Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
T he risk Freya was putting herself in on his behalf was excessive.
Even just attempting to lift him up off the ground with her small frame was too much, and he knew it. But she was a strong woman in more than one way as she hefted his arm over her shoulders and grit her teeth to pull him towards the bed. He tried to help her as much as he could. The cooking she had been doing over the last few days for him had almost made him feel like a new. Perhaps she had put medicine in the food as well. He wouldn’t have been surprised.
Freya huffed and puffed as they staggered back toward the bed, and lowered him onto it. He had managed to work up a sweat with something so simple. He might not know who he was, but knew for certain he was not normally out of shape.
“I will set off in the morning,” he said when he caught his breath.
Freya didn’t seem to take him seriously for even half of a second. “Nonsense. Ye shall dae nay such thing.”
She was already checking over his wounds, lifting his shirt where it was necessary to further examine him, and he had to pull the fabric out of her hands. “Ye have done more than enough fer me. I dinnae mean tae trouble ye any longer than I already have. I dinnae ken what those men were looking fer, but I’ll nae have ye get in trouble on me account.”
“Ye mean more trouble?” Freya smirked as she lowered his shirt and fetched the wash bowl and cloths to remove the dirt from where he had been lying. When she was close enough, he pulled her hand lower.
“Aye, that’s exactly what I mean.” Nathan insisted. “It’s nay longer safe fer me tae be here with ye.”
“Ye can barely stand.” She waved off his words as if they were nothing at all. “Ye cannae think ye will get far in yer condition.”
“I will manage.” Nathan insisted, pushing forward slowly as if to stand, even though his empty stomach started to clench with the effort as he tried to push upright from the bed. “Dinnae fash, lass.” He tried to smile, to reassure her. “I thank ye fer everything that ye have done. When the time comes that I can repay ye fer yer kindness, that is exactly what I shall dae.”
“Ye cannae be serious!” Freya protested as Nathan pushed stubbornly to his feet. “Ye dinnae even ken who ye are! Where dae ye think ye’re going? This is an island! They dinnae ken ye’re here. Ye might as well rest!”
“I will figure it out, and I certainly cannae figure out who I am sitting here in this hut.” Nathan continued, reaching for—well, he didn’t even know what it was he was looking for. All he knew was that he couldn’t stay there where it would keep causing her more issues. First with the villagers and now with whoever those men were.
“What if ye get sick again, or come down with a fever? What will ye do then?!” Freya continued, moving behind him as he slowly staggered around the room as if he had belongings to collect.
Nathan stopped and spun, looking down at her and her pretty face in the warm glow of the firelight. Her eyes were the color of freshly grown leaves in spring, bits of brown and yellow that only showed in the firelight like this. Her ginger hair was wild around her face where the unruly curls had broken free of the braid that ran down her back. A light smattering of pale freckles ran over her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. They matched the ones on the backs of her capable hands and up her forearms. He could have guessed they were in a fair few other parts of her body as well.
Not the thing he needed to be thinking about when he was attempting to leave her side.
He saw the moment she realized he wasn’t going to back down. Irritation and a temper of her own sparked over her face as she turned in the small space and started gathering things from around her. She kept moving as she pushed cloth and bandages into her medical basket before grabbing other items from a trunk she pulled out from under her bed.
“What dae ye think ye’re doing?” Nathan asked.
“Well, if ye are determined to leave, then I am coming with ye.” Freya answered easily, as if it were the most obvious thing in the entire world.
“What?” Nathan placed a hand against the wall to keep himself upright as she gathered food and other supplies.
“Ye are just as likely tae get yerself killed out in the wild there without me, so I cannae very well allow ye tae go and ken that something bad is going to happen if I could have helped ye with it, can I?” Freya explained in an eerily calm tone as she produced not one, but two large dirks from the same trunk and handed one to him.
It felt more comfortable in his hand than anything else that had happened in the last two weeks. It was proof enough to him he was indeed the fighter she had suspected he was all along. She perhaps should feel wary, given that he had no idea who he was. “And if ye come with me, and me memory returns and I’m a bad man… then what? Ye’ll be stuck in the wild with the dangerous man yer village wants me tae be.”
Freya laughed at him.
Laughed .
“I think I can handle meself,” she said. “Besides, me motivations arenae wholly selfless as ye might think them to be.”
“What dae ye mean?”
Freya paused, setting her things on the bed and rolling up her blanket for the pair of them. It was almost shocking just how easy and quickly she was able to pack up all of her belongings without a single bit of hesitation. “I mean I have long since outgrown this island anyway.”
“And what of yer people?” He inquired gently.
She paused, lingering as something he couldn’t name crossed over her features. “Well. They clearly dinnae trust me any longer… who kens how long it would be before they turned on me too.” She lifted her pretty eyes up to his own green ones. “Me maither brought us here tae the island when I was very, very young. I was never supposed to be stuck here… but I found people who needed me and I allowed meself tae be pulled intae all of it.”
“Are ye certain?”
“Ah, at least ye’re nae going tae fight me on it any longer, if nothing else.” She smirked. “This might be me only chance tae leave. I shall nae allow meself to second guess me choices. I have made up me mind, and I am coming with ye.”
Her resolute attitude warmed something inside of him that was intimidating. “Well, I appreciate yer candor.”
Freya nodded. “Then ye should be very clear ye will nae change me mind on this either.”
“Then I suppose it is in both of our best interest that I agree tae help ye tae the mainland.”
“Make nae mistake of who of us is going to be helping the other.” Freya smirked. “I’ll go and find us a horse then. Be ready tae leave when I return. The more of a headstart we can get between now and the moment those soldiers return, the better.”