Page 20 of Highland Treasure (Highland Brides 9)

Thinking of the “enjoying holding her in his arms” part reminded him that she wasn’t there now and Rory opened his eyes. Not only was she gone, but so were the men. He was alone in the loft.

Rory was suddenly wide awake and on his feet, moving toward the ladder. Once there though, he paused when he spotted Fearghas and Donnghail sitting in an empty stall below, talking quietly.

“So ye’ve finally decided to wake up, ha’e ye?” Fearghas asked, not even glancing his way. He hadn’t been quiet about getting up and wasn’t surprised the man had heard him.

“Where is everyone?” Rory asked as he started down the ladder.

“Gone to the shops,” Fearghas answered easily.

“What?” Rory whipped his head around with shock.

Donnghail stood and leaned against the stall to grin at him. “We wanted to wake ye, but the lass insisted we let ye sleep. Said ye must need it,” he added with a twinkle in his eyes. “And then she announced she needed to find the cloth shop and get plaid for her and her men, and off she went with the rest o’ the men trailing her like eager pups.”

“Donnghail and I stayed to let ye ken where they were when ye woke,” Fearghas added, standing up now as well.

Rory grunted at that and then continued down the ladder to the stable floor. He had some shopping to do himself. He’d missed the market yesterday, but if there was an apothecary in Carlisle he might find some wolfsbane there and still be able to make a liniment for Elysande. “How long ago did they leave?”

“After convincing the alewife to give us bread, cheese and watered-down ale to break our fast,” Fearghas said.

Rory’s mouth twisted with disgust. “That must have cost us a muckle load of coins.”

“Nay,” Donnghail said solemnly. “The alewife gave it up fer free.”

Rory blinked at this news. “How did Elysande manage that miracle?”

“I’m no’ sure exactly. When we went into the alehouse to break our fast, the alewife was no’ pleased to see us. Said as we should clear off now that ’twas morn and then stomped off into the kitchen. We all started to turn back to the door, but Elysande told us to sit, removed her headdress and veil, set them on the table and sailed into the kitchen after the woman like a queen pursuing an ornery servant.”

“Aye. Just like a queen, she was,” Donnghail said with a small smile of admiration that matched Fearghas’s. “Shoulders back, head up and following her nose like she was on the trail o’ a terrible stench.” He shook his head, his smile widening as he described it. “I was expecting a flaming row—screaming, banging pots, the crash o’ things breaking. Thought sure we’d have to rush in to rescue the lass. Or maybe the alewife,” he added with a wry twist to his lips.

“I think we all thought that,” Fearghas admitted with amusement. “We were all tense as cats, ready to leap up and run in at the first sound o’ trouble.”

Donnghail nodded. “But there was no trouble. No noise at all except the murmur o’ voices. It went on fer a long time too, and then just when Conn stood up like he was going to check on them, Lady Elysande and the alewife came hurrying out the door of the kitchen, chatty as old friends, bearing trays with bread, cheese and ale fer all o’ us.”

“’Tis true,” Fearghas assured him when Rory’s eyebrows rose. “And the alewife was like a different woman—smiling and pleasant, e’en to us. Saying as how the food and drink was included in what we’d paid to stay, and apologizing that she had nothing better to offer us. She even sent bread, cheese and watered-down ale out fer ye to have when ye wake.”

Fearghas bent out of sight behind the stall’s half wall and then popped up again to hold out the food and drink in question.

“I wonder what Elysande said to her,” Rory muttered as he accepted the offering.

“We do no’ ken,” Donnghail repeated almost apologetically. “Lady Elysande went back into the kitchen with the alewife after helping her hand out food and drink, and didn’t return till just as we finished eating. Then she announced she was off to the shops and headed for the door. There was a mad scramble as it was decided the rest o’ the men would go with her while Fearghas and I stayed to wait fer ye to wake, and they were gone.”

“One o’ them may have got it out o’ her on their visit to the shops,” Fearghas suggested. “I guess ye’ll have to ask when they return.”

“Which should be soon,” Donnghail pointed out. “’Tis nearly the nooning hour.”

Rory stiffened, his head jerking up, eyes wide with shock. “’Tis that late?”

“Aye.” Donnghail smirked. “I’ve never kenned ye to sleep so long. Ye did no’ even rouse when Tom and Simon lifted the lady off where she was tangled up with ye again. Well, one part o’ ye was awake, but ye still slept.”

Rory closed his eyes briefly at the teasing, knowing exactly what part of him had been awake. No doubt he’d been tenting his plaid in response to her body pressed up against his. Especially if she’d been shifting her leg over his groin in her sleep as she had the first morning. He only hoped Elysande hadn’t noticed. He wouldn’t want her embarrassed or uncomfortable around him.

Sighing, he downed his ale and headed for the stable doors.

“Where are we going?” Fearghas asked at once, hopping over the stall and falling into step beside him.

“I need to ask the alewife if there’s an apothecary nearby. I might yet be able to get some wolfsbane to make a liniment for Elysande’s bruises,” Rory answered around a bite of bread.

“There is,” Donnghail announced from his other side, and when Rory glanced to him in question, he explained, “Lady Elysande asked after one while they were passing out the bread and cheese. The alewife told her where to find it.”

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