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Evanna wondered what color his eyes were since they remained firmly closed. She stood up, deciding to make a trip into the village to find help, when the man groaned and put a hand to his head, screwing up his face in pain. She slapped him gently on the cheek, trying to bring him back to consciousness.
“Come on, wake up,” she said gently. “Ye are hurt, and I must get some help for ye.”
He moaned again, then, after a moment, his eyes fluttered open. He turned toward her, and she could see that they were a stunning shade of light blue with a brightness she had never seen before.
“Who are ye?” he asked hoarsely. His voice was deep and gravelly, the kind of voice that made most women melt inside.
However, Evanna had no intention of doing anything at that moment but lifting him onto the horse. “My name is Evanna,” she replied. “And yers?”
He coughed a little before answering. “Fraser.” He screwed up his face and made a low moan. The effort of speaking seemed to have exhausted him for the moment.
“We must get ye out o’ here before the night comes down,” she told him. “The woods are cold an’ there are wolves an’ boars here. It is no’ safe. Ye will no’ live tae see the mornin’ if ye stay here like this.”
The bright blue eyes scanned her face curiously, then he gave her a ghost of a smile. “I suppose I should no’ be thinkin’ of it, but if I needed tae be rescued, ye are just the lady I would pick for the job.”
Evanna’s eyes widened with surprise. Even in his half-conscious state, he was flirting with her! “Thank ye.” Her voice was grim, and she was eyeing him without any sympathy at all. Men were all the same!
“Ye must try tae walk,” she said briskly. She grasped his hand and pulled as hard as she could to help him to his feet, but he was extremely heavy. However, he tried to assist her by pushing his good arm on the ground and straightening his knees. When he was finally standing upright, she could see that he was the tallest, broadest man she had ever seen.
“Come wi’ me.” She put his arm over her shoulders and her arm around his waist, then they stumbled over to Evanna’s old horse, Daisy. “Can ye get up?” she asked, looking at him dubiously.
Fraser nodded. “I will try,” he answered.
Evanna led the horse over to a tree stump, and he stood on it. Then, with a fierce frown of determination, he managed to mount the horse on his third attempt.
Evanna handed him a blanket. “Whoever did this tae ye will be lookin’ for ye, so put that over yer head. The village is no’ far away.” Then she sprang up in front of him and took the reins in her hands before they moved very carefully and slowly back to the tavern.
During the journey Fraser said nothing, so Evanna kept up a flow of mindless chatter to keep his attention, hoping that she could stop him from lapsing into unconsciousness again. She described the countryside around them, their tavern, her experience of the night before, the weather, and anything else she could think of to keep him conscious.
“Are ye still with me, Fraser?” she asked desperately, as they drew near the Black Ram tavern where she lived and worked. She received a grunt in return. “Try to hang on ’til we get there. It will no’ be long now.” Evanna was tense; if he fell off the horse, she would never be able to lift him again, and he might do himself even more damage.
Presently, the lights and smoke of the village could be seen through the gathering dark, and Evanna breathed a sigh of relief. If the worst happened now, at least she could summon help.
Just as they were drawing near to the tavern, Evanna heard him groan again and felt his body, which had been pressing against hers, shift to the side. A moment later, he fell and landed on the ground, shoulder first, to lie unconscious and unmoving.
Evanna’s heart skipped a beat, and she dismounted from Daisy in such haste that she almost ended up on the ground beside Fraser. She knew that this time he was dead. He had to be. Then she looked up and saw Lexie running toward them, and suddenly she felt that everything was going to be all right.
2
Lexie rushed outside and looked down at the bloody, bedraggled figure on the ground, fearing the worst as she knelt down beside him. She felt his pulse, and a flood of relief washed over her. The man was in bad shape, but he was alive, and if she put all her medical training to use, he would stay that way. However, as she looked at his long body with its impressive musculature, she could see that shifting him would be well nigh impossible for two women, even if one of them was as big and strong as she was.
“He looks heavy,” she observed, frowning. “We will have tae summon help.”
“We cannot do that.” Evanna shook her head. “If word spreads that he is here, whoever tried tae kill him will find out and maybe pay us a visit, an’ ye can only imagine what kind o’ state they will leave the place in. They might even hurt or kill somebody.” She looked down at the figure on the ground, not feeling pity so much as terror. What kind of trouble had she brought on them?
“Hmmm…” Lexie thought for a moment, tapping her fingers against her lips, but at that moment the stranger stirred again and looked up at Evanna, who breathed a sigh of relief.
“Can ye move?” she asked fearfully.
“I can try,” he mumbled, screwing his face up in pain.
“Let us take him tae my room,” Evanna suggested. It was upstairs but situated at the end of a corridor slightly away from the guest rooms, next to Lexie’s.
Between them, they helped the wounded man to his feet, stumbled upstairs into Evanna’s chamber, and laid him on her bed. She fleetingly mourned the pristine whiteness of the bedsheets she had just washed the day before as they became instantly soiled with mud and blood. However, she dismissed the thought at once since she had a human life to worry about. She could wash the sheets; she could not bring him back from the dead.
“We need tae see tae this wound then bathe him,” Lexie said grimly. “Thank goodness he looks like a healthy young man otherwise.” She probed the wound with her fingers. “It is not too deep,” she observed, “and the bleeding is already beginning tae slow. I am fairly confident that he will recover.”
Then she lifted one of his hands, and Evanna noticed for the first time the damage that the rough twine of his bonds had caused. The skin had been entirely chafed away from his wrists, and the flesh underneath was bleeding profusely. She winced as she thought of the pain it would cause him when he regained consciousness.
