Page 33 of The Cruel Highlander's Healer
“This will shape ye right up,” she cooed to the man on the cot before her.
His pallor was sickly, a greenish grey tint to his skin. Conall had seen the likes of it only on a corpse. The only difference was that the men and women around him were sweating or groaning. The dead did not groan.
“Ye just need to drink a bit more,” Eliza coaxed, her voice as soft as when she’d tended to the children.
The man winced, a cough wrenching from his lips as she persuaded him to drink more of the liquid she held to his lips. But, despite his difficulty, he managed to get all of it down.
A few moments passed, and slowly, the tonic began working magic. The pain eased from his face slightly as he sank back further into his cot.
“It’s strange,” Eliza murmured, her voice barely reaching him as she spoke in a low, hushed tone.
“What’s strange?” Conall prompted, taking a step closer to her.
She hurled toward him, seeming surprised to find him there and speaking to her. Whether it was because she had been speaking to herself or because she hadn’t realized she’d spoken out loud, Conall didn’t know.
He stared at her, unwilling to further explain himself as he waited for her to answer. Eventually, Eliza seemed to gather herself.
“They’re all showing signs of the same poisoning,” Eliza explained, eyes darting back and forth between her patients and Conall. “All arsenic poisoning. It’s why we were able to make the tonic, and it’s working. But what I’m having trouble understanding is how they all were infected.”
“Do ye have any thoughts? Ideas?” Conall prompted.
Eliza sucked her lip in between her teeth, chewing on the skin as she considered his question. It was something he’d noticed her doing before, and Conall was beginning to understand this to mean she was concentrating, lost in her own thoughts as she turned over all the possibilities presented to her.
Seconds passed, eventually turning into minutes. And still, Eliza did not speak.
Suddenly, she sucked in a surprised breath, her eyes going wide.
“Where does everyone get their water?” she asked.
Her head whipped around, gaze flying about frantically as if the answer to her question would appear right before her.
Conall’s brows pulled together.
Why would she be concerned about water?
Despite his confusion, he answered her all the same.
“The lake,” he explained simply, dipping his head to the north, where just beyond the borders of the town, the lake rested. “The one I showed ye just a few days ago.”
Eliza’s lips moved, but no sound reached Conall’s ears. She was talking to herself, working out the possibilities. Her eyes snapped back to his, shining as she seemed to work out everything that had occurred.
“The bairns play in that lake, do they not?” she asked, and when Conall nodded, a satisfied look flickered across her fair features. “That’s it then.”
Eliza began walking, waving her hand to indicate that he should follow. He bristled at the order, but when he noticed her walking directly toward Dougal, he realized he didn’t want to object.
Following after her, he heard it the moment she approached the guard.
“The people are gettin’ poisoned through the lake,” Eliza explained, glancing at Conall before returning her attention to Dougal. “At first, it was only affectin’ the wee ones because they were in it the most. They’re also much smaller than the adults.”
“It would take less poison for them to fall ill,” Conall interjected, the idea occurring to him as Eliza talked excitedly.
She glanced at him, an impressed look flickering across her features as she gave him a quick nod.
“Aye,” she continued. “They only need swallow a few mouthfuls by accident while they were playin’ and then combine that with what they would consume while they ate or drank, and that’s why they fell ill first.”
“Why would it take so long?” Dougal asked, his gaze uncertain as it flickered between Eliza and Conall. “The adults and everyone in the village have been drinkin’ from the lake the entire time. Why have they nae fallin’ ill yet? Why is it only hittin’ ‘em now?”
Conall had been toiling with that very question in his own mind, and he thought he’d worked out the answer. Eliza opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it.
