His first reaction was to flinch but to do so would have insulted her. Out of appreciation for the old woman’s help, he returned her gaze kindly. He sat up again.
“You can see clearly?” Glenna came nearer.
“Aye…wife. As clearly as the day we were wed,” he said wryly and watched her flush. “Ah, one of my favorite memories. Surely you, too, remember it well.”
“Aye,” she agreed, eyeing him suspiciously.
He snatched her hand and pulled her closer, slipping his arm around her waist and resting his hand low on her soft and rounded buttocks. “Tell our tale to the miracle healer here. I’m certain she would find our great romance vastly interesting...a tale for the bards.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and he merely smiled and rubbed circles over and over on her backside. She looked ready to bolt, so he gripped her more tightly. In turn, she cleared her throat loudly and pressed her elbow near his sore ribs and he winced and grabbed her elbow in a tight grip.
She would pay for that, he thought. She tried to edge away a step, but he pulled her back, slapping her buttocks harder. “Stay close, my sweet and tell the tale.”
“It was in the spring, “ Glenna began.
“Winter, sweetings,” he corrected. “After the first snow. Surely you recall as do I, as if it was yesterday, not but barely two years—“
“Six month hence,” she volunteered at the same time, and she hurriedly said, “Two years and six months.”
“The winter air was clear and brisk.”
“ ‘Twas spring,” she said pointedly. “Look, Montrose. Do you wish for me to tell the tale or not? Remember, my love,” she said sweetly, “that you have been recently knocked silly in the head, which would not have happened if I had my bow and arrows.”
“But not even a blow to the head could make me forget meeting you.”
“Most likely because your head is so hard,” she said under her breath.
“On with you, wife. Tell the tale.”
“I do not think so. Since you do not know the time of year we met, it is certain you are still too feeble-minded from your ordeal. You should rest now,” she said, patting his hand overly hard. “One would hate to find you exerted yourself and then turned into a simpleton.”
“It would take more than a conk on the noggin for me to forget that day…you vixen.” He held her to his side in an iron grip. “She was like a cat in heat, so hungry she was for a good man. I carried the scratches on my back for weeks.” He brushed her chin with his knuckle. “Close your mouth, love, else ‘twill catch flies.”
“It is you, my lordhusband,” she said quietly, “who is made of the same stuff that attracts the flies.”
“Aye. Sweet as honey,” he said loud and merrily. “That surely is our love. Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.” He nuzzled her ear. “I could lick you all over.”
She gasped and stepped away.
He gave an exaggerated sigh. “I see that our great romance is not to be told of on this day. Therefore I apologize, madam. I believe mywifehas grown suddenly modest.”
The old woman turned and reached for her staff, but not before she gave him a quick wink. Lyall shifted, looking around the room, and he spotted his saddlebags in the corner along with Glenna’s belongings. He noticed then the great hound was not at her side and wondered where it was. Slowly he stood and felt the solidness of ground with relief, his legs firmly planted and his head did not swim, his sight clear, perhaps, surprisingly, clearer than before the hay fire.
A few minutes later he handed some silver to the healer. “You have my gratitude, old woman.”
“I am Gladdys,” she said, giving him a penetrating and long and silent look, before she turned to leave. “And I can only heal a hairsbreadth of what has passed.”
His mood, light from all that foolishness with Glenna, waned quickly, and he grew quiet and pensive from the old woman’s knowing look.
She paused in the doorway and faced them both, tapping her staff three times, until Glenna, too, had turned around and was paying attention.
“This room still be over-crowded,“ she said directly to Glenna. “Deceit weighs heavily in the air.”
He stared long and hard at the woman. What was she about?
“Know ye, girl,” she continued. “I have no chant to fix what problems plague ye in the here and now.”
Lyall could see Glenna’s unhappy reaction—her pale skin and tight lips and jaw. She did not like what she’d heard.
