A Soldier's Salvation (Highland Heartbeats Book 7)(24)

“Too long, if this is how much older you’ve become.” He’d imagined his baby brother as a bookish, quiet, shy little man who allowed Alan to push him around after hearing the truth of how the lands were managed. Not so. Padraig looked as though his ham-sized fists could easily pummel any man who dared speak ill toward him.

And yet the same softness was about his eyes and smile. The same boyishness.

“Our brother was just about to tell me how to run the clan,” Alan explained, already into his third cup of ale in mere minutes. It didn’t seem to affect him—at least, not yet. Hardly enough time had passed, and he was a very large man accustomed to drink.

“I wasn’t telling anyone how to do anything,” was Rodric’s testy reply. “I was merely addressing the fact that a feud has sprung up anew.”

“Aye.” Padraig ran a hand over the back of his neck, a rueful smile touching the corners of his mouth. “It’s a hardship, to be sure.”

“Hardship.” Alan slammed the cup down again, reminding Rodric for all the world of a child showing his temper. “It’s a damned break of the agreement we reached. I was to marry the girl and unite the clans. What does she do? She runs off like a thief in the night. So help me, if I find out who’s harboring her—”

“You don’t know that anyone is,” Padraig reminded him, his voice firm but gentle. Rodric reminded himself that his brother knew how to handle the leader of his clan. He’d been doing it for years. “And again, let us consider the situation from Caitlin’s point of view.”

“Point of view, bah!” Alan crossed his arms over his chest, his face more flushed than ever. “She had a duty, the agreement was set, and she reneged.”

“What has Connor to say about this?” Rodric asked.

“Claims it had nothing to do with him, he had no control over her. What I would expect him to say.”

“Why hold it against him, then?”

“Why not?” He stood, palms on the old, heavy table, and leaned forward. “For all I know, he told the girl to do as she did! Wanted to make a fool of me. Wanted the benefits of a peace between us and the protection of a much stronger clan.”

“Och, he cares nothing for the girl,” Rodric reminded his brother. “He wouldn’t have cared one way or another whether or not she wished to be wed. I strongly suspect this was her doing, and hers alone.”

“Even so, what do you expect me to do? You expect me to roll over and take this sort of treatment? What kind of message would that send the other clans?”

A fair point, reluctant though Rodric was to admit it.

“Is this why you’ve returned?” Padraig asked in a voice far different from Alan’s. He didn’t need to bellow and bluster to command attention.

“Aye,” Rodric admitted, turning his attention on Alan. “Word of this new disagreement has reached other clans, as you’ve suggested. The Duncans, in particular.”

“Bah, the Duncans. A curse on the lot of ‘em.” Alan shook his head as he poured yet another cup, full to the point where ale sloshed over the sides.

“I wouldn’t speak so flippantly if I were you,” Rodric warned.

“Why? Are they so much stronger than we?” Alan taunted. “You know the size of the force we had at our back when you and I were boys. Double that number, and you’ll have some idea of our current strength.”

“We all know how wealthy and powerful the Duncan clan is,” Padraig reminded both of his brothers, looking from one to the other. “Perhaps it’s best we solidify our alliances, rather than destroying what’s made us strong from the beginning. I, for one, do not wish to count Phillip Duncan as an enemy.”

“You’d be better off as a woman,” Alan snarled, glaring at his younger brother.

“Says the man who only just admitted what a wonder Padraig is,” Rodric spat.

“Aye, a woman can run a household, can she not? But she hasn’t the balls to run a clan,” Alan announced. “Which is why I sit in this chair, right here behind me, and why my word is the final word when it comes to clan business. And I say, damn the Duncans straight to hell if they think they can tell an Anderson what to do.”

He squinted at Rodric, who realized Alan was holding himself steady against the table and took this to mean his brother had already had more than enough to drink. “And damn you along with them, if that’s what you’ve come here for.”

“I should’ve known there would be no talking to you,” Rodric muttered. “You were impossible enough when you were sober, but now?”

“Stop this,” Padraig insisted, stepping between the two of them before Alan had the chance to explode. “Nothing can be achieved this way.”

“He wants to achieve nothing but what he wants,” Rodric pointed out, pushing his way past Padraig.

He had good intentions and would’ve made a much better leader than either of his older brothers, but he was still the baby of the family.

“Yes!” Alan cried out, eyes lighting up. “Let him come at me as he’s always wanted to. Now that he’s a big man, a soldier, he thinks he can take on his older brother.”

“I could’ve taken you on years ago—when you were still in shape,” Rodric added. “Now, you’re nothing but a shadow of who you used to be and nothing like the man our father was. You can’t even stand up straight. And you can’t stand the blow the girl landed on your pride. Why not admit what this is truly about?”