Page 18 of Highlander's Captive Bride
When she was ready, she bid Elodie and Poppy goodbye, promising to return soon, and then she and Nadia left the room. Nadia took her down the hallway a short way and opened the door to another room.
“These are the healing rooms,” Nadia told Daisy, beckoning her inside. “Our healer, Bunty, is away treating some folks with a fever in one of the villages,” she explained further.
She showed Daisy around the various shelves and cupboards, all filled with the ingredients that were essential for healing an array of illnesses and ailments, as well as pieces of equipment Daisy might need.
It did not take Daisy long to get her bearings. There was the main healing room with two smaller rooms leading off it, where seriously sick patients could be kept for observation.
“Well, I’m impressed. It’s well-stocked and very neat and orderly,” Daisy remarked, feeling almost at home among the familiar tools of her trade.
“Good. I hope ye’ll have everything ye need. Is Elodie any better this morning?” Nadia asked as they left the room to take a short tour of the castle.
“A wee bit, but she’s still very ill.”
“And d’ye ken what is the cause of it yet?”
Daisy bit back a sigh, tired of being asked the same question. “’Tis still too early to say.”
They descended the stairs together, with Jamie trailing behind them. Daisy noticed that, every now and then, when she would turn and smile at him, he would blush like a maiden and smile back almost shyly. It seemed unlike him, for he had looked at her quite boldly upon her arrival.
But love does strange things to folks, so they say.
They spent their morning talking while Nadia showed her the various ways to get around the castle and some of the grand rooms within. There was no lack of luxury and comfort at Castle Murdoch, Daisy realized, barbaric though its owner might be.
Just before noon, they ended their tour, and Nadia showed Daisy the way to the dining hall, suggesting they had some tea. Again, the ranks of benches and scarred tables, the massive hearths flanking the vast room, and the raised dais where the Laird and his family would sit all seemed familiar to Daisy.
They sat at one of the tables, and tea was soon brought to them, along with some buttered bannocks and honey.
“D’ye mind if I eat while we talk?” Daisy asked, looking at the steaming bannocks, her appetite returning.
“Nay, of course not. Help yerself. I’ll pour us some tea,” Nadia said obligingly, taking up the teapot.
Daisy split a bannock and spread honey over it, delighting in the sweetness on her tongue when she bit into it. Energy flowed through her as she ate. She glanced at Jamie, who was seated nearby, casually observing them as he polished off a tankard of ale.
“Tell me, Nadia. Ye’re the Laird’s ward, is that right?” Daisy asked between mouthfuls, curious to know the girl’s story.
“Aye. He took me in eight years ago when I was still a bairn,” Nadia explained, blowing on her tea delicately.
“Why? What happened to yer family?”
“Och, they’re all gone, Daisy. Killed by the Laird. I’m the last of the McGowans left now,” Nadia told her matter-of-factly.
Daisy nearly choked on her bannock. Hurriedly, she chewed and swallowed, sure that her ears must be deceiving her. “What? Surely, ye dinnae mean this laird, the Laird of Murdoch?”
“Aye. He had to wipe out the clan, ye see, Daisy. Me faither was a very bad man, cruel beyond belief. Me braither, Lachlan, was much the same, but I do miss him sometimes, a little bit.” Nadia looked guilty as she made the confession.
“Well, of course, ye do, lass,” Daisy said, astonished afresh at her captor’s ruthless brutality. “He was yer braither! But how can ye live with the man who killed yer whole family and wiped out yer clan? D’ye nae hate him?” She was certain she would if she were in Nadia’s shoes.
“Och, nay. As I told ye, me faither was very cruel, but Laird Murdoch is always kind to me.”
Though Daisy searched for it, there was not a shred of untruthfulness on Nadia’s face. Somehow, the brute had made her grateful for annihilating her people. It was almost impossible for Daisy to believe.
A short while later, after she had thanked Nadia for the tour and her company, Daisy easily found her way back to Elodie’s chambers. As she had expected, the child showed no real improvement. If anything, she seemed rather downhearted, despite Poppy’s cheerful chatter.
“What’s the matter with her? She seems so despondent,” Daisy whispered to Poppy when she had the chance.
“Och, she hoped the Laird would come and see her this morning, but he hasnae come. That’s what always makes her sad,” the servant explained.
“Is that so?” Daisy said, her ire rising again against the Laird, who was too busy to spend time with his daughter, who clearly, and misguidedly in her book, thought him a hero.
