Page 57 of In Bed with a Highland Brute

Eloise went to help Clyde as he removed the tourniquet, and they pulled the shirt over his head. Murdoch hissed between his teeth but didn’t grunt with the pain again. As he laid back down on the pillows, Eloise felt that sense of nausea returning at the sight of the wound. It was bloody indeed, no longer held together by the belt.

“Here, this will help.” Callie drenched a rag in some sort of liquid and passed it to Wilson. He placed it down on Murdoch’s wound and now he grunted in pain, moving against his hold. Avery went to hold Murdoch down on the bed by his other shoulder. “It will hurt, but it will help.”

Eloise fidgeted at the side of the bed until Callie moved to her side.

“Ye can go,” Callie whispered. “I can call ye when we ken something of his condition.”

“Nay. I wish tae stay.” Eloise refused, shaking her head.

“But… it will be hard tae watch.”

“That doesnae concern me.” Eloise looked at Callie, feeling the strength in her own words. “Give me something tae dae, something tae help him, or I shall go mad.”

“Aye, as ye wish.” Callie reached for her arm, comfortingly. “Ye can help me mix together the salve for the wound as they stitch him back together.”

Eloise followed Callie to a bench at the back of the room. Repeatedly, she glanced back, watching as Wilson sewed Murdoch back together and Avery held him down. There wasn’t time to give Murdoch a sedative to knock him out, so he had to bear with the pain of being sewn together fully awake. He moaned loudly, trying not to cry out.

As Callie returned to the bed to assist Wilson, Eloise was left alone to follow Callie’s instructions in mixing the ingredients for the salve. Another moved to her side, distracting her. It was Clyde. He could not stand still, and his face had turned deathly pale as he stared at his brother.

“He’s strong, my brother,” Clyde whispered. “He will pull through this, will he nae?”

She realized that he was perhaps intending to offer comfort, but it was at a time when he needed it too.

“Aye, he is strong,” she murmured and hurried in her task with the pestle and mortar.

“He is a lucky man too.” Clyde sighed.

“Lucky?” Eloise repeated in amazement.

There is nae a thing lucky about this situation!

“Tae have ye tae watch over him like this.” Clyde turned back and nodded at what she was doing, affecting a small smile. “Aye, nae many women have this much love in them for a man. Nae that I have seen.” He sighed deeply. “Aye, lucky indeed.”

The way he spoke broke Eloise. He thought she loved Murdoch, and the truth was that she had no idea what she did feel for him. All she knew was that this hurt. She couldn’t bear to see Murdoch in this agony anymore. Hot tears slipped down her cheeks and Clyde opened his arms to her, offering her an embrace. She went to him, clinging onto him, as if he was her true blood brother.

“He’ll be well again,” Clyde muttered as they held onto one another. “He has tae be. Murdoch hasnae been defeated yet.”

Eloise looked over his arm to see Murdoch on the bed, still being held down by Avery as Wilson sewed up the wound and Callie offered up the first of the salves. All she could see was Murdoch’s legs. One twitched on the bed as he tried to hold himself as still as he could.

Murdoch shifted on the bed. The pain in his shoulder was sudden as he sat up, suddenly wide awake. He groaned at the pain, then sat very still as he realized the healer’s cottage was flooded with candlelight.

“I think they gave ye the same sedative they gave me,” a soft voice called from the corner of the room. Murdoch shifted around on the bed, feeling surprisingly awake as he sought Eloise out.

She approached from the corner of the room, carrying two cups in her hands. She placed one down on the table beside him and perched on the edge of the bed.

“Eloise?” Murdoch whispered, his mind working fast as he took everything in.

He remembered being stitched up then a cup of something was forced into his lips. He’d seen many faces, Avery’s, Clyde’s, Callie’s, Wilson’s, and lastly Eloise’s before he had fallen asleep. That had to be some hours ago as it was now pitch black beyond the windows. The orange candles that Eloise had lit flooded the space around the room with amber light.

“How are ye feeling?” Eloise asked, offering one of the cups of water to him. He took it, very aware of how their fingers brushed together on the rim.

“Like I’ve been stabbed.” He sighed and sat back on the pillows. When she grimaced, appearing in pain herself, he shook his head. “It’s hardly the first time I have been stabbed, Eloise.”

“So I see,” she whispered, chewing on her lip as she looked down at his chest.

Murdoch looked down at himself, sat up on the pillows. The blankets were pulled up around his hips, with his trews, but his chest was completely bare, revealing all the scars that were on his chest.

“Ye have been hurt so many times over the years.” Eloise’s voice shook. “I am sorry ye were hurt today because of me.”