Page 43 of Highlander's Wild Lass
She placed the pipe back inside the chest and set it aside. “Better?”
Brannan nodded, laying his hand on his chest.
“The boys ran for the healer,” she told him, watching his chest rise as he took rasping deep breaths.
Brannan motioned behind Celestia.
They all turned to see Auralia frozen with a jug of water and glass in her hands near the doorway. She looked as if she were about to drop everything and run away. Celestia felt the same urge herself.
Brannan was beckoning her forward. “I’m alright, Aurie.”
But was he? Celestia studied her father’s face, heavily lined and pale. She took the jug from Auralia and poured a glass of water, handing it to her father.
Brannan took it and sipped very slow, small sips from the edge of the glass. “Take it, will ye?” he asked Celestia, the glass trembled in his hand.
Celestia placed the glass on the bedside table, within reach for him if he wanted it again.
The front door banged open again and a commotion made its way through the house toward Brannan’s bedroom. The healer barged into the room with the big, black leather bag he always carried. The twins were behind him, ruddy-faced and worried.
“It’s alright,” Brannan repeated to them.
Chester and Hugo only nodded and hung back near the doorway.
“Ye can leave him with me, lass,” the healer told her, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Ye did well, let me tend to him.”
Wordlessly, Celestia nodded and ushered everyone out of the room.
He emerged an hour or so later, doing his best to hide the seriousness of the situation. Celestia watched him walk up the length of the hallway from her seat at the kitchen table; he was dressed in his black traveling cloak looking much like the grim reaper itself.
The healer gripped his bag in front of him with both hands. “I will nay lie to ye, Celestia. He is gettin’ worse.”
Clearly.
“If it happens again, just do what ye did once more.”
Celestia nodded.
“Let him rest for the night, and I’ll be back in the mornin’ to check on him.”
“Aye, thank ye for comin’.”
Once the door clicked softly closed behind him, Celestia went to check on her father. The door was only half-closed, and she crept through the opening, seeing the candles on the bedside table had been blown out.
Brannan was asleep, with the sheets pulled up nearly to his chin. She was unsure if he had done it or the healer, but either way, he was asleep. And he was alive.
She crept back out of the room slowly, trying not to make a sound. She debated closing the door and giving the man peace, but instead, she opened it all the way. Celestia wanted to be able to hear if he had another attack.
She convinced Jacob to stay for dinner before he left for his parents’ house. It was a muted dinner around the table with only dried meat and mashed potatoes with butter to eat.
Auralia was first to leave the table with silent tears streaking down her cheeks. Chester and Hugo were also dead silent, not a single joke passed from their lips throughout the entirety of dinner. And after they placed their dishes in the washbasin, they went to their rooms too.
Celestia showed Jacob out with many promises to get enough sleep and not worry too much. With Jacob gone and the rest of her family in their rooms, she let out a strangled, hobbled sob and sunk to the ground against the front door. The fear and the sadness that she had been holding in for hours now finally found their way out.
Celestia was not sure how long she cried. It could have been minutes; it could have been hours. She hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them, staring into the smoldering kitchen hearth.
Whatever gripped her heart had a sound grip on it. Fear, panic, absolute hopelessness. It all filled her, and she felt as if she would catch fire.
She fisted the tears harshly from her eyes. Images of the last few hours passed in front of her eyes and soon she could no longer see the glowing fireplace.
