In a rare show of anger his brother charged him, slamming him up against the wall.
“Ye are an ignorant fool. Do ye think that speaking to me in such a way will make me inclined to tell ye why Mother must leave? I willna tell ye anything of it for ye wouldna hear me even if I did. Ye have closed yerself off to me, and ye have punished me long enough. She has been gone for over seven years, Baodan. Do ye truly believe that I wouldna have helped her if I’d been able?”
Baodan could hardly speak as shock coursed through him. Eoghanan released him and stepped away shaking, pain evident in his voice and his eyes watery with anguish. Baodan moved away from the wall, eager to leave.
Eoghanan brought out the worst in him. He hated the person he’d become around his youngest brother. The very reason he spent so much time avoiding him.
“I’ll bid ye goodbye now, brother. I only wished to learn why she must leave, but I can see that I willna gain the information from ye. I canna believe ye have coerced Mother into doing this. She’s so ill she can hardly lift spoon to mouth. We will be lucky if she survives the trip.”
Baodan moved toward the door, only stopping at the sound of his brother’s voice, soft, small, and so different from how he sounded a moment before. A voice filled with warning rather than anger.
“She willna only survive the trip, she shall thrive from it. Just wait and see how her health improves once she is away from this castle. Then perhaps ye will see that I wasna wrong to persuade her to leave.”
Baodan left quickly, more frustrated than he’d been before entering his brother’s room. Why had his life become a series of riddles in which everyone around him seemed to know the answers, save him? Something hid from him. If he could get through the next few days without any more surprises, he intended to devote his every effort to finding out what that was.
*
He wished to make one more stop before he left to prepare the horses. If his mother still rested when all was ready, he would wait until she elected to leave. She would need all the strength she could muster for the several days trip. He would not be the one to disturb her.
Baodan rounded the corner and knocked on Niall’s bedchamber door. Niall wouldn’t be awake like Eoghanan, and Baodan found himself hesitant to enter his brother’s room unannounced. Quite likely there would be a lass with him, and Baodan would rather not embarrass the girl unlucky enough to be in his bed.
Niall was a charmer, but Baodan knew him, and he knew what a liar he was as well. Each woman that shared his chamber entered due to his exclamations of love and promises. In exchange for a night in his arms, each lass would find herself heartbroken and quickly forgotten in turn.
When no response came, Baodan rapped his fist against the doorway louder, stepping away as he heard his brother’s grumbling voice through the doorway.
“What the hell do ye want? Can ye no see that the sun is still no up? I doona rise until it does.”
Baodan stared at the door, annoyed. Everyone in the castle knew the sun to be near midday before Niall chose to rise from his bed. When the door finally swung open, Niall stood before him nude, his hair sticking up messily as his black eyes stared up at Baodan. He expected Niall’s grumpy reaction and stared down at his brother who stood a great deal shorter than him, waiting his response.
“Would ye like to have yer nose knocked up into yer skull, brother? I have company and was having the sweetest dreams.”
Baodan shook his head, not the least bit surprised. “Ye shouldna treat women so. They are no created for ye to enjoy and toss aside.”
Niall laughed, and Baodan reached around his brother to close the bedchamber door so that the lass sleeping in the bed would not hear their conversation.
“Ye are a fool if ye truly believe that, Baodan. ’Tis the only reason they exist as far as I’m concerned.”
Baodan chuckled once, throwing his hands up in surrender. “Then I suppose I am a fool, for I doona agree with ye. ’Tis a twisted way to look at any lass, but I know there are many men who think as ye do so I willna fault ye for it. I only wish that ye wouldna tease them so with yer sweet words and false promises.”
“I doona wish to be with the lasses who wouldna care if I made me true feelings known. They doona care for themselves like lassies truly looking for love. Now,” Niall crossed his arms, clearly not pleased with being lectured, “did ye come here to make me feel guilty or did ye have something different that ye wished to say to me?”
“Aye, I wished to see if ye know why Eoghanan would want Mother to leave here. I canna see any sense to it. I thought perhaps ye might be able to help me see a reason for this.” The look on Niall’s face made him regret his decision to speak to him. Niall’s relationship with their mother had always been strained.