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At first, he thought mayhap she'd tumbled from her mare, but then he spotted the arrow sticking out of her side as he dropped to his knees beside her and his heart nearly fell out of his chest. It certainly felt as if it dropped down to somewhere in the vicinity of his stomach.
"Saidh?" he barked, grasping her shoulders and raising her upper body off the ground. Her head lolled backward, hair trailing on the dirt, but she released a small moan too and Greer could have wept at this sign that she still lived.
" 'Tis all right," he assured her, scooping her up in his arms. "I've got ye. I'll get ye home and we'll patch ye up, and ye'll be fine."
She wasn't awake to hear his reassurances, but Greer needed to say them. He needed to hear and believe them. He simply couldn't fathom the thought of losing her already. Repeating his reassurances over and over, he carried her to his horse and somehow managed to mount while keeping her pressed to his chest . . . though were anyone to ask him he couldn't have said how he'd done that.
Greer didn't bother about her mare, but left it to follow, or not, as it chose. He was halfway back to the keep before it occurred to him that Saidh might be upset with him did she wake up to find he'd lost her mare. He glanced around anxiously then, relieved to see that it was behind them. The mare was smaller and slower and couldn't keep up. She was a good distance behind but she was there, hurrying after them and that was enough.
Greer rode across the bridge, through the gates and straight for the stairs to the keep. He spotted Saidh's brothers by the stables, but ignored them even when one of them called out to him. He was too busy at that point deciding whether to ride his beast straight up the stairs and into the great hall or not. In the end, it was the fact that he couldn't sort out a way to open the door while in the saddle that made him decide to rein in at the base of the stairs. Pressing Saidh tight to his chest, he catapulted out of the saddle and hurried up the stairs and inside.
It wasn't until he was charging into the master bedchamber that he recalled Alpin was in the bed. He almost turned then and carried her to the room they'd slept in last night, but a moan from Saidh changed his mind and he hurried forward and laid her gently down. He then reached over and gave Alpin a shake.
The boy moaned but otherwise didn't respond, and Greer gave him another, much harder shake. "Alpin!"
"Aye. What? M'laird?" Alpin opened drowsy eyes to peer at him blankly. "What is about, me laird?" He gave his head a shake and struggled to sit up. "Do ye need something m'laird? Is it time fer battle? Shall I fetch yer sword?"
"Nay." Greer pushed the boy back on the bed. His fever was obviously affecting his thinking if he still thought them out on the mercenary trail. "Where are Tilda and Helen?"
"Tilda?" Alpin peered at him blankly.
"My aunt Tilda," Greer said impatiently. "She was sitting with ye when I left. Her maid is a fair hand at healing. Where are they?"
"Oh." The boy's expression cleared a bit, but he shook his head and glanced around the room. "I'm no' sure. Lady Tilda was here when I woke earlier. She made me drink a tincture her maid had mixed fer me." He grimaced and gave a small shudder. "Vile stuff, but she made me drink e'ery last drop. I fell back to sleep then and . . ." He shrugged helplessly. "I do no' ken where or when she left then."
Greer growled with frustration at that and turned to hurry to the door. Opening it, he glanced out and spotted a maid walking up the hall.
"Fetch me Helen," he ordered.
"Aye, m'laird." The woman rushed off and Greer closed the door and returned to the bed to check on Saidh. Alpin followed his actions with wary eyes that widened with alarm when he noticed the woman in the bed next to him. Confusion covered his face.
"Why is Lady Saidh abed?" Alarm filled his expression and he added, "Ye're no' thinking o' tupping her right here next to me?"
Greer glanced to the boy with exasperation. "Does it look as if she's in any state to be tupped?"
Alpin glanced back to her and his eyes widened again. "Oh dear . . . is that an arrow sticking out o' her duckie?"
"Aye," he muttered, peering at the spot where the arrow had pierced her breast. There didn't appear to be a lot of blood around the wound. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. He just knew they had to get the damned thing out and sew her up. He couldn't lose her after just finding her.
"Ye shot her?" Alpin asked with dismay.
"Do no' be daft," he snapped and then straightened from the bed with a curse and muttered, "Where the hell is Helen?"
"What happened?"
Greer glanced around at that sharp question to see Rory rushing into the room with Aulay hard on his heels.
"Me laird shot me lady," Alpin announced in a woebegone tone, his words slightly slurred.
"O' course I didna," Greer snapped, scowling at the boy. "Why the devil would I marry her and then shoot her with an arrow?"
"Cause ye came to yer senses," Geordie suggested dryly as he strode into the room now too.
"Aye," Dougall agreed grimly as he followed. "Ye woke up this morn, came to yer senses and realized ye could no' keep a fine woman like Saidh happy so ye decided to be rid o' her."
"That or ye realized she has a fou' temper and is as like to beat ye as look at ye, do ye tweak her temper," Alick suggested entering now as well.
"I did no' shoot me wife with an arrow," Greer said grimly and scowled suspiciously at Rory when he moved to the door and stopped Niels and Conran as they would have entered. After murmuring to the two men briefly, both Niels and Conran turned and rushed away.
"Look at him, lads," Aulay growled impatiently, capturing Greer's attention again. "He has a sword but no bow or quiver. Besides, he's fair distraught. He did no' do this."
"Thank ye," Greer said dryly, and then roared, "Now will one o' ye go find Helen to aid me wife ere she bleeds to death?"
"No need," Aulay said soothingly. "Rory's tending to her."
"What?" Greer glanced around to see that Rory was at the bedside, bent over his wife. Alarm racing through him, he hurried to grab the man's arm and pull him away from her. "What the devil are ye doing? Ye're like to do more damage. Let her be. Helen'll tend her."
"Leave him, MacDonnell," Aulay said firmly, pulling him away from the other man. "Rory kens what he's doing. He trained with our healer at Buchanan."
Frowning, Greer tugged his arm free. "Fine but I'm no' leaving her."
"Nay. O' course no'. But at least move out of the way so Rory has room to work," Aulay said quietly.
Greer almost refused, but recognized the sense in the suggestion and gave a grudging nod. He then moved quickly around the bed to Alpin's side. But he wasn't happy about it. Half the bed and Alpin were now between him and his wife.
"I got yer satchel," Niels announced, rushing back into the room.
"Thank ye." Rory accepted the bag and set it on the bed. He began to pull out weeds and tinctures, and then suddenly paused to hand a bottle to Niels. "When Conran returns, put six drops of this in the water I sent him to fetch."
Niels nodded as he took the bottle. "Six drops. Aye."
"Six drops what?" Conran asked, rushing into the room with linens and a bowl of water he was sloshing everywhere in his rush.
Shaking his head, Greer turned his attention back to Rory in time to see that he was quickly cutting away the cloth of Saidh's gown around the arrow, baring her breast and the arrow shaft that stuck out of it. Greer stared at the wound, concern seeping through him, then glanced down to Alpin when the boy sucked in a deep breath and then let it out again on the word, "Pretty."
Noting that Alpin's gaze was fixed on Saidh's exposed breast, he scowled and slapped a hand over the boy's eyes. He then scowled at the seven Buchanan brothers now ranged around the bed also staring at Saidh's naked breast.
"Stop gawking at yer sister's duckies," he growled, using the term he'd now heard both Saidh and Alpin use in reference to breasts.
"She's our sister," Dougall pointed out with disgust. "We're looking at her wou
nd, no' her teat."
"Aye," Geordie agreed. "Besides, 'tis nothing we've no' seen before. We all used to swim naked in the loch at Buchanan."
"She did," Niels agreed. "Mind ye, she was twelve the last time she joined us. Our ma put an end to it after that."
"Aye, and she was flat as a sword then," Alick commented.
"Hmmm," Dougall murmured in agreement. Pursing his lips, he then shook his head. "Who'd ha'e thought she'd grow into such a fine figure o' a woman? Eh?"
"Aye. She was a scrawny child," Aulay said with fond reminiscence. "She did fill out nicely though. Makes a maun proud to call her sister."
"Get out, the lot o' ye!" Greer snapped furiously.
"We're no' going anywhere," Dougall snarled.
