“Jesu, Brian,” muttered Sigimor. “Ye are bleeding like a stuck pig.”
“Just how does a stuck pig bleed?” asked Brian.
“And now ye are talking like a fevered mon. We need to get back to the keep and see to those wounds.”
Brian looked toward the keep. It appeared to be miles away and surrounded by a thick haze. He looked back at his cousin.
“Sigimor?”
“Aye?”
“Catch me.”
Sigimor caught Brian before he hit the ground. He picked his cousin up in his arms and, cursing softly, started toward the keep. “Arianna is nay going to be happy about this.”
No one disagreed.
Chapter 19
Arianna wrung out the rag she had just dipped in a bowl of cool water and bathed the sweat from Brian’s face. The terror that had gripped her when he had shown signs of fever had eased now. It had been two days and his fever had not risen very high. His wounds were healing nicely as well, with no signs of infection.
She shivered with dread as she remembered her first sight of him after the battle. To see him bloodied and carried in Sigimor’s arms had nearly brought her to her knees. If Brian had not groaned softly at that moment she would have started wailing like a banshee. The mere thought of him dying had torn the heart right out of her. She had actually been relieved to hear that he was only wounded, until she had seen the wounds. It had taken Mab and Fiona a few moments to assure her that none of the wounds were mortal.
Fiona and Mab had done wonderful work. Arianna was ashamed about how little she knew despite all the teachings of her family. She had been too young to understand the importance of such teachings. Her love had been the garden and still was. In her youthful arrogance she had thought the ability to grow all the plants the healers needed was enough. In France she had been better than the healer they had used but, next to Fiona and Mab, she was a fumbling novice.
“I just assumed that everyone had skilled healers,” she told a sleeping Brian as she bathed his arms. “That was verra foolish of me. Just because I grew up surrounded by women who had great skill didnae mean there were a lot of skilled healers outside the lands of my kinsmen. If I had taken a moment to consider the matter, I would have recalled how often one of my kinswomen was called away because of her skills. Then I would have kenned the idiocy of my belief. The fact that I was just a child doesnae excuse me, either.”
“Why not? Many of us dinnae think much on the future when we are children,” said Fiona as she closed the door behind her and moved to the side of Brian’s bed. “He looks better.”
“His wounds are still clean and already show signs of healing,” Arianna said.
“Good. I have come to sit with him for a while and Mab will follow me. Ye go and visit with your lads, get some rest, or go and enjoy this rare sunny day in the gardens.”
Arianna forced down the reluctance she felt, the need to stay at Brian’s side. Fiona was right. She did need to get some rest, to leave the room and breathe some fresh air. She would do Brian no good if she exhausted herself. With a nod to Fiona, Arianna stood up and walked out of the room, intending to find Michel and Adelar.
Two hours later, Arianna sat down on a stone bench in Fiona’s garden. She knew she would have to seek her bed soon. The visit with the boys had quickly revealed to her just how tired she was. But, the sun was shining, the gardens were full of the signs of new growth, and she needed to savor that for a while. She leaned back against the tree behind the bench and let the sun warm her.
“Ye would probably be more comfortable sleeping in a bed.”
Blinking rapidly, Arianna sat upright and looked at Callum as he sat down next to her. A glance up at the sun told her that she had fallen asleep for a while, but her body was demanding a much longer rest. She was a little surprised that her cousins were still at Scarglas.
“I had thought ye and the others would have left by now,” she said, a little embarrassed that she had paid so little attention to where her cousins were after they had come to help her.
“We are waiting on ye,” Callum said.
“Ah, weel, I cannae say when Brian will be fully recovered.”
“Actually, we are waiting to see what ye wish to do when he is. Stay or leave. I can see by your face that he has ne’er given ye a hint of what will happen about that. So, ye and the rest of us will wait until he does.”
Callum was too astute, she decided. He always had been. Arianna suspected the horrors of his childhood had something to do with how easily he could see into a person’s heart. Orphaned and abused, he had known the worst of humanity until her cousin Payton and his wife, Kirstie, had saved him. He had gained a true skill at judging what a person was or what they wanted from those dark days. Now accepted by his paternal family, the cherished grandson of a powerful MacMillan, he had fulfilled his boyish pledge to grow strong and learn to fight so that he could protect the innocent. She did not believe she needed his protection, however.
“There has been little time to think about the future,” she said, and was not surprised by the way he just cocked a brow at her for the thin excuse was worthy of derision.
“Nay? He found time to be your lover.”
She could feel the heat of a blush stinging her cheeks but ignored it. “That is none of your concern.”
“Ah, but it is. Arianna, we failed ye.”
