Chapter Five
Raphael left thehall and, in his search for Elysande, was informed by a man carrying a shepherd’s crook that he had seen her outside.
Collecting his cloak, Raphael left and ran into the bracing cold, toward the stable. None of the stalls were empty. She was on foot. She wouldn’t have gone far. The wind was increasing steadily and filled with icy mist. Another five breaths and more snow began to fall.
“Elysande!” he shouted. Where would she have gone? The howling wind answered him. She wouldn’t be able to hear him. What should he do? Go back for his horse? Run back to the hall and get her father?
He ran while he could still see the structure and burst into the great hall. He didn’t look at anyone in particular. He had to hurry. He had to get out there and find her.
“Elysande!” he shouted. Every eye turned to him. “She is outside! There is a storm—I must find her!”
People were moving, running, but he was already gone.
He rushed outside and was able to see the heavy gates moving back and forth in the wind, unbolted, unguarded. The shepherd he saw inside had just gone beyond the wall, hadn’t he? Did he leave the gates open?
An instant later and the gates disappeared–along with everything else as snow filled the air and blinded the eyes.
Raphael ran toward the sound of the gates creaking open and closed. He rushed past them and out into the wilderness.
“Elysande!” he shouted as loud as he could. He was sure his heart had almost left his body through his mouth. He knew she wouldn’t hear him. Which way would she go? Toward the forest to be alone? Or toward the hills? To a shepherd’s home, mayhap? He tried to look around. Which way were the trees, the hills? He remembered where they were yesterday when he and his father had arrived, so he turned the opposite way now and ran left, toward the forest.
After what her father had done, she would want to be alone, not knocking on doors. She might have tried to turn toward the hills, but she hadn’t had time for a detour.
“Elysande!” he shouted, despite the wind.
He tripped and fell over something soft. A body! Elysande!
With his heart racing like the wind, he sat up and gathered her in his arms. She did not respond. With tears stinging his eyes, he pressed his ear to her chest and listened for a heartbeat.
He heard one! Oh, he gave thanks. She was alive! He had to keep her that way until he got her back to the hall or to a shelter.
He cradled her in his arms and stood up with her. How was he going to do this, he thought while he tied his cloak around them with the fingers of one hand?
Holding her close, he tried to let his body’s heat fill her. He breathed on her neck, her cheek. He tucked her hands close and shivered from her cold.
“Come with me,” he heard a male voice say in front of him.
Raphael had no other option. He put Elysande over his shoulder so that his hands were free, and placed one of them on the man’s shoulder, letting him lead.
They walked through the curtain on a path that was seemingly easy for this man to follow thanks to a barking dog leading him. A short while later, they came to a cottage with candlelit windows and warmth inside.
Warmth.
Raphael set Elysande on the bed of Adam of Aberdeen, one of seven shepherds for the MacPhersons. After much thanks, he added more wood to the fire and sat on the edge of the bed while Adam saw to her.
“All will be well, but ye must undress her. Just to her chemise,” the shepherd told him when Raphael began to refuse. “Her clothes are wet and freezin’. Ye must also remove yer shirt and get into bed with her. Give her yer heat. I myself would do it, but I know her father and I want to keep my head.”
Raphael stared at him for a moment and wondered if the shepherd was jesting. He decided he wasn’t and cast Elysande a worried look. He couldn’t let her die.
He undressed her with shaking fingers, not because of fear of her father, but because he didn’t want her to awaken and think he was trying to have his way with her in her sickly condition. And because he wished he were undressing her with her consenting, eager eyes on him. He peeled off her clothes and when he saw that her chemise was sheer, he pulled the bed covers over her to keep her feminine shape away from the shepherd’s—and his own—eyes.
He pulled off his cloak and his plaid, doublet and shirt. Everything fell to the floor until his upper body was bare. He pulled away the covering and climbed into bed beside her. He closed his eyes. Her father would kill him. How close was the commander to them? He asked the shepherd, but the shepherd didn’t know.
With nothing more to do for now, Raphael held her, covering her entire body as the shepherd directed. Her body was warming up and he did all he could not to become too aware of her soft curves and firm peaks against him.
“We should notify her father,” he told Adam the shepherd to help keep his mind off things.
“D’ye want to go oot there?” the shepherd asked. “I dinna. ’Twill have to wait until the storm passes.”
