“And neighboring clans?”
“None have ever been available to us.”
Jamie didn’t like the sound of that. Were relations with their neighbors that bad? Niall’s need had been great enough to seek help closer at hand. Thank God Rabbie knew Niall’s best chance to survive lay at the Aerie and had ridden for home. “Perhaps another clan’s healer could help if ye sent Aftyn to them for a time?”
“Leaving us utterly without? Her assistant, Neve, is even less skilled. Nay.”
Jamie stood. “I’m sorry ye find yerself in this position. As we travel back to the Aerie, I will make enquiries with the clans we pass. Perhaps another healer can be found, if only temporarily.”
The Keith nodded, his gaze assessing. “Perhaps. For now, I leave the lasses in your care.”
Out of the solar and away from the Keith laird’s penetrating stare, Jamie paused in the great hall to consider what he’d just learned about the man and Aftyn. He clearly saw Jamie as the solution to his problem. Jamie worried that he didn’t know the man well enough to know whether the Lathans should leave now, at great risk to Niall and himself, or if they would be safe to remain until Niall was strong enough to travel. Jamie would keep a close watch and alert his men.
How long had they been without Aftyn’s mother? He wasn’t opposed to giving Aftyn and Neve as much help as he could, but he could not submit to the Keith laird’s thinly veiled coercion to stay long enough to see them fully trained, either.
5
Aftyn usually loved the weekly market held in the middle of the village. Today, her mood didn’t suit such an outing, but Neve insisted. Now that she and Neve weren’t tied to Niall’s bedside night and day, they could indulge in a visit. Aftyn finally agreed to go with her. After facing Agatha and her father this morning, she needed the distraction.
Farmers brought the best of their crops, tinkers and tailors came from near and far, and Aftyn always found some herb or flower she needed to add to her mother’s—now her—collection. The growers would tell her how to use each plant, whether in food or herbal medicines, and Neve would make a plainly legible note in her journal so they wouldn’t lose the knowledge and, unlike what Aftyn’s mother had done, would someday be able to pass what they learned on to the next healer.
It didn’t take long for the basket over her arm to fill with colorful herbs, roots, and flowers she knew how to use. It gave off sweet, spicy, and earthy scents. She should take it back to the keep, or ask Neve to, but the excitement of the market drew her on. Colorful ribbons rippling in the breeze stirred by the passing crowd caught her gaze and she moved toward them. The front of the stall made her smile, and she’d done little enough of that lately. Bright and cheerful, some ribbons shone in the weak sunlight, others made of velvet looked so soft, she wanted to stroke them.
Neve, at her side, went right to the brightest ribbon, a crimson too pure to be confused with blood. Neve’s dark hair and creamy skin would be even more beautiful with it adorning her. “Ye should get it,” Aftyn told her. “The color suits ye.”
Neve gave it a wistful glance and shook her head. “Nay, I havenae coin enough for it.”
“I’ll give ye what ye lack,” Aftyn told her, hating to see the longing in Neve’s eyes as she turned away from the display, and wanting to thank her for helping care for Niall.
“I cannae let ye do that. Ye have little enough coin of yer own.”
“Dinna despair. Let me see if the merchant is willing to deal with the clan’s healers.”
It took only a few words for the man to pull the ribbon Neve wanted from the rack and present it to her. “For a lovely lass who deserves a gift for helping her people.”
Neve simpered and took it with thanks.
Then the man turned to Aftyn. “And what color suits ye, milady? I’d nay let ye leave without a gift to complement ye as the red does yer friend.”
“I dinna need…”
“Ach,” the man said, holding up a hand to interrupt her. “’Tis never about need for a lovely lass such as yerself. And a healer deserves the thanks of all she has helped.”
“But I havena helped ye,” Aftyn reminded him, pleased to be acknowledged but confused by the sentiment coming from a stranger.
“Nay, ye havena, but my wee daughter still lives, thanks to one of yer sisters.”
“Ye have a daughter? Where is she?” Aftyn couldn’t see anyone else in his stall with him.
“At home with her ma, thanks to a healer like ye. Because she saved her life, I vowed to give a token to every healer I meet, to express how grateful I am.”
Aftyn silently blessed him. After Agatha’s accusations piled on top of her failures with Niall, finding someone so grateful to healers lifted her heart.
“Now, milady healer, which of these catch yer eye?” He waved at the fluttering ribbons.
Aftyn’s gaze followed his hand and lit on a clear-sky blue velvet that made her breath catch. “That one,” she said, reaching out to indicate it. “But I canna. ’Tis too dear. Ye must need the coin it would bring for yer wife and bairn.”
“’Tis my pleasure, milady.” He pulled the ribbon from the rack and offered it to her. “’Twill be lovely in yer hair or holding a locket around yer throat. Ye must take it.”
