Page 24 of A Highland Healer Captured
Skylar had no answer. She looked down at her hands, at the lines of dirt still caught beneath her nails despite washing, and thought of her own family. Her father’s gentleness, her mother’s stern care, Scarlett and Mabel, all of them living and fierce. The thought of losing them all in one night made her chest seize.
Yet here sat this girl, straight-backed and even-voiced, speaking gratitude for the man who had swung the blade.
When Katie bustled in a few minutes later, cheer bright as ever, Skylar nearly leapt with relief at the interruption.
“Good mornin’, mistress healer!” Katie chirped, arms full of linens. “The bairn’s been waiting on ye. He asked twice already if ye’d come.”
Skylar nodded, gathering her satchel and steadying herself. She left Cora in the surgery and followed Katie to the solar.
“I see ye’ve found a new way to keep and call me by me airs instead of me name.”
Katie just scoffed as if the notion of continuing to actually call a lady by her first name was unfathomable.
Grayson was propped in his bed when she entered. His dark lashes lifted, but his smile faltered when he saw her instead of his father.
“Ye came back,” he whispered, voice thin.
“Aye,” Skylar said softly, kneeling at his side. She touched his wrist, his brow, listened to his lungs with her ear against his chest. The rattle lingered, faint but stubborn.
But what struck her more was the disappointed look in his eyes. It was clear that she was not the intended visitor. The boy wanted his father.
Katie filled the silence with gentle chatter, smoothing pillows, telling Skylar about the herbs that eased him a little, the foods he could keep down. Skylar listened with half an ear, her heart tugging painfully at the boy’s faint sighs.
Zander’s absence was a shadow over the room.
So, Skylar busied herself with getting to work.
The council was already snapping at one another’s throats before Zander took his seat. As expected, Skylar’s presence at Strathcairn Keep was the bone they couldn’t stop gnawing.
“She’s aMacLennan,” Fergus barked, fist striking the table. “And ye let her write to them? We might as well start getting the guard ready for an attack presently!”
Tamas chimed in, his voice sharp. “It’s nae just her presence. It’s the manner of it. Kidnapping, me Laird. Word spreads fast. If they send men demanding her back —”
Zander held up one hand, his gaze cool enough to still the squabble. “Then they’ll be answered. Until then, I’ll hear nay more argument.”
They muttered, shifting uneasily. He let them. Better they waste their energy on whispers than stand against him. Still, he could feel the tension crawling up his spine, the old fury sparking atthe thought of anyone daring to tell him what he could and couldn’t do when it came to Grayson.
So, he did what any laird with sense would. He turned the talk.
“The Kirn is in a fortnight,” Zander said, voice cutting through the room. “If ye’ve enough breath to complain, ye’ve enough to plan. I want the outer yard swept, the stalls cleared, and the grain blessed without mishap. Mason will oversee the ale stores, and Fergus, ye’ll see the cattle are fattened before slaughter. Speak of healers again, and I’ll have ye sing the harvest songs yerselves. Who will help ready the keep and who will take to the villages?”
That, at least, shifted their scowls to grins. The Kirn meant food, music, ale. Celebration. Even the most stubborn of his men knew better than to waste the laird’s patience when such things were at stake. By the time the meeting broke, the air was lighter.
Zander left the hall with a plan, but it was well past sunset. With his jaw tight, but his temper checked, he rounded the corridor purposefully.
It didn’t last.
Across the corridor, he caught sight of her. Her hair braided neatly, skirts brushing the stones, her satchel clutched against her hip. Katie walked beside her, voice bright and cheery as ever, leading her back to her chamber.
A cage, he thought grimly. No matter how softly lined, a cage was still a cage.
“Katie,” he said, striding toward them.
The maid startled slightly and dipped her head. “Aye, me Laird?”
“Go back to Grayson,” Zander ordered, his tone leaving no room for discussion.
Katie hesitated only long enough to glance at Skylar, then bobbed and hurried off, her steps quick as a bird’s.
