He had been talking to Rowen—no, railing at her in fury and demanding she get out of his sight when a fierce pain had struck him and made him collapse backward upon the bed. Again, Alec’s gaze swept the bedchamber, but she was nowhere to be seen…
“Your lady walks in the bailey, Laird, I insisted upon it,” Simeon said quietly as if he had read Alec’s thoughts. “She’s grown pale these past days and has scarcely eaten, I believe from worry for you?—”
“Och, man, dinna let her fool you,” he muttered more to himself, though he heard the old healer cluck his tongue.
“I thought fresh air might foster an appetite in her and give her some reprieve from her vigil.”
“Vigil?” Alec echoed, noting the cot set near the opposite side of the bed as his vision grew clearer. “Who’s been sleeping there? A servant?”
“No, Laird, your wife. She didna wish tae disturb your healing by sharing your bed, so I ordered one brought for her.”
“You ordered? She’s the lady here, aye? She could have done so herself.”
“Not so, not so. The servants shun her—aye, everyone in this place shuns her and refuses tae heed anything she says, and her lady’s maid has fared no better. Gaira has grown so distressed over their ill-treatment that your wife sent her tae rest in bed hours ago. From your warriors tae the kitchen servants, they believe the fault for your injury lies squarely upon Lady Mackay’s shoulders. Och, I feared so myself at first, but after watching her these past days rarely leaving your side?—”
“Has she said anything more tae you about what happened?” Alec interrupted him, grateful that with each moment, he was feeling more like himself. “The truth of it?”
“I…I dinna know what you mean,” Simeon said with confusion upon his wrinkled face. “Your horse reared and toppled over and you struck your head, which is all any of us have heard—yet as I said, most insist that your wife somehow had a hand in it. There are even those who believe she meant tae kill you.”
“Aye, Sheena,” Alec murmured, the maidservant’s outburst that he’d heard while lying unmoving upon the bed rushing back to him. How could he not have heard her with all that screeching? Not at all like the sweet voice with which she had spoken to him at mealtimes when asking if he wanted more food or ale.
He hadn’t been blind to her seductive glances and how she purposefully swayed her shapely hips whenever she drew close to him. He had considered sampling what Sheena offered, but it wouldn’t do to foster such intimacy between himself and a maidservant when he had been about to be married.
Now, though, Alec almost wished he had bedded her for the bleak existence that loomed in front of him with a bride that wanted him dead—och, he hadn’t believed Rowen’s denials any more than that she’d held some vigil for him! Those last fraught moments with her flooding back to him, he cursed and threw aside the blankets to sit up, only to be swept by a sudden wave of dizziness.
“Och, Laird, take care! You havna been on your feet for days?—”
“Enough, Simeon!” Gritting his teeth, Alec threw his legs over the side of the mattress and rose naked from the bed, swaying slightly, but he waved away the healer’s anxious-faced effort to assist him. “God, I need tae piss.”
At once Simeon rushed to fetch a bucket from an opposite corner and hurried back to set it upon the floor, Alec relieving himself with a ragged sigh that seemed to make his whole body shudder.
“A good sign, Laird. You’re standing up and everything seems tae be working well?—”
“You’re a healer through and through, man,” Alec cut him off with a laugh, which made him feel all the more like himself. That he could find humor in anything after what had happened amazed him, but he sobered at the thought of seeing Rowen face-to-face again.
No doubt she would plague him with more of her lies and pretend apologies—och, the whole ugly matter was clearly between him and Rowen, which was where he wanted to keep it…at least for now. They were the only ones that knew the truth of her clansman and his sling; Alec doubted she would have revealed to anyone else what she’d admitted to him if she hadn’t done so to Simeon with all of his kindness and compassion.
“Let me fetch you a tunic. I cut away your clothing so you could be bathed these past days, your wife tending tae the task herself. She wouldna allow anyone else near you, other than myself and Gaira.”
Alec could not deny he was surprised at this news about Rowen bathing him, but he shrugged it off and nodded at the healer, who hastened to the carved chest that held Alec’s clothing. If the servants were shunning her, mayhap her own tunic hadn’t been washed yet and she still wore his garments that were much too large for her?—
“Och, man, you’re still thinking of her comfort when she wanted you cold in a grave,” Alec muttered to himself, followed by a low curse that brought another memory flying back to him.
The soft warmth of Rowen’s lips when he had pulled her into his arms to kiss her after she had cursed at him, her struggles ceasing as she had clung to him…
“Until she slapped you,fool.”
“You said something, Laird?”
Alec shook his head and pulled on the tunic, groaning at muscles that had grown stiff after three days spent asleep in bed.
His boots were next brought to him, the leather warmed from where they had been placed by the well-tended fire, followed by his belt and sword. Last, the healer fetched a folded tartan breacan from the chest and handed it to Alec.
“Oblige me if you will, Laird, and wear this garment around you tae help you stay warm. There’s a cold wind seeping through the castle today.”
To humor the man, Alec did as he was bade and wound the breacan around his waist and over one broad shoulder…all the while wondering in spite of himself if Rowen wore a cloak outside on such a day.
By God, must his thoughts always turn to his mutinous bride? He decided then that someone else would know the truth of events, a messenger he would send that very day to King Robert to alert him to the Sutherlands’ treachery.
