Page 2 of The Cruel Highlander's Healer
At the time, Conall had prayed that Kate’s services would just buy him some time to find a true healer. But as the days passed and every healer had turned him down, he’d begun to wonder if maybe she was the only help he would ever be able to find.
These bairns are the future of our clan.
Anger began to bubble in his belly.
I cannae watch the future of this clan die. I cannae do nothin’, nae again.
Conall balled his hand into a fist at his side, noting Kate’s eyes flicking down to it and her brow creasing with concern.
“I’ll find ye a healer,” he growled, the words coming out almost like a threat to God and the heavens above if they tried to stop him.
Kate opened her mouth to speak, but Conall didn’t give her the chance to utter whatever it was she was about to say. He turned on his heel, stalking through the cots of dying children and towards the hall's doors.
He made quick work of finding Eliot. As expected, his best friend and man-at-arms was in the game room, pouring over a game of cards.
“Eliot,” Conall barked when he walked through the door, causing his guards to drop the cards in their hands immediately. “We’re headin’ out.”
* * *
“I’m sorry,” Clyde said, shaking his head as he sat before Conall. “I cannae help.”
Conall brought himself to his full height, staring daggers at the man. He felt the rush of heat to his face and knew that the jagged, brutal scar that ran down the side of it was standing out white against his flushed skin.
Good,let him see the beast they made me in all its glory.
Clyde’s wizened face blanched as he looked at Conall, and the man took several steps back, increasing the distance between them.
“The wee ones of our clan are dyin’,” Conall hissed, bringing his hulking form closer to the man. “They need a healer. Ye wouldnae be helpin’me;ye would be helpin’them.Are ye truly such a spineless, snivelin’ coward that ye would curse bairns to die for the sins of their Laird?”
Conall couldn’t stop the hope that bubbled up inside him as the man cowered before him. But that hope was quickly dashed when Clyde began to shake his head again.
“I’m sorry,” the healer stuttered over his words, face as white as the sparse hairs jutting out of his head. “But I cannae help ye.”
Conall fought the urge to send his fist flying into the man’s face before him. But he knew that that wouldn’t help his cause. Not in the slightest.
He stamped down that urge, that need for violence, as he turned on his heels and stormed out of the house.
There had been two healers left that he hadn’t yet spoken to when he’d left Kate that morning. Clyde had been the second, and both men had been adamant in their rejection despite their fear of the Laird of the MacKinnon clan showing with every tremble of their limbs.
Eliot’s eyes darted up from where he sat atop his horse, holding the reins of Conall’s stallion. The man-at-arms could read the emotions on his friend’s face immediately, and Eliot shook his head as he processed the truth of what had happened.
Conall snatched the reins from Eliot’s hand, wordless in his rage, as he threw his legs over his horse’s back and settled himself in the saddle. A thousand thoughts rushed through his mind, all too quickly for him to fully flesh out.
“What do ye plan to do next?” Eliot asked, his brow creasing with worry as they both spurred their horses into a mild trot.
Conall shook his head, the thoughts slowing until they died down to only one. He hated the idea of it, hated the fact that with Clyde’s rejection, he was now down to his last resort.
He turned his attention to Eliot, knowing for sure that the moment he uttered the words, his man-at-arms was going to think his Laird’s mind had been addled.
Just get on with it.
Conall took a deep, steeling breath and uttered the words. He didn’t miss how his friend blanched as he spoke the words fell from his lips, and Conall truly couldn’t blame him.
Not as the words “we’re goin’ find the witch of the woods” seemed to still flicker in the air around them.
CHAPTERTWO
“Where are we goin’?” Eliot asked, drawing a sigh of exasperation out of Conall.
