The Bard (Highland Heroes #5) - Maeve Greyson Page 0,37

would bet her favorite pair of boots the man was about to heave.

“Aye,” he rasped, wincing as he nodded. “I can make it.” He pushed himself upright and held tight to the table’s edge. After pulling in several deep breaths, he attempted to stand.

Magnus looped Sutherland’s arm around his shoulder. Sorcha wedged herself under his other arm, doing her best to support him.

“Wait!” Sutherland groaned, snatched the basin from her, and retched. She and Magnus kept him from falling as he shuddered over the bowl. “Damn it all to hell and back.” He rasped in deep wheezing breaths once the sickness stopped.

“It’ll be better for a bit now, man,” Magnus reassured. “Remember Glencoe? Best get ye moved before it hits again.”

Sutherland didn’t answer, just gave his friend a tight-jawed look, then latched hold of the man’s shoulder and started walking. Head bowed, he kept his eyes shut as he forced one foot in front of the other.

Sorcha held tight, one arm locked around him, and his arm wrapped around her shoulders. When they reached the stairs, they came to a halt. The stairway to the second floor was steep and narrow. Three abreast would never fit. “Hold tight to the rail,” she said as she slipped out from under his arm, took his hand, and placed it on the wooden support bolted to the wall. “Magnus can walk at yer side, and I’ll follow, aye? I’m sorry, love, but ye’ll have to open yer eyes, I’m afraid.”

“I can do it,” Sutherland whispered. He kept his fierce stare locked on the floor. Sweat dripped from his face.

She ached for his suffering, but it couldn’t be helped. He might be in fearsome pain, but at least he was alive. Inch by painstaking inch, they climbed to the second floor. She rounded them and led the way through the sitting room and into her bedchamber. The place was abuzz with maids carrying out her orders. Two kettles and a large pot hung from iron rods swung across the freshly stoked fire. Her fine bed coverings had been removed and, in their stead, were linens that could later be boiled with lye to remove whatever soiled them. Additional linens, neatly folded and piled high, waited on the bench at the foot of the bed. Basins, pitchers of water, stacks of cleaning rags, and a covered crock Sorcha recognized as the balm Aderyn had instructed should be used for all manner of injuries waited on the table beside the headboard.

Magnus helped Sutherland sit on the edge of the bed. “I think it best I stand guard in the sitting room. This doesna bear the feel of some random accident that might happen during a fire.”

Sutherland waved him away as he sagged to his side, then rolled to his back and draped an arm across his eyes. “I thank ye,” he whispered.

Sorcha snatched hold of Magnus’s arm as he turned to go. “Case ye should need them, my bow and quiver are in the corner on the far side of the hearth, behind the chair. A pistol, a dirk, and my sgian dubh are in the top drawer of the sideboard.” With a squeeze of his forearm, she stepped closer. “Help me find out who did this to him, aye?”

“Ye have my word, m’lady.” The man gave a curt nod, then left the room.

Returning to the bedside, Sorcha eyed her poor husband, studying him from the tips of his mud-encrusted boots to his matted hair. Bottom lip caught between her teeth, she pondered how best to attack this situation. She had never undressed a man before. Nor washed one. She rolled her sleeves up past her elbows and decided to start with the boots. “I’ll be riddin’ ye of these muddy wet clothes so ye’ll be more comfortable, aye?”

“I’d be grateful if ye wouldna shake me, love,” he said in a strained whisper. “My bloody head is pounding. Truly, I’m fine just the way I am.”

“Nay, ye must be cleaned, and I grant ye that I’ll be quite a bit gentler than Aderyn. I promise to do my best not to shake ye too badly.” Boots were first. Those were simple. She pulled them off, then piled them on a cloth the maids had spread by the door for just such a purpose. His plaid, jacket, and waistcoat were not so easy, but one by one, she coaxed him through, allowing her to peel, prod, and pull them off his body and deposit them in a