Chapter 1 #3
The healer studied her for a moment and nodded. “That will pass soon. Ye didna actually burn them. They just feel that way.”
“I’m even more sorry for what Calum has been through after this,” Ella told her as she carefully dipped a finger into the pot the healer held and spread some of the concoction on her blisters, sighed as the pain eased, and then took care of the other hand. “That’s better.”
“The laundress and her lasses use it. It serves them well.”
“I believe ye.”
The healer offered the small pot to her. “Keep it. Likely ye’ll want to use some before ye go to yer rest, or the pain in yer hands might disturb yer sleep. I have more for the other lasses.”
“Thank ye,” Ella told her as she carefully cradled the pot in her injured hands.
The healer nodded and moved toward the other women to check on them.
Ella turned for the keep. It was almost time for the evening meal. Would she be able to taste her food? She hoped so. She looked forward to getting the smell and taste of the boiling soap out of her nose and mouth.
Her friend Muireall intercepted her in the great hall and wrinkled her nose. “Ye smell like lye and animal fat. What have ye been doing? Helping the laundress make soap?”
“Aye, exactly that.” Ella shrugged and spread her arms. “I’m going to my chamber to change. I hope that will help get rid of some of the stench.”
“Why would ye do such a thing? Have ye no’ enough to do taking care of poor Calum? Ach, and look at yer poor hands!”
Ella displayed the healer’s wee pot. “I have something to soothe them. Come with me and I’ll tell all. I need yer help.”
Muireall held her peace while they walked upstairs to Ella’s chamber.
Ella set aside the pot of medicine, stripped out of her apron and dress, then wet a rag and wiped down her face, arms and, gently, her hands.
That done, she pulled another dress from the chest where she kept her clothes and made ready to go back downstairs. But instead of leaving the chamber, she sat beside Muireall on the bed.
“Are ye ready to talk?”
Muireall had to be curious, and Ella could count on her to be circumspect with what she was about to share with her friend. “Aye, very well, I am. And aye, I had plenty to do taking care of Calum.”
“Had?”
“That’s why I need yer help.” In a few words, she explained Calum’s reaction to having her care for him, and the scheme she and the healer devised to keep him from recognizing her until the bandages came off his eyes.
Muireall leaned back and regarded her under a crinkled brow. “Ye’ve gone barmy. Do ye really think that will work?”
Ella nodded. “Mhairi seems to think so. She’s going to find a way to disguise my scent. With my voice and touch altered, my hands roughened,” she said and held them up to display the damage she’d done to them, “it might work.”
Muireall grimaced. “Ye need to put more of what’s in that pot on them if ye want to be able to use them at all.
They look bad. And why no’ let the lads see to him?
With their help, the healer can make sure he’s getting well.
Ye can visit. Ye dinna need to be by his side all the time.
And Calum may no’ appreciate yer scheme when he finds out. And he will.”
Ella shook her head, but she did as Muireall suggested, smoothing the concoction on her palms and sighing as the pain eased. “I ken that, but…he helped save ye—and truly, me, as well. And he has befriended me. I canna do less for him. I need to be there. I owe him.”
“And ye care for him.”
“Aye. And ye have pointed out a few times that ye think he cares for me.” A hint of warmth spread from her chest to her throat and face as she recalled Mhairi asserting the same thing.
Did he? Could there ever be more between them than simple friendship?
“I think ’tis why he’s suddenly shy of being seen as less than strong. Less than who he is when he is well.”
Muireall clasped her hands in her lap as Ella set aside the pot of medicine. “He doesna want to disappoint ye. ’Tis understandable. But how do ye think he will feel when he learns ye disregarded his wishes? And lied to him?”
Ella’s chest tightened. Muireall was right.
She was going to go against Calum’s wishes and he might be angry.
Embarrassed at the least. Why not let the lads tend to him?
The idea made her belly ache. “I canna leave his care to others. I’ll deal with his reaction when the time comes.
Right now, he needs help from someone who is devoted to him.
No’ a one of the serving lads or lasses truly ken him, or what he must overcome to retain his place in the clan. ”
Muireall sighed. “’Tis against my better judgment, but ye are determined. I see that. So, how can I help?”
“I need ye and Euan, as well as Annie and Iain and anyone else who has contact with Calum while he’s healing to call me Janet if I’m in the chamber with him.”
“Call ye Janet? That is all?”
“And act as if ye ken Janet. As if she has been a serving lass in the clan for a while.”
“And if he asks why he doesna ken her before now?”
Ella held up her hands and laughed. “Tell him she works with the laundress. Surely he’s never spent time there. Nay a man in his right mind would.”