“Your time would be much better spent preparing for their return. Mayhap there will be wounded to care for.”
“Wounded?” Alethia saw Hunter hovering uncertainly by the door. His worry caused a wrenching sensation in her chest. She held her arms out to him. Relief danced across his face as he bounded across the room to climb up onto the bed. He settled himself on her lap, took her face in his small hands and studied her intently. She knew he looked for fever. His whole world had shattered when his mother and grandmother died. Guilt swamped her. “I’m fine, Hunter. Not sick, only sad.”
He nodded, his far-too-old eyes reflecting complete understanding. She pulled him into a tight hug, resting her cheek on the top of his head. He smelled like the outdoors, little boy and peat smoke. His warmth gave her comfort and drew her back from the black void.
“A bath awaits, True.” Lydia patted her knee. “Then you will eat something and join us in my solar.”
“Lydia.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “Malcolm left without saying good-bye.”
“Of course he did. He knew you would try to follow. If his attention were divided between keeping you safe and fighting, he’d be more likely to come to harm. MacKintosh men protect their women.”
“Something bad is going to happen to him because I’m not there to prevent it,” Alethia sobbed.
“Is this something you have seen in a vision?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ve never had a vision. It’s just something I feel.”
“Mayhap what you feel comes from words said to you by the woman who sent you to us, and no’ from premonition at all.” Lydia reached over to clasp her hand. “My dear, I dinna doubt the reasons you came to be here. I only question your conviction, and Malcolm’s as well, that the deed has aught to do with warfare and bloodshed. A life can be in peril for many reasons, aye?” With a final pat to her hand, Lydia rose to leave.
“Thank you, Lydia. You’ve given me a lot to think about.” Hadn’t she said the very same thing to Malcolm herself? It could be that she’d nurse him back to health, or prevent some catastrophe. She hoped to God that was the case. Throwing the blankets off, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and set Hunter on the floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dishonor the MacKintosh.”
“I ken our ways are foreign to you, True. There is naught to apologize for.”
A week had gone by without any news from Malcolm and his men. Alethia had joined the other women as they prepared clean linen strips for bandages. She’d sterilized her needles, threaded them with strands of silk she’d teased from skeins of embroidery thread, and packed it all away for use when the time came.
It had been tricky finding time alone to transfer Neosporin from her emergency kit to the basket holding her supplies. She’d tucked the tube under the linen bandages in her basket. In the great hall, men prepared plank-and-barrel tables for the wounded. She scrubbed down all the surfaces with vinegar every night, just in case.
“Beth, is there something to drink stronger than wine or ale?” Alethia fixed breakfast for Hunter and herself and took her usual place at the trestle table.
“Och, aye. Uisge beatha. What would ye be wantin’ it for?”
“For the men who will return from Meikle Geddes.”
“Mean ye to give it to the wounded to dull the pain?”
“Yes, and to bathe their wounds. It drives out the spirits that cause fever.”
“I’ll get some for ye anon, though I dinna think they’re likely to return for another fortnight at the very least.” She rose from the table. “And ye ken there might no’ be any wounded at all. This is Malcolm and our own MacKintosh warriors we speak of.”
“I know.” Alethia smiled at Beth’s faith in her clan and Malcolm’s prowess. “I just want everything ready and in one place. There’s something else I need to talk to you about. I have to get to the mainland. There are plants I want to gather for medicines.”
Red willow grew on the mainland near the shore. She’d seen the bright crimson stems standing out against the brown and tan. The spongy inner bark made a good anti-inflammatory and pain reliever when brewed into a tea. She’d spent countless hours with her aunts, peeling the crimson outer bark to get to the soft, light-green inner bark. She’d also been studying her herbal book for plants that aided healing or acted as antibiotics and antiseptics.
The time had come for her to stop being a guest and to start taking steps toward providing for herself and Hunter. Plump from a long season of feasting on nature’s rich bounty, animals would be wearing their thickest furs. She intended to hunt and snare. “Liam won’t let me leave the island.”