“No need to. I think I should apologize to ye, since I was one of the ones who helped make her the way she is.”
Stephen laughed. “I had more reason to fight you than I knew. Tell me, do you think she’ll ever get over being angry at me?”
Tam wrung out the bloody cloth. “It’s hard to say. She and Davey have a lot of reasons to hate the English.”
“Davey?”
“Bronwyn’s older brother.”
Stephen whirled about. “Brother! Bronwyn has a brother, yet her father named her his successor?”
Tam chuckled and pushed Stephen back around so he could finish cleaning his back. “The Scots’ ways must seem strange to ye.”
Stephen snorted. “Strange is a mild word for your actions. What kind of man was Bronwyn’s father?”
“It’s better that ye ask about her brother. Davey was a wild boy, never quite right from the day of his birth. He’s a handsome lad and has some winning ways about him, and he could always get people to do what he wanted. The problem was that he never seemed to do what was best for the clan.”
“But Bronwyn did? All she cares about is her clan—and that damned dog of hers.”
Tam smiled at the back of Stephen’s head. “Her father, Jamie, never had any illusions about his daughter. She has a hot temper, and sometimes she’s a wee bit unforgiving.” He ignored the look Stephen gave him. “But, as ye say, she loves the clan. She puts them first, above all else.”
“So she was named laird over her brother.”
“Aye, she was, but it wasn’t as simple as all that. She had an agreement with her father that she was to marry a man he chose. He gave her a choice of three young men, all of them strong and stable, what Bronwyn needed to counteract her quick temper.” Tam tossed the cloth in the basin and sat down again in the chair.
“And the men?” Stephen asked as he put his shirt back on.
“They were killed, all of them, along with Jamie.”
Stephen was quiet for a moment. He knew the four men had been killed by the English. “And was Bronwyn in love with one of them? Had she made her choice?” He looked up when Tam took so long to answer. The man seemed to have aged in the last few minutes.
Tam lifted his head. He tried to move his strong features into a smile. “I like to think she had chosen, that there was one man she loved best.” He took a deep breath and met Stephen’s eyes squarely. “One of the young men killed was my eldest son.”
Stephen stared at the man. They’d only met a few hours ago and now his body ached from Tam’s beating, but he felt he’d known the man for years. The strong jaw, the wide nose, the dark eyes and long gray hair, seemed familiar. He felt Tam’s sorrow at the loss of his son.
“And what of David?” Stephen asked. “Did he step aside gracefully for his little sister?”
Tam snorted, his eyes clearing. “No Scot ever did anything without passion. Davey threatened to divide the clan against his father when Jamie first declared Bronwyn his heir.”
“Did he? What did Bronwyn say?”
Tam put his hand up and laughed. “She told me ye were a stupid man. Ye don’t seem so to me.”
Stephen gave him a look that said what he thought of Bronwyn’s opinion of him.
Tam continued. “Davey did raise some men to follow him, but they wouldn’t fight their own clan members, so they retreated to the hills, where they live in exile.”
“And Bronwyn?”
“The poor darlin’. She adored Davey. I told ye he was a persuasive young man. She told her father she refused to take what was Davey’s by right. But Jamie only laughed at her and asked if she wanted to stand aside and see war within her own clan.”
Stephen stood. “And of course Bronwyn would do what was best for her clan,” he said with a hint of sarcasm.
“Aye, that she would. The girl’d kill herself if she thought the clan could benefit by her death.”
“Or she’d keep herself alive and suffer a fate worse than death.”
Tam gave him a shrewd look. “Aye, she’d do that too.”