ever speak of the Normans or King William?”
Tadhg smiled. “Yes! Keep them far from here! That was his most fervent wish.”
“Do you believe he would fight against the Normans?”
