Page 80 of When a Highlander Vows
Seamus’ face came in his mind as well. His kind eyes, bright smile, the friend who had seen him through the darkest of times. The man who’d pushed beyond the cold barriers Lucas had created for himself all these years. Seamus was now one with the dead, and yet it seemed wrong, for he had been all brightness, not unlike his sister.
A voice spoke in his ear, but it was not there in front of him; he knew it was only in his mind. It was Seamus’ voice, lilting and teasing as always.
“Stand tall, ye dobber. Daenae give up now when there is so much ahead. There is so much life and adventure within yer grasp. Ye’d be a fool to waste it.”
That was it. It was all Lucas need to find the last bits of strength he had to step out of Jack’s final swing of death, take his dirk in his other hand and plunge it hard and deep into Jack’s chest. The man paused, as if frozen, his mouth open, and his eyes wide.
The battlefield was now silent, more silent than it yet had been. A choking sound from Jack was the only echo in the still space. After a few seconds, he fell back to the ground, making a heavy thunk on the grass.
A cheer rose up from the castle, or so Lucas thought, but he dropped his sword, his arm weak from the wound, and he fell down as well. He thought he heard Archie’s voice calling for him, but soon it was lost in the swirl of darkness that claimed him. Death, after all, had come at last.
Caitlin had felt a similar searing pain in her soul when she’d heard of her brother’s death. There had been no body, though. His had been relinquished into the sea. But now, the pain inside of her was even worse as she watched the body of Lucas being pulled into the castle, held by four men on a piece of leather, stretched between two wooden poles.
Archie had come for those in the hall, allowing them to leave, and Paige had run off to join the injured men as they filed down to the healer’s chambers.
“He is alive, Lass,” Archie had said, when Caitlin had stared after Lucas on his way down and down into the bowels of the castle.
“Aye?” she asked, almost drunk with fear and pain.
“Aye,” Archie nodded, looking into her eyes. “Paige will make sure he lives.”
“I am coming,” she said stalwartly, refusing to be cowed.
“Ye willnae want to see.”
“Aye, I will.” Lottie held onto her hand, and together they descended the steps to the healer’s chambers.
There were so many men come to be aided, and Paige was in a flurry of activity, moving about from one to the next. When Caitlin and Lottie came to Lucas, he lay stretched out on woolen blankets, his face pale. Paige came up to them.
“I’ve stemmed the blood flow for now, but I must clean the wound, or it will fester.” She wiped a hand over her forehead, glistening with sweat. “He will come out on the other end of it, if I dae me job.”
“So ye will,” Caitlin said, trying to force a smile.
But she couldn’t change the pallor of her cheeks or the way that Lottie looked at her grandson with fear in her eyes, completely subdued.
“Go upstairs. I will tend him,” Paige said, touching her arm. “Ye daenae need to watch this. I will have the men return him to his chamber so that he can rest there.”
“Aye, very wise, Lass,” Lottie said, pulling Caitlin away from the scene.
Upstairs, she poured Caitlin a cup of wine, forcing it into her fingers. Injured men had begun to pour into the main hall, and servants were working to provide cloth and blankets, hauling buckets of water.
“Ye should go to yer chamber, Lass,” Lottie said. “Rest a while. I will wake ye when it is time.”
“Nay,” she said. “I can help. If this is to be me home, then I can help. And I cannae sit and wait in the darkness while Lucas fades from this life. I cannae—” her voice broke, and Lottie reached out to squeeze her wrist.
“Aye, rightly so.”
Archie, once he’d finished his work came to tell them of the facts. “They ran, the lot of them, when their laird was gone, lookin’ as if they were glad for it. But they ken that Webster has nay heir. That the lands will forfeit to the closest clan until an heir can be selected. It is Lucas’ land now,” he said with a morbid laugh.
If he lives.
For the next three days, they worked, keeping injured men in as much comfort as they could, collecting bodies, sending men home to their families, and more. Over that time, she’d kept an eye on Lucas, visiting him in his chamber whenever she could, hardly sleeping as he lay with his eyes closed, his skin not yet returning to its old color.
Every evening, after a long day, she would take the stairs and go to sit with him. Taking up his hand, she kissed it.
“I love ye,” she said. “I love ye so much I feel me heart might burst. Daenae leave me. Nae when I have only just found ye.”
It was the same each day, and while Paige had been confident at first that there was no fever and no infection, Lucas still had not woke. Caitlin began to prepare her heart that he might never wake. That a matching stone would have to be erected next to her brother’s.
