Page 16 of Highlander's Escaped Prisoner
At once, he heard a gasp, then she spoke. “Bryce?” she asked fearfully, sitting up. “Are you all right? Are you in pain?”
He could see the glow of her eyes as she looked at him, but no more. “No,” he replied. He was beginning to ache a little, but he decided that it was nothing unbearable, nothing that could not wait until morning. “I am fine,” he whispered. “Go back to sleep.” He listened as Nessa laid her head back down on her mattress again. “Thank you for what you did yesterday.”
There were a few seconds of silence. “I would not have had to do anything if I had not tied you up to begin with,” she answered. “Bryce, this is all my fault. You need not thank me. You should be cursing me.”
“I do not believe in curses,” he replied, his deep voice softened by the darkness and the quiet. “Or bearing grudges.” Then he closed his eyes and fell back into a deep, dreamless slumber.
Nessa sighed. What a good man he was! Suddenly she wanted to put her arms around him, hug him, and cherish him. She had never felt protective towards anyone before, but perhaps this bigman was bringing out the best in her.
“Time tae get a’ this fur off yer face,” Catriona said briskly as she ushered Bryce into a stout wooden chair and honed a razor on a leather strap. He glanced apprehensively at the lethal-looking blade and then into Nessa’s eyes. She gave him a reassuring smile, even though she herself was a little afraid of the gleaming blade of the implement.
Seeing their terror, Catriona smiled. “Dinnae worry yerself,” she said soothingly. “Dae ye know how many times I have done this? Sometimes the toffs fae the big houses need a barber an’ they come tae me.”
Bryce laughed nervously, but he relaxed as Catriona methodically shaved away the forest of hair from his face, and he watched Nessa’s eyes widen in astonishment as she saw it landing on the stone floor of the cottage.
“There is so much of it!” she exclaimed in horror.
“Seven years’ worth.” Bryce’s voice was bitter. “It is a wonder it is not down to my waist.”
When Catriona had finished with his beard, she began to cut Bryce’s hair, and he watched Nessa’s reaction change from one of horrified amazement to one of approval. Finally, the healer declared herself finished.
“Ye are now fit tae be seen,” she announced, standing back and smiling triumphantly. “But I have nay mirrors,” she said regretfully.
Bryce turned to Nessa and raised his eyebrows in a question. She was almost weeping. “You look...glorious!” she breathed. “So handsome.” She had to restrain herself from rushing forward to kiss him.
If Bryce could have seen himself, he would have looked upon a tall, muscular man with wavy brown hair that just touched his shoulders and a smooth, clean-shaven face with an angular jaw and a square chin with a perfect dimple in the middle. If he had but known it, it was the face that Nessa had imagined it would be.
“Aye, ye have a handsome face, sir,” the healer agreed, smiling as she took out a broom and began to sweep the floor. “Looks as if a wee animal has died in here!” she laughed.
Bryce ran his hand over the soft, smooth skin of his jaw, wishing he could see himself.
“Soon,” Nessa said, smiling as if she had read his mind. “Then you can admire yourself to your heart’s content.”
“We must go,” he said, sighing. He looked down at himself, now clad in some serviceable working clothes. Catriona’s dead husband had been almost as tall as Bryce, and she had been glad to donate them to the tall man whose ragged clothing was almost falling from his body. “Thank you for everything.” His voice was fervent as he handed her the bundle of rags. “Please burn these for me.”
“Gladly!” Catriona smiled. She handed a small linen bag to Nessa. “Here are some healing herbs, mistress. I hope ye wilnae need them, but it’s as well tae be ready for anything. God bless ye.”
“Thank you for everything,” Nessa replied gratefully. She handed the healer a bundle of coins, and Catriona thanked her without counting them.
Bryce and Nessa mounted Jo and went on their way while the healer watched their progress, smiling. She was not called a wise woman for nothing. She knew love when she saw it.
They rode for a little while in silence, as they had before, but Bryce knew enough about Nessa now to know that there was some momentous question in her mind.
“I need to know a little more from you about my uncle’s death,” she said suddenly. “I do not believe my father did it, so if we dismiss him, then who are we left with?”
Bryce shrugged. “Me...and the reason that the suspicion fell on me,” Bryce explained, “is because someone smeared my horse’s hooves with blood. I have a feeling that it was done by Logan Crosbie, who hated me.”
“I see,” Nessa said evenly. “Would it surprise you to know then that I am betrothed to Logan Crosbie?”
10
Roy Guthrie was beside himself with worry. His daughter Nessa was all he had to remind him of the woman he had loved all those years ago when Nessa was born, and with the loss of his brother Gerald, she was the only family he had left. He loved her with all his heart and simply could not contemplate life without her. He was determined to find her, so he had thrown all his resources into the search. On the first day, thinking that she might only have wandered too far into the woods near the castle, he had sent out twenty guards to look there, but they had found no sign of her and had returned just before sunset.
Davie Jack, head of the search party, looked tired and dispirited at their failure. “M’Laird, there is nay sign o’ her. We looked everywhere. I am sorry, M’Laird.”
“Thank you, Davie. You did your best,” Roy replied wearily, even as his heart plummeted. He had felt reasonably hopeful that Nessa would be found, sure that his daughter would come back, exhausted and perhaps a little scratched and bruised from a night in the woods but otherwise unharmed. Now he was frantic.He ran his fingers back through his hair in agitation, then paced his study from end to end several times before addressing Davie again.
“We will start again at dawn tomorrow,” he ordered. “I am coming with you. This time, I will double the men, and we will take the hunting dogs with us. We will broaden the search to the woods near Wallaceneuk.”
