Finlay’s head hit the plaster with a loud crack, and he sank to the floor, dazed.
Eve gasped.“He didn’t mean… ’Twas an accident.”
The man ignored her.“Ye!”he barked at the other two lads.“Clean this up before I knock your heads together!”
Before they could comply, Adam lunged forward.To Eve’s astonishment, he grabbed the brute of a master by the scruff of his neck.Dragged him, kicking and bellowing, to the tub.Then plunged the man face-first into the water, holding him under.
Eve held her breath.
The man struggled in Adam’s grip, his body twisting, his legs kicking.
What was Adam doing?Did he intend to drown the brute?She looked on in fear as he maintained an iron grip on the man splashing frantically in the water.
Finally, Adam let him up.But he wasn’t finished.He coiled his fist in the drenched linen of the man’s leine and lifted him up on his toes.
Inches away from the sputtering man’s face, he bit out, “Lay so much as a finger on them again, and I’ll lop off your hand.”
No one could help but be intimidated by the smoldering fury in Adam’s eyes and the deadly quiet of his voice.
“Do ye understand?”Adam demanded.
The man gasped, choked, and nodded.He knew he was outmatched.At least hebelievedhe was outmatched.Eve imagined he would be less cooperative if he knew Adam was not the son of an Irish lord, but a common outlaw.
Adam released him.“Go.The lads will clean this up.Get out o’ my sight e’er I change my mind and decide to drown ye after all.”
Once released, the man attempted to hide his fear behind bravado.He straightened his shoulders and walked stiffly toward the door.When he slid across a wet spot and almost lost his balance, Eve tried to not take undue glee in his misfortune.He closed the door behind him with more force than was necessary.
But now, Eve no longer had the heart to pretend indifference.She rushed to Finlay, who sat on the floor.
“Are ye all right?”
He reached behind his head.When his fingers emerged, they were smeared with blood.Nonetheless, he nodded.
“Nay, ye’re not all right,” Adam said, hunkering down beside the youth.He snatched up a linen bath cloth and pressed it carefully against the gash in the lad’s head.“How long has that swine been tormentin’ ye lads like this?”
One of the other lads answered as he mopped up the floor with another cloth.“The master has always been heavyhanded, m’laird.”
The third youth, whom Eve noticed had a purple bruise under his eye, said, “He says ’tis the only way we’ll e’er learn, m’lady.”
“Did he give ye that?”she asked, nodding toward his cheek.
The youth lowered his head and confessed, “I was lookin’ after my sickly brother yesterday and came late to the castle.”
The second lad chimed in, “The master doesn’t abide lateness.”
Adam growled.“I should have drowned the churl when I had the chance.”
But Eve’s instincts to help and heal heard something different in the third lad’s words.“Ye said your brother is sickly?”
“Aye, m’lady.And my ma was called away to help with the lambin’.I was the only one close at hand to look after him.”
Eve made up her mind then and there.“I have some skill with herbs.In the morn, I’ll look in on your brother and see if I can help.”
Adam made a noise that sounded like he’d swallowed a bug.Then he gave her a brittle smile and said, “Darlin’, don’t ye remember?We’ve got to get an early start if we want to get to—”
“This is more important, sweetheart,” she said, fluttering her lashes and daring him to contradict her.“’Tis the least we can do when these lads have been so sorely mistreated.”
She saw a muscle ticking in his jaw.Of course Adam was upset.He’d just done something to draw attention to himself.’Twas the last thing a master of disguise wanted.No doubt the news of the laird’s Irish guest who’d finally given the cruel master his due by almost drowning him would soon be whispered among the servants.The Irish guest would be lucky if he wasn’t compromised.
