Chapter 6
The next day, James and Maura were had packed a few sparse belongings and were ready to leave.
Their horses were saddled and waiting, with their warm breath hanging in a cloud in the chilly early morning air.
James helped Maura onto her mount, then pulled Willa aside a few paces from where she stood.
She could tell from the look on his face that this was going to be his ‘serious talking-to’.
She grinned, because she really didn’t mind.
It felt so good to have family, especially a brother like James.
A brother who truly wanted her in his life, and who even cared enough to lecture her about her safety.
Not, of course, that he could stop her from doing what she really wanted if she set her mind to it, but it was sweet, all the same.
He grasped her by the arms and shook her slightly so that she looked up at him. She tried to keep from smiling, but she suddenly felt almost giddy. Perhaps she was losing her mind after all, and just didn’t realize it yet.
“Are ye sure about this Willa?” he asked her seriously. “Ye ken I’d never leave ye here alone if yer no’ completely at ease with it.”
Willa looked into her brother’s handsome face and deep blue eyes, the color of the evening sky, just like hers. “I’m completely at ease, James. And besides, I won’t be alone. I have my mysterious warrior to keep me company”, she teased. Though there was more truth to that then she’d admit to him.
James narrowed his eyes. “I dinna think he’ll be out of that bed for at least several more days. At the verra earliest. If he survives. Verra likely longer; but ye have the dagger I gave ye?”
“Yes, James.”
“And the knife?”
“Yes.”
“And the…”
“Yes!” she laughed and shoved him towards the horses. “I have a whole arsenal of weapons at the ready. Some of which I’m not even sure how to use. I shall be perfectly safe.”
“And Willa…”
“Yes James?”
“Ye ken no’ to leave the boundaries, ye remember where they are? Where I showed ye?”
“Yes, and I have no reason to go that far. Everything I need is right here. Stop worrying like a mother hen, I’m a grown woman, I’ve survived this long without you, and you’ll only be away for a matter of days!”
“I ken, but I’ll no’ rest until I return to find ye safe.
” James heaved a sigh and looked uncertain before he finally mounted his horse.
As he and Maura turned to leave, Maura gave Willa a smile and a wicked wink before turning back to catch her husband glancing between them.
He gave his wife an accusing frown, and threw Willa one last glare of warning before spurring his mount forward to catch his very unrepentant wife, who was already riding away.
Willa smiled and watched them until they rode out of sight through the trees and beyond a grassy rise, then she went back into the house.
A big part of her, she had to admit, was very worried about James and Maura travelling so soon after the attack.
They should be safe enough, as long as they stayed away from roads and any well-traveled trails, but now that they were out of her sight, her mind was unsettled.
She shook herself. Nothing I can do now but wait.
She was more than glad to at least have someone with her.
If he would only wake up. Suddenly all but alone and in charge for the first time in…
well, a while… she at first didn’t know what to do with herself.
After pacing in and out of the cottage door a few times, she swept a few crumbs off the table, straightened the jars on the shelf, went outside to pace around the dooryard and check on her horse, and finally went to check on her patient.
In truth, she was excited and a little afraid to have his care all to herself.
She could stroke his hair while he slept, and take as much time as she wanted washing the beautiful hard lines of his body, all without worrying someone would come in and catch her ogling the man like a besotted maid.
But if something went wrong, if he got worse… no, she wouldn’t even think about that.
She filled a shallow bowl with warm water from the kettle near the fire and found a clean rag, bringing them both into the small room where the warrior lay, still sleeping.
She set the bowl on the bedside table and stood looking at him for a moment.
Would he ever wake again? And when he did, what might he say to her?
What would he be like? She couldn’t wait to know.
Willa dipped the rag into the water and held the end to his lips, parting them gently with her thumb and squeezing the water slowly into his mouth.
He swallowed convulsively and she smiled, happy he was drinking more easily every day.
She dipped the rag again and again until she was satisfied he’d had enough.
Then she settled on the edge of the bed and ran the damp cloth over his forehead and down his neck to help cool his fever.
With her other hand, she smoothed back lengths of his thick, wavy hair.
It was so soft in her fingers, such a contrast to the harsh masculinity of his face, with the square chin and high cheekbones, and the hard muscular planes of his body.
Unable to stop herself, she traced her fingers along the bold lines of his jaw, pausing at the divot in his chin, then drew them across firm, full lips, and then ever so gently swept them over his long, thick lashes.
His eyelids fluttered, but he did not waken.
He fascinated her. She was utterly bewitched.
“Who are you, beautiful man?” she said just above a whisper as her hand moved over the thick contours of his arm, tracing the striking black dragon wrapped around it.
“Won’t you wake up and look at me?” Willa sighed as yet another inexplicable wave of tenderness washed over her, a deep longing of sorts.
And yet she could not quite understand it, how could she be having feelings of longing for a man who had not yet spoken a word to her, in truth had not so much as looked at her?
And yet she felt the urge to lie beside him and press her body to his.
To taste his lips… touch his skin. It ran through her blood, tingling to the tips of her fingers like lightning.
Shaking herself from her thoughts before she broke down and acted on them, she gathered the bowl and rag and went to do the many small tasks that she hoped would take up the long hours of the next several days.
There was water to fetch, her horse to tend, a stew to make, and washing to do.
Then it would be time to tend her patient again.
And she should probably bathe him again…