Page 47 of In Bed with a Highland Brute

“Venom?” Murdoch muttered in sudden fear. “What sort of venom are we talking of here? Sickness for a few hours? A few days?”

“Sometimes something worse.” Callie gulped. “I need tae ken what the snake was like.”

“Harper!” Avery turned to Harper once more. “What did the snake look like?”

“I dinnae ken. It was all so fast. I was so afraid.”

Murdoch’s arms tightened around Eloise. A horrible thought shot across his mind, one where Eloise fell completely still, and those bold blue eyes never opened again.

I cannae let that happen.

She lifted her head from his shoulder, her lip trembling with the pain.

“Brown and black,” she whispered. “Aye, that’s what it was.”

Murdoch looked to Callie, looking for confirmation of just how poisonous the adder could be.

“Most bites from such snakes arenae fatal, but… sometimes, they can be,” Callie whispered, clearly scared to say the words.

Murdoch backed up from her, carrying Eloise with him.

“We need tae get her the right medicines. Now,” Callie said simply.

“Then we take her tae the healer’s cottage on the estate.” Murdoch turned and ran away, carrying Eloise.

“Ow, Murdoch! Ye have tae run slower,” Eloise pleaded, her small hands gripping to his shoulders.

“Nae chance of that. Hold on tight, Eloise.” He ran across the loch and hastened to their horses, pulling himself up into the saddle fast and nestling Eloise in front of him. When she grimaced in pain, he reached for her knee and hooked it over his thigh, trying to keep her injured ankle away from colliding with the horse. Sat sideways in front of him, her body was practically turned toward him. “Ye will be fine,” he promised in a low voice as he flicked the reins. “I’ll get ye there fast.”

“Murdoch – oh!” Her words were cut off as the horse darted forward.

Murdoch was all too aware of the others following on horseback, even the guards who struggled to keep up. Despite the fact that Murdoch’s horse carried two, he urged them on at such a pace that they strode out ahead of the others, crossing the ground much faster.

When they reached the estate of the castle, he cut down the hill past the curtain wall and to the very edge, where a small cottage met the river.

Wilson must have heard their mad approach as he raised himself up from where he was bent beside the river, picking leeches or other such creatures from the watery depths.

“Wilson!” Murdoch shouted, aware that Eloise had gone rather limp in front of him in the saddle. “She’s been bitten by an adder.”

Wilson leapt into action, striding toward his cottage.

“Bring her in at once. We must clean the wound.”

Murdoch halted the horse by the cottage door and jumped down, reaching for Eloise to help her down next, though he never put her on the floor and carried her in his arms.

“Murdoch?” she whispered, her voice soft and her eyes half lidded.

“I willnae let anything more happen tae ye.” He spoke from the heart, not thinking anymore about it as he followed the healer into the cottage.

He’d barely put Eloise down on the bed that Wilson gestured to, when Callie and Avery appeared behind him in the doorway.

“Save her,” Murdoch begged Wilson, who was already mixing something up in a small bowl.

“Leave her with me, sir.”

I have nay intention of leaving her side at all.

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