“That lass’ll be nay help,” the healer muttered, frowning at the empty doorway before turning back to her patient.
“She’s young,” Mary defended her. “Mayhap she’s never dealt with illness.”
“Then she’d best learn,” the healer grumped. “She wed a man more than twice her age. What else can she expect?”
“What caused this?” Cameron had wondered since getting the news, but this was his first chance to ask.
The healer shrugged and looked worried, her brow crinkled and her eyes sad.
Mary’s mouth pinched and her gaze dropped. “I dinna ken if this has anything to do with his collapse, but Da just received word one of the men he thought dead at Red Harlaw is alive and with the Earl of Mar’s forces.”
“A prisoner?”
“Nay, a captain in his guard. He…”
“Is a traitor. Is that what ye are saying?” Cameron tensed.
“Aye, Da got angrier than I’ve ever seen him, red in the face then suddenly…fell forward. When he came to sometime later, he couldna move the right side of his body. Look at his face.”
Cameron had already noted one side of Rose’s face had lost all expression and looked slack and loose, moreakin to partially melted candle wax than how a man should look, even in sleep.
He shook his head, then turned to the healer. “What’s to be done now?”
She shrugged. “There’s naught I can do. He’ll either heal and regain the full use of his body, or he willna. It may be well that his new wife is already with child. I dinna ken whether he’ll retain the ability…”
Mary colored and her hand flew to cover her mouth.
“Sorry lass,” the healer told her. “But ye may as well face facts. Yer da may never again be the man he was—in any capacity.”
Cameron moved to Mary and put his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. “Whatever happens, we will handle it,” he told her. “I’ll be here to help ye.”
She nodded, but he could feel her tears dampen his chest through the fabric of shirt. “I dinna ken what to do.”
“Ye’ll do as ye always have, and be a help to him,” Cameron assured her.
Chapter 13
With her father’s illness worsening, Mary knew more of her time would be spent caring for him. There was someone she needed to find. She dreaded the conversation, but now she’d seen Cameron’s devotion to her fractious father, she realized how much he did care for her. And for Rose. He didn’t deserve to have Dougal MacBean underfoot. It was time to tell Dougal she would never accept him. He needed to leave.
She found him out in the bailey, seated on a hay bale, watching some of the lads and lasses practicing archery. When he saw her coming, he smiled and stood, then reached for her hand.
“Mary, I heard about yer da. I’m sorry. Ye have been so busy, I despaired of seeing ye today.”
“I’m sorry, too, but ’tis my lot in life, I fear. I need to speak with ye. Will ye walk with me?”
“Of course.”
She led him around the keep, away from the noise ofthe practice yard while she tried to decide how to deliver her rejection. “Ye have been patient with me,” she began, her gaze on the ground as they walked, “and I appreciate it.”
“I promised ye I would do better this time.”
“Aye, ye did. And ye have.” She stopped and faced him. “But I must ask ye to honor yer other promise. I have made my decision, and ’tis time for ye to leave.”
Dougal frowned. “Ye have decided in Sutherland’s favor.”
Mary nodded. “I have.”
He spread his hands, beseeching her. “What we had was real, Mary. We can have that again.”
