His ears ringing from the piercing screech that had burst from her and startled them all.
The maidservants jumping. Cameron cursing. What in God’s name had frightened Aislinn so? All they were trying to do was help her! If not for all the blankets covering her, she might have thrown herself from the bed—and then what might have happened?
A broken arm or leg? A cracked skull? The only thing that gave Cameron some comfort after the wild frenzy he had just witnessed was that her fever seemed to have lessened.
He pressed his hand to her forehead to check again—aye, her skin was still warm but nothing like when he had left her earlier. So mayhap Tobias’s potion was working after all, though for a few moments, Aislinn had managed to escape its effects and regained some of her senses.
What had she thought him, standing beside the bed and looking down at her? Any relief he had felt that she wasn’t dead had fled at the look of sheer terror on her face, and then she had flung herself violently away from him.
Grateful again for the blankets that had prevented her from tumbling to the floor, Cameron sighed heavily and sank into the chair still at the bedside.
For the first time in four days, he allowed the exhaustion that he’d held at bay to wash over him.
He had slept little since King Robert had bestowed Campbell Castle upon him, so many new and unfamiliar responsibilities for him to attend to. After this unexpected burst of strength from a young woman he had feared dead only moments ago, he felt as if he could close his eyes and join her in oblivion—aye, for indeed, once again, that same deep sleep had claimed her.
Lady De Burgh.
Unbidden, Finnegan’s last words came back to him, making Cameron rub his temples in puzzlement.
Look after Aislinn, Laird Campbell… I beg you, and have patience. She’s not like other women…
He had no idea what the Irishman could have meant—other than she possessed a ferocity of spirit that he had never before glimpsed in a woman.
To overcome the effects of a potion that thankfully appeared to be working? To try and fling herself with such force from the bed that Cameron had been hard-pressed to grab her back and hold her down?
She was stronger than he could ever have imagined, which wasn’t at all like any noblewoman he’d ever encountered—not that there had been more than a few since he avoided women as best he could. Debora came to mind, Magdalene’s older sister, who hadn’t survived more than six months of marriage to a cruel husband. If any woman had embodied pure femininity, it had been her, though he had only observed her from afar.
Graceful, sweet-natured, soft-voiced, and as beautiful a countenance he had ever seen… until Aislinn. Yet such mildness of temperament had been her undoing, for she hadn’t been able to withstand the brutality of a man who should have honored and cherished her.
Och, they had all been a wee bit in love with Debora—he, Gabriel, and Conall when they were raw youths and served as guards at the fortress for Seoras’s father, Earl Donal. Five years ago? Six? He was twenty-four now, those days so long ago…
Now Cameron did allow himself to close his eyes as a heaviness overwhelmed him—after a last glance at Aislinn, who slept deeply, if not peacefully.
Her eyelids had twitched as if she dreamed of something unpleasant, a low moan escaping her that made his throat tighten at all she had suffered.
Her father and brother wounded and taken prisoner and mayhap even executed by now, unless their captors were holding them for ransom. A common thing, if their nobility had been discovered before they were hanged or felt the descending blade of the executioner’s axe.
The family separated, as Finnegan had said, the lass and her compatriots brought here and thrown into a pit, where she had been kept alive with offerings of their food and water. Their loyalty had astonished him, and made him wonder at what Finnegan had called her…my brave Aislinn.
Aye, there was still so much he didn’t know, the unanswered questions preventing him from resting. Cameron opened his eyes to check on her, but nothing had changed. She slept while he could not, though his exhaustion felt bone deep.
Yet how was he going to discover more when she was fully conscious and looking him in the eye? Call for Conall to probe for answers while he stood mute at a distance, watching? His own tongue useless and grown thick from anxiety? How many times had he prayed for deliverance from this accursed affliction that had plagued him since boyhood?
Sighing with frustration, Cameron rose from the chair just as Tobias rushed into the room, with three serving maids right behind him.
“Laird, I’ve brought more potion!”
“Save it for when she wakes again, man,” he said tightly, striding past the healer. “I need sleep. Dinna leave her side, do you hear me? I’ll be back before it grows dark.”
Cameron didn’t wait for a reply, but left the room and tried to think only of his own bed on the second floor of the opposite tower.
A few hours’ sleep, aye, that’s all he would allow himself. Then he would return to Aislinn’s side, where he intended to hold vigil the rest of the night.
As for when she opened her eyes—a vivid sky blue that had made him suck in his breath to see their beauty again—och!
He would cross that drawbridge when he came to it, God help him!
Chapter 4
