The Bard (Highland Heroes #5) - Maeve Greyson Page 0,97
gave the door in question a narrow-eyed glare. “That will ensure no one has access to ye through those hellacious tunnels ever again.” He turned back to the maid. “Tell him I appreciate his coming with the urgency I called for, but I would rather he wait until later in the morning. I’m sure my wife will wish to get a little sun in the garden. He can install the lock then, aye?”
The maid bobbed her head. “Aye, Master MacCoinnich. I’ll tell him.” She stood at the door a little longer, beaming, as though she had just received a pot of gold.
“What is it, Lena?” Sorcha asked, sensing the young woman wished to say something else.
“It’s just…” the lass paused, then clasped her hands together. “It’s just we are all so fearsome happy that ye’re on the mend, m’lady. And that yerself and Master MacCoinnich will be staying here. We couldna imagine the keep without ye.”
“Thank ye, Lena. I’m fearsome happy myself.”
Lena dipped a quick curtsy, then gently closed the door.
“It didna take long for that word to spread,” Sutherland observed with an arched brow.
“It never does.” Sorcha risked pulling in a deeper breath, bracing herself for the dull pain of her sore ribs but was happily surprised. Whatever that nastiness was Aderyn had given her seemed to be making her discomfort quite a bit easier to bear. Sutherland’s idea of sunning in the garden sounded like the perfect place to enjoy breaking her fast. “If ye’ll help me with a simple dressing gown, I feel sure Mrs. Breckenridge would be happy to order us a table set in the garden.”
He stood and held out both hands. “Shall we see how steady ye are first? Then we’ll decide for certain about yesitting down there long enough to enjoy a meal.”
“I dinna take to coddling,” she informed him. Taking hold of his hands, she lowered her feet over the side of the bed but made the mistake of standing too fast and set her head to spinning.
Sutherland steadied her with an affectionately arrogant look. “Ye see? It’s nay coddling. It’s keeping yer lovely arse from hitting the floor, ye ken?”
She wouldn’t grace that with an answer. Instead, she pointed at the dressing gown on the hook of her wardrobe door. “There’s the gown I’ll wear to the garden. Grant me a moment behind the privy screen, aye? I’m steadier now. I swear.”
He held onto her a moment longer, looking as though he thought her a liar. “Ye’re certain ye dinna need my help…” Rather than finish the sentence, he nodded toward the trifold room divider hiding the chamber pot cabinet and the washbasin and pitcher from the rest of the room.
“I assure ye, I do not.” Husband or not, that was not the sort of intimacy she would ever agree to unless forced by the inability to handle such things herself. One carefully placed step at a time, she tended to her needs, washed with some of Aderyn’s soap scented with invigorating herbs, then emerged victorious. “I feel stronger by the moment,” she announced and meant it.
“It gladdens my heart to hear it.” Sutherland helped her slip the gown on over her shift, then had her sit in front of the hearth where he knelt in front of her with stockings and her softest pair of leather shoes. His wicked smile heated her a hundred times more than the banked coals smoldering in the hearth. “M’lady? Allow me to help ye with yer stockings?”
“I’m truly feeling much better. Nearly healed, in fact,” she said as he had her stretch out one leg at a time and slowly slid her stockings up to her thighs.
He planted a kiss above each of her knees before securing the hosiery with a ribbon. “When ye have fully healed, it will be like our wedding night all over again.” He slid her foot into one of her shoes, then paused and looked her in the eyes. “I assure ye, lass, I ache for ye just as ye ache for me.”
She wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or worse. All she knew for certain was that she needed her husband, badly. “If we were verra cautious—maybe here in the chair, and we moved verra little?”
“As much as I want ye, I willna risk it, m’eudail. I fear we would intend the best, but then lose ourselves and cause ye harm.” But he gently spread her knees farther apart and slid his hand up between them