True to the Highlander(68)

Robley closed the door behind him, and Liam raked his hand through his hair, clearly unsure where to begin.

“Dinna waste your breath scolding me, Liam. In my present state, I could do naught but sleep. True’s virtue is safe, and I trow neither you nor Robley will speak of this to anyone.”

Liam shook his head. “That is the least of my worries. Since the day we found her, I’ve kent the two of you would marry.”

“What vexes you then?”

“It started within the keep and has since spread throughout the clan.”

“What has? Is there an illness amongst our people?”

“Nay, no illness.” Liam glanced into his eyes then turned his gaze to the floor. “Our clan is determined to find a suitable husband for True.”

“Aye, myself.” Malcolm shrugged his good shoulder.

“Nay, Malcolm.” Liam sent him a sheepish look and shook his head. “You are no’ on the list the elders have compiled. No’ even at the very end.”

“I’m no’ on what list? She is mine.” Malcolm made to rise, but he gave it up as he listened, dumbstruck, to Liam’s accounting of True’s activities over the past month. He’d been blamed, and rightly so. She had asked him for hides and furs, and he’d neglected to provide them before leaving. Liam described in detail his clan’s loyalty to the foreigner they now viewed as their own.

“How is it she left the island without your knowledge?” he asked once Liam had finished. “I specifically commanded she remain behind the curtain wall.”

“She had help. The weaver’s son lent her a small fishing boat. Cook left her breakfast each morn. Elaine secured needed equipage, and Lydia turned a blind eye, ignoring your wishes. By the time our sentries spied the smoke from her fire, she’d already been at it a se’nnight. I saw no harm in keeping her busy whilst you were away, and I posted guards to keep her safe. I did no’ foresee…that is…I never imagined things would take the turn they have.”

“Think you she’ll go to the mainland today?” Malcolm’s frustration with his own physical weakness sparked his temper.

“I dinna ken. ’Tis unlikely. Surely she’s exhausted this morn.”

“Liam—”

“I mean from tending the wounded.” He grinned.

A knock sounded on his door. “Enter.” His mother came in with a tray of food. The smell of freshly baked bread and meat made Malcolm’s mouth water, and his stomach gave an audible growl. Mayhap he’d feel stronger after he ate.

“True spent the night in your chamber, my lad.”

He groaned. Liam laughed, and Malcolm sent him a quelling glare. “You’ve things to attend to, aye?” Still snorting, his cousin left him to face his mother’s accusations alone.

Malcolm rubbed his temples with both hands; his head throbbed. “True fell asleep. I only saw to her comfort.”

“Rather than wake her and send her off to her own bed where she belonged, you mean?” Lydia raised an eyebrow. “Here, drink this.” She handed him a mug from the tray she’d set on his lap. “True sent it up for your headache.” She waited as he took a sip of the bitter brew. “I ken naught happened. All saw the state you were in. We sent True off to bed when it was clear she would soon drop from exhaustion. I suspected she’d make her way back to your chamber. As we tended the wounded, I watched her.”

“She was up to something?” Malcolm swallowed more of the bitter tea and looked at his mother over the top of the mug.

“Och, aye. She bade us wash everyone’s wounds with soap and then insisted we use perfectly good uisge beatha to bathe the wounds again. When she thought none were watching, she took something out of her basket, a salve of some kind, and smeared it over their injuries. I checked this morn. Not one of the injuries she treated thus has festered.”

“Humph.”

“Well, don’t you see? For some unfathomable reason, she’s hiding the concoction. True came back to your chamber late last night while you slept to put the salve on your arm.”

Malcolm rubbed a finger across his skin near the stitches. It came away with a film of something greasy. He rubbed his finger and his thumb together and brought them to his nose. He could detect no scent. “She’s no’ speaking to me.”

“No doubt. She was quite distressed to find you’d left without a word. Liam caught her just before she took one of the villager’s skiffs to follow you. True took to her bed for two days, and it required a good deal of persuasion to roust her. I am certain her distress is why Liam allowed her…um…activities on the mainland to continue.”