My Brave Highlander(18)

Dirk stepped to the doorway. "Have you any whisky left?" he asked Rebbie in the other room.

"Indeed."

Dirk returned and offered her an expensive silver flask.

She shook her head. "I do not care for whisky."

"'Tis for the pain. Your finger is swollen and will be more difficult to set now than it would've been last night right after you broke it. Why did your maid not set it right away?"

"She tried, but she has no healing knowledge. She's a lady's maid."

"I'll need a splint to hold the bone in place once I straighten it. While I make one, you drink the whisky. Trust me, it will help with the pain." He turned to her maid. "Make her drink it."

Beitris nodded and stood to do his bidding as Dirk left. How easily her allegiances were swayed by a handsome face and a commanding tone.

"I don't need you to force it down my throat, Beitris. I'm fully capable of drinking whisky." Although to her, the taste was the most intolerable of any drink, even watered down. She much preferred mulled wine.

"You'd best listen to the good sir. He knows of what he speaks. You can't even imagine the terrible pain when he straightens that bone."

A surge of fear and dread near made her lightheaded. "I thank you for the calming words. You truly ken how to soothe a person," Isobel said dryly, then took the first fiery sip. It blazed a path from her mouth to her stomach and she gasped for air. Mayhap it would warm her blood too.

If she consumed too much of it, no telling what she might do or say. She could not tolerate strong drink.

***

Carrying the lantern, Dirk exited the cottage, and Rebbie followed.

Dirk squinted against the swirling snow, then called back to his friend. "Help me find two small but strong pieces of wood for a splint."

One thing was a certainty, wood was scarce in these parts. Dirk noticed a stand of gorse and other bushes near a small stream and headed in that direction.

Rebbie moved into step beside him and pulled the woolen cowl over his head. "How well do you know her?"

"As well as I want to. Isobel's mother and my stepmother were best friends."

"The same stepmother who tried to have you killed?"

"Aye, the one and only."

"That doesn't mean Isobel and your stepmother are friends," Rebbie said.

"Nay, but I trust her not even a wee bit." He was concerned for her safety and wanted to know who'd harmed her, but that didn't mean he trusted her.

"But you must admit, she is lovely." Rebbie's wide, toothy grin was obvious, even in the low light of the lantern reflecting off the snow covering the ground.

Dirk snorted, annoyance driving through him. Was Rebbie enticed by her? Of course he was. And he generally netted the women he wanted. He'd best keep his hands off Isobel.

"Well," Rebbie drew the word out. "She is lovely. I speak the truth."

"I have eyes," Dirk snapped. "But beauty does not equal honor or goodness."

"You think she is not honorable and good?" Rebbie questioned as if he truly wanted to know.

Dirk rolled his eyes. "I have no notion. But she is thick with Maighraid Gordon, the devil's spawn."

"Your stepmother?"

"Aye!"

"I did not remember her name," Rebbie grumbled. "You are even more grouchy than usual, worse than a lass before her monthly. Does this have aught to do with Isobel?"

"Nay! Look at us." Dirk flung his arms out. "Searching for sticks in the wind-driven snow. 'Tis dark as midnight. My father is on his deathbed. We have two more days travel ahead of us and two female companions who are on the run from the MacLeods for some unknown reason. What have I to be grouchy about?"

"Very well. You have a right to your ill-temper… this time. I'm sorry about your father's illness. As for the rest, it could be worse. We could be starving, injured and soaked to the skin without a stitch of wool or hint of shelter, as we were in France that time."

"I need no reminders. Hold this." He handed the lantern to his friend. At the edge of a small group of bushes, Dirk took out his small sgian dubh and searched for a twig thick enough to split.

"As for the female companionship we find ourselves with, 'tis not a hardship," Rebbie said. "Surely you must agree with that, given how Isobel was plastered against your back for a couple of hours this eve."

Dirk ground his teeth, because… damnation… Rebbie was right. He had enjoyed Isobel riding behind him, and it had naught to do with her keeping his back warm. He had grown warm in other places as well. Places he refused to think about right now.

Crouching, he severed a thick twig from the base of a bush, then straightened to cut it to length.