Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
Darkness had fallen by the time Logan, Adeline, and their small escort of Dallas and Theo entered the last village on the eastern coast. Snow clouds loomed overhead, releasing the first feathery flakes from their swollen bellies, and the cold nipped savagely at any speck of bare flesh. A warning to seek shelter before more snow fell.
“Adeline?” Logan whispered.
Adeline lolled in his arms, moving with the sway of the horse. She had been that way since he had hoisted her into the saddle and they had moved away from the previous village, resting flush against his chest, his arm around her the only thing keeping her from falling off the beast.
“Adeline?” he whispered again, somewhat reluctantly.
He could not recall the last time he had held a sleeping woman in his arms, the responsibility filling him with a fierce sense of protectiveness. Indeed, he wished he could let her sleep on in his embrace, but he did not know what needed to be done at the last of the eastern villages. In this case, he was just the messenger.
“Hmm?” Adeline rubbed her eyes, turning to look at him.
“We’re at Red Briar,” he explained. “Before ye can rest, they’re goin’ to need ye to do… what it is ye do with all this healin’ business.”
She stifled a yawn. “I was just resting my eyes. I wasn’t sleeping.”
“Is that so?” He smiled, unable to resist the urge to push her windswept hair out of her face, tucking it gently behind her ear.
She blinked, her eyes certainly more awake than they had been a moment ago. “I… don’t have any hair ties,” she mumbled. “Your mother said I couldn’t use them. They’d be too strange in this world. But the ribbon she gave me is useless. My hair keeps slipping out of it.”
“Do ye want me to tie it for ye?”
She tilted her head to the side. “Do you know how?”
“I have a sister. A very demanding sister,” he said, by way of explanation.
Holding her by the shoulders, Logan turned her back around. She shuffled forward slightly, denying his loins the satisfying sensation of her round buttocks pressing against them. Still, that was probably for the best.
As the horse plodded on around the village, Logan unfastened the ribbon from Adeline’s hair and clenched it between his teeth. Slowly, his fingertips lightly brushing her neck, he swept her hair backward, gathering it in one hand.
The pale curve of her neck drew his gaze for a moment, his tongue running over his lower lip as he thought about kissing her there. Dallas and Theo were far enough ahead that they would not notice, nor did they have any reason to look back.
Daenae make her into somethin’ ye willnae want to let go of.
He returned his focus to her hair. But even that came with its own array of risks, the raven black locks carrying the scent of something unfamiliar and sweet, and so silky that even he was not sure the ribbon would hold her hair.
He decided on a braid, like the ones he put his own hair in, and the ones that Moira would spend hours twisting her hair into—the more elaborate, the better. It did not take him long, Adeline’s hair moving easily between his fingers. And once he was done, he wrapped the ribbon tightly around the unbraided end, before tying it into a tight bow. All the while, his gaze kept flitting back to the curve of her neck, her smooth, pale skin taunting him.
“I liked the purple,” he said, letting her braid fall onto her back.
She laughed. “So did I.”
“I expect ye’ll dye it back again when ye’re where ye belong, eh?”
She hesitated, her shoulders stiffening slightly. “I don’t know, actually. I might. Might choose a different color.” Another laugh, more awkward than before, left her throat. “All I know is, when I get back, I’m staying well away from snow globes.”
“Aye, whatever snow globes are, I expect that might be for the best,” he told her, while his mind whispered something else, something that could not be said aloud .
Or, ye could come back. For healin’ purposes, of course. With medicine from yer time or somethin’.
The horses halted on the outskirts of the village—the largest of the five on the east coast—and Logan helped Adeline down. This time, however, she held onto him for longer than before, her gaze meeting his. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but with a subtle shake of her head, she stepped back and clapped her hands together.
“Right, let’s see how well you all passed on the message, should we?” she boomed.
Her pretty face was streaked with the dirt and grime of the day, her dress caked in mud and soot and countless bodily fluids. Yet, Logan did not know if he had ever seen her look more astonishingly beautiful. She was like something out of a legend, standing there with all the knowledge and determination that could save his people.
Ye came in a storm, as a blessin’ to this island.
He was still in awe of how commanding she had been in the previous villages, winning the people over with her firm but kind delivery and her unwavering confidence in her healing skills.
However, as soon as the quartet walked into the village of Red Briar, Logan sensed the difference in their welcome. Suspicion crackled in the air, and only a handful of villagers came forward to greet their Laird, while the rest hung back in their huts, cottages, and bothies, peering at Adeline.
“We did what ye asked.” A figure emerged from one of the nearby huts. Ben Donohue, the old healer’s grandson. He looked flustered, wiping bloodied hands on a cloth, though Logan noticed he wore no mask on his face. None of the villagers did. “But it wasnae easy to get them to comply. Half of ‘em were willin’, half of ‘em willnae open their shutters and doors. They believe sweatin’ out the fever is the only way to make it break.”
A grizzled man approached. “I willnae take any orders from a healer I daenae ken,” he said curtly. “Nay offense to ye, m'laird, but I willnae do as a stranger asks me to when it’s the life of me whole family at stake.”
From the front door of a stone cottage, Logan heard whispers that sent a shudder down his spine.
“I willnae be doin’ as a witch tells me,” the voice muttered. “She’s likely the one who cursed us in the first place. That’s why she kens how to cure it.”
He knew better than to confront the gossip, for it would only make it worse, giving the whispers validation that he could not allow.
“Give me a week,” Adeline said suddenly, putting up her hands in a gesture of surrender. “That’s all I’m asking of you. Give me a week to show you that my methods are genuine and that they’ll help to bring your loved ones back from the brink of death. I know you don’t know me, I know why you think you can’t trust me, and I know it’s difficult for you all when you’re so worried about your families, but I wouldn’t be putting my neck out like this if I didn’t think I could help.”
A few more faces appeared at doorways, the curiosity drawing them out like mice in a hayloft.
“My mother sent me here, knowing that I might face suspicion and distrust, simply because I’m a woman doing work that men do,” she went on, her voice wavering.
“But she heard of your plight, and she couldn’t let this curse take over this island. She’d seen it before, countless times, in the villages of Wales. She faced suspicion and even contempt in her tireless work. But she believed in me enough to send me here, and I’m asking you to put your faith in me for just a week. If my methods don’t work, I’ll return to where I came from, and you can handle this in your own way. If my methods do work, I’ll explain how they work, so that if something like this ever happens again, you’ll all be equipped to deal with it.”
The people of Red Briar seemed to respond to Adeline’s earnest words, the whispers dying down. And as Logan watched, a fresh rush of awe coursed through him. They were hanging on her every word, and so, in truth, was he.
It feels like sorcery, but… I think it’s just her.
He hoped that her natural charm would not stir up the gossip again. Not every confident, assured, intelligent woman had to be labeled a witch—though she was bewitching.
“Well, what do we do with these bathtubs, eh?” a woman asked, her arms crossed over her chest.
Adeline relaxed. “How big are they?”
“Fairly big,” the woman replied. “I can fit meself and me husband in one.”
“I bet ye can!” a voice jeered from somewhere down the long street, sending a ripple of laughter through the villagers. It broke the tension, and more of the healthy souls emerged to greet the newcomers.
Adeline chuckled. “Put two of the sick in each of the bathtubs, then. They shouldn’t be too hot—I’ll come around and check the temperature of each one. Only leave the sick in the bathtubs until the water cools, then get them out, put them in blankets—not too many—and please, please trust me when I say that you need to open your shutters and doors to let the air in.”
“Do we have to wear cloth on our faces, like ye’re doin’? Someone said we do, but I daenae understand why,” another voice asked.
“It’s to stop more people from getting sick,” Adeline explained without hesitation. “I checked the food stores in the last villages and couldn’t see any contamination, so it stands to reason that the curse is coming from the air or the water. That’s why you’re to only drink boiled water, from now on. Even if you pull it from the wells or the springs, boil it first, let it cool, then drink it.”
A haughty-faced young woman sneered. “How do ye ken that?”
“My mother taught me that… curses are most often found in water or air or in the exchange of… um… bodily fluids, where it can get to the most amount of people—so, try not to kiss or get too close or… uh… make love while the sickness is ongoing, either,” Adeline replied.
An older woman snorted. “I’ve been tryin’ nae to do that ever since I got married!”
“She isnae lyin’!” shouted a man. Presumably the woman’s husband.
But the young woman with the sneer did not seem satisfied. “Ye seem to ken an awful lot about curses. Who’s to say that ye’re nae the one who put this curse on us, eh?”
“I’m no witch if that’s your insinuation. I’m just a woman who also happens to be a gifted healer, all thanks to my mother,” Adeline replied curtly. “You see, my mother doesn’t just heal, she also captures witches and makes them remove the curses they’ve put on people. She has captured hundreds of witches in her time. That’s how I know where the curses are most likely to be hiding, and that’s how I know how to help you.”
Logan listened to the story with interest, wondering if any of it was true. Adeline had not mentioned much about her family before. Indeed, whenever he mentioned family, she seemed to go quiet, changing the subject quickly. But hearing that, he was determined to find out more.
A little boy ran up to Adeline. “Yer ma was a witch-catcher? Me ma just churns butter and calls me da all sorts of names.”
“My mother was a witch-catcher, yes,” Adeline replied, laughing. “But I bet your mother makes excellent butter, and I bet it has made her strong enough that she could catch a witch if she wanted to.”
The boy held out his arms, and Adeline picked him up, eliciting a few gasps from the villagers.
“Ma, does churnin’ butter make ye strong enough to catch a witch?” the boy called out.
A woman chuckled at the side of the street. “Aye, and to smack yer wee behind if ye daenae get down from that poor lass, at once. She doesnae want ye climbin’ all over her.”
“But I had to check she wasnae a witch,” the boy insisted. “Everyone kens that witches start smokin’ if they get near children, and she isnae smokin’, Ma. She wouldnae have picked me up if she was!”
Somehow, this reasoning seemed to appease some of the skeptics among the Red Briar people, their scowls of suspicion softening into smiles as Adeline kept carrying the boy.
“Would you like to help me check the temperature of the baths?” Adeline asked him.
The boy furrowed his brow. “Aye, but I daenae want to go in the bath. I had a bath a fortnight ago, I daenae need another.”
“No bath for you, then,” Adeline promised, approaching the closest house.
Two women barred the way, but as soon as Adeline approached, the women exchanged a look and stepped aside, allowing her entry into their home. Her charm, it seemed, did not just work on men and children.
She’s winnin’ them over.
Logan smiled. Though it was the sight of the boy in her arms that had given him pause, his wayward mind picturing her in the keep with a different child in her arms. He quickly shoved the thought away, for though he had been waiting years for the right woman to come along, it could not be her.
She was an impossibility. More to the point, he barely knew her.
A tap on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Shall we find yer brother?” Dallas asked.
Logan nodded. “Aye, though if he isnae too sick, ye’d best believe he’s goin’ to get a hidin’ for comin’ back here without me permission.”
In all his awe and admiration for Adeline, he had completely forgotten about his errant brother.