Neve moved toward the open door. “Come with me, then.”
Jamie held up ahand to stop her. “Where?”
“The great hall. I’ll raid the kitchen,” Neve promised.
Jamie gestured them out. “I’ll follow ye soon. First I want to see to Niall.” He closed the door after them and turned to his patient. Placing his hands just above and below the bandage swathing Niall’s lower leg, he closed his eyes andfelt. What he found sickened and enraged him. Festering tissue burned and spread. As much as Jamie wanted to attack it, he knew he would not have the strength until he ate and rested for an hour or two. He touched Niall’s forehead to put him into a deeper sleep that would blunt his pain, then took his hand and squeezed it. “I’m here, Niall. I’ll be back soon to help ye.”
Reluctantly, he left the chamber and rejoined his men and Neve in the hall. The food and ale were welcome, and for Jamie to do what he would be called upon to do this night, necessary. No one spoke save to ask for more.
They were nearly finished when a lass crossing behind Neve from the kitchen toward the stairs captured Jamie’s attention.
He couldn’t take his gaze from her. She glided with the grace of a swan on a still pond. Her skin glowed with each torch she passed, pale as new cream, yet touched with berries on her cheeks and lips. Lashes so lush they hid the color of her downcast eyes added to her air of mystery. She passed beyond their table and fascinated him all over again. Her dark braid ended just at the sweet curve of her bottom and swayed against her back as she climbed the steps. She seemed so deeply lost in thought, she hadn’t noticed the strangers in her hall.
Jamie wanted to rise and call out to her, to learn her name and everything about her, but held himself in check. He would discover who she was later. Niall needed him.
3
Aftyn had been away from Niall’s chamber too long, but she’d awakened bleary and famished from the nap Neve insisted she take. She visited the kitchen, hoping some food and company would revive her, but no one remained. Even the serving lasses had finished the last cleanup of the day and were gone. The hour must be very late. Most of the clan was asleep in their beds. She ate a little of the food Cook kept out for the night watch, then forced her feet to carry her back upstairs. Crossing the hall to Niall’s chamber, she wished she could sleep, too, then chided herself for her selfishness. He needed her, but she hadn’t shirked his care. While she took some time for herself, Neve remained with him. They both knew a man in Niall’s condition should not be left alone.
She opened the door, expecting Neve to greet her, but she wasn’t in the room. Instinct drove Aftyn to whirl and step toward Neve’s chamber, irritation building in her at Neve’s abdication of the responsibility she’d entrusted to her.
Then she turned back. First, she must check on Niall. He still breathed, and though he’d ceased thrashing from the pain in his leg for the moment, his fever remained dangerously high. The bowl of water and rags she’d left to be used to cool him remained untouched. Aftyn dunked a cloth, wrung it out, and placed it on his forehead, grumbling under her breath about unreliable lasses while she dunked another and laid it over his throat. Another she used to dribble water over his lips. She hoped the slight part in them allowed some of the water to drip into his mouth. He had to be parched.
Satisfied she’d done what she could for the moment, she gave in to her irritation and went to find Neve. If she was where Aftyn suspected, asleep in her chamber, she’d get a rude awakening.
Neve’s chamber was empty.
Aftyn continued down the next hall to the garderobe, but it was unoccupied. She tried the herbal and the upstairs library, but Neve was not there either.
By the time she made it back around to Niall’s chamber, she heard unfamiliar male voices within.
“I can do much for him, but the care he has received here…” The voice stopped and a low growl of frustration penetrated the oaken door. “’Twas worse than receiving nay care at all. How can that lass call herself a healer?”
Aftyn blanched, her worst insecurities made real in a stranger’s harsh tone.
“Neve said they’ve done the best they can for him,” a second man said. Aftyn felt a moment’s gratitude that someone defended her.
Where was Neve? The man spoke of her as if she was not present. These must be Niall’s clansmen. Yet she heard no woman’s voice, not Neve’s and not the promised healer. Only a man railing against her. The Lathan healer was a woman. Rabbie had been very clear on that. Had she refused to come, to do what Aftyn could not—save him—and then to take Niall home?
“Then she is a danger to all,” the first man continued. “If evenIfear I canna save him…”
The voice dropped too low to hear, which was just as well. Aftyn was torn between mortification and fury. A danger, was she? She’d done her best! And they prevented her from the amputation she feared was Niall’s only hope.
How was it her fault that her mother hadn’t had time to fully train her? And what did he mean, if evenhefeared to save Niall? Why would anyone fear saving Niall’s life?
Confused and fuming, she pushed open the door. Her gaze went straight to the bed. Niall lay as she’d left him, cloths still in place. Had anyone changed them for cooler ones? She looked up then. Two men stared at her, a big blond’s expression changing rapidly from questioning to smiling. The other one’s gaze frozen on her as if in shock.
Aftyn couldn’t take her gaze from him. Taller than his companion or his injured friend, he had a warrior’s muscles, but somehow burnished long and lean. She suspected he was even stronger than he appeared. His deep brown eyes should look kind, but his current narrow-eyed frown made her unsure. Dark auburn hair and brows caught the firelight and danced with copper glints. What lass could resist that straight, sharp nose or those firm lips? Likely, they had kissed many a lass. She wondered how they would feel against hers—if he ever stopped frowning at her.
* * *
Jamie turnedat the first sound of the door opening. He was too good a warrior to leave his back exposed, especially in a strange keep. Not that he expected trouble in Niall’s chamber, but they were in a strange keep, and among the many lessons Donal MacNabb had taught him, he made sure Jamie learned the consequences of carelessness.
Thinking of Donal did not raise the ire it once had in Jamie, but having his foster father on his mind still made him uncomfortable. As sad as he was to lose a friend, Jamie knew Donal had been right. He had treated Donal unfairly. He’d learned his lesson and hoped never to lose his temper like that again, though seeing Niall’s condition made it tempting.
What he saw as the door swung open and light fell on the figure standing there shocked him to immobility. Her! The bonnie lass he’d seen float across the great hall and up the stairs.
“What are ye doing in Niall’s chamber?” She demanded before he could say a word.
