following Tildy and whirled to ask him that question. Frowning, he glanced ahead to where Tildy had reached the door to Evina’s bedchamber and was entering. “With you,” he answered.
“Nay.”
“Nay?” he echoed, jerking his gaze back to his brother with surprise.
“Nay,” Rory repeated firmly, glancing over his shoulder briefly at the sound of another door opening farther up the hall. When it proved to just be Aulay leaving his room, Rory turned back to add, “Ye’ll wait below.”
“The hell I will,” Conran said at once. “She is me betrothed.”
“Aye, which is why ye’ve no business being in there,” Rory said firmly. “Evina has repeatedly refused to allow me to check her wound. She’s obviously no’ comfortable with the idea, and yer presence will no’ help. Go wait below.”
Conran opened his mouth to refuse, and then grunted in surprise when Aulay caught his arm as he drew even with them, and turned him around.
“Come along, brother,” Aulay said, tugging him down the hall. “Let Rory do what he does best.”
“But she—” he began.
“Will be fine,” Aulay interrupted. “Rory is good at this. Let him tend her.”
Conran scowled, but didn’t bother arguing further. Aulay had a good hold on him and wasn’t letting go. He would wait below whether he liked it or not. Sometimes it was damned annoying having brothers, he thought with disgust.
“Well, someone does no’ look happy this morn,” Saidh said with amusement as Aulay led a still-scowling Conran to the table moments later.
“He wanted to accompany Rory to check Evina’s wound,” Aulay said calmly as he settled at the trestle tables and drew Conran down beside him.
“Oh, no, that would no’ have gone well at all,” Saidh said at once.
“Why?” Conran asked with surprise.
“Because ye’re her betrothed,” his sister said simply, as if that should explain everything.
It didn’t for him, however, and Conran scowled again. “And that is why I should be there.”
“Nay. That is why ye should no’ be there,” Jetta assured him, drawing his gaze to Aulay’s petite wife. She and his brother, Geordie, had arrived with Saidh and Greer the day before. Geordie and a retinue of soldiers had escorted Jetta to MacDonnell, and then continued on with them from there.
“But why?” Conran asked with exasperation.
“Because the wound is on her chest,” Saidh said with a shrug.
“Which is why I should be there,” he growled with exasperation. Rory shouldn’t be looking at Evina’s breast without him there.
“Conran,” Jetta said gently. “When Rory looks at a wound, all he sees is a wound, no matter where on the body it is. Howbeit, ye will look on it as Evina’s wounded body. If ye see what I mean?”
“Nay,” he said at once, “I do no’ see what ye mean.”
“She means ye’ll see Evina’s wounded breast while Rory will see a wound that just happens to be on Evina’s chest,” Saidh said shortly.
When he continued to peer at them uncomprehending, Jetta frowned and added, “Ye look at her like a man. Rory looks at her like a healer, and having the two of ye there would make her uncomfortable.”
“But why?” he repeated, really not getting what they were trying to tell him.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Con,” Saidh snapped. “Having ye leering at her breast while Rory is trying to check her wound would make her uncomfortable.”
“I would no’ leer,” he protested indignantly.
The expressions on the faces of his family members suggested no one believed that. Deciding it was a waste of time to try to argue the point, Conran scowled and simply grabbed a pastry and bit into it, trying not to imagine Rory even now unwrapping the bandages from Evina’s chest and revealing her breasts, or at least her injured breast. Her other one was not covered by the bandages and would be bare from the moment Evina lowered her tunic, which she’d have to do for Rory to remove the bandages. He was up there right now, looking at her breasts, touching the injured one, checking for—
“Ye did a fine job, brother. I’m impressed.”
Conran glanced up sharply at those words, and blinked at the sight of Rory claiming the empty space between him and Geordie on the bench. There was no hiding his surprise as he asked, “Ye’re done already?”
“Aye, well, Tildy got there ahead o’ me and helped Evina remove the wrappings and arrange a plaid around her so that I would only see the injury itself. I took a look, and ’tis healing nicely. No sign o’ infection, and yer stitching was better than