Kathleen Kirkwood & Anita Gordon - Heart series by The Defiant Heart

befit him then, nor does the thought of him wearing it now.”
    “ Are you of the same mind as Ketil, ástin mín ?” Rurik bent to the sensitive spot behind her ear.
    “ Mayhap.” She tingled at the warmth of his mouth and touch of his tongue. “You are the one least surprised by Lyting’s decision to take the cowl.”
    “ I simply hold my peace.” Rurik began a slow, downward path, pressing kisses along her neck.
    Brienne wavered as shivers of fire showered her throat and shoulder. Reluctantly she resisted the sensations spiraling through her. Leaning back in the circle of Rurik’s arms, she gave him an expectant eye.
    Rurik dre w her against himself once more, undeterred, and brushed his lips against her midnight hair.
    “ You would have to have known Lyting in his youth and what it was like for him to grow up as youngest to a half brother like . . .” He stopped short of voicing Hastein’s name aloud.
    “ How so, love?” Brienne pressed, quivering as the tip of his tongue traced the shell of her ear. “How could that one have possibly affected Lyting’s call to the monastic life?”
    Rurik pulled back with a sigh, realizing Brienne would own no ease till she had a fuller explanation. He sent up a small, hope-filled prayer that the twins would nap long and deep, and that the others would find much to occupy themselves for the coming hours. He would yet savor this time alone with his ravishing wife. With temporary resignation he covered her hands with his own.
    “Our half brother bedeviled Lyting from infancy, just as he did every other living creature. Have you noticed how ever vigilant Lyting is? How keenly alert? Like the forest animals he so beloves, ‘tis near impossible to steal up on him. Even when he appears asleep, ‘tis only a light, surface sort of slumber he keeps. Always with a sword at hand. ‘Tis born of the hazards he endured in his youth. The constant threat of our half brother’s shadow.”
    Sadness filled Brienne as she envisaged the ordeal of Lyting’s childhood. She knew firsthand of Hastein’s twistedness, having witnessed the full magnitude of his barbarity unleashed upon her brother-in-law.
    “ It must have been horribly difficult for him. But how did that bear on his resolve to enter Corbie?”
    Rurik turned over her hands in his as memories of his own youth glanced through him. He leveled his gaze over the top of her head.
    “My brothers were a study in contrast. The one, malicious and spiteful, who derived pleasure in tormenting the most innocent of creatures. The other, profoundly humane and caring, who, despite danger to himself, came ever behind, righting the wrongs, easing the suffering. Even as a small lad, Lyting took it upon himself to rectify our half brother’s cruelties. Like you with your herbs, love, he was a healer of sorts, tending the injuries of animals he found callously brutalized and left to die — putting them from their misery only when faced with no other choice. That deeply affected him. He deplored the senselessness of it all.
    “ As he grew in height and strength, he aided those children younger, pitting himself against our half brother with varying results. Not all the scars he bears were gained that night he defended you, ástin mín , though most were inflicted by the same one’s blade.”
    Seeing the pain that creased Brienne ’s features, Rurik drew her against him and stroked her hair.
    “ Now Lyting wishes to right the ills of Normandy wrought by our kindred. Never was he part to their plunderings in Francia. He arrived shortly after the king concluded his treaty with Rollo. Lyting was swift to embrace Christ’s cross from the first. Far quicker than I,” he added with a smile.
    Brienne tipped her face upward and searched Rurik ’s face. “Then you think Lyting should enter Corbie?”
    “ I simply trust his judgment.”
    Brienne ’s lips parted to speak, but he placed a finger there.” Ástin mín , Lyting must follow his own