Ella sympathized with Calum’s frustration. She couldn’t take sitting here listening any longer, stood, and stepped over the bench and away from the table. “I…that is, Janet, is going to see that the lad ye said is already with him has Calum properly readied for the night. I’ll tell ye later how he is.”
“Do ye need my help?” Euan made to rise.
Ella waved him back to his seat. “Nay. Finish yer meal. I’ll see that the lad is taking good care of Calum and bid them a restful night.”
“I’ll tell Mhairi ye are going up,” Muireall offered and stood. “Ye may need her to distract Calum, or to check on what her lad is doing herself.”
Ella nodded, realizing Muireall was right. “Thank ye. All of ye. ’Tis hard to see someone we care for going through this, but with our help, he will get better.” Surely her words disguised some of her feelings for Calum, even if they didn’t hide her pain over what he was going through. The more she worried for him, the more she realized he wasn’t just someone she cared about. He was more than that. But she feared putting a name to her feelings and making them real. She’d been through too much herself to be so bold. Not yet.
She pretended not to see the glance Iain and Annie shared between them. Instead, she walked away, head high, preparing herself for whatever confronting Calum might bring. Muireall’s suggestion had been a good one. If Calum recognized her instead of accepting that Janet had entered his chamber, the healer’s intervention might be needed.
She went first to her chamber and stuffed her pockets from the basket of onions she’d gotten earlier in the day from the cook, bit into one and chewed while she thought. She looked forward to a time when this ruse was no longer necessary and she and her clothes no longer reeked of onion. Her friends tolerated it for her and Calum’s sake, but no doubt they’d be glad to see the end of it, too.
Especially if that meant Calum was healed and himself again. Let that day come soon.
She twisted her hands together and winced at the pain. The blisters had gone down, but the soreness remained in the roughened skin and tired muscles. The lye and constant stirringwith the wooden paddles had done their job. Janet would appear—and feel—as though she worked with her hands on a regular basis. The pain distracted her, but she needed to wait until she returned to her chamber to use more of the healer’s potion to ease it.
Decided, she went down the hall to Calum’s chamber and knocked on the door.
“Come.” That voice wasn’t Calum’s. One of the healer’s lads, as expected, was sitting with him.
She remembered just in time to pitch her voice to Janet’s deeper and softer tones rather than her own. “I’m Janet. The healer has asked me to check on ye. I’ve come to see if there’s aught ye need.” She lifted a finger to her lips to signal the lad not to question her name. Surely the healer would have instructed her lads about the ruse, but this one seemed young enough to be disconcerted by her presence. He might forget to use the proper name, which was why she’d identified herself as Janet first.
The lad opened his mouth, closed it and glanced at Calum, who appeared to be asleep, though with the bandages hiding the upper half of his face, it was hard to be certain. A plaid covered him from feet to chest, and he wore a leine that appeared as if he slept in it since he’d been brought home from Harlaw. She would make sure he was given a clean one in the morning.
“Ye can tell the lad to help me sit up,” Calum suddenly said, his tone as surly as she’d ever heard from him.
“I canna do that. Ye must have the healer’s permission.”
“Then fetch her. I’m tired of lying here. I need to move.”
“Can ye twist to either side without moving yer head? That might make ye feel better.”
Calum started to roll onto his side.
“Wait!” Ella moved to the head of the bed and placed her hands on both sides of his face, her sore, tattered palms firmly against his skull and her fingers tunneled into his hair above thebandage. That also put her pocket full of onions close to Calum’s face. “I will hold ye,” she told him. “Dinna try to turn all at once. Bend yer legs and let them drop to one side. Aye, like that. ’Twill relieve yer back.”
Calum held the plaid in place under his arms and did as she directed. His answering groan told her it was working.
“Now, twist the other way. Ye, lad, come here and help him move.”
With the lad shifting Calum’s knees from side to side while Ella kept his head steady, they managed to give him some relief.
The healer walked in during their ministrations and stood, silently watching. The lad’s back was to the door, so he didn’t know she was there. She gave Ella a nod of approval.
Ella smiled, then turned her attention back to her cranky charge. The lad helped him move his legs as if marching while he lifted and lowered his arms. That was harder on her because even slow movement of his shoulders tended to make his neck and head shift, too, but she kept them steady.
When Calum tired, the healer made some noise to let the lads know she’d arrived.
Ella straightened as if surprised by her entrance.
The healer nodded and spoke up. “That looked helpful. Calum, how do ye feel?”
“Like I need to get out of this bed. How much longer must I stay here?”
“A few days more, then we’ll see about ye carefully sitting up for longer and moving around this chamber. But for now, what ye were doing should help.”
“Aye, it did, but I need to get up and move about. I dinna think I can stand days more in this bed.”
