Time held still as she moved from patient to patient. By the time she’d made her rounds and Dallan’s wound was the next to tend, it seemed as though she’d only just spoken with him. Before she ventured back out, Niamh stopped at a small pile of blankets on her worktable, checking to be sure Morrígan was still breathing. She’d managed to patch up the wee thing, who’d been sleeping peacefully ever since—a sure sign something was wrong. At the gentle brush of Niamh’s fingers on her soft fur, Morrígan half-opened an eye, purring contentedly before returning to her healing slumber.
Stepping out into the fading light of late afternoon, she’d half-expected him to be gone, unwilling to face her long enough to be treated. Disappointment and excitement both hit her full-force when she spotted him exactly where she’d left him.
He stared at her, still unnervingly silent. His chestnut eyes threatened the shred of calm that remained after seeing so many grotesque injuries at once.
She knelt before him, setting down the bowl of water, bandages, and healing herbs she’d brought to treat him. “You’ll need to remove yourléine,” she whispered, waiting for his barb.
Instead he complied without complaint.
When she looked up at him, he gazed heavenward and heaved a sigh, clearly seeing her confusion.
“I’m not a beast,” he grumbled. “I heard what you went through in there. I’ll be nice. For now.”
Niamh swallowed, worrying her bottom lip. It was easier when he was angry. If he kept treating her kindly, it would only get harder to stay away from him.
Not trusting herself to speak, she simply worked. Washing his wound, packing it, and wrapping it with clean linen. It tookonly minutes. As she picked up her supplies, she realized that he was staring at her hand.
He’d spied the ring she wore. The one he’d given her the night he asked for her hand in marriage.
Cursing her carelessness, she used that hand to hold the linens, hiding the ring from sight. “I’ll need to check on your wound in the morn and repack it,” she told him quickly, lest he get some grand idea to comment on the ring and wonder aloud at why she wore it.
“Shall I come here, then?” he asked coolly.
“Aye,” she muttered, hurrying back to the safety of the infirmary. Two patients yet waited for her whose injuries were slight.
She’d never been more grateful to have injured folk to tend. Not stopping to think on Dallan at all, Niamh headed off to her next patient.
*
She was wearingthe ring.
Why was she wearing the ring? Was she toying with him? Had she put it on deliberately to attempt to win his affections back? To what end?
Nay, she was cruel indeed but not malevolent. And she hadn’t known he’d be there, had she? Which meant that she’d been wearing it all day.
But why?
She hadn’t wanted to marry him, yet now she wore his ring. Perhaps she was trying to scare off an unwanted suitor. Aye, that was it. She probably had dozens of men throwing themselves at her feet.
It mattered not. He wasn’t going to succumb to her charms again. He had no desire to let her in only to have his heartbroken once more. The anger he felt served as a convenient shield for any other feelings, and it was no farce. That she could leave him, when they’d been nearly betrothed, without any reason for it, filled him with untampered fury.
He’d gone easy on her after hearing the screams of the folk who’d needed serious treatments. Unsettling didn’t quite capture the afternoon he’d had. Harrowing, perhaps. Either way, she’d not needed his spiteful comments then, so he’d kept his silence.
“You look worse, not better,” Finn called, alerting Dallan to his approach. “I’d hoped seeing the healer would improve your condition.”
“I need a different healer,” he replied, hoping this would keep Niamh far from him. “She’s no good.”
Finn folded his arms across his chest, raising an eyebrow. “Brona says she’s the best healer they’ve had in twenty years or more. Even the priests deferred to her knowledge.”
Dallan wouldn’t give up so easily. His sanity depended upon it. “Is there no one else who could change the bandages?”
Finn shook his head. “All the other healers were priests. None of them were spared.”
Dallan swore under his breath.
Finn sat down next to him. “I have just long enough before I leave for you to tell me what in the world has you so unbalanced.”
Peeking around the corner into the infirmary to be sure she was out of earshot, Dallan reluctantly turned to his friend. “Niamh,” he whispered.
