by Unknown
For God’s sake! Kaelyn thought. How was she supposed to tell Alexander, Ethol had left to leave them alone in the room with her? Oh, she knew what the little old woman was up to, all right.
“You’re lucky she didna cuff ye!” Alexander said.
“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
Alexander walked around to the side of the bed where Kaelyn sat. “I’ve been cuffed by her quite a few times.” Alexander knelt down before Kaelyn. She demurely pulled her legs up onto the bed, and sucked in her breath, focusing on not passing out from the pain of her wound she had forgotten about.
“Come,” he said holding out his hand, “your wound needs to be tended.” Kaelyn shook her head. Alexander’s expression grew impatient. “I ken what I’m doing,” he gritted out. “I’ve healed many wounds in my time.” Kaelyn shook her head again. Alexander reached out grabbing her ankle.
“No, I can do this myself!” she yelled trying to pull her leg out of his grip.
“Can ye no let a man help ye!” Alexander growled. “Now, give me your leg. It willna do if ye get an infection. I still need ye to catch Cain!” Alexander bit back a curse as soon as the words spilled out. He noticed Kaelyn’s brief expression of hurt. Alexander pulled her leg out toward him making her gasp out in pain. He glanced up at her from under his lashes noticing tears welled in her eyes. Her shoulders dropped in defeat as she let him mend the wound.
Alexander slowly pushed her chemise up to the top of her thighs trying to ignore the long slender legs. The bright red wound still bled. Alexander tsked. He bent his head over the wound as he wedged his way between her legs getting better access. Kaelyn tried to ignore the intimate position and the heat rising in the pit of her stomach. She watched his dark hair fall around his face, busy with his work.
He concentrated solely on the wound. After rinsing it again with the water mixture, he leaned back and reached for the needle and thread. Kaelyn sucked in a breath when she saw the huge bent needle with thick tan thread.
“Um, I r-really don’t think I need stitches,” Kaelyn said panicking. The needle resembled a crude hook of sorts, not like the well sterilized needles of her time.
“It will be over before ye ken it,” Alexander said gruffly. He placed his hand on her warm thigh close to the wound and brought the other hand with the needle in its place to start the first stitch.
Kaelyn quickly put her hand on the one holding the needle. “Alexander, please,” she said holding back a sob. “I-I can’t be awake for this. Please….”
Alexander stilled. Hearing his name spill from her lips did something to him. That one word, his name…when she said it, he wanted to do anything for her. He glanced up at her face finding it streaked with tears. He let out a deep sigh slowly rising.
Kaelyn let out the breath she held when Alexander silently walked out of the room. Good, it was over. Maybe, he was so disgusted with her, he’d let her finally fix it herself. Kaelyn began rearranging her chemise when Alexander strode back in.
Kaelyn spun around and noticed he carried a dirty looking glass bottle three quarters full of a rich, sable colored liquid. “W-what’s that?” Alexander came around the bed once more and uncorked the bottle.
“Ye dinna want to feel a thing? Drink and ye won’t.” He held the bottle out toward her. After a moment of Kaelyn not moving, he jerked the bottle toward her again. “Drink.”
Kaelyn slowly reached out taking the bottle from him and raised it to her lips. She chugged a good long pull and immediately coughed. “Ugh! That’s horrible,” she said wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “What is that?”
“A hundred and fifty year old scotch. Keep drinking. I’m starting the first stitch.”
With that remark, Kaelyn downed another big swig, followed by a cough, and then followed with another swallow. The liquid no longer burned going down. The pit of her stomach turned fuzzy and warm. She swayed a bit as she sat on the edge of the bed. Alexander went to make the first stitch. Kaelyn devoured the alcohol, draining the bottle to less than half left.
“Easy, lass!” Alexander said yanking the bottle from her lips. “Take it slow. Ye might sober up once I begin. Make sure ye have some left.”
Kaelyn rolled her eyes and took another swallow. She lowered the bottle and blinked trying to clear her vision. A laugh escaped her. Alexander paused with the needle above the starting point and glanced up. “I think you’re ready,” he said dryly. He pierced her skin and Kaelyn responded by chugging rapidly from the bottle. She lowered it from her mouth, wiping her lips with the back of her hand once more. Another giggle escaped her.
“I can hardly feel-Ouch!” Alexander glanced up again and paused. She laughed. He shook his head and continued to stitch. Kaelyn smiled and laughed again. Without warning, she reached out and twirled a piece of his thick brown hair around her finger.
“What are ye doing?” Alexander asked, pausing once more at his task.
“You have nice hair.”
“If ye want me to make a straight line, ye better stop doing that. I need to concentrate.”
Kaelyn let out a sigh and guzzled another swig. “Is that the only reason?” she barely whispered.
Alexander made a frustrated noise. “What are ye talking about, lass? Definitely no more scotch after this,” he mumbled to himself.
“You know…that you’re only helping me so I can help you get Cain.”
Alexander tied the knot and bent down biting through the string. Suddenly, he felt a hand run through his hair. He froze. He studied the soft skin of her thigh less than an inch from his mouth. He licked his lips. That’s when he noticed both of his hands were gripping her leg.
“Tell me it’s something more,” Kaelyn whispered. Alexander closed his eyes and removed his hands from her leg. He grabbed the tin of salve and gently lathered a drop of the creamy substance on the newly stitched wound. He counted on her being close to passing out. Hopefully, she’d forget what she’d asked him. He bent to his task ignoring the succulent skin in front of him. He heard the bottle of scotch swish.
Alexander continued his work. He placed a few leaves over the wound and began wrapping her thigh with a strip of linen, tying it in place.
“It’s sad,” Kaelyn said after finishing the last drop in the bottle and letting it fall to the floor.
Alexander wanted to resist asking her what the bloody hell she talked about. “What’s sad?” he finally replied after a long pause.
“You hardly ever smile.” Alexander looked up, finding Kaelyn bent down close to his face. Slowly, she reached out and traced a finger over his forehead and down the side of his cheek, ending with her finger resting on his bottom lip. “I like to see you smile.” Kaelyn bent forward ready to meet his mouth, when Alexander abruptly turned his face away, beginning to collect the salve tin and leftover strips of linen.
“Those days of smiling are gone.”
* * * * *
Three weeks passed by before Kaelyn could walk without excruciating pain. She was confined to the room and bed rest per “Dr. Ethol’s” orders.
The first week, Kaelyn hardly saw Alexander, except for when he came in at night to sleep. She would lay in bed, pretending to be asleep as she listened to him get ready for bed. When morning came, Kaelyn would wake to having the room to herself once again.
A servant girl would bring Kaelyn her meals everyday and Ewan visited every couple of days. The first day he had visited, Ewan brought her the boar hunting crown. “Ye won,” he had said. The rest of the week, Kaelyn began to feel like a sideshow freak as people stopped at her door sneaking a peek of the “Mighty Boar Slayer”.
The second week went by much the same, but Alexander had brought her a handful of books to help occupy her time. He had dropped them off briefly asking if she felt any better, then disappeared until bedtime, when he would quietly walk in and sleep by the fire on the floor, as his usual routine.
The third week, Kaelyn couldn’t look at the bed without wanting
to scratch her eyes out. She refused to stay in it any longer and moved to a padded chair by the fire. Her wound continued to make it difficult to walk, but she managed hobbling from the bed to the chair. Ethol had taken Kaelyn’s stitches out, telling her, “She was the biggest bairn she’d ever dealt with”.
Kaelyn had come to look forward to Ethol’s daily visits and her rough ways. Since the first day Kaelyn was bedridden, Ethol would come down, checking on her a dozen times a day. Every time Ethol stopped by, she’d bring a helper, Little Gallagher.
The young boy had a shaggy head of dark brown hair and a sprinkling of freckles across his cheeks. He was sure to inform Kaelyn that he would celebrate his seventh birthday in four months, three weeks, and two days. Gallagher was a sweet little boy who helped around the castle doing odd jobs until he turned twelve and trained to fight as a knight. Kaelyn soon looked forward to his visits.
Kaelyn hobbled out of bed. She could almost rest her entire weight upon her injured leg. The rain poured outside as gray fast-moving clouds filled the morning sky. Kaelyn was planning to try steps today and go down to the great hall for at least one of her meals. She had to get out of her room.
As she made her way to the chair in front of the fire without too much pain, the door swung open. Both Ethol and Alexander walked in arguing. Both spotting Kaelyn at the same time, they stopped giving each other dirty looks, and directed them to Kaelyn instead.
Ethol walked over to the dresser with a small clay bowl and began mixing a thick white paste. Alexander came over to Kaelyn, glancing over his shoulder at Ethol’s back. He crouched down next to where Kaelyn sat. He looked at Ethol once more. “Cain’s here,” he whispered. At Kaelyn’s fretful look, he quickly added, “Nay, dinna worry. You’re safe as long as ye wear the crystal, but we need to get back to the reason why we’re here.” He cautiously glanced back over his shoulder. “We’ll leave tomorrow morn and start the journey for the Sacred Door. I’ve heard the children around here talk about a field in the next village over. They claim ‘tis magic. Maybe, the fairies are there,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “I dinna ken where else to go.”
“Oh, no ye don’t,” Ethol said walking over with the medicinal paste. “My patient canna travel for at least another sennight!”
-“She can!” Alexander shouted.
-“I can!” Kaelyn said at the same time.
Ethol pursed her lips. “Fine! Do what ye want! I’m only a healer, what do I ken,” Ethol said, mumbling to herself as she pushed Kaelyn’s brown linen gown up, baring her thighs.
Alexander’s lips thinned as he glanced down at the bright pink line on Kaelyn’s thigh He nodded tightly. “Then ‘tis settled.” And he left.
Kaelyn sighed dropping her shoulders. Ethol glanced up as she rubbed the thick putrid paste on the healing skin. Using the paste would prevent an unsightly scar. “He does care, lass.”
“He never visits me,” she said quietly, knowing what Ethol had meant.
“He’s been hurt badly by a woman in the past.”
“Deirdre.”
Ethol gave a dirty look. “Aye. That witchy woman hurt him good.”
“What happened?” Kaelyn asked. She knew Alexander and Deirdre had a history together, knew she had been his fiancée at one time, but how did it end so badly?
Ethol glanced over at the closed door. Seeing no one, she began, “Years ago, I believe when Deirdre was sixteen, Alexander grew fond of her. It would have been a fine marriage indeed. Alexander would have eventually become a laird and as we both ken, Deirdre is quite beautiful.
“But,” Ethol said pausing, glancing at the door again. She leaned in closer to Kaelyn, continuing in a hushed whisper. “Ye see, I ken what Alexander is. Shh, shh, shh,” she said hurriedly, flailing her hand when Kaelyn looked like she’d jump out of the chair.
“How do you know?”
Ethol frowned. “I practically raised the lad! Besides, I noticed he grew faster and stronger than any other lad. I heard the legend of the Immortals when I was a lass and eventually realized ‘tis not a legend, but truth.”
“Why didn’t you tell him you knew?”
Ethol waived her hands in the air to dismiss the question. “It wouldna changed anything, lass. I still love the lad as if he was my own. I’ve raised him. I’ve done my job.”
Kaelyn relaxed a bit. “So…what about Deirdre?”
Ethol tsked. “You’re a nosy lass, aren’t ye?” Kaelyn grinned. “Weel,” Ethol continued, “it turns out Alexander thought himself her soul mate. She of course loved another…who kens how many others,” she mumbled, “but she never told Alexander until it was too late.
“His friend had already stabbed him with The Sword of Divinity, the ceremonial sword. Deirdre needed to kiss him right after, but she didna.” Ethol dabbed at her eyes with her apron. “That lass ruined him,” she said quietly. “Alexander doesna ken he can still be happy.” Ethol peered up at Kaelyn. “But, he has a chance…with ye, lass. I ken it.”
Kaelyn didn’t have the heart to tell Ethol that Alexander had had numerous times to kiss her and never took them. Maybe, he really could never love again.
“Weel,” Ethol said standing and brushing off her skirts, “you’re as good as I can get ye…that is if you’re still planning on leaving tomorrow for whatever business ye two have.”
“I have to go.”
“Perhaps, you’ll stop one more time and see the bairns? They have grown quite fond of ye.”
Kaelyn smiled. “Of course.”
“Then I will hope to see ye again.”
* * * * *
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Alexander woke Kaelyn, telling her he’d ready the horses. The sun streaked the morning sky full of pinks and oranges casting a citrusy glow through the window. Kaelyn sat up stretching and her gaze moved to the end of the bed. A pair of small brown breeches and tunic, fit for a young lad…or her, stretched across the bedding.
Kaelyn smiled. Alexander had remembered how she hated dresses. Kaelyn undressed, placing the crystal close by on her pack and suddenly frowned. She remembered all the items she had brought with her, which had mysteriously disappeared. Only a couple pairs of underwear, three power bars, and a half box of tampons remained. Continuing on with her morning ritual, she soaked a cloth in the basin of warm water and gave herself a sponge bath of sorts, feeling clean and awake.
Glancing in the mirror, she turned this way and that. The breeches and tunic fit perfectly. As she pulled up her hair into a ponytail, she remembered Ethol and the children upstairs. Kaelyn figured she could run upstairs, say goodbye, and be back before Alexander even missed her.
Kaelyn poked her head around the doorway looking into the nursery. She walked in with a smile as she saw the children playing and Ethol busily tending to them.
“Kaelyn! Kaelyn!” little Elizabeth cried running over.
Ethol turned. “Och!” Ye should be in bed, lass,” she grumbled upon seeing Kaelyn cringe when Elizabeth hugged her leg.
“I’m practically healed,” Kaelyn said glancing up at Ethol. “Besides, I can’t hide here anymore.”
Ethol pursed her lips. “And what’s with the clothes?” she asked sourly. “Lassies should wear dresses and act like ladies.”
Elizabeth giggled as she felt the fabric of Kaelyn’s breeches. “Well,” Kaelyn began, “no one’s ever called me a lady.” Ethol’s one side of her mouth curved up, and she quickly turned her back, helping the children. Kaelyn glanced around over the children playing. “Where’s Gallagher?”
“He’s in the stable helping with chores,” Ethol said.
“Oh,” Kaelyn said softly. “I guess I’ll say goodbye to him down there,” she said more to herself.
“So, ye leaving, now?” Ethol asked as she busied herself with a bairn.
Kaelyn walked over, noticing how Ethol wouldn’t look at her. Kaelyn reached around Ethol, giving her a big hug. “Thank you for everything, Ethol.”
“Och!” she said placing her ha
nd over Kaelyn’s. “As stubborn as ye are, lass, I’ll miss ye.”
Kaelyn laughed with blurry eyes. “And I’ll miss you.”
* * * * *
Alexander finished fastening the saddles on the horses. As soon as Kaelyn came down, they’d leave. He wanted to reach the mainland by nightfall, which would be pushing it. He let out a deep sigh. Ready to turn around and march into the castle to drag Kaelyn out, he noticed Gallagher, the stable help, standing in front of him. The small boy’s head was bent down as he absently kicked the hay.
Alexander sighed. He wasn’t in any mood to deal with a six year old’s problem. “What is it lad?” he asked in a huff.
“Weel, Master Alexander,” Gallagher began in a tiny, shaky voice, “I-I, weel I wanted-.”
Alexander gritted his teeth. “What?” he asked impatiently. Gallagher flinched and stepped back from Alexander’s harsh tone. Alexander rolled his eyes upward seeing how the child was now close to tears. He sighed and bent down on one knee. “What is it, lad?” he asked more gently, placing his hand on the lad’s shoulder in a reassuring gesture.
Gallagher swallowed. “Miss Deirdre did it,” he said quietly.
A sudden pang of alarm grew in Alexander’s stomach. “What did Miss Deirdre do?” he asked slowly.
Gallagher shifted on his feet. “The-the day of the hunt…. I snuck along to watch. I saw Miss Deirdre and Miss Kaelyn talking together on their horses. Deirdre looked mad and then she smacked Miss Kaelyn’s horse on its rump good and hard. Miss Kaelyn disappeared into the woods ‘cause her horse went mad.”
And that’s how she landed in the boar’s den, Alexander thought. Deirdre. He knew she was a conniving bitch, but he didn’t think she’d try and hurt Kaelyn. Kaelyn could’ve broken her neck from the fall off the horse.
Alexander ruffled Gallagher’s hair. “Thank ye for telling me, lad. Now run along.” Alexander stood watching Gallagher disappear out of the stables. He glanced around. Where the hell was Kaelyn? Unease settled in. What if Deirdre was up to something? Alexander moved, ready to run out and find Kaelyn.