“And thanks to Georgie keeping his head and making a safe place for them to pass the night, though I’m glad in the end, they didna need it.”
“Iain congratulated them on the things they did right and said he’s adding direction finding to their training, starting immediately. And he told them that they’re all confined to the keep until we’re certain the raiders are out of the area.”
“That could be weeks,” Calum pointed out, feeling sorry for the lads, especially after the way he’d been confined, though for very different reasons.
“Aye, it could. I dinna think the men with Euan are certain they got all the raiders ye found. Or that they’re the only ones still out there.”
Calum hung his head. “I regret that I wasna there to help defend him,” Calum told her.
Muireall shook her head. “Ye are no’ to blame. He was outnumbered and unlucky. Thankfully, our men got him back quickly and the Brodie healer is excellent at her craft. He will recover, if slowly. Regaining his strength and full use of his arm will come, but with pain.”
Calum studied the sleeping man. His best friend looked wan and tired even as he rested. Had he looked the same before he woke up after Harlaw? Did Ella sit with him as Muireall now didwith Euan, worrying and wondering if the healer’s assurances would come to pass?
Seeing what Muireall was going through made him feel like his rejection of Ella’s help had been even more unfair to her than he’d suspected. Possibly, he had saved her hours of worry, watching him sleep, waiting for his next breath, and wondering if he would ever see with two eyes and be able to fight to protect her like the warrior he used to be. But Ella was enough like Muireall that he now saw she would not have wanted to be anywhere else but with him. Even as Janet, risking his ire, she did what she thought best for him.
He’d been an arse.
He took Muireall’s hand and squeezed it gently. “If there is aught ye need, aught I can do, ye have only to ask.”
She gave him a tired smile that did not quite reach her eyes. “I ken it. Thank ye, Calum. Euan will be grateful, too.”
Calum pursed his lips, unsure what to say. This was not the time to seek her advice. But she had given him clarity without his asking. Instead of answering, he dropped her hand, nodded and took his leave.
Two days later,after the healer cleaned his wound and stitched it closed, she agreed to let Euan move from the herbal to his own bed. His and Muireall’s. Just getting him up the stairs exhausted him, even with Kenneth and two of Mhairi’s lads to help. Ella sat for an hour with Muireall while her husband slept, silently lending support and companionship she knew Muireall needed while Georgie was on the training ground with Iain and Kenneth and the other lads. All the fears that plagued Calum while his eyes were covered now weighed heavily on her friend—and his.And where was Calum? She didn’t think he’d visited Euan in the herbal. Muireall would have told her if he’d come during her absences. His absence was out of character for him and his friendship with Euan. His best friend and partner was injured. Where had he been?
But Calum arrived as Ella left Euan and Muireall’s chamber. She nodded to him as they passed each other in the doorway, but he only glanced at her before stepping inside.
Annoyed at his slight, she paused outside the door after Calum entered, unsure of his mood, and concerned that his arrival would disturb Euan’s rest. But Calum stood, silently, regarding his friend, a frown knitting his brow. “I thought he’d be better by now,” he said so softly that Ella nearly missed it.
After a glance at Ella, Muireall greeted him in a low voice. “Ye can see he is resting,” she told Calum. “Much as ye did while ye recovered. ’Tis best if ye dinna wake him.” She kept her gaze on Calum and waited for his reply.
“I owe ye both an apology,” he said. “I’ve been reluctant to help Euan after the fuss I made while under the healer’s care,” Calum admitted in a voice as soft as Muireall’s, “but he’s my best friend. I would never abandon him—or ye, lass—but I have to admit it took me a while to get past my own reluctance.”
“Ye went through a long and difficult healing,” Muireall told him. “’Tis understandable that ye would hesitate to spend much time in the herbal. Now that he’s up here, ye can visit more often.”
“Ye give me too much grace, lass. I can be as selfish and as proud as any man. More than most. But Euan will get better. I will do all I can to help.”
Ella noticed Euan stirring and faded back from the door so he wouldn’t spot her beyond Calum. What would Calum think to know she was back here, listening to every word he said?
“There isna much either of us can do but get through what has befallen us,” Euan muttered, clearly having heard at least some of what Calum said to Muireall. “Yer eye may never be the same. My arm may never be as strong, or as fast and battle-ready. We are what we have become, aye?”
Calum shook his head, stepped forward, and placed a hand on Euan’s good shoulder. “Come on, man. We canna let this destroy us. We will do the work and regain what we once had. Together. I will help ye, just as ye helped me.”
Ella’s heart lifted to hear a note of optimism in his voice, even if it was only for Euan’s sake. She hoped he believed what he was telling his friend. Helping Euan would help him, too.
Should she go back into the chamber? If apologizing to Muireall and speaking to Euan helped improve Calum’s mood and his acceptance of what he must overcome, how would he react to her presence? Would he apologize to her for how he’d treated her? They’d seemed much like the way they used to be while searching for the lads. More comfortable with each other. Easier, companionable. But since they’d been back and Euan had been injured, it seemed the distance between them widened again. She’d been busy helping Mhairi and Muireall. But she had reason to hope. The four of them were close as friends until Calum’s injury. The last few days convinced her they could be again.
She could ignore how he’d dismissed her presence when he arrived a few minutes ago. At that moment, his thoughts had been clearly focused on his friend, full of concern that Euan was not sitting up, but slept on like one dead, or nearly so. She would do as Muireall had done and give him at least that much grace.
Resolved, she moved to the doorway. When she stepped back into the chamber, as if she’d gone away and returned, Euan’s gaze cut to her, alerting Calum. He turned, and for the first time since they’d returned from bringing home the lost lads, he gaveher an honest smile, one that softened and reached his eyes, as though he finally realized, now that he saw a similar situation with his friend, why she had done for him what she did. And the forgiveness he’d proffered earlier with a generous helping of reluctance now seemed genuine. But could she count on it to last?
Four days later,Calum was happy to see Euan out of his chamber as he slowly approached Calum and Kenneth at their table in the great hall. “’Tis about time ye joined us,” Calum told him as he sat down with a sigh.
“Aye,” Kenneth added, “ye’ve been abed long enough. Ye have much to do.”
“Dinna remind me,” Euan said, frowning. “But this binding of the healer’s prevents most anything I would like to do, including starting to train again.”
“All in good time,” Calum told him, doubting he yet had the strength to walk to the training ground, much less to lift a blade. “Take it from one who kens well the healer’s mind. She willna let ye do more damage to that arm in yer haste to recover from yer injury.”
