He secured his sword, and then, to my shock, drew off his plaid, revealing a bloody tunic beneath.
“Ye’re injured!” I gasped, starting toward him, but he held up his palm.
“See to the wee lassie first,” he said, nodding to Eliza. “She needs ye more than I do.”
Fate, it seemed, had delivered the answer to my silent prayer, but I knew better than to trust fate, so I scowled at him to show my trust was not easily earned. “Sit there,” I said, pointing to a log. “And try nae to die on me.”
A hearty laugh that made him wince and clutch his side burst from him. “I’ll do my best.”
Chapter Four – James
The cut on my side stung as if demons themselves had raked their nails down my flesh and torn it open, but I gritted my teeth and bore it in silence. The gods had handed me this gift, and I wasn’t about to squander it by showing weakness. I settled onto the log, and a heaviness immediately gripped me. I was tired. Not sleeping for the past day was catching up to me. Possibly, a fever was setting in from the wound Siward had inflicted.
I smiled grimly to myself as I lifted my blood-stiffened tunic and looked down at the angry red gash I’d tried my best to tend. I knew precious little about the healing arts, but I was nearly certain this was the renowned healer, Katreine, the king wanted. I was in good hands, or I would be when her focus turned to me. Given I’d been led here by whispers in every village I’d passed through of a Summer Walker named Katreine with astonishing healing powers, I could not see how this woman wasn’t the prize I’d been hunting. Still, I was not the sort of man to leave things to chance.
I studied her for a moment as she tended the now quiet, though still sniffling, bairn. The king had said the healer was bonny, and this woman was certainly that. Even wounded and tired as I was, I found myself hardening with lust at the sight of her. I wouldn’t act on it, of course. That would be a complication I neither needed nor wanted, but I couldn’t control the physical reaction she provoked any more than I could control the sun rising tomorrow.
Her long, silky, coppery strands had fallen like a curtain, shielding her face as she examined the bairn, but I could easily recall her details. Her most striking feature was her eyes. The color was unlike anything I’d ever seen. They were gold streakedwith brown, and they shone with the same razor-sharp wit and daft boldness I’d witnessed in her exchange with the warrior. She had high cheekbones and lips that looked as if they were made to be kissed or to deliver searing insults. And her body, well, my fingers curled inward as I imagined what it might feel like to run them over her ample breasts or glide them over the gentle swell of her hips, which I could make out when she set her hand to them as she stared at the bairn.
“What did ye say yer name was?” I asked to confirm I had the right healer. I doubted there was more than one in this tiny village, and the medicine woman I’d met in the last village had said the Summer Walkers, including Katreine, were camped here for the winter, but I wanted to be certain.
She paused, a vile in her hand that she’d been opening, and glanced toward me. Her annoyance with me was obvious in the fierce frown on her face, which somehow made her look charming and, oddly, made me want to chuckle. “I did nae say,” she replied, then dismissed me as quickly as she’d acknowledged me. She was a cheeky wench, but I liked cheeky wenches in general. They had fire aplenty. I’d never been a man for a dull-witted woman who would simply do as I bid. Someday, when I had the home, the warriors, and the coin to provide for a family, I was going to find myself a spirited woman to wed.
The woman who’d silently been fetching things the healer requested smiled at me as she handed the healer a rag and a bowl. “I’m Gillie, and she’s—”
“Gillie!” the healer gasped, startling the bairn, who began wailing again, and bringing the distraught mama scurrying over with her arms outstretched for her child. The healer stood, her skirts swishing at her ankles, and handed the lass to the mama with great care. “’Tis her teeth,” the healer said, patting the mama on the arm.
The mama frowned. “But she does nae have any teeth yet.”
The healer gave her a gentle smile. “She’s getting some now. ’Tis what the crying is about. She’s yer first bairn, aye?”
The mama nodded as she swayed back and forth to soothe the bairn.
“Is Eliza nearing one?” the healer asked as she emptied the contents of the vile into a bowl, stirred it, then slung the rag over her shoulder.
“Aye.”
“That’s about the time they get teeth. When the teeth break through the gums, it hurts. I’m going to send ye a salve to apply to Eliza’s gums every night to ease the pain.”
“I do nae have any coin of my own to pay ye, and my husband will nae give me any coin for this.”
I stood, grunting, which drew all the women’s attention to me. “I’ll pay for the lass’s care,” I said, reaching for my coin bag and wincing at the sharp pain the movement caused.
“Ye would do that?” the healer asked, surprise evident in her tone.
“Aye,” I said, grasping a handful of coins. “How much?”
She gave me a strange look, as if she were contemplating me.
“Keep yer coin,” she said, holding out a pouch to the mama and looking at her. “I was nae going to charge ye for services.”
“Thank ye, my lady.”
“I’m nae a lady,” the healer said, her tone sharp, but I’d swear she was lying. There was something about her cultured tone and the way she held herself with such poise that reminded me of Munro’s wife, Murieall, who was the daughter of a great laird.
The mama hugged the healer tightly, profusely thanking her, then scurried into the thick crowd of villagers gathered along the banks to hock their wares and trade for what they needed to live.
“Come to me,” she said, motioning me forward. I knew it was simply to treat me, but, by the gods, there was a husky edge to her voice that made me imagine her naked, hair fanned aroundher, and me pleasuring her. I gave myself a mental shake as I closed the distance between us. I would stop thinking lustful thoughts about this woman right now. She was nothing more to me than a means to the future I had long yearned for.
