Her body hadn’t tingled when she had touched him before, but now…
Slipping from the bed, she got a damp cloth and started to softly pat his forehead, hoping to alleviate whatever he was feeling. Rain started to slowly patter against the glass panes of the window; the sky that had already been dark now somehow felt oppressive. It didn’t take long at all for the rain to build into a storm, one that was bad enough that she was grateful for the roaring fire. In any other situation, she would have been happy to sink into bed, and pull the covers up over her head, but the pain on Nathan’s face was growing deeper, restless as he started to shift.
In all the time she had been healing him, she had never once seen him have a nightmare. She hadn’t seen him show pain, or distress. And now? He looked like he was in the middle of something terrible. The bedding started to twist up around her legs. Despite her best efforts, he was burning up, sweating profusely.
“Dinnae…” he muttered, something about the way he said the word broke something in her. It was laced with pure need and fear, something she didn’t even think a man like him was capable of.
“Dinnae?” She asked his sleeping form as she pushed herself up onto her knees, still trying her best to wipe his forehead. “Dinnae what? Ye are alright.”
“Dinnae leave… Dinnae leave me…” he muttered again, his body twisting toward her. His large arms wrapped around her middle as he buried his head into the lap of her skirts.
Her breath caught.
He was just sleeping; he didn’t mean anything by it.
Softly, she petted his sweat-damp hair. “I’m nae going anywhere. Nathan, I’m right here.”
The words were tumbling from his lips in a constant spiel without end. Over and over again, he muttered the words ‘dinnae leave me’ and nothing she did or cooed in his ear seemed to do anything at all to soothe him in the slightest. She took his hand in her own, squeezing tightly because she couldn’t wake him, she couldn’t seem to do anything at all to make the current situation any better.
Then, in one swift movement, he pulled her down onto the bed, his arms still wrapped around her, his words fewer and far between as he seemed to start to settle down against her. But she was trapped against his body and couldn’t move.
She wasn’t entirely certain that she wanted to. Perhaps she should have fought it more, but with his gentle breath in her ear, the warmth of him and the sounds of the storm in the distance, she was pulled into sleep before she even knew it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
.
Nathan had slept through the entire night, but he felt like death when he awoke. His entire body ached and complained just as it had the first night that he had woken up in Freya’s home. What in the world had happened? All he knew was that he had awoken to an empty bed and his clothes warmed and dried by the fire, waiting for him.
He dressed quickly, moving down the stairs at a snail’s pace as he let his hand run down the length of the wall to keep him steady. It was the scent of food that called to him more than anything else. The basic need that forced him from the warm comfortable bed. That, and he had to find wherever Freya had gone off to. All of the usual patrons he might expect in a place like this seemed to be eating quietly.
All but Freya, of course.
She just couldn’t help but stand out. Or perhaps it was merely him feeling so drawn to her. She was the only one with such bright red hair among the masses, her pretty, blue dress complimenting her fair skin perfectly. She seemed to be minding her business, her breakfast in front of her mostly untouched as she sat there with her arms and her legs crossed over one another. She stared straight ahead of herself. He knew that stubborn set of her jaw. No doubt those three sailors who were standing around her were about to get more than a little piece of her mind.
He staggered into the main room slowly, listening to the bastards heckling her as his own temper started to rise little by little.
“Why are ye so cold? Firehair, come on, I bet that ye can keep us nice and warm if ye just thaw yer temper just a little bit,” one of them said with a smirk.
Wrong move. She might be able to ignore them, but he couldn’t.
As soon as Nathan was within reach, he grabbed the sleeve of the man closest to him and yanked him away from Freya’s table with a snarl. “I’ll thank ye tae keep away from me wife.”
Freya’s breath hitched ever so softly.
The strangers looked at him with fear in their eyes. Nathan was a good head taller than the rest of them. While he might not be anywhere near his top form, the three men were little. He wasmore than certain he could take them if he needed to. He was recovered enough for that, he was sure.
Despite the obvious fear, it would seem their levels of intoxication made them brave, and the smaller one swung at him. The fist came toward his face as if in slow motion. Nathan didn’t even have the chance to register the motion before his body moved of its own accord. Such a strange feeling to have his reflexes working on his behalf like this, swinging and turning as he caught the man’s fist, yanked him forward and off balance, and swiftly stepped out of the way all at the exact same time.
One down.
Nathan moved to dispatch the second one. He just couldn’t help himself when Freya was being harassed. The second swung, but he dodged and caught his arm with his hand. Nobody drew their weapons, nobody even attempted to stop them as Nathan's fists made quick work of the fools. But the second managed a good hit to his face, sharp enough that he could feel the knuckles of the man’s fist against his hard head. So, Nathan returned the gesture in kind, rendering the man unconscious.
The barkeep stepped out from behind his post, eyeing the small grouping warily, but he seemed reluctant to be involved. Still, when Nathan threw one of those men against the nearest table, sending it and the chairs that surrounded it sliding across the floor, he took a step forward.
“Oy!” the barkeep shouted to be heard over the commotion, even as he kept his distance. “Ye stop this foolishness right the now! Out, the lot of ye!”
With a sharp turn of his head, Nathan pinned the barkeep with a stern gaze, his tone calculatedly accusative. “They started this. Ye saw them, and ye did naething tae protect me wife.”
