by Amy Jarecki
Resting his hands on his knees, Quinn shook his head. “I’m not leaving.”
“Och aye, ye beast?” Gran challenged. “You aim to go back inside? They have the place surrounded and the only quarry they’re after is you!”
Refusing to release Lord Quinn’s hand, Alice surged ahead. “Who are those people?”
Gran lumbered beside her, leaning heavily on her musket. “They’re rogues. I told them there was another way, but they refused to listen.”
“Just because I am a woman doesn’t mean I am helpless.” Alice indignantly plopped her bottom on the rowing bench, jostling Quinn’s injured shoulder. “And by the sound of the shouts coming from the castle, there is no time to argue.”
His eyes watered as he bit back a bellow. “Och, have it your way.” He picked up the oar and nearly roared again as white-hot pain shot through his entire body. He wasn’t about to admit it, but the lass was right. His left arm had been rendered useless and tortured him as if impaled by an iron spike.
What else could go wrong? There he sat beside the woman who had filled his every thought for the past two days and now he’d been shot in the shoulder, pulling on an oar as they rowed a meager skiff toward the rough seas of the Clyde.
As they sailed out into Rothesay Bay, Quinn looked to the castle. Shouts of battle rose above the rush of the sea. Christ, he should be there fighting with Eachan and Glenn. And who the blazes had attacked a friendly gathering? Those miscreants had broken the code of Highland hospitality.
A hundred warring thoughts crowded his mind as men carrying torches raced for the shore.
“Row faster!” Alice shouted.
Quinn dragged his oar through the water with such force it made the boat veer toward the port side—Alice’s side. “You should have let me row,” he barked.
She gave her oar an impressive heave. “I can hold my own as well as anyone.”
Shots blasted from the shore.
Quinn shoved the lass downward, covering her with his torso. “Take cover!”
For a moment the boat rocked in the water like a buoy. More shots rang out, but the boat remained sound. Quinn straightened and peered through the darkness. “I think we’re out of range.”
“Thank heavens.”
Together they resumed rowing while torches flickered on the Rothesay shore, growing more distant by the moment.
“How are you faring?” Alice asked, her voice breathless. Aye, the lass was using every bit of strength she could muster, bless her.
“Fit enough to turn around and face those backbiters.” Quinn ground his molars. If it weren’t for the musket ball in his shoulder, he’d do just that. Truth be told, his strength was waning, his head out of sorts. He hated weakness. How much blood had he lost? Pints, no doubt and, by the sticky warmth of the shirt clinging to his shoulder, he reckoned the wound was still bleeding.
As they made the crossing, he shook his head several times to stave off an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. His entire body ached. His eyelids drooped as if ten-pound weights hung from each one.
God’s bones, he should be in command of both oars. But no, instead he was rowing a skiff in tandem with the bonniest woman he’d ever seen in his life and he could barely hold his head up.
Bloody hero I am.
By the time the skiff skidded into the sand on the far shore, Quinn’s chin was touching his chest. Grunting, he arched his eyebrows. “Give me a moment.”
It took every bit of strength he could muster to step out of the boat into thigh-deep water. Something slippery made him loose his footing. With nothing to break his fall, Quinn bellowed a curse while he fell to his back. Icy saltwater flooded into his mouth and attacked his shoulder like daggers. The world spun as he tried to move his feet beneath him.
A hand grasped his wrist and tugged.
Keep fighting.
Quinn bore down, taking his weight onto his legs, while the woman slipped under his arm. “Stay with me a bit longer, m’lord. I’ll have you to the cottage in no time.”
Chapter Six
Alice staggered beneath the weight of the Highlander as she trudged toward the cottage. Even after he’d been shot and lost so much blood, Quinn had insisted on rowing. Didn’t he think she could handle a wee boat? Alice was better at manning a skiff than riding a horse. And now when she needed the man to bear his weight, his strength was sapped. Worse, they were both dripping wet and freezing.
“Just a bit farther,” she urged.
He grunted a reply, his eyes closed, his teeth chattering.
“There’s the cottage just yonder.” Alice strengthened her grip around Quinn’s waist. “You’re doing fine.”
Though his feet continued to move, he uttered not a word. Only by the grace of God did they push through the cottage door.
Alice urged him onto the bench. “I’ll make up a pallet in front of the hearth to warm you.”
As soon as his weight eased from her shoulders, using flint and steel, she set to lighting the tallow candles with on the mantle. Quickly, she stacked flax tow and dry tender in the hearth. Lighting a twig in one of the candle’s flames, she crouched down and ignited the bundle. In two blinks of an eye, the twigs were popping.
“It’ll be warm in no time,” she said as she angled two sticks of wood against each other so as not to snuff the wee flame.
Brushing off her hands, she chanced a look at His Lordship as she hastened past him. Heavens, the man was whiter than an apron hanging on the line in the afternoon sun. As fast as she could, she gathered an armful of pillows, linens and blankets from the cupboard.
Except when she returned, the Highlander was nowhere to be found. Alice turned full circle. “Your Lordship?”
Her toe hit something solid, followed by a resounding moan.
“Heaven’s stars, could you not have waited five minutes afore you collapsed?”
“Sorry,” he mumbled from the floor, though she couldn’t be sure if he was conscious.
Alice swiftly made a pallet, then stood and regarded the very large, very wet man lying beside the table. Only about four feet from the makeshift bed, she tapped her fingers to her lips. “I reckon we need to remove your clothing, else you’ll catch your death.”
He didn’t move—not even a twitch. “Mm,” he moaned. At least he was still conscious.
She stooped and tugged his uninjured arm upward until she pulled him up enough to prop his back against the table leg.
“I’m going to remove your brooch and plaid,” she explained, examining Quinn’s plaid. As far as she could tell it was belted around his waist with the remaining length pulled across his back their backs and pinned at his shoulder.
She bit down on her lower lip as she unfastened the brooch. And when the damask rose fell into her palm, she snarled. “A lot of luck you’ve brought us.” Shaking her head, she placed both the rose and brooch on the table, completely unable to fathom what her grandmother had been up to. Attending the fête proved a calamitous mistake. Alice should have stayed home and tended to her mending. Then she wouldn’t be in this situation. And His Lordship mightn’t have been shot.
“Can you unfasten your belt?” she asked, clasping her hands. “I’ll avert my gaze and then you can slip under the blankets.”
Of course, the daft Highlander chose now not to respond at all.
Her gaze slipped to the enormous silver buckle. Not only did it secure the man’s kilt in place, this was Lord Quinn’s belt. Of all the Highlanders in Scotland, the heir to the Campbell dynasty was bleeding and shivering in her wee cottage. Groaning, she looked to the rafters. “Merciful fairies, I’ll do it.”
Besides, because he is a Campbell, I shall be utterly unaffected by anything I might happen to see.
Aye, Alice thought herself an impenetrable fortress, especially when it came to this man…until, with one tug, the cloth dropped away, revealing a pair of muscular thighs peppered with dark hair. She’d never imagined a man’s legs could be so powerful, so alluring. And a
side from his shoes and hose, his only remaining garment was a long linen shirt covering the tops of his thighs. The wet cloth clung to his skin tightly and revealed every contour of his body beneath. The hole at the left shoulder was stained with blood, but just below the thick and fleshy muscles in his chest stood proud. At the tips were dark circles, nipples not much different than hers, but remarkably different at the same time. Her mouth grew dry as, unable to stop herself, her gaze drifted lower. His abdomen rippled with bands of sinew as if hewn from iron. And lower… Holy everlasting father, lower. A dark triangle of hair shadowed his sex and there was absolutely no question about his manhood. This was as virile a man as ever walked the Highlands of Scotland.
Forcing her mouth to close, Alice wiped her eyes. “Ah…I suppose you may as well take off your shirt as well.”
When he didn’t respond, she removed his shoes and hose first, her gaze frequently flickering to his face to see if he might stir. She stood back and tapped her foot. Come, ye beast. Do not make me strip ye completely bare.
“Take off your shirt, Quinn!” she shouted.
The man’s eyes flashed open. Shuddering, he whisked the garment over his head. “Arrgh!” he howled as the linen stuck to his wounded shoulder.
Alice held up her hand to shade her eyes from his…him…that… Good Lord, are all men thus endowed? “I’ll finish.”
She stripped away the shirt, leaving him completely nude. Trying not to ogle the poor injured soul, she urged him toward the pallet where she’d turned the blankets down. “I’ve made up a wee bed. I need you to shift yourself over there. Just a roll or two and you’ll be toasty warm.”
Somehow, he managed to inch over, though as soon as his bum hit the comfort of the pallet, he dropped to his back, sprawled like a spider.
Alice peeked at him through her fingers. “Ah…are you intending to stay in that position?”
Evidently, he was because His Lordship didn’t bother to twitch.
“Very well.” She picked up the blanket and dropped it over his lap.
After a healthy pat to her chest her heart returned to a somewhat normal cadence. She bent over his injured shoulder. It was angry red with traces of black powder encircling the puncture wound. Gingerly, she pressed her fingers around the flesh. Thankfully, the musket ball hadn’t hit bone, but even Alice knew Quinn would die if the piece of lead weren’t removed.
She looked to the door. If only Gran would have rowed across the firth with them. But surely she’d be along soon.
Alice puzzled for a moment. Why hadn’t her grandmother accompanied them across the Clyde? There had been enough room in the skiff.
Why had she stayed behind?
After the sun rose on the next morn, Gran still hadn’t returned. Worse, Lord Quinn was sweating like a laborer in the hot sun.
“Water,” he croaked, his voice nowhere as bold as it had been the previous day.
Cup in hand, Alice hastened to his side. “How are you feeling?”
He held his head up while she gave him a drink. “Like I’ve been shot.”
“The ball needs to come out. It’ll make you very ill if it does not.”
He rested his head on the pillow and let out a long breath. “Have you experience with such a surgery?”
“I saw it done once.” Gran had removed a musket ball from a man’s knee, but he’d caught the fever all the same and died a month later. Alice bit her lip. No use telling Quinn his chances for survival were grim.
The blanket slipped lower as he traced his fingers around the wound. “Then you’ll have to dig it out.”
“Me?”
“Aye.”
“My grandmother would do better. She’s very skilled with the healing arts.”
Quinn’s gaze swept across the cottage. “I haven’t seen her.”
Alice offered him another sip. “I thought she would have come home by now.”
“Are you worried?”
“Aye. She’s been acting strangely as of late. I’m afraid she’s going senile.”
He licked the water from his cracked lips, his eyes losing focus for a moment. “In that case, I’d rather have you perform the deed. Then once I’m on my feet, we’ll set out to find her.”
“We?”
“Mm.” He rubbed his arm right below the wound. “I’d reckon you’d want to go, would you not?”
“A-aye,” Alice replied, none too convinced. She’d brought a Campbell into her home and now he was talking about taking her to search for Gran? Things were growing stranger by the moment.
“I’ll fetch you something to help with the pain,” she said, heading for the shed where Gran kept her medicine bundle and hung the herbs to dry. Unfortunately, the dear woman had never seen fit to record any of her remedies with quill and parchment.
Alice found the mortar and pestle and put it on the table while examining the stoppered pots. Let’s see…valerian, willow bark, a pinch of opium… She chewed her lip as she looked at the vial of nightshade. Only a few days past she had thought to poison the man with it and now she was trying to save his life.
With a trembling hand, she pulled off the stopper and sprinkled in a tiny bit of the finely ground powder—any more and her remedy might be his undoing. Using the mortar, she mixed the tincture and then added a dram of whisky. Then she poured the lot into a cup and stirred it with her dagger for good measure. Alice had no idea why, but Gran always used her dagger to mix the tincture before she performed surgery, and now was no time to veer away from any matter of course.
Back inside the cottage, His Lordship gave the concoction a dubious look. “What’s in it?”
“Whisky…mayhap a few pinches of this and that.”
Scrunching his nose, he took the cup and held it aloft. “I can manage anything with a tot of spirit.”
Alice said a silent prayer as she watched him drink.
“Ah.” He wiped his mouth. “I wouldn’t mind a bit more whisky if you have it.”
“Perhaps after.” She held up the dagger.
He cringed. “Blast. I’d hoped you might have forgotten about the wee lead ball.”
“The sooner we have it out, the faster you’ll heal.” Kneeling beside him, she examined the wound. “Do you need a stick?”
“Nay.”
But he hissed when she pressed her fingers around his wound. “Perhaps we should wait for the tincture to take effect,” she suggested.
“Do it now afore I lose my nerve.”
“You do not seem like a man who would lose his nerve easily, m’lord.”
He grimaced as she located the ball just beneath the puncture. “I’m not,” he grunted.
Steeling her nerves to keep her hands from trembling, she threw back her shoulders. “Gird yourself.”
His lips formed a white line as his entire body tensed.
Alice clenched her teeth, levering the knife into the wound as she pressed hard against the lump.
Quinn made a gurgling sound of agony as his body jolted.
Alice flicked her wrist, but the ball slipped around the blade. “Curses.” The word sounded strained as she worked the shot left then right while her patient writhed, baring his teeth.
“I nearly have it!” Pushing down, with one more dig of the blade, the slippery ball popped out.
“Satan’s ballocks, that bloody hurt!” Quinn bellowed, his face blanching.
Pinching the round shot between her fingers, Alice couldn’t help but grin. “At least it looks as if my tincture will nay kill you.”
His fingers swathed a path through the blood pooling at his shoulder, spreading it across his chest. “Mayhap it will not. I reckon I’m more likely to bleed to death.”
“Och, I’ll nay allow it!” Springing to her feet, Alice grabbed a clean cloth from the pile of linens and pressed it firmly over the wound.
“Argh!”: Gnashing his teeth, he arched upward, glaring like a madman. “Can you be a wee bit gentler, mind you?”
Alice pushed harder. “Forgive
me, but we must staunch the bleeding.”
With a defeated grunt, the big Highlander dropped his head to the pillow. “Where is it written goddesses have kind hearts?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Athena was no shrinking violet.”
Alice tossed the bloodied cloth aside and applied a fresh one. “You’re making no sense at all.”
Quinn’s eyes rolled closed. “Mayhap on account…”
With his long exhale, her heart lurched with the force of a thunderbolt. “M’lord?”
Chapter Seven
Quinn couldn’t decide which was worse, the pounding in his head or the stabbing pain in his shoulder. Both tortured him relentlessly. Though when something soft pressed against his hip, he had a mind to open his eyes. Bugger the pain, something more feral filled his mind.
He inhaled deeply and the scent of wild berries soothed him. He opened one eye and smiled, stretching his parched lips. Fully clothed, Alice lay on her side with her back to him, her silken hair draped in wisps across her body. Her head rested on the crook of her arm. Above, a feminine shoulder gave way to a steep slope ending in a narrow waist and flaring into the most glorious hip.
“Are you real?” he whispered.
With a soft moan, she shifted, a lock of her hair falling onto Quinn’s palm. He rubbed it between his fingers—so exquisitely soft. He drew the silken tress to his nose and inhaled heaven. “I think ye are a selkie, because you’re too bonny to be of this world.”
“Mm,” her voice was rich and womanly, making him want to kiss her. But with another soft moan, she sat up and stretched. When she glanced his way, those beguiling blue eyes brightened just like a warm beam of sunshine. “Praises be, you’re awake!”
“Was there any question?” he asked, his throat raspy and dry.
“Ah…” Her gaze trailed aside. “Let us just say I’ve been too worried to leave your side.”
Quinn moved his toes. “How long have I been abed?”
“Two days.”
