“You had no right making demands,” her father shouted, stomping into the Great Hall like an irate child. “And order that archer away from the door since he refuses to obey anyone but you.”
“Quiver stays where I put him and where in God’s name was any thought of your daughter’s well-being when you entered into an arrangement with a man more malevolent than the devil himself?” Arran accused.
“I had to do something to protect my land from being taken from me. If you had married or at least agreed to marry her when I approached your brother Royden about it, none of this would have happened.” He shook a finger at his daughter. “And you should have been in touch with me before now. You should have told me you wed.”
“You should have searched for her,” Arran argued.
Galvin shook his head. “Don’t blame this mess on me. It was her duty to come to me. What does it matter? You are wed now, aren’t you?” He shook his head again. “Don’t tell me you gave yourself to him without the blessing of marriage.”
“She didn’t. We’re wed and we will remain so,” Arran said.
“Good. It is what I wanted. Once Brynjar learns it is true, he will take his leave,” Galvin said, as if that was the end of it.
“No, he won’t,” Arran said and saw his wife shudder. “As far as he’s concerned whatever agreement you two struck is what he intends to see kept. What bargain did you strike with him?”
“He agreed to wed my daughter, settle here on my land, and raise fine children to carry on the Macara name. That is all mute now since you two are wed. Your marriage voids the agreement,” Galvin said, thinking the matter completely settled.
“Not to Brynjar. He’ll still see the bargain kept, though not all of it,” Arran warned.
Galvin brushed the warning off with a dismissive wave. “He can’t. There’s nothing he can do. You two are wed.”
Anger rose in Purity at her father’s failure to see, or not care that he had chosen an evil man to wed her to and what that evil man could now do to get what he wanted. “Aye, there is something he can do, Da. He can make me a widow.”
Chapter 17
Arran sat in the Great Hall with Royden, staring into his tankard.
“You need to lift it to your lips to get the ale into your mouth,” Royden said and demonstrated how it was done.
Arran lifted the tankard and drank until there wasn’t a drop left, then slammed the tankard on the table. “I want to kill him.”
“I don’t blame you. Brynjar is an evil man.”
“Not Brynjar, though I want to kill him too. I want to kill Galvin,” Arran said. “How could he have not given a shred of thought to marrying Purity to such a horrific man? She would have been condemned to a life of endless misery and suffering.”
“You saved her from that,” Royden reminded.
Fear had him grabbing his brother’s arm. “You have to promise me that if anything should happen to me you won’t let Brynjar get Purity. You have to keep her safe.”
“You have my word, I will see Purity safe, but it won’t be necessary. You’ll be here to do that yourself,” Royden said confidently.
“How can you be so sure?” he asked, letting go of his brother’s arm to grip his empty tankard.
“We both hated being held by the mercenaries and forced to battle, but we were wise enough to learn from them. And the one thing above all I discovered that was most important was—”
“Know your enemy,” Arran finished.
Royden nodded. “You, unlike others, know Brynjar from your time spent being held captive. And as long as you don’t allow your hatred for him to blind you, you’ll know his move before he makes it.”
“He’ll try to kill me,” Arran said as if it meant nothing.
“TRY is the part I’m trying to focus on,” Royden said. “We’re finally in a good place and I don’t want either one of us to lose what we have.”
“I don’t either. I find myself more than content with Purity and I look forward to a good life with her,” Arran admitted, realizing that even more today when he’d learned Brynjar was with Purity’s father.
“Then we need to be wise about how we handle Brynjar,” Royden said.
“We?” Arran asked. “This is for me to handle. I won’t see you and your family placed in danger because of me.”
“Don’t insult me,” Royden snapped. “WE are family. If one is in danger, we’re all in danger. Besides, we need to clear this up so that nothing stands in the way of our search for our sister.”
“I thought I’d find,” —Arran shook his head— “I prayed for a miracle, that I’d find Raven hiding in the woods. I wanted to believe it so badly. Anything was better than discovering rumors were true that she’d been scooped up by a band of thieves. I don’t want to think of what might have been her fate if that was true.”