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at Royce. They had grown up together, the three of them, with Alden a year younger than Royce, and Darrelle two years younger than her brother. They were the only family Royce had left, besides Meghan, and he loved them both. But sometimes Darrelle could be wished out of sight when he was so obviously out of patience with her sulks and silly tantrums.
    “So, you accuse me of keeping him from sleeping,but what are you doing, making him talk and answer questions about those loathsome heathens?”
    Royce rolled his eyes and grinned at Alden. “I will leave you in your sister’s capable care.”
    Alden shot him a chagrined look as Royce left the room.

Chapter Nine
    R oyce watched his sister run across the hall and peek out the opened door, then turn around with a frown and run back toward the stairs where she had come from. He called her to him before she reached them. She came, not so quickly now, to the long table where he sat alone breaking the fast. She had already eaten with her maid, Udele.
    Darrelle was still annoyed with Royce from last eve and would not sit with him this morn, but she watched from where she bent over one of the wounded men. It was not difficult to perceive Meghan’s reluctance to approach her formidable brother.
    It was something that tore at Royce’s heart, Meghan’s reticence toward him, and it was his own fault, caused by his deplorable behavior that first year after he lost so many dear to him in the Viking raid. Meghan was too young to understand what he was feeling, why he was surly with everyone, even her. She began to fear him that year and had never lost that fear, even though he had treated her with the tenderest of care once he realized what was happening.
    She had developed many fears from that time—of strangers, of loud voices, of tempers—and he blamed himself for it all. He knew that she loved him. He was the first one she would hide behind when she felt she needed protection. But she was so terribly shy of him, so timid and meek in manner, as if she always expectedhim to chastise her or worse. She was in fact the same way with all men, but Royce took her behavior to heart.
    “Were you afraid to go outside?” Royce asked gently when she finally stood next to him with bowed head.
    “Nay, I only wanted to look at the Vikings. Udele said they were all bad men, but they looked like only hurt men to me.” She peeked up at him to measure his reaction to this, then relaxed when she saw him smiling at her.
    “You do not think they could be hurt bad men?”
    “I suppose, but they still did not seem so bad. One even smiled at me, or I think he did. Can such young men be really so bad, Royce? I thought men had to live a long time in wicked sin to be really bad.”
    “These men have not the benefit of God to temper their wickedness, so it matters not how young they are.”
    “Udele said that they have many gods and that makes them bad too.”
    “Nay, that only makes them heathens who sacrifice to pagan gods. Are you afraid of them?”
    “Aye,” she admitted meekly.
    Impulsively he asked, “What do you think I should do with them, Meghan?”
    “Make them go away.”
    “So they can come back and hurt us again at another time? I cannot allow that.”
    “Then make them Christians.”
    Royce chuckled at her simple solution. “That is for our good abbot to do, not I.”
    “Then what will you do with them? Udele thinks you will kill them.” Meghan shivered as she said this.
    “Udele thinks too much aloud.” He frowned.
    Meghan lowered her eyes again. “I told her you would not, because they are not fighting anymore, and you would not kill a man unless ’twas in battle.”
    “Sometimes ’tis necessary—” He stopped himself,shaking his head. “Never mind, midget. What say you we put them to work building our wall?”
    “Would they work for us?”
    “Oh, I think they will want to with the right incentive,” he replied.
    “You mean they will not have a