“Thanks,” Ramsay choked out. He’d never been so glad to arrive home in his life.
Chapter 18
Signy was barely conscious when she was helped into the house, but she heard Donovan, the head groom, say comfortingly, “Steady on, lass, you’re almost home.”
From her other side, Kai said, “Mrs. Donovan, what room can we put her in?”
“The laird’s room upstairs is the only one made up,” the housekeeper said. “I’ll light the fire and warm the sheets.” She immediately left to take care of the preparations.
Signy did not like the idea of being hauled upstairs like a sack of potatoes, so she tried to speak up to assure everyone that she was all right. But she couldn’t manage to find the words. Everything seemed to be happening at a great distance....
“Let’s settle her down in this chair.” Kai again. His voice was close, and she could hear the strain in it, but his grip was gentle as he and Donovan lowered her into a wooden Windsor chair. “Will you examine her?”
“I’m better with horses,” Donovan murmured, “but the principles are the same. From the blood here, she was struck a blow on her head.”
A gentle touch above her right temple. She flinched away, but he continued with his careful examination. She was grateful when he stopped.
“She banged her head hard. Her skull isn’t broken, but she’ll have an almighty headache tomorrow.” She felt like telling the head groom she had an almighty headache already, but it was too much effort.
“She may have broken her right ankle,” Kai said. “She couldn’t walk, and it seemed very painful.”
“I’ll have to examine your ankle, lass,” Donovan said with the same gentle voice he would use on a nervous filly. “I’ll try not to hurt you more than necessary.”
She was glad he warned her but even so, when he began examining her ankle, she couldn’t prevent herself from crying out. Kai caught her hands, and she held his fingers so tightly that she must have cut off his circulation.
“This won’t take long,” Kai said soothingly. “Soon you can go to sleep in a warm, comfortable bed. Tomorrow this will be just a bad dream.”
He was probably lying, but it sounded good....
* * *
Signy awoke to pale sunshine coming in the window at an angle suggesting it was well into the next day. She recognized the warm weight on her left side as Fiona, and she reached down automatically to ruffle the dog’s ears. She got her hand licked in response. She realized that she was in the laird’s bedroom, the most spacious and light-filled room in the house. It felt somehow sacrilegious to be in his bed, but the mattress was undeniably comfortable.
Her right ankle ached ferociously, and she realized that her lower leg was heavily bandaged. Trying to move it made her suck her breath in.
A low masculine voice asked, “How are you feeling?”
Ramsay. She turned her head to see him sprawled on the chair by the bed, looking tired and bruised, but composed. She said in a thin voice, “I feel as if a herd of kelpies galloped out of the sea and stampeded over me.”
“They’re a rough lot, those kelpies,” he said with a glint of amusement. “Though I thought they lived in lakes, not the sea.”
“These were definitely sea kelpies.” She frowned at his rumpled and unshaven appearance. “Did you get any sleep last night? I hope you weren’t sitting up with me.”
He shook his head. “After you were settled here, I went straight to my room and slept like the dead till this morning. I was wakened by a rough-tongued feline face wash.”
She smiled and stroked her dog again. “Has Odin met Fiona yet?”
“I heard a brief altercation in the corridor this morning, but I didn’t see any blood or fur, so they may have worked things out.” He stood. “I’ve ordered breakfast for us both, but this pot of tea is still hot. Would you like some?”
She realized her mouth and throat were parched. “Please.”
He prepared her tea and handed it over. She swallowed the hot liquid with pleasure, feeling warmed and steadier. “How damaged am I?”
“A bump on your head and an injured ankle. Good horse doctor that he is, Donovan said you have a bad sprain of the right foreleg, but he bandaged it and applied a horse salve that he said should dull the pain some.”
“My foreleg?” she asked, bemused.
“Donovan doesn’t know the names of body parts for humans,” Ramsay said solemnly, “but he’s a first-class horse doctor. He said your ankle should heal with no problems if you take it easy.”
