Page 47 of Highland Treasure (Highland Brides 9)

“Most like,” he muttered. “Damaged muscles can take weeks to heal with rest. Riding as we have been will just slow the healing.”

“I can rest after we get to Sinclair and send the message to the king,” she said, straightening her shoulders determinedly.

Rory merely grunted and then fell silent as he finished covering her back and side with the liniment, massaging it quickly and impersonally into the skin.

“Put yer tunic on and get in bed,” he ordered when he’d finished.

Elysande heard him cross the room to replace the liniment as she shook out the tunic she’d been clutching and pulled it over her head. When her head popped through the neck hole and she opened her eyes, he was standing in front of her.

“Ye are beautiful,” he said firmly, and then kissed her. It was a quick brushing of lips, followed by a slower melding that had her melting against him before he ended it. Easing her away then, Rory sighed and said, “Get into bed, lass. I’ll go tell Tom he can come up.”

Nodding, she just stood there and watched him leave the room, then turned and walked over to crawl under the furs on the bed. Elysande settled on her side in the middle of the bed, her fingers rubbing over lips that were warm, wet and swollen . . . and still tingling from contact with his.

Rory woke feeling warm, well rested and reasonably content, but like something was missing again. It took him a full minute to realize that what was missing was the warm weight of Elysande on his shoulder, chest and legs. Blinking his eyes open, he glanced to the side, and then sat up abruptly when he realized he was the only one abed.

Rory frowned when he spotted Tom sitting in the chair beside the tub of bathwater from the night before. The English soldier was also eyeing him expectantly and a little resentfully.

“Where is she?” Rory growled in a voice raspy with sleep.

“Gone to the shops with Alick and Simon. She wouldn’t let me go,” Tom added, his tone testy. “She said she needed to get more of those weeds the two of you are so fond of. She said her liniment was running low.”

“Aye.” Rory ran a hand wearily over his face. “’Tis. I noticed last night when I was putting it on her.”

When Tom gave a “hrrumph” of sound, Rory narrowed his eyes on the man. “What?”

“She was most upset when she woke this morning to find us all abed,” Tom announced, before adding with satisfaction, “As I told you she would be.”

“What?” he asked with a frown. “Why? We slept the same last night as we have every night since I agreed to escort ye to Sinclair, you at her back, and me in front of her. The only thing missing was Alick above her head and Simon at her feet.”

“Aye,” Tom agreed mildly. “Except we were in a bed.”

Rory waved that away with irritation and slung his feet over the side of said bed to get up. “What difference does that make?”

Tom arched his eyebrows at the question. “We were in a bed, the three of us, in a bedchamber, in an inn where anyone, for instance a servant, might enter at any time.” He let that sink in for a minute, and then added, “And did.”

“What!” Rory stopped in the midst of pulling his boots on to look at him with horror. “A servant came in while we were sleeping?”

“Aye, the innkeeper’s wife was wanting her tub back, and one of the maids came up to see if it was all right to take it,” he explained.

Rory’s gaze swiveled to the full tub still sitting there as he finished pulling on his boots.

“Lady Elysande scared the lass off with her shrieking when she woke to find herself abed with the both of us,” Tom explained dryly. “She bellowed at me, called me Judas and then said if the lass returned to let her take the tub. Since her shrieking hadn’t woken you, she did not think anything would. However, the maid has not returned.”

“Hmm.” Rory stared at the tub, and shrugged. “Elysande must have given her a good scare with her yelling.”

Tom’s mouth compressed with irritation. “Frankly, I am amazed that she did not wake up the whole inn. But you and your men appeared to have no trouble sleeping through it. Which is rather concerning since you are supposed to be helping us protect her,” he added with an unimpressed look.

“It must’ve been an angry shrieking,” Rory said with confidence. “No’ one o’ us would have slept through a frightened cry, but camp followers are always fighting among each other and shrieking angrily. We learned to sleep through that.”

“Oh, aye,” Tom said with a nod of sudden understanding. “I should have realized. I can usually sleep through angry shouting too,” he admitted, and then added under his breath, “When someone isn’t trampling over me to get out of bed at the ass crack of dawn, shrieking Judas at me.”

Rory gave the man a sympathetic smile and suggested, “Why do ye no’ crawl back into bed and get more rest? I have business to attend to here and we’ll no’ be leaving until the morrow.”

Tom shook his head and stood up. “I went back to sleep after she left with Simon and Alick. I only woke up again a short while ago. I was just waiting for you to wake before going down to break my fast.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Rory said, running his hands through his hair as he headed for the door.

They passed a maid coming up the stairs as they were going down, and Rory stopped to tell her the room was empty and the tub could be removed now. The way the girl barely nodded and scampered away made him think that she must have been the one who had come in search of the tub that morning. “Elysande must have really given the lass a fright with her shrieking this morning.”

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