Page 38 of Highland Treasure (Highland Brides 9)

“Probably no’,” he admitted unhappily.

“Well?” the man said when Rory just stood there.

“Well what?” he asked with confusion.

“Well, should you not go help her, then? You’re the healer,” he pointed out with exasperation.

“Oh, aye,” Rory said with surprise, and headed into the woods after Elysande. It was only then he realized he hadn’t been thinking like a healer. He’d been thinking like a man . . . who had no right to be looking on her naked back and buttocks and smoothing his hands over all that soft, warm flesh.

“Healer,” he muttered, blinking his inappropriate thoughts away. “She needs yer help, no’ yer lusty thoughts.” And much to Rory’s surprise, his thoughts were quite lusty where the lass was concerned. It was sleeping with her half on top of him that had done it, he supposed. Waking every morning to her scent in his nose, her warm body nestled against him, her leg rubbing over him . . . Aye, he didn’t feel much like a healer at those times. But that’s what he was and what she needed, so Rory tried to adjust his thinking now as he hurried to catch up to her. She was just another ailing lass who needed his care. He would spread the liniment on her back, bottom and legs as quickly and adeptly as he would any other patient and then leave her to dress in privacy.

“Oh!” Elysande’s startled gasp drew his attention to the fact that she’d glanced back to see him following and stopped.

Pausing as well, Rory nodded and tried for the usual calm attitude he used when healing others. “Ye’ll need help applying the liniment, lass, so I’ve come in my capacity as healer to help ye. Because I’m a healer. And ’tis my job. To heal ye. And put on liniment fer ye.”

The way Elysande blinked and then peered at him a little oddly told him that he might have overstated his case. Sighing, Rory swung around so his back was to her. “I’ll give ye privacy to undress. Let me ken when ye’re ready.”

There was a moment of utter stillness where he suspected she was going to protest, but then he heard her give a small sigh. It was followed by the rustle of clothing that told him she was moving . . . or undressing. Probably undressing, he told himself as he listened to the sounds. He hoped she was undressing. Purely because it meant she trusted him to tend her, he told himself, though in his mind he was recalling her laid out on Mildrede’s kitchen table, her naked body on display, and his hands flexed at the thought of smoothing over all those rounded curves.

“I am ready.”

Rory gave a start at the soft call, and spun around, disappointment claiming him when he saw she was lying on her cloak, with only her bare back on display. She was covered from the waist down by the plaid, her gown and probably her breeks. She’d merely slid her arms out of her gown and removed her tunic, and then lain down.

“I will no’ be able to spread the liniment everywhere ye need it like that,” he muttered, not moving closer.

“I can get my legs and bottom myself. ’Tis only my back I need help with,” Elysande said. Her voice sounded unconcerned, but her face, the undamaged side he could see since she’d rested her forehead on her hands with the bruised side of her face down, was bright pink with a blush.

“Oh. Aye,” Rory said, and then realized how disappointed he sounded, and gave himself a mental shake as he moved forward. Healer, he repeated to himself firmly. Think like a healer, not the man who’s held her in his arms each morning.

Elysande had unwrapped the container holding the liniment. It sat on the fur next to her hip, so he knelt beside her and let his gaze slide over her back as he scooped out some liniment. Like her face, her back and side were more purple than black now, with red and then green toward the edges. She was healing, but it still looked damned painful. It made him feel bad for not insisting they stop sooner.

With the path a boggy mess from the melting snow, they hadn’t traveled as quickly as Rory had hoped and it had taken longer to cross the border into Scotland than he’d expected. Then they’d ridden for a while before finding somewhere to stop that wasn’t a swamp of mud and wet snow. Which meant they’d had to wait until they reached higher ground. It was well past the nooning now.

“What are you doing?”

Rory blinked at the question, and then explained, “I’m warming the liniment between my hands so the cold does no’ shock ye.”

“Oh. That is very kind,” she murmured, relaxing a little on the fur.

“I’m a kind maun,” he responded, and then actually winced at how pompous and ridiculous he sounded. Good Lord, the lass chased his good sense away by just being near. Sighing, he leaned forward and began to smooth the liniment over her back.

Rory started out just spreading it, but when she sighed with pleasure, he began massaging it into the damaged muscles.

“Oh, that is lovely,” Elysande breathed, seeming to melt into the fur under his touch.

“I’m no’ hurting ye?” Rory asked with concern. He knew it shouldn’t hurt—his hands were already numb from the cream so the skin on her back should be as well—but he wasn’t as sure that the muscles underneath her skin wouldn’t be paining her under his touch.

“A little, but ’tis nice too,” she said, and then gave a small laugh and admitted, “Which probably makes no sense, but when you knead the muscle like that it hurts a bit, but when you move on to another muscle, the first feels better than it did ere you pressed on it.”

“Because it encourages fresh blood to come to the area, which is supposed to help with healing,” he explained, watching his rough hands move over her soft skin.

“Really? Mother never told me that. Where did you learn it?”

“Ibn al-Nafis.”

“Where is that?” she asked with curiosity.

“No’ where, but who,” he said with amusement. “He was a physician in Egypt during the last century. A fascinating man who dissected the dead and wrote over a hundred volumes on what he discovered about blood and its circulation through the body. Aulay gave me one of his books fer Christmas some years back, though I do no’ ken how he got his hands on it. It was probably brought back this way by a crusader in the last century and Aulay bought it from a trader or perhaps another lord who had ended up with it.” He shrugged. “I do no’ ken, but ’twas fascinating reading.”

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