Page 48 of In Bed with a Highland Brute

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Eloise kept seeing things in her sleep. She saw the adder again, the way the snake coiled up on the tree roots then launched its head at her, propelling his teeth toward her ankle. She kept cowering back, but she couldn’t get away fast enough.

Everything was too warm. There was a heat burning her skin, a thin sheen of sweat covering her, as she kept seeing the pictures morphing in her mind.

She saw Beatrice, that beautiful maid who had been so concerned with speaking to Murdoch those first few nights and sending glares in Eloise’s direction. Where had she been when the adder attacked? Then the image changed, and Eloise saw Harper’s frightened face.

Abruptly, she saw what had happened in a new light. She saw Harper refusing to step around the tree, digging her heels into the ground.

Why would she nae move? She could have escaped. This never needed tae happen!

Eloise blinked, trying to fight her sleep and the constant images in her mind. She had wakeful dreams, certain that she had woken at times to see something of what was happening around her.

She remembered Callie forcing some sort of tea or tonic past her lips, urging her to drink all of it, as Wilson removed her boot and plastered her wound with a cold water. Something in that liquid stung. It was like nettle water against her wound. She had a feeling she cried out in pain then and remembered catching Murdoch’s expression.

Those dark eyes had never blinked. At one point, she could have sworn they were watery, as if he was the one going through such pain.

Then all had turned black.

Eloise opened her eyes properly this time. There was a darkness in the room with just one lone candle casting an amber light from the corner. Eloise turned her head toward it, trying to make sense of her surroundings. Some things were not quite in focus and part of the world was dizzy. Whatever had been in the tea that Callie had given her, she judged it had to be some heavy sedative to have such an affect.

There was a figure sitting beside her, his form silhouetted in that candlelight. His hand was wrapped around hers. Eloise knew the feeling of those long fingers and the callous skin of his palm.

“M-Murdoch?” she tried to whisper, with her voice croaky.

“Eloise?” He lifted his head, as if he had been falling asleep with his chin lolling on his chest. He inched forward, his face revealed in the candlelight. There were heavy shadows under his eyes and his hair was wild, either tousled by the wind or or from having been pulled at many times. “How are ye feeling?”

“Everything is so… dizzy,” she whispered. She tried to sit up, struggling with the sheer extent of that wooziness. He reached for her waist, pulling back the covers enough that he could lift her himself, plumping the pillows behind her head. She leaned back against those cushions, her body strangely weak and tingling. The pain in her ankle was radiating up her leg now, and there was a heaviness with it too, though as it was covered by the blankets, she did not know if that heaviness came from the weight or the sensation of the bite itself. “Thank ye, Murdoch.”

“Why are ye thanking me?” He shook his head, moving to sit on the bed, facing her. She reached toward him, not really thinking about what she was doing but just resting one of her hands on his arm. He moved toward her another inch, showing he would not pull away.

“For bringing me here so fast. For running tae me. Aye, I didnae expect tae see ye bursting through those trees like some great knight.”

“Well, I am a soldier,” he reminded her.

“Like something out of a tale, it was,” she giggled, this strange lightness having an odd effect on her mind.

“Ye are talking as if ye are drunk, Eloise.”

“Aye, I feel it.” Her head tilted to the side, and she was in danger of slipping down the pillows, until Murdoch reached for her and pulled her further up against the pillows. It struck her just how easily he could lift her, as if she weighed nothing compared to him. It thrilled her, though she was not entirely sure why.