She took up the needle and thread Willa had prepared, and began making neat even stitches to close the flesh. Droplets of blood oozed out between the threads, but Willa was relieved to see it did not bleed as it had before. She turned back to her gentle ministrations, wiping blood and dirt from his skin and rinsing the rag repeatedly. He had a tattoo on his upper arm and chest, and when she had cleaned the area, she saw that it was a dragon. A stunning work of art, stark black on his bronzed skin. She lightly traced the design with her fingertips. Interesting.
She had to change the water in the bowl three times, but once he was cleaned up, she stood back for a moment to admire him. What a strikingly handsome man he was, with his chiseled jaw and cheekbones, and his wavy brown locks of hair. His long dark lashes swept down above his cheeks, leaving her to wonder what color his eyes were. And she wondered who had hurt him and left him to die. Even gravely wounded and unconscious, he had a vitality about him, with his smooth golden skin stretched tight over thick muscle. And his manhood… she hadn’t seen all that many naked men before, but certainly Maura had because she had worked for a time with a healer, and she had compared him to a stallion. She felt herself flush, and an unfamiliar rush of heat gathered between her legs. Her heart picked up its pace, and she drew in a little breath. Pure, raw attraction… oh yes! This was what she’d been missing, what she had been waiting for so long to feel for someone. But now?
She looked down at the man lying in her bed.Oh, you had better live Warrior, because I need to kiss you. I want to know what it feels like when I do…
When they were finished and the man had fresh bandages and clean blankets, Willa used a clean cloth to drip water between his slightly parted lips. She smiled when he swallowed it without her help, and gave him a little more.
“That’s it Warrior, you need to drink.”
Maura called to her from the doorway. “Come and have some supper, Willa.”
She put down her cup and rag reluctantly, pulling up the blanket and tucking it around the man’s shoulders before she went to take her seat at the little table before the fire. Darkness had fallen while they had worked, and now she suddenly felt tired, more tired than she had been in a very long time. She realized she had been running on fear for days, if not longer, and now… she finally felt safe. And if she didn’t let herself think about the future, she could relax a little. At least for tonight.
James looked at her and gave a small laugh. “Yer falling asleep in yer chair, little sister. Finish yer food, then off to bed wi’ ye. The two of ye can take the other room, and I’ll sleep here by the fire.”
Willa straightened, suddenly alert. “Over my dead body James! You and yournew bridewill take that room. I’m going to sleep on a pallet in the other.”
His smile fell away. “Wi’ that man in there? I dinna think so.”
“Of course… that way I can watch him during the night. Though I don’t think he’ll be waking up any time soon.” She threw her gaze to Maura, and a kind of understanding dawned in the other woman’s eyes.
“Aye, James, let her sleep in there with the man. We’ll be only paces away… and Imissye”, she said with a saucy tilt of her lips.
Willa saw her brother’s nostrils flare and his eyes darken as he looked at his wife, and she quickly excused herself for bed, hiding her smile. She turned at the door to give Maura a conspiratorial wink. Shutting the door behind her, she went to the bed and kneeled down beside the unconscious man. In the soft yellow candlelight, the deathly pallor of his skin was replaced with the golden glow that she imagined was his natural color, and she was struck anew by his hard, masculine beauty. The longer she looked, the more she could not help herself… she had to touch him. Besides, Maura said that touch was healing, and he was definitely in need of some healing. Lowering the blanket just a little, she ran her hand up the powerful muscles of his arm, and across the solid planes of his chest, skirting the wound down the length of his left side. The soft smoothness of his skin over all that hardness felt good beneath her fingertips. If he lived, he would have a deep scar, much larger than the many smaller lines and ridges scattered over his body. The man had seen many battles. Again she wondered at how he had come to be alone up in the mountains, left for dead. Already, in her mind at least, he could not have done anything to deserve to die like that.
She leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead, then smiled. “I don’t know who you are or what kind of man, but as long as you’re asleep in my bed, you belong to me.”
She thought his next breath was just a little deeper, but perhaps it was only her hopeful imagination. In her short lifetime, she had seen many men die, but somehow she wanted more than anything for this one to live.
Chapter 4
Drust awoke slowly, finally grasping onto full consciousness after days of drifting just to the surface and back, aware of only dim impressions of light or dark, voices or silence. He hurt. His entire body ached, and there was a burning pain in his side. He tried to move, to at least sit up and see where he was, but the pain washed over him and he closed his eyes for a moment until it passed. When he opened them again, he could see a ceiling of thatch above him, and noticed for the first time that there was daylight. So he wasn’t in the cave anymore; that was something. He carefully turned his head, and his vision swam for a moment before slowly clearing again. He saw whitewashed walls, and a fire burning low in a stone hearth. The light was coming from a window, and the angle told him it was early evening, almost dusk. He was clearly in a building, but how had he gotten here? Certainly he couldn’t have made it on his own, not with the amount of blood he must have lost. He shuddered at the memory of its sticky warmth seeping through his fingers. Of knowing he was a dead man, but forcing himself to keep walking, keep moving through the dark tunnel, just for the chance to meet his end under the open sky. When he had finally seen a light, he didn’t know if he had reached the opening of the tunnel or if he had died. It must have been daylight he saw, because he hurt far too much to be dead now.
Closing his heavy eyelids, he remembered dreaming again and again of a woman, looking down on him, watching over him. He had wanted to reach for her, but he couldn’t lift his arms. Or perhaps it hadn’t been a dream, after all. He was insomeone’scottage, and from what he could see, it wasn’t at all familiar. His vision was swimming again, his eyes closing. His body was running hot and then cold, and he suspected fever was setting in. He probably wouldn’t survive a fever, as weak as he already was. God, how he hated to be so weak and helpless! Although he struggled to remain conscious just a little while longer, Drust soon drifted back into deep, healing sleep.
***
Willa opened the door to her bedroom and peered inside. He was still asleep. She frowned, worried; she had expected him to wake by now, at least for a moment or two. He had been lying motionless in her bed for two days, and it was yet another since she had found him in the mountains. She went to the bed and laid her hand against the man’s forehead. He still burned with the fever that had come on last night, but he was perhaps not quite so hot as he was a few hours ago. She allowed herself a little hope that he would yet survive. She reached for the cup and rag that she had left beside the bed, and proceeded to drip water between his lips, as she had been doing every hour during the day, and several times during the night as well. He swallowed the water, and the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile. Another good sign.
The door swung open and Maura came in, drying her hands on a kitchen towel. “Has he still no’ wakened?” Her forehead wrinkled in concern.
Willa shook her head. “No, but he’s taking more water than before. And I think his fever is less. Well, it’s not worse anyway. He’s so strong, Maura. Any other man wouldn’t have lived even this long.”
Maura touched a hand to his forehead as Willa had done earlier. Aye, I think yer right, he’s not quite so warm as he was this morning. But if his fever is going to break soon, we should perhaps tie him down somehow. He could thrash about and re-open the wound. It’s only just started to heal. He willna ken where he is, and he may no’ even remember what happened to him.” All business, she pulled back the thin linen sheet that covered the naked man in Willa’s bed. “I’ve just made another poultice, so let’s put on a fresh dressing first.”
Maura carefully removed the bandages and both women leaned over to examine the frightful gash in his side, extending from his navel nearly to his shoulder. As they had done every time they looked at the ugly wound, the two women grimaced and made identical sounds of horrified sympathy. “It’s a wonder he survived long enough for ye to find him, Willa. This could easily have been a fatal wound. In fact itshouldhave been a fatal wound.”
“It isn’t his first.” Willa traced a long scar across his chest with her finger. He had many such marks on his body. “He’s seen quite a few battles, I’d wager.”
“Aye. It seems he’s been a verra lucky man. Or a verra skilled one.”
Willa smoothed the thick poultice on the wound, and together they bound it in fresh strips of linen. Then Maura went to fetch a length of rope, and they tied the man securely to the bed frame so that he couldn’t injure himself.
“This is it then”, Maura said. “Either this fever breaks, or…”
“It will”, Willa finished with all the conviction she wanted to feel. For some reason, it was essential to her that this man live, even though she did not know him, and he had never so much as spoken to her. Not yet, anyway. What would his voice be like?Wouldhe remember what had happened to him? She had so many questions…
They left him then, to do the evening chores and to have some dinner. James came in just as they were putting the food on the table. A simple meal of roast hare with root vegetables and some bread.
