“He isnae here. He sent a missive that has Da scheming.”
“What missive?”
“Thanking the laird for Keith help, o’course. And relating interesting observations about our visiting healer.”
Aftyn’s heart froze in her chest. “What kind of observations?”
Someone knocked on the herbal’s door. “Aftyn?” The voice belonged to one of the downstairs serving lasses. “Yer da is asking for ye. I think ye’d best hurry to him. He seems fashed.”
Aftyn exchanged a look with her brother.
“Aftyn? Are ye in there?”
“Ye could head back to the abbey to check on the injured,” Braden said in a low voice.
“I’d be seen. Da will be furious if I ignore his summons. Nay, I may as well get this over with.”
“Do ye want me to come with ye?”
Aye, she did, but she didn’t want their father to take out on Braden whatever had upset him. “Nay. Whatever this is, ’tis best ye keep clear of it. If I need yer help after I talk to Da, I’ll find ye.”
“Or send someone to find me. I’ll do whatever I can, ye ken that.”
“I do.” Aftyn gave him a quick hug. “Ye are the best brother a lass could ask for.”
“Ye saved my life, so there canna be a better sister.”
“’Tis the best thing I’ve ever done. Now, let me go. Ye wait a wee before ye leave here. No sense having someone tell Da ye were in here, warning me of trouble.”
“I’ll do as ye ask.”
Aftyn went to the door and opened it. The serving girl had gone, so Aftyn hurried to the stairs and down them to the laird’s solar where she could always find her father.
“Da? Ye sent for me?”
Even at this early hour, the laird sat at his table, reading something. Aftyn feared it was the abbot’s letter, the thing Braden thought had brought about his summons.
He lifted the missive but didn’t bother to meet her gaze. “The abbot has some interesting things to say about our visitor. And some of the most interesting, he claims to have learned from ye.”
Under the seal of confession! Aftyn’s blood turned to ice. So much for the ‘honor’ of the abbot hearing her confession. Not if he shared what she’d said with her father.
“I dinna understand,” she said, fighting not to stammer, keeping her back straight and her head erect. She dared not flinch. He would take that as an admission of some sort of guilt.
“He says the Lathan healer has unheard of skill and the ability to heal grievous wounds unnaturally quickly.” He put down the missive and lifted his gaze to hers. “What do ye ken about this?”
Aftyn fought not to react. She hadn’t challenged Jamie after seeing Niall walking normally in his chamber. For Niall to be able to move about freely this soon, Jamie had done something miraculous. She just didn’t know how.
“Only what I observed,” she replied, keeping her expression indifferent. “Mostly after the fire. While Neve and I cared for the less injured, the Lathan healer cared for the one hurt the worst. I canna say whether anything he does is more or less than any other healer can do. He brought many of his own medicines. They may simply be better than ours.”
That seemed to satisfy her father, and Aftyn let herself take a breath. She thought she’d diverted him and laid Jamie’s success to the potions he’d brought with him, which could very well be true, both for Niall and for the burned priest. She could have made too much of what she thought she saw at the market. She’d needed someone to talk to and thought a confession would be safe. Sacrosanct. Thank God she hadn’t seen Niall walking around his chamber before she confessed. She racked her memory for exactly what she’d told the abbot.
Then her father pounced.
“Why then do ye think the abbot believes these things?”
“I dinna ken. Perhaps others at the abbey said something.”
“He says he learned them from his own observation—and from ye. Do ye accuse the abbot of lying?”
