Tempest Heart - Paula Quinn Page 0,39
directions than three miles south of here.”
“But, my dear,” Nel laughed, “’tis just that. Three miles south. Ye willna miss it.”
All right then. She was going. She bent to press a kiss to his hot mouth. “I shall be back to you in no time, Tristan.”
She saddled up and took a folded cloth from the innkeeper as payment for the concoction. The man who possessed this cloth would have a hot meal and a bed for ten days or ten uses throughout a year.
Rose promised to repay the innkeeper and his wife for all their trouble and set out without further ado, south.
It didn’t take her long to find the old apothecary, though his house wasn’t overly large. It looked like something out of one of her books. Old, with a magical quality to it—and a deer standing on the narrow, pebble-covered path.
Rose took a moment to let the beauty of this place sink in. She smiled at the dragonflies paused in a shaft of sunlight by the door.
She didn’t want to hurry but she had to. She would return another day to enjoy this place. Now, she had to get that concoction.
She knocked at the door. “Hello?” she called out when no one came to the door. She knocked again. Finally, she turned the doorknob. The door opened. She went inside.
“Hello?” she called out again. Oh, she didn’t know what to do if the apothecary wasn’t here. She would have to wait and pray he wasn’t dead and was coming back.
She shouldn’t wait inside his home though. She was wrong to come inside although she couldn’t help but note that the inside was as charming as the outside. She went to the door and opened it.
“You there!” A male voice stopped her from leaving. “What are you doing?”
“Oh! Forgive me, sir.” Rose repented. “I—”
“What did you rob from me?” he demanded.
“I took nothing. See?” She held out her hand to show him nothing in them.
“You were alone and you stole nothing?”
“I came inside hoping to find you.”
“Mhmm.” He looked her over with his chin in his hand. “You need medicine for someone.”
“Aye.” Rose told him what it was and gave him the cloth from the innkeeper and, thankfully, he nodded, knowing of the remedy. In fact, he stepped away from her and asked her to follow him to the other side of the house, which was a few feet away. On a table in a shady corner, sat eleven brass canisters. The apothecary picked one up and handed it to her, along with a small parchment with directions on what to do with it.
She didn’t wait around but hurried out and quickly gained her horse. She liked how she was able to do things alone. How—
“Lady Rose?”
She turned at the sound of a male’s voice. A familiar voice.
“Captain Harper!” Rose was glad to see him and then her smile faded as she remembered Tristan—and her father’s men who had escorted her and had died from the pestilence. “What are you doing here?”
He looked a bit pale. Was he ill?
“Looking for you, Lady.
What? How? “Did my uncle pen a missive to my father?”
“Aye,” the captain nodded. “He wrote that you were dead—you and the men.” He looked around her. “I hoped that they were with you.”
She shook her head and looked down at the ground. “No, I’m deeply saddened to say that they all succumbed to the pestilence.”
He looked so grieved and she was sorry she told him.
“But you,” he said with a slight smile of relief, “you lived. Your father will be so thrilled. He wept when he received your uncle’s missive.”
“My uncle had me dead before my first cough,” she muttered and then looked down at the vessel in her hands. “I must go. Someone awaits me.”
“My lady, I cannot let you go. Your father grieves for you. I must bring you home.”
No! Not yet! Oh, but he grieved for her. “Captain, I vow to you that I will return home in just a few days.”
He shook his head. “I cannot.”
“Tell him that you saw me. That I am alive and safe. I will explain everything to him when I return. Please, I must go.”
“I’m afraid I cannot.”
“Why not?” she demanded, irritated now. Tristan needed her. “Captain, I—” She stopped speaking and narrowed her eyes on him. “How did you know I was here to be found? My uncle said I was dead. Why are you here searching for me?”
“Because I already knew you were alive.”
She held her