Jamie could tell he’d been making sure he’d not be observed. Likely, his path would take him behind the cottage. The lad had a good head on his young shoulders.
Mhairi went to her cupboard and pulled out as much food as she had on hand, as well as three more pitchers. “Bread, cheese, strips of dried venison, fruit, cider, and ale,” she said, pointing to each. “This one is water. I’ll be outside for a while. Take care of our lass.”
“Thank ye, Mhairi. I owe ye.”
“Ye owe me nought. ’Tis the least of what I owe ye. Both of ye.” She left them, closing the door softly behind her.
Aftyn opened her eyes and pushed herself up onto one elbow. “Where were we?”
Jamie laughed. She’d nearly died. Now, she was fit enough to tease him into kissing her again. He’d never loved his talent more than in that moment. “We,” he said and gave her a frown he didn’t mean, “are going to eat. Ye will eat a wee bit while I eat more. Then I am going to put ye in a healing sleep for a few hours while I make sure I did enough earlier. Then I’ll finish what I must do for ye, like yer shoulder and hands. Ye dinna mind if ye have a few bruises left to prove they truly harmed ye, aye? I can promise ye they willna hurt.”
“Very well. Do what ye must. If my father is to consider punishing those men, he will demand proof. They will deny what they did. Bruises should help convince him.”
“The color will be on the surface only and will fade in a few days. Yer eye is still swollen, though only a wee.”
“Leave it. I can see well enough.”
“Brave lass. I was going to suggest that.” He helped her to Mhairi’s table. They ate in silence for a few minutes, then Aftyn sighed.
“I think that is enough for me.”
“Then I want ye to rest until I am ready.” He helped her back to the pallet. “If ye fall asleep, that will do ye good.”
“I might.”
Jamie settled her and returned to his meal. He needed the strength it would lend him to finish taking care of Aftyn and himself. When he felt ready, he returned to her side. “Ye will sleep,” he told her when her eyes opened. “And when ye wake, ye will feel better, but ye must act like ye remain in pain.”
“I’ll do my best. Thank ye, Jamie. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused.”
“I’m sorry, too. I’ll make up every way I can for my part in causing yer beating. For now, sleep, lass.” He laid a hand on her head and lay the healing sleep on her. Then he went to work, making certain he’d missed no injuries in her abdomen, chest, or back. Her knee was swollen, twisted, and bruised, and she had cracks in the bones of one arm, one shin, her right hand, and several toes, confirmation that she had fought for her life, yet she hadn’t complained. He was in awe of her determination.
Ignoring his own pain, he fixed everything not visible on the surface, and left the skinned knuckles as they were, a sign she’d tried to defend herself and a small pain that would remind her to behave as if she was in much greater pain.
Finally, satisfied he’d done all he could, he pushed to his feet and limped to the table to avail himself of more of Mhairi’s cider. Exhausted, he stretched out on the floor near the door. He wanted to know the moment anyone tried to enter the cottage. Then he turned his awareness inward and dealt with the pains that had transferred to his body. He couldn’t fathom how any man could do to a lass what those two men had done to Aftyn. Fury built in him and he let it grow. It would help him heal and give him the power he needed to destroy those two men if the laird refused to punish them as they deserved. And, he decided, despite the consequences, he’d see the laird punished as well, if he let the assault on his daughter go unanswered.
18
Neve arrived later with food sent by Braden. Jamie had rested sufficiently to be ravenous, so what she brought was welcome. He did a subtle scan of Aftyn’s injuries and decided it was time to awaken her, so he brought her out of the healing sleep while Neve arranged the food and Mhairi begged a pitcher of cider from a neighbor, saying she’d run out and her son wanted some.
The news from the keep was grim. No one had seen either of the men responsible for Aftyn’s beating. Braden had sent men loyal to him to search for them, but the laird’s men were only searching for Aftyn, Jamie, and Jamie's missing men.
“Ye willna be safe here much longer,” Neve told them as Aftyn sat up and rubbed sleep from her eyes. “But at least ye can eat something before ye have to go.”
“Go where?” Aftyn asked, rising carefully as if testing whether her body would cooperate with her intention. “My father must see what those men did to me, so they will be punished.”
“Ye heard Neve. Until those men are found, ye are no' safe here," Mhairi replied.
"Ye will go home with me,” Jamie murmured, as he took her arm and guided her to a seat at Mhairi’s small table.
“No’ the keep? They canna get to me there.”
“Nay, lass. Ye canna be sure where they can go, and if ye are called to help someone in the village, ye'll be vulnerable. Ye’ll go with me to my home. The Aerie.”
“Ach, I canna leave. Ye ken why.”
“Ye need to be safe,” Neve told her, as she filled a wooden plate and placed it before her friend. “If Jamie can take ye somewhere safe, ye must go. I will manage. Hamish can help me. The notes ye are leaving us,” she added, turning a solemn gaze on Jamie, “will be a great help in the future.”
“I’m glad,” Jamie said. “Ye must safeguard them and Aftyn’s mother’s journal against Aftyn’s eventual return. Things will no’ always be so unsettled here, and they mean much to ye,” he said as he turned his gaze to Aftyn, who was eating quickly. “Yer brother will make a fine laird someday, and in the meantime, once he hears what happened to ye, I hope yer father will see the error of his ways and why I have taken ye away.”
