“Stop it!” Bronwyn screamed. “Stephen! Release him this instant!”
“Release him?” Stephen asked. “He tried to kill you.” He frowned when he felt Tam’s deep laughter.
“Kill me!” Bronwyn said. “You are the stupidest man I ever met. Rab would have been after him if there’d been any danger. Now put down that knife before you hurt someone.”
Slowly Stephen resheathed his knife. “The damn dog was so still he could have been dead for all I knew.” He rubbed the back of his head. His spine felt like it’d been broken.
“He’s right, Bronwyn,” Tam said. “He did what he should have done. My name’s Tam MacArran,” he said as he held out his hand to Stephen. “Where did ye learn to fight like that?”
Stephen hesitated for a moment before he took the man’s hand. What he really wanted to do was turn Bronwyn over his knee for calling him stupid when he’d been trying to protect her. “Stephen Montgomery,” he said, shaking Tam’s hand. “I have a brother built like you. I found the only way to beat him was to be faster. An acrobat taught me a few tricks, and they’ve come in handy.”
“I should say so!” Tam said, rubbing his nose. “I think it may be broken.”
“Oh, Tam!” Bronwyn cried, giving Stephen a look of hate. “Come back to camp and let me look at it.”
Tam didn’t move. “I think ye should ask yer husband’s permission. I take it ye are her husband?”
Stephen felt himself warming to the man. “I already have scars to prove it.”
Tam chuckled.
“Let’s go and see if we can find some beer. And I’d like to talk to those guards of mine. How in the world they didn’t hear Bronwyn leaving camp I’ll never know. A man in full armor could have made less noise.”
“Less noise!” Bronwyn said. “You Englishmen are—”
Tam put his hand on her shoulder and stopped her. “Even if the others didn’t hear you, your husband did. Now go ahead and get me some warm water for washing. I think there’s dried blood all over me.” He looked at Stephen fondly. “You have some strength in your fists.”
Stephen grinned. “Another blow on that tree and my back would have broken.”
“Aye,” Tam said. “Ye have no meat on ye for padding.”
“Ha!” Stephen snorted. “If I got as heavy as you I wouldn’t be able to move.”
The men grinned at each other and followed Bronwyn and Rab back to camp.
“Stephen!” Chris said when they reached camp. “We heard the noise, but it took us a while to see that you were gone. God’s teeth! What happened to you, and who’s this?”
Torches were being lit as the men began to wake, disturbed by the commotion. “Go back to sleep, Chris,” Stephen said. “Just get someone to send us some hot water and open a keg of beer, will you? Come inside, Tam.”
Tam looked about the inside of the tent. The walls were lined with pale blue silk, the ground covered with carpets from the Orient. He sat down
in a carved oak chair. “Fine place ye have here,” he said.
“It’s a waste of money!” Bronwyn snapped. “There are people going hungry and—”
“I paid people to make this tent, and I assume they bought food with the money,” Stephen retorted.
Tam looked from one to the other. He saw anger and hostility coming from Bronwyn, but from Stephen he saw tolerance and maybe even affection. And Stephen had attacked him when he thought Tam was threatening Bronwyn.
The hot water was brought, and the two men stripped to the waist and began to wash. Bronwyn felt Tam’s nose and assured him it wasn’t broken. Stephen’s back was a mass of bloody places where the tree bark had pierced his skin.
“I think your husband’s back needs attention,” Tam said quietly.
Bronwyn gave Stephen a look of disdain and left the tent, Rab behind her.
Tam picked up a cloth. “Sit down, boy, and I’ll see to yer back.”
Stephen was obedient. As Tam gently washed the young man’s back, Stephen began to speak. “Perhaps I should apologize for my wife’s manners.”