Chapter 2
His screams shattered the nighttime peace of the hall, but the wordscreamdidna provide an accurate description of the heart-wrenching sound. The warrior’s growling roars sounded more like unimaginable pain unleashed from the depths of his anguished soul. 'Twas a hellish sound that echoed off the rafters.
Jolted awake, Catriona sprang up from her pallet and rushed to the thrashing warrior’s side. Thank the saints, they’d strapped him to his sickbed or he would have tumbled to the floor by now. The man's safety demanded restraints. There had been no choice. He’d never survive another round of bleeding.
“Shh…'tis all right. ’Tis all over. Ye’re safe now.” She wrung out a cloth in a basin of cool water and sponged it across the suffering man’s forehead, daubing the sweat from his brow with slow, gentle movements. She laid a hand to his cheek, against the side of his neck, then rested it on the center of his broad heaving chest. Her heart lifted at the cool, clammy touch to his skin. “Praise be. Your fever’s broke at last.”
A relieved breath escaped her as she pressed the damp cloth along his throat and collarbone, wiping away the sheen of sweat the fever left in its wake.Praise the Almighty, 'tis at last broken. Fierce thing it was.They’d rid his body of bullets, staunched his bleeding with red-hot irons, and sewn closed the worst of the damage left by the blades, but the fever had held to him with the stubbornness of a life-sucking demon. The man, nay,Alexanderhad faired no better for so long that Catriona had feared they couldna save him. She’d feared he’d die within days.
“Alexander,” she said his name in a soft whisper, praying it would pull him from whatever dark terrors he still battled. “Alexander MacCoinnich, rest ye easy, lad. All is well and ye’re safe here atTor Ruadh.”
Sutherland, the youngest MacCoinnich brother, had revealed Alexander's name. Catriona stole a glance around the hall. 'Twas as quiet as a tomb and dark as the maw of a cave except for what bit of golden light flickered from the hearths. A single candle sputtered on the mantel next to Alexander’s makeshift bed. The shadowy forms on pallets scattered around the room remained still. The other men had grown accustomed to Alexander’s outbursts during his fevered fits.
“Back to sleep with ye, my fine warrior. Find your rest. All is well.” Catriona had discovered that the more she spoke to him, the calmer the great bear of a man became even in his unconscious state. As before, Alexander stilled, relaxing into his blankets and ceasing his attempts to snap the bindings around his arms.
Catriona shuddered, struggling to push the troubling memory of cleaning his wounds back into the darkness where it belonged. Elena and Gaersa had been right. Catriona hadn’t been prepared for what they'd had to do to save him. 'Twas the stuff of nightmares. She cradled his face in one hand, the stubble shadowing the man’s cheek tickling against her palm. Sympathy for him swelled within her heart.God bless ye, my poor suffering lad. God bless ye and keep ye.Tending to Alexander’s injuries had cost him dearly, but it had been a case of damned if ye do or damned if ye don’t.
Catriona combed her fingers through his dark, sweat-soaked hair and raked it back from his face. She pressed the cool cloth along the side of his neck and across his collar bone. A tired smile tickled the corners of her mouth as Alexander’s breathing returned to a peaceful, steady rhythm with a gentle rise and fall of his chest.At last.The poor man rested.Stifling a yawn, she returned the cloth to the basin and turned away.
“Stay,” whispered a deep voice, hoarse and rough but still so weak she strained to hear it.
Catriona whirled about, fearing she’d imagined the sound. She eased closer to the head of the bed. His eyes were open, dark and confused, but clear and lucid rather than wild with fever. She leaned over him so he could better see her in the weak light. “I’m right here. I’m no' going anywhere.”
Even in the faint glow of candlelight, Catriona saw the uncertainty and leeriness in his eyes. Such dark eyes. Black as ebony but when the candlelight hit them just right they flickered to a shade of the deepest, richest brown.
“This…place?”
“Tor Ruadh.The keep of Clan Neal. Ye’re safe here.”
Eyes narrowing, Alexander’s dark brows knotted into a fiercer scowl. “How?” The word croaked out from between his dry, cracked lips, his unblinking gaze searching her face.
“Our hunters found ye in MacAlpin’s cave and fetched ye back here afore the lot of ye froze to death.” She poured cool water into a wooden cup, soaked the folded corner of a clean cloth, and held it to his mouth. “Here. Wet your mouth with this for now and if that goes well enough, we shall try a wee swallow or two of water, aye?”
Alexander didn’t answer, just allowed her to press the cloth to his lips, watching her with an unnerving look as she guided a few drops of water into his mouth.
Catriona squeezed the cloth against his parted lips, dribbling the water in a slow, steady stream until no more came from it. She took the cloth away and wet it again in the cup. He kept her locked in a fathomless, unblinking stare, scrutinizing her until her cheeks grew warm.
“Your kin are here, too,” she said. Surely, he’d be worried after them. “Four brothers and two cousins.”
“I dinna have four brothers.” Alexander’s voice still rasped rough as wagon wheels in gravel but seemed stronger for the water. He blinked hard and fast. His brow creased and his eyes narrowed. “Magnus. I remember Magnus being…there.”
“Aye.” Catriona nodded. “Magnus is here.” Catriona nodded toward the wide hearth on the other side of the room. “He sleeps even now. Over there.”
Alexander tried to rise, then halted with a jerk, emitting a low rumbling growl in tandem to falling back to his pillow.
“Be still with ye now!” Catriona grabbed the candlestick, holding the flickering light high as she checked the bandages wrapped around his thigh, shoulder, and midsection. “Shame on ye, sir! Ye canna afford more bleeding! I bid ye lie still this instant!”
Alexander rolled his head back and forth on his pillows with a frustrated groaning huff. At last, he stilled and the hint of a smile lifted the corners of the fine full lips that Catriona had noticed more than once. She’d even dared to wonder what those lips might be like if they ever touched hers. She’d ne’er been kissed before. Not really. Liam Bickerstaff had attempted a stolen kiss once when they were little more than children but that had been a clumsy bumping of lips, teeth, and noses. She blinked away the memory and forced herself back to the matter at hand.
“Daren’t ye smile at my scolding.” Catriona retrieved a cloth-covered crock from the bench. “Ye’ve shifted Elena’s poultice wrap from your shoulder. Lie still now whilst I apply another.”Stop being the fool about this man. What ails ye?Time to stop silly daydreaming about this fine warrior and concentrate on getting him healed.
Alexander’s smile grew as he pulled in a deep breath, winced, then released it. The smile disappeared when he attempted to lift his arms. He jerked his forearms against the bands of cloth securing him to the table. “Why am I restrained?”
Amazing how a man could sound so strong and in charge even when he spoke in a rasping whisper. Catriona removed the cloth cover of the jar and stirred the poultice, her eyes watering at the rotten oniony smell. “Ye were wild with fever and we feared ye would throw yourself from the table and reopen your wounds.” She removed the dislodged bandage from his shoulder and discarded it in a bucket under the bench. As she smoothed a generous amount of the stinking gooey paste on a fresh cloth, Catriona forced back a gag. The stuff stank like a rotting dung heap, but Elena swore it drew poisons out of the body.
“God’s teeth.” Alexander made a choking sound as he tried to shift away from her. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and turned his face away. “What the hell is that stinking mess?”
“A poultice. Draws out poisons.” Catriona drew in as few breaths as possible and took care to breathe through her mouth. “Once your fevers are gone and dinna return, we willna have to use it.” She forced herself not to smile as Alexander’s nostrils flared and his strong jaw clenched whilst he stared up into the darkness.
