Tira’s gaze had flown to the door at the soft knock, her heart pounding in her throat.Errol?
“C-come in,” she somehow managed, only to be swept by undeniable disappointment when a maidservant bearing a cloth-covered tray entered the room.
“I’ve brought you some mutton stew and fresh-baked oatcakes, miss. Lady Cora said it’s past time that you should eat.”
Tira nodded, her gaze fixed upon the open door and her heart beating faster as she wondered if Errol might be close behind.
“Was anyone else in the hall?”
Tira felt a rush of disappointment once again when the young woman shook her head as she set the tray on the bedside table.
“Lady Cora bade me tae tell you that she’ll come tae your room as soon as she returns from the infirmary.”
“Infirmary?” Tira echoed, wondering what might be amiss—until she gasped. “Not one of her bairns?—”
“Och, no, thank God, but she’s upset all the same. That red-haired Highlander—the one who brought you here with Laird MacLachlan.”
“Errol Sutherland?” Tira blurted, feeling the blood drain from her face when the maidservant nodded.
“Aye, he was struck on the head and hasna fully regained his senses, and that was hours ago.”
Hours?Struck on the head? God help him, why had no one come any sooner to tell her? Tira’s hands shook as she hastened to the armoire across the room to pull out a cloak and then spun to face the startled maidservant.
“Please, I dinna know where tae find the infirmary. Will you take me?”
A bob of the head was the young woman’s answer, though she gazed doubtfully at Tira.
“It’s the building furthest away from the keep, miss. I dinna think Lady Cora would wish you tae overtax yourself?—”
“I’m fine, truly,” Tira insisted, though she did feel some discomfort in her lower body as she rushed out the door. It had only been a week since giving birth to her twins—but what of Errol? What could have happened that he was so injured? No wonder he hadn’t come to see her!
These thoughts and so many others tumbled through her mind, Tira hurrying down the tower steps and across the foyer while the maidservant rushed ahead of her to open the door leading outside.
Tira remembered little of being carried from the ship and into the keep by Brody, and she glanced wide-eyed at the high ramparts manned by guards and the massive gates at the far end of the bailey.
Lower stone buildings on both her right and left adjoined the four-story keep, Tira grateful as her heart pounded for the maidservant guiding her. She would never have found the infirmary by herself, her thoughts flying again to Errol and what must have been a severe blow to disable him for so long.
She had treated him so wretchedly these past days, refusing to speak to him or even see him though he had been the one togather her into his arms the night of her rescue—aye, so gently, she suddenly remembered, terrible remorse gripping Tira.
If anything happened to him before she could thank him for rescuing her, she would never forgive herself!
“In here, miss.”
Tira nodded and swept past the flush-faced maidservant who had pushed open the door to a low, turf-roofed building, the acrid smell of sweat and urine hitting her like a slap in the face.
She had visited such a place with her father after a bloody skirmish with the Mackays, the injured men from her clan moaning in pain while several others were covered with a sheet, dead.
A skirmish that she realized now with a jolt might have led to her abduction—och, but where was Errol?
“Tira!”
Cora’s startled outcry near one of the shuttered windows led her to where Errol lay upon a cot, ashen as a ghost, a linen sheet pulled up to his broad shoulders—though thank God, not over his head.
“You shouldna be here,” began Cora, though Tira went at once to her to clasp her hands.
“Dinna ask me tae leave, I beg you! I heard Errol was hurt?—”
“Aye, a shield tae the back of his head, my husband’s captain was forced tae stop him. The men were training and Errol became crazed, striking out with his sword at anyone close tae him and rushing like a madman at others. Yet the blow mayhap caused him grave injury, or so the healer fears. Errol has yet tae open his eyes, though he has begun tae stir—och, it’s too soon for you tae have walked this far!”
