“That’s right, good.When you’re done, I’ll wrap her foot in a bandage and then we’ll go downstairs and see what else needs to be done, aye?”
Again, Sorcha nodded, so focused upon their task that she had ceased to sob and glanced up with concern at Lisette.
“Am I hurting you?”
“Non, sweeting, you’re so very kind to help me,” she murmured, using the same endearment as Aislinn, which seemed to please Sorcha.
A few moments more and Lisette’s ankle was securely bandaged, while a commotion carried to them from outside in the bailey.At once Sorcha jumped up and rushed to the window.
“It’s Cameron and the others—Aislinn, look!”
As her sister-in-law went to join Sorcha, Lisette wished she could glance out the window, too, but she didn’t dare with her ankle.In truth, it throbbed a bit from their ministrations, but the liniment did feel cooling as Sorcha cried out again.
“There’s Conall, too, do you see him?Why is that lady sharing a horse with him, Aislinn?She’s very pretty, and Conall is holding a little boy with black hair, though the bairn doesna look well.”
“Enough, Sorcha, let’s just go and see.Lisette, you’d best stay off your ankle the rest of the day or I’d ask you to join us.Don’t forget what we spoke of, will you promise me?”
Lisette murmured a soft “Oui,” even as her sister-in-law hustled Sorcha to the door, and within another moment, they were gone.
Leaving her alone.
The cacophony of horses whinnying and men shouting no match for the thundering of her heart as she rose from the bed in spite of her initial reluctance, and hobbled to the window.
Just in time to see Conall handing a boy of mayhap four years into Cameron’s outstretched arms while the woman, weeping loudly, jumped down from behind Conall and ran alongside Cameron…Lisette guessed toward the infirmary.
She guessed, too, that the young woman must be the boy’s mother, her long, honey-colored hair flying behind her while Conall dismounted, his expression as grim as Lisette had ever seen it.
He glanced up at the window, clearly having seen her, but then he turned away to follow after his brother—Conall running now, too.
“Oh, Conall, will the child be all right?”
Aislinn had walked up quietly behind him in the infirmary, Conall standing to one side while Tobias hovered over a cot where a little boy coughed and sputtered.
He didn’t answer her because he didn’t know, his gut twisting at her query.
Creek water trickled from the boy’s mouth, his face as white as death as the healer rolled him onto his stomach and pounded upon his back.Conall moved closer, the rapid-fire blows making his jaw clench, but he did not question the healer’s actions though Lorna began to weep even louder.
Lorna.
He had thought he would never see her again, and yet here she stood on the opposite side of the cot, her red-rimmed eyes focused upon her son.
The past four years had not been kind to her, her still-lovely face careworn, but that hadn’t been his first thought when coming upon the frantic commotion by the creek.
Two men drowned and one child.Three other bairns rescued, but two not faring well.All young boys in a group that had strayed too close to the rising water and slipped upon the muddy bank.Thankfully some villagers had heard their screams and come running, but with the tragic outcome that had ensued.There had been no time to talk, only react—Lorna and her gasping child swept up by Conall onto his horse while Cameron and his men had seen to the other two boys and their desperate parents.
Now Lorna was sobbing and her son mayhap dying, though Tobias didn’t look half so grim since the boy had coughed up more of the water he’d swallowed during his near drowning.
“Aye, more in his stomach than his lungs—a good thing.”With great care, the healer lifted up his small charge and settled him on an opposite cot with fresh bedding, and then covered him to his chin with a blanket.“The next few hours will tell us much, lass, but I believe your son will survive.”
Tobias’s low pronouncement was greeted by a piercing cry of relief from Lorna, who sank beside the cot to embrace the boy.With shaking fingers, she swept the midnight hair from his pale brow, and only then did she look up to meet Conall’s gaze.
“Yourson, too, Conall.Do you not see it?”
Conall felt as if he had been struck, he was so astonished.He glanced from Lorna’s face to the boy and back again, her green eyes narrowed with bitterness.
“Aye, you left me with a mewling babe after all—though my husband agreed tae raise him as his own.Yet every day Colin looks more like you, and Hamish couldna stomach it any longer.He’s as red-headed as that one there”—Lorna pointed at Aislinn—“so everyone in our village knew that Hamish hadna sired the boy.Myboy, aye, that’s how I’ve looked upon him until my husband demanded that I bring him tae you!”
She nearly spat out the last words and went back to caressing the boy’s pale cheek, while Conall glanced behind him at Aislinn, who looked as amazed as he must still appear.
