Chapter Thirty
There were birds outside the window when Kyle awoke. It would be winter soon and a proper winter at that, and so the last of them were preparing for their winged voyages south. As a boy, he had often wondered how far they went when they flew away. Would they go to Spain? France? Italy? Or even Africa? He had often imagined a flock of Scottish geese roaming about the deserts of Northern Africa, and it had always made him smile.
It was the birds that woke him, the way their talons scratched up against the window while they shifted about on the windowsill, looking down at the yard below, picking out their next target for an aerial assault.
Kyle blinked a few times, trying to understand what had happened. He was alive, that much was sure, for he figured that if he were dead, he wouldn’t feel the dull bruising pain that radiated out from his shoulder and made his entire torso ache.
“You’re awake,” he heard a voice say from his left side. With a pained grunt, he turned his head that way and saw Laila’s brother Matthew laid up in a bed as much as he was, with bandages draped over his midsection and parts of his head.
“So I am,” Kyle said, blinking a few more times, trying to make sense of where he was. The light came in through the high windows, and after clearing some of the haze away with a few more blinks and straining his neck upwards, he saw that he was in the infirmary of McGowan castle. It was a small hallway, more or less with several beds on either side of the room, attached to the chapel.
“Took an arrow,” Matthew said, gently leaning one eye Kyle’s way. As he came more into focus, Kyle saw that the Englishman was battered just as good as he was, if not worse, and the two of them made quite a sight all bandaged and battered, their feet up and their necks back, and their eyes straining to one side to get a proper look at one another while they tried to converse.
“Looks that way,” Kyle grunted. “What happened tae ye?”
“Got hit,” Matthew answered. “Many times.”
“Bloody armor,” Kyle said.
“Costs more than a farm,” Matthew said, giving up on trying to look Kyle’s way while he spoke to him. “But I’ll never go anywhere without it again.”
“Ha,” Kyle gave a soft laugh, his eyes also returning to the ceiling. The chuckle gave off a burst of pain through his pectoral, and he winced once more. “They beat us silly, didn’t they?”
“Proper silly, aye,” Matthew agreed, and though neither could see the other, they both smiled. It was good to be alive.
“Well, look at this sorry lot,” Jacob said, walking into the chamber. Kyle strained a bit more to see the young man as he entered. Here was someone with no wounds at all and a big bright smile on his face.
“How is it,” Matthew grunted. “That you are unscathed?”
“I’m better than you.” Jacob laughed back. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Right,” Matthew said. Though Kyle couldn’t see him, he was sure that he was rolling his eyes. “How could I have forgotten?”
“And you big man,” Jacob said, coming up alongside Kyle’s bed. “We owe you our thanks.”
“No,” Kyle said, glancing up at the Englishman. “I am the one in debt.”
“Well, well,” Gavin’s thick voice entered the space, and Kyle grinned reactively. “Ye are alive.”
“Was I in danger o’ being otherwise?” Kyle called back.
“Oh, ye never do know,” Gavin replied. The Laird walked up and planted his hands squarely on Jacob’s shoulders, giving him a bit of a start, and Kyle laughed again. “What the old man has up his sleeve.”
“Glad tae see ye, brither,” Kyle said, looking up at Gavin’s kind eyes.
“And ye,” Gavin said, reaching out and giving Kyle a soft touch on the top of his hand. “Welcome back tae the world.”
“What’s happened?” Laila’s voice entered now, and Kyle felt his heart leap up and do a backflip from the high dive. “Why is everyone…” and her voice trailed away as she saw him, struggling to get himself propped up onto his elbows. “Oh!” she exclaimed and rushed to his bedside, throwing her arms out around him, and Kyle grinned through the pain of the embrace, trying not to let out a groan of discomfort in favor of Laila’s touch.
“You’re alive!” she breathed into his ear as she hugged him tightly, and eventually, Kyle broke character and let out a grimace of pain.
“Easy there,” he said back, drinking in the smell of her hair as it fell down around his face.
“Am I hurting you?” she asked, drawing back.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Kyle said with a playful grimace. “I’m crossbow proof after all.”
“That must be nice,” another voice caught everyone by surprise, drifting from the far corner of the room, where Walter was shifting in his bed, trying to get himself situated to where he could sit on the edge of it.
