Page 46 of It’s in his Highland Kiss

The pain that shot up his finger, his hand, his forearm, and then his entire body was unlike anything he had experienced before. Even Lynton’s torture hadn’t been as bad, he thought, his head swimming with the pain.

“One down, three to go, lad,” the healer said. “Stay brave for me.”

The next crack and the next wave of nauseating pain came sooner than Eiric had thought. But if there was a third and a fourth, he didn’t know. Darkness enveloped him, and finally, nothing hurt anymore.

He hoped that wasn’t what death was like. He was so close to surviving. All he needed was a little time.

Chapter Twenty

Marion knocked gently on Eiric’s door, though she expected no answer. It had only been hours since the healer had finished working on his wounds, and Eiric was now resting in his room, sleeping peacefully after the brew that the healer had given him.

Marion had stayed with him the entire time, only leaving when the laird wished to speak with her. Now, she was back, eager to stay by Eiric’s side.

She couldn’t leave him. The healer had asked everyone to give Eiric some peace and quiet, but Marion feared that her heart would give out if she didn’t stay with him and ensure that he was still alive.

Not waiting for an invitation to enter the room, Marion opened the door and slipped inside quietly, looking at Eiric, who was, indeed, sleeping soundly. She pulled up a chair next to his bed and sat down, her gaze never leaving him.

He looked so small in that bed, and so much younger than she had ever seen him before, little more than a child, despite being a good seven years older than her. A desire to protect him surged through her, and she reached for his hand—the one that wasn’t broken in half a dozen places—holding it gingerly in her own.

Even though she knew that he was healing, Marion couldn’t help but worry about Eiric. There was no telling if he would manage to survive, not when he was so wounded, and any of his wounds could become infected at any moment. She wouldn’t rest, she knew, not until Eiric was past all danger, and until he was, she would stay by his side, no matter how long it took. She would stay there for days, weeks, even months, if that was what Eiric needed.

Her wait was not without its interruptions though. Even in the few hours since their return to the castle, Adaria and Mrs. MacKay had begged her to eat and rest no fewer than five times each, insisting that she would need her strength were she to be of any help to Eiric.

But Marion reasoned that she could always eat and rest in that room, with him, whenever she needed. She didn’t mind sleeping on the chair.

And sleep did take her soon after, the day’s exhaustion catching up to her. She slept on that chair, just as soundly as Eiric, and when she awoke once more, the sky was completely dark, just like the room.

Marion sat up in the chair, and only then did she notice that there was a blanket over her, no doubt the work of Mrs. MacKay. She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the darkness, and then she stood, lighting a candle to light her way back to the chair.

“Marion?”

Eiric’s voice was weak and roughened by the torture. Marion rushed to him, placing the candle on the bedside table and kneeling next to him, a hand cupping his face.

“I’m here,” she assured him. “I’m right here.”

Eiric stayed silent for a few moments, and Marion watched his throat bob as he swallowed drily. She poured him a cup of water from the pitcher that someone had placed on the nightstand, and then she helped him drink it, holding up his head with her hand.

“Thank ye,” Eiric said, once he had drained the cup. “For everythin’. I can hardly believe that ye came all alone to find me.”

“You would have done the same,” Marion pointed out.

“Nay, I would’ve brought an army with me,” Eiric said. “But ye came all alone. Verra foolish, lass.”

“Will you berate me for it?” Marion asked. “For saving your life?”

Eiric laughed, but his laugh soon turned into a cough, one that seemed to pain him as it stretched his open wounds. Once he calmed down, he looked at her in a curious way, one that Marion couldn’t understand, though it may have just been because of the darkness.

“Nay,” he said. “I wish ye’d have brought someone with ye, but I ken why ye did it.”

“They wouldn’t have let me come,” Marion said.

“Aye, I ken. But ye came anyway, and ye did it, Marion,” Eiric said. “Ye didna need anyone’s help, ye did it all on yer own. It’s more than any of us would’ve done, and we’re all trained soldiers since we were bairns. I dinna ken how ye did it.”

“I had a good reason,” Marion said with a small shrug. “I had someone to save.”

Eiric smiled at her. Marion gazed at that smile, at that face, at the way his left eye was swollen, and his lip was cut, no doubt hurting him when he smiled like that. She couldn’t deny that what she had done had been dangerous, bordering on foolish. She couldn’t deny that she could have died when she was in the camp, and that the English would have killed her slowly, just like they had tried to kill Eiric. But at least Eiric didn’t seem to mind as much as she had thought he would, and he even seemed to be proud of her for what she had achieved.

Now that all her fear for her life and that of Eiric’s had dissipated, she could finally feel proud of herself too. She had done something that she could have never imagined only six months prior. She was a different person, and she was becoming stronger and stronger with every passing day.