Chapter Seven
“’Tis two days since my fever broke, lass. I’m asking ye again to please have someone bring me to the creek with soap and a linen. I can’t even stand my own smell.”
Emma frowned at him. It appeared things were back to normal. “Aye, I can do that for ye. I too noticed yer smell this morning.”
He grinned since the best part of the day was when they woke up in each other’s arms. She never questioned why he was still having nightmares and rather than lie to her, he just shrugged. He only had a nightmare the one time and that was because he had a fever. He was sure of it.
“I will find Enoch and have him do that duty. However, I am on my way now to get something so ye can break yer fast. Ye didn’t eat much while ye suffered with the fever, and I’m afraid ye might have lost some of the strength ye had already gained.”
“Do ye think it is gone for good now?”
She sighed. “I hope so. The gash does look verra good, so I think we have a decent chance this time to consider it on the mend.”
She left the hut and he took another whiff of himself and frowned.
The door opened and a man entered, holding his bleeding arm. “Where’s Emma?”
“Getting my food.”
He scowled. “I need her.”
Morgan shrugged. “It looks like it.”
The warrior took a seat and continued to hold onto his arm. Morgan could tell by the gash that he needed more training in deflecting swords. This was not the sort of injury that should happen in training. He appeared fairly young. “How long have ye been in training?”
The lad didn’t look pleased at being questioned. “Just a few weeks.”
Morgan nodded just as the door opened and a very frantic looking man appeared. “Where is Emma?”
Before Morgan could answer, the young warrior said, stabbing his thumb toward him. “Getting his food.”
“I need her now. My wife is having our bairn. She’s screaming.”
The door opened again at the end of the man’s remarks and Emma entered, carrying a tray with a mug of ale, a bowl of porridge and bread. “Oh, my goodness. What is going on here?”
Emma placed the tray on a counter alongside the wall and held up her hand to stop the stream of requests coming from the patients. Before she could open her mouth, a young mother raced through the door, banging into the man whose wife was having her baby.
“Emma, ye need to help Brendan. He’s been screaming all night.”
She held a young bairn, red faced and howling at the top of his lungs, his little body thrashing about, twisting, and turning in the woman’s arms. The man with the wife having their bairn took one look at the screaming little one and passed out.
No doubt considering his future. As the man collapsed, Emma shrieked. “Catch him!”
No one moved as they all looked down at him. The man had collapsed into a heap after striking his head on the corner of a table.
Although Morgan wasn’t happy to see all the misery, he couldn’t help smiling at the chaos that reigned. It certainly broke up the monotony.
However, he should have known Emma would deftly deal with it.
Enoch entered, his eyes growing wide at the hysteria in the room. Emma looked over at him and said, “Pick Alex up from the floor and put him one of the beds, then give Morgan his tray of food.”
She then turned to Morgan. “Can ye wait a minute and eat yer food before Enoch takes care of ye?”
Morgan nodded and pulled the tray of food closer. For entertainment during his meal, he watched how this woman was going to take care of the rest of them.
Not appearing flustered at all, Emma turned to the mother who had tears running down her face. “I will give ye a bottle of a liquid to give little Brendan now. Since ye have a short walk home, bring him to yer bothy and I will be down to ye as soon as I can to see how he is doing.”
Emma handed her the bottle and thankfully, the young mother left with the screaming baby. Since the man with the wife suffering from childbirth was still out cold, Emma turned to the young warrior with the sliced arm. “Stephen, when will ye learn to duck?”
Morgan looked over at the young lad who flushed and said to Emma, “I’m getting better.”
She moved his hand and looked at the gash. The door opened and a young girl entered. Her eyebrows rose as she took in the goings on in the room. “Ye look as if ye can use some help.”
For the first time Emma looked a tad frazzled. “Aye, Janet. ’Tis glad I am to see ye. Can ye help Enoch get Alex up on his feet? It seems his wife is in labor and he passed out, smacking his head. I doona think ’twas a bad knock.” She studied him as she wiped down the young warrior’s gash.
“I wonder if he’s out all this time, or merely using this as an excuse to avoid his wife,” Morgan said as he popped a piece of bread into his mouth.
He continued his breakfast, enjoying watching how Emma did all of this without running out screaming from the healing hut. Again he had to remind himself that he did not want to admire the woman, although if he were to be honest with himself, not admiring her was getting harder every day.
One of the kitchen lasses walked in and took his tray from him. “’Tis noisy in here.”
“Aye. ’Tis fun to watch, though.”
The lass smiled at him and placed her free hand on her hip and shifted toward him. He had the feeling she was being more than friendly.
Nay, he already had himself in knots with his growing feelings for Emma. And if he split his stitches while tupping a kitchen lass, he didn’t think Emma would sew him up again.
Alex had been resurrected and Emma sent him home with Janet, telling him it could take hours for the first bairn to be born. He didn’t look happy, but at least he had Janet by his side.
After gathering linens and soap from the basket of supplies on the counter, Enoch collected him, careful of both his ribs and injured leg. Emma stuffed a clean léine for him to replace the one he’d been sweating in for days into Enoch’s already overstuffed arms.
They went out the back door to the creek behind the hut.
Once they did what they needed to do, they returned to see Emma carefully smearing the warrior’s now neatly cleaned and sewn gash with honey.
Once covered with a clean linen, she sent him on his way with a tisane and orders to rest for at least the remainder of the day.
The lad thumped his chest with his fist. “I doona need to rest. I’m a warrior.” Then he promptly turned and walked into the wall, missing the doorway. “Ow. My nose!”
Morgan glanced over at Emma. They both grinned.