Chapter 7 #2
She left her hut the next morning at dawn.
She hadn’t been able to lie down, no matter what sort of deterrent Cameron might have left in front of her door.
Perhaps she could talk Cameron out of a training sword and use it to jam against her door until she could fix some sort of way to bar the door with something heavier.
She was going to have to sleep eventually and she wouldn’t be able to do so in peace until she felt safe.
Well, as safe as she could feel, given her circumstances.
She looked around for a bathroom, but there wasn’t a biffy in sight.
She found a likely spot just inside the forest, made certain she was alone, then went about her business.
She had a bit of a wash in the stream, then stood just outside her little house and looked around her.
She saw no clansmen with murder on their minds, no villagers with bundles of wood in their arms, no laird come to tell her she was out of her mind.
Well, she did see one villager, but once he saw her, he crossed himself and scurried inside his house.
She sighed. Just what in the world was she going to do for the next thirty years in medieval Scotland?
Actually, it could be much longer than that. Her ancestors on both sides routinely lived happily and coherently into their nineties. She could be conceivably spending the next sixty years trying to get warm by a fire burning in the middle of her living room.
She closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle.
She prayed for Patrick MacLeod to come rescue her.
She wished she’d at least left a note on the mirror of her bathroom, though she wasn’t quite sure what she would have said.
Hey, Pat, there’s this fabulous-looking guy standing at my doorway and I think he’s Jamie’s idea of a great blind date. I agree! Gotta run.
Unfortunately, she could imagine all too well how that particular evening had gone in reality.
Joshua had probably come to get her for supper only to find her gone.
He would have called Patrick who would have called Jamie, then the pair of them would have come to Moraig’s while Ian kept all the women and children safe in Jamie’s keep.
When they had seen no sign of foul play, they would have known what had happened.
It happened to Jamie quite regularly, but he was very adept at getting himself out of whatever scrape he’d gotten into.
He also never went anywhere without a pair of dirks slipped down his boots under his jeans.
If she ever got home, she was going to sign up for Jamie’s course on Portal Classification and Identification. Hell, even Madelyn had sat through that one. She, on the other hand, had been too busy sitting at Moraig MacLeod’s feet, discussing the many uses for plantain, to have been bothered.
She took a deep breath and put it all aside.
Maybe she had a task to accomplish in the past and she wouldn’t be able to get home until she’d done that.
Maybe she was supposed to train a new healer so Cameron could save a few of his men in the next battle.
At the very least, she could replenish the very old herbs she’d used on his brother.
At least doing so at present would keep her from thinking about the look her sister would have worn when she realized what had happened.
She made certain Cameron’s dagger was still residing in the makeshift belt she’d fashioned out of the hem of her dress, then walked around behind her house and looked over the meadow she could see on the other side of the stream.
It was blooming with all sorts of springtime things and that was somehow almost encouraging.
She hiked up her skirts, waded across the shallow stream, then clambered up the opposite bank.
She turned Cameron’s plaid into an extra skirt and tied it around her waist so she could use a corner of it as an apron.
She supposed she made quite a sight in her dress that had been too short but was now substantially shorter and the laird’s plaid wrapped around her on top of that.
But considering all the other strikes she had against her, she supposed no one would care how she was dressed.
She picked and plucked quite happily until she realized that she wasn’t alone.
The footfall behind her was so quiet, she wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t seen the hint of a shadow coming up behind her.
She waited until the last possible moment, then she kicked backward with all her strength, turned, and swept the man’s feet out from under him.
She had Cameron’s dagger out of her belt and was bringing it down toward the man’s eye before she realized just who she was about to stab.
Cameron held her wrist in a grip of iron and kept the knife a mere inch away from his eye. He was breathing raggedly. Then again, so was she.
He pushed her arm back another half foot, then looked up at her.
“Who in the hell are you?” he wheezed.
“I told you who I was,” she managed.
“I think you broke something, you bloodthirsty wench. Who taught you to fight?”
She sat back on her heels, but he wouldn’t release her wrist. “My brother-in-law.”
He took a careful breath. “I forgot to knock.”
“You did.”
“You almost killed me.”
“Oh, you’re a little tougher than that, aren’t you?” she said with a smile.
He grunted, then pried his knife from her fingers and plunged it into the ground next to him. “You can have that back when I’m sure you won’t use it for any other untoward purposes.” He breathed in with a wince. “I daresay you owe me some tending.”
“What will your villagers think?”
“They’ll think I have proper control over my witch.”
She reached out and touched his side. “Did I really hurt you?” she asked.
He gasped. “By the saints, Sunshine, I daresay you did. I don’t suppose you have anything handy to heal something this serious quickly so when we’re attacked half an hour from now, I could actually wield my sword?”
“I had no idea it was you,” she said apologetically. “That was meant to disable.”
“I daresay.” He pointed toward the stream. “I left wine cooling in the water and food on the bank. I think the least you can do is fetch it and leave me here to salvage some of my pride.” He squinted at her. “Don’t suppose you’d want to come be my garrison captain, would you?”
She found it in her to smile. “Tempting, but I’m not all that good with a broadsword.”
“Lass, all you would have to do is use your feet. We’ll discuss it later. Now, be a good witch and bring me something to at least dull the pain.”
She opened her mouth to tell him he could go get his own wine, but realized that his eyes were twinkling.
She wasn’t sure how he could joke about anything when everything was so miserably serious, but maybe there was a lesson there.
She scowled at him, had a brief laugh followed by a gasping curse as her reward, then jumped to her feet before she let down any more of her guard around him.
She found a sack full of food in the grass and a leather bag wedged between two rocks on the edge of the stream. She was surprised she hadn’t noticed Cameron doing that, or heard him coming her way. In her defense, she’d been a little distracted.
She returned to find him still lying on his back, staring up at the sky, rubbing his side absently. He turned his head and looked at her.
He smiled.
Her first instinct was to run. She couldn’t let herself get involved with him, not even the slightest bit. That path would only lead to heartbreak. Too bad he was the only thing that seemed solid and familiar in a world she hadn’t asked for and wasn’t quite all that sure how to navigate.
She set the food and drink down next to him. “You shouldn’t be here, should you?”
He only looked at her gravely. “I cannot leave you alone, Sunshine. Or by yourself,” he added, as if he meant two entirely different things.
“Surely you have other things to do,” she said, a little desperately. “Train, perhaps. Sleep, definitely.”
“Again, you forget who I am.”
Unfortunately, she hadn’t, and that was the problem.
She closed her eyes and backed away. “I’ll go look for herbs to ease your pain.
” She turned and walked away before she had to look at him anymore.
She would see if there was something to use for the damage she’d done to him, then pick a few herbs against the time when she might have a need for them. Who knew what the future might hold?
She only knew who couldn’t possibly be in it and that man was lying thirty feet behind her.