“Ah, Calum, good morrow.”
He knew that voice. He loved that voice. Ella! What was she doing on the battlefield? He struggled to open his eyes, to sit up, to find his sword and protect her, but a hand on his chest held him down.
“Dinna move, laddie,” a firm, older, female voice commanded. Not Ella. Where had she gone?
“Ella…” He tried to open his eyes, but couldn’t.
“I am here, Calum.” Soft fingers wrapped around his and he relaxed. The women would not be on the battlefield unless the fighting was over and Domhnall’s army won. When had they followed Iain’s men from Brodie? Calum thought Iain left themsafe within its walls, hand-picked men remaining to defend them.
“Iain?” He croaked out the name, dreading the news he might receive. “Kenneth? Euan?”
“Hale and nearby,” the older voice replied.
He finally recognized the clan’s healer’s voice through the fog of pain in his head.
“What happened? Why canna I see? Who is making that whistling sound?”
“Ye were wounded, lad, as ye ken.”
Mhairi’s tone was matter-of-fact. Calm. Yet Ella’s cool fingers tensed on his hand.
“How bad?”
“A crack to yer heid, and ye can be glad ’tis so hard, ye yet live. But the sword that did it shattered, possibly on yers, no’ on yer skull. Ye caught a sliver of steel in yer eye. ’Tis gone now.”
“Then why?—”
“Yer eyes are covered and bandaged round yer heid. Ye must rest and heal if ye hope to see again out of that eye.”
Her comment stopped him from trying to lift a hand to his face yet again. “How long?”
“Another sennight, I think. Or a wee more. I’ll judge as ye go,” she told him. “Ella, go fetch some broth from the kitchen. Our lad is awake enough to drink, and it will help him heal.”
Ella squeezed his hand, and the swish of fabric told Calum she’d done as the healer asked.
“Ella will care for ye, and see to yer needs,” the woman continued, “until ye can do for yerself. Ye must stay abed and keep yer head still.”
Calum didn’t like the sound of that. “Nay,” he said, forcing the word between dry lips. “Nay Ella. I’ll no’ abide her seeing me like this. One of the lads can attend to me.”
“If that is what ye wish.” Mhairi’s voice communicated disappointment. “And here I thought ye pined for her. Months ago, ye confided in me that ye wished for her to be yers. Now that ye need her to help ye, and to comfort ye, ye dinna want her?”
“I do wish it,” Calum insisted once the healer’s complaint ran down. “But nay like this. Send Ella away, back to Brodie. She doesna belong on the battlefield with all the dead. The blood…”
“Lad, we are at Brodie. Ye are in yer own bed. Where did ye think…”
Shock turned his blood to ice, then he warmed again. They were safe. “I thought…the battlefield. Outside Aberdeen. How did I get home?”
“In a cart,” Mhairi answered quickly. “Fortune smiled on ye, and ye made the journey safe in Hypnos’ arms, unaware of yer pain. Ye came to me only a pair of days after ye took yer wounds. Iain made certain ye were cared for until ye arrived. Ye’ve had a little fever, and if ye do as I say, ye’ll have nay more. But ye must do as I say. To save yer sight, ye canna move yer head overmuch. Do ye ken?”
“How have…how will I…” Suddenly he didn’t want to know what had gone before, while he lay here, insensible.
“I’ll send someone to see to ye, and check on ye myself, often. Dinna fash, lad. All will be well.”
Calum heard her words but they faded into a well of sound, as if she moved far away from him, under the whistling instead of in front of it. He wanted to reach for her, to pull her back, but she’d said not to stir. So instead, he faded away, too.
“Dinna go in,”the healer who waited for Ella outside Calum’s door told her. “He sleeps again, and we must speak.” She gestured for them to move away, down the hall.
Was something wrong? Ella frowned at her, then set the heavy tray she carried on the hallway floor as Mhairi closed the door to Calum’s chamber. “About what?”
