by Terry Spear
As she closed her eyes, trying to calm her wooziness and clung to the tree, she heard a small voice say in her head, "'Tis me, Pol. Where are you?"
A small trickle of hope wormed its way inside her, but when she tried to speak to him, the pain streaked through her head, shattering every thought, and she felt herself tumbling into a black abyss, and prayed she did not fall from the tree.
***
Keary couldn't help that he wanted Edana. He loved fiery-headed lasses. Had he known the Chattan chief's daughter had grown to be so resourceful, kind-hearted, loyal, and bonny—he would have asked for her hand in marriage years ago. Not that he'd had any title at the time, and her father probably would have discounted his wish back then.
Keary had not believed Angus had wed the lass, but no matter how much Keary had plotted to wed her himself, he hated he had been unsuccessful.
Now, here he was looking for the lass—again—and wishing she could be his. Again. Aye, it was true he had had every intention of ensuring Oppida no longer bedeviled or murdered anyone else. That had been one of his main goals in accompanying the Chattan chief and his men. But in truth, he wished he could in some way rid himself of Edana's new husband. A perfectly timed accident. No witnesses. Just a quick drowning. Something that would not make him suspect.
Not that he hated the MacNeill. He just desired the lass for his own that much.
He would ask for the grieving widow's hand in marriage—and succeed in getting her into his bed.
If she were already carrying a MacNeill babe, no matter. He would call it his own. And provide her with more that would be spawned by his seed and not the MacNeill's.
The trouble was he wished to be the one who rescued her and returned her to MacRae's keep. The more he could do to show how chivalrous he was, the more she would be willing to agree to his marrying her.
He wanted a couple of his men to dispose of MacNeill in the most tragically accidental way possible. But the man was with MacRae and his lad, and Keary wasn't about to have them tragically disposed of as well. He truly liked children.
So he was in a quandary what to do.
He had the notion that somehow he and some of his men could follow the lass and MacNeill back to James's keep. Just MacNeill, his cousin, Niall, and the Viking would not prove a difficult number to deal with.
Not that Keary intended to kill them all. But he thought at some time or another, MacNeill would leave the others on personal business and some misfortune could befall him.
None would suspect Keary or his men, who at his word, had returned to Lockton Castle and were not even in the area at the time—or so their ruse would indicate. He would wait for a short time after the man's demise. Then he would make some excuse to visit James's castle and enquire within as to Angus and Edana's health. He would act his part to show shock at Angus's death, as if they had been best of friends. He would do his utmost to console the grieving widow. He'd already convinced her father he would be a suitable husband since he had a title and he desired to have the lass as his wife. James would have to see the benefit as well as he was also a laird.
Keary smiled to himself. Aye, one way or another, the lass would be his. Sooner than later, he hoped.
***
Beside himself with worry, Angus didn't know what to think. Edana's horse must have been spooked. By what though?
What bothered him just as much was that Pol could not reach her. That made Angus fear she'd been too injured to respond.
Men calling her name throughout the woods in every direction gave him hope they would soon find her. If she could but hear them and call out in return. He prayed she was all right.
"Edana!" he hollered again, his voice near hoarse with yelling for so long. "Edana!"
"We will find her," Kayne said, riding nearby.
"Aye," Hawln said. "She is a resourceful lass. She has taken spills before and has been all right."
"She is a hardy one that," Gildas agreed.
But Egan said not a word.
And Angus thought her brother Egan felt as he did. She was in trouble.
He looked over at Pol who appeared to be sleeping again. He hated to wake the boy, knowing the lad had been through one awful trauma already and now was forced to stay awake when he had been up all night.
"Pol, call her again," Angus insisted.
MacRae scowled at Angus. "Can you see 'tis no' working? Leave the lad be." The chief still sounded as though he didn't believe Pol and Edana could speak to each other in their unusual way.
"Pol, try again," Angus said, his voice angry, then turned his wrath on the lad's father. "If you hadna dragged her out here, MacRae, she wouldna be in trouble. And from what your son has said, she saved his life."
"I…I am trying," Pol said.
They all paused in the woods and waited to hear if Pol was able to reach Edana.
Then his face brightened. "She…she spoke to me."
"Where is she?" Angus asked in unison with two of her brothers.
Pol looked puzzled. "She…she says she is in a tree. I didna think girls climbed trees."
"Where?" Angus asked.
Pol shook his head. "She doesna know."
"Is she hurt?"
"Aye. Her head. She fell."
"Why is she in a tree?" Angus asked, concerned that someone or something had attempted to hurt her further.
Pol's eyes widened. "A wild boar."
"God's wounds. Is she safe where she is?"
"The sow is still below the tree with its piglets."
"But is she safe?" Angus asked.
"Aye, she says unless she falls from the tree."
"Is she unable to hold on?" Angus didn't wish to hear that she was too weak to do so when they had no idea where she was and the threat of a wild boar roaming around below her perch still existed.
Pol stared in the direction of the trees and Angus assumed he was listening to her talk to him. But then Pol shook his head. "She didna answer."
Kayne cursed.
"Does she hear men calling for her? Can she call out to let us know where she is?" Angus asked.
Again a lengthy pause, and then Pol shook his head. "She didna say anything."
They moved again, calling her name. It was all they could do until someone alerted them they had found the lass. He prayed she had not fallen from the tree and run afoul of the wild boar.
"Nay!" Angus heard a woman shriek. It was his woman.
"Edana!" Angus said, riding as fast as he could through the thick woods, her brothers keeping up with him. Niall and Gunnolf were somewhere nearby but he could not see them. "Edana!"
"Edana!" Kayne called out, the only one of the brothers whose voice hadn't given out.
"Nay!" she screamed again. "She has wee ones!"
Angus's jaw dropped. Someone must have found her and intended to kill the sow so he could rescue Edana. In all her goodness, she hadn't wanted the mother of the piglets killed.
He came upon several of Keary's men attempting to draw off the mother while Keary tried to reach Edana.
It didn't matter who rescued her from the tree as long as she was taken from it before she fell and injured herself further. Yet the notion Keary would be the one to do so, and not one of her brothers, her da, or his own kin or good friend, Gunnolf—if it could not be Angus—forced the bile to rise in his gullet.
With a mighty roar, he galloped his horse into the fray, piglets squealing and running every which way, sow dashing after one rider, who attempted to draw her away from the tree, and then another.
Before Keary could offer Edana his mount, Angus rode in under the branch that she clung to, reached up his arms, and offered her protection and security. She slipped into his grasp, then he galloped out of the tusked boar's path before his horse was injured.
"Edana," Angus said, wishing his voice was soothing when all that came out was an anxious croak.
"You have lost your voice," she said, then closed her eyes.
"Edana, dinna sle
ep, lass." He feared she would not wake up, like sometimes would happen when men suffered head injuries on the battlefield. "Pol told us you were in a tree. He didna think girls climbed trees." He hoped she would smile or react in some manner, but he couldn't get a word out of her and she didn't smile either.
When he saw MacRae staying out of the boar's path, Angus said, "Pol, can you reach her?"
"She is with you," Pol said, as if he thought it silly that Angus would not just talk to her when she was resting in his lap.
"She must no' sleep. She may no' wake up. Can you wake her? I canna."
They rode with all haste back to the keep, the word soon spreading that they had found the lass and all were to return to the castle.
"She is asleep," Pol said. "I canna wake her."
Chapter 18
As soon as they reached the keep, several men began giving orders. Tibold told ten of his men to return to his castle. Keary ordered half of his own to return home as well.
Gildas pulled Edana from Angus's arms so Angus could dismount. Anxious about her head injury, Angus took her back, and he and her brothers, her father, Niall, and Gunnolf headed for the keep.
"I will have a chamber readied for her at once," MacRae said, then issued instructions to his people.
"I will get the healer," Pol said. "She will take care of her." The boy dashed off.
Edana stirred in Angus's arms. His heartbeat quickened to see her coming to. "Edana."
She moaned, then her eyes fluttered open. And in that instant, she gave him the sweetest smile, her blue eyes swimming with tears.
No matter how worried he was for her, he smiled back, her expression cheering him to the center of his being. "How are you feeling?" he asked, his damnable voice nearly gone from all the yelling he had done while trying to locate her in the woods.
"My head hurts something awful."
"Pol is getting the healer. She will give you something for your pain." He wanted to scold Edana for trying to rescue him when she should have stayed safely with MacRae, but he couldn't do it. Her loyalty and caring nature was part of what he loved about her.
She glanced at someone and furrowed her brow. Angus looked to see who she was frowning at. Keary. But she didn't say a word, and Angus wouldn't either until he'd settled her in a chamber and Keary was no longer within earshot.
"What were you thinking, daughter?" Tibold asked, annoyed with her and when Angus hadn't scolded her, her father took up the reins.
"Of saving you, Da."
Angus shook his head.
"Then we had to rescue you," her father said, "and your husband near died over it."
As if her father and her brothers hadn't felt the same panic.
"The same for me when the guard came and told us you were fighting MacRae's men. I had to stop it," Edana said softly.
"Dinna fret, lass," Angus said. "You need to rest and when you and Drummond are well again, you and I will travel to Craigly Castle where we will meet with my brother, his wife, and my clansmen." Angus still wondered if James knew what might have happened between Edana and him when he found her.
"Is everyone all right?" she asked.
"Aye," Angus said. "'Tis you who are no' well."
"Drummond?" she asked, ignoring his comment as if it didn't matter that she had been hurt.
Gildas spoke up then. "Kayne and Halwn have already headed inside to check on him."
"I want to see him for myself," Edana said.
"See the grief she gives us?" Gildas opened the door to the keep for them.
"I will rest better if I see Drummond."
"Aye, lass, you will get your wish." Angus would begrudge her nothing that would lift her spirits and make her injuries fade into the background.
MacRae met them at the narrow, curving stairs. "The lass has the chamber next to Drummond's."
"Thank you," Edana said.
Still angry that MacRae had forcibly taken Edana with him, believing that she had been in league with the devil named Oppida, Angus couldn't see the chief in a good light for now.
He climbed the stone steps and strode down the corridor toward Drummond's chamber, following her father. Her remaining brothers, Niall, and Gunnolf kept in step behind them. When they entered the chamber, Drummond scowled at her, though his face was again pale and not flushed with fever. Halwn and Kayne stood nearby, arms crossed over their chests, brows raised.
"What do you think you were doing?" Drummond asked, sounding highly agitated when he saw how pale Edana was, that she had to be carried into the chamber, and that blood streaked her temple. Bruising had already begun to turn her injured skin a soft purple, blue, and burgundy.
"Rescuing you," she said, her voice resolute.
That earned her several chuckles from her brothers.
Drummond groaned. "And you see how well that turned out."
Her father shook his head, then directed a comment to Angus. "You have your work cut out for you." He sympathetically patted Angus on his shoulder.
"You have seen your brother is still going to live, Edana," Angus said, kissing her forehead, and headed for the doorway, anxious to get her settled.
"Aye, and Drummond is getting better. He is always a beastly grouch when he does." Edana snuggled closer to Angus, and he tightened his hold on her.
"Wait until you see how Edana acts when she is bed bound," Drummond hollered.
Thinking of Edana bound to the bed, Angus paused in the doorway and turned to smile at Drummond. Her brothers all laughed, and Edana flushed beautifully. Her father merely grinned. And so did Niall and Gunnolf. But Drummond's face flushed as bright a red as Edana's.
"Oh, do take me away from my brothers," Edana said, poking her finger into Angus's chest.
He smiled at her and carried her out of Drummond's chamber and into the next one where a middle-aged woman waited for him to place Edana on the bed. He did and quickly divested Edana of her shoes and hose, though the maid raised her brows, and he suspected she believed she was to do the undressing.
"Are you the healer?" Angus asked.
"Nay. I am to make the lady comfortable."
"I will take care of her," he said, dismissing the maid.
When she looked at Edana as if she thought his wife may have some other notion, Edana squeezed his hand. "Angus will provide for me."
"Aye, if you need anything…," she said, curtseyed and hurried out of the chamber.
Another woman, older, her hair in gray curls, eyes as gray, her dress a light brown, the colors making her nearly fade into nothingness, entered, carrying a bowl of water, a leather bag slung over her shoulder. "I am Chantel, MacRae's healer. You have suffered an injury?"
"Her head," Angus said. "Anywhere else, lass?"
"Nay."
Chantel shut the door, set the bowl on a table, then the bag next to it. She joined them at the bed and examined Edana's head as Angus held his wife's hand, caressing it with the other as he watched Edana's expression. The healer poked and prodded gently and Edana's mouth pursed and her eyes slimmed as she let out wee moans.
"She has hit her head hard, it appears. She has a goose egg at the back of the head, some bleeding, and it will be sore for a while. The swelling will go down. I will need to wash her head."
"Have a bath brought up for her," Angus said.
The healer frowned at him.
"I will wash her," Angus said.
The healer looked at Edana as if she wished her to say yes or no about the matter.
Edana gave a dramatic sigh. "Do as my husband wishes, please, Chantel."
"Aye." The woman took her leave to ask the chief's permission.
"You didna really mean it, did you, Angus?" Edana looked shyly at him, her lashes lowered partway.
"Aye, lass. You gave me a scare. I want to see if you were injured anywhere else. I will be reassured if I bathe you."
Her cheeks flushed beautifully again. He sat beside her on the bed, rested his hand on her thigh, and smiled at her. "We are
wed. You have no need to be uncomfortable about it."
"Men dinna bathe their wives." Her blue eyes were wide now.
"How do you know?"
Her lips parted and he kissed her mouth, touched his tongue gently to hers, but worried about her injury paining her, he kept his kisses light and loving.
Her hands gripped his arms, and she sighed against his mouth. "You need to break your fast."
"I am certain MacRae will have food sent up to us."
"Dinna you have anything else you could spend your time on more wisely?"
Never imagining she would be so shy with him now, he grinned at her, touched her hair lightly, and shook his head. "With you is the only place I wish to be."
Someone finally knocked on the door and he called, "Come in."
"We brought the tub," a lady said, and then women began filling it with water heated over the fires in the hearth downstairs.
When they were done, they stood watching as if Angus would change his mind about bathing his wife himself. "Thank you," he said, and dismissed them.
Eyes rounded, most of the six women hid smiles, then quickly left the chamber and closed the door. They giggled as they hurried down the corridor.
Edana's cheeks blushed anew. "They will tell everyone in the whole castle what you are about to do."
He smiled.
She slapped his arm in nothing more than a love pat. "They probably wished that you were about to bathe them and not me."
He laughed. "I wouldna have been interested in bathing any of them. You are the only treasure for me. Didna I mention this before, when I found you in the abandoned shieling?"
"You were probably talking about my mare."
He chuckled.
"You teased me."
"I told the truth." Though he thought her father would consider her a treasure, Angus had denied that he would see her in the same manner. He had quickly come to realize she truly was a gem.
Angus helped Edana to stand and began to remove her brat, then her léine, attempting not to hurt her. But she sucked in her breath several times, and he knew he wasn't succeeding. When she stood naked before him, he checked her all over. "Your arm is bruised. MacRae's fingerprints, I assume." Angus was ready to knock the teeth out of the chief's head.