Page 27 of A Highland Healer Captured
Katie pursed her lips, clearly torn, but in the end she fetched another blanket and wrapped it snugly around the boy. Together, they half-carried, half-walked him out into the courtyard.
The morning air was crisp, tinged with damp earth and the faint smoke of cooking fires. The walls loomed high, but the sky above stretched wide and endless. Grayson tipped his head back, eyes shining.
“There! See them? The starlings.” He lifted a trembling hand, pointing. “They fly together like one great beast.”
Skylar followed his gaze. A flock wheeled in unison, black specks against the pale blue, their calls sharp and sweet.
“Listen,” he whispered, voice reverent. “Hear how they chatter to each other?”
Skylar closed her eyes, focusing. The sound came like music, high and trilling. She smiled. “Aye. I hear them.”
For the first time since she had arrived, the weight of helplessness lifted from her shoulders. She wasn’t healing his lungs, not yet. But she was healing something else—his heart, his joy, his sense of flight.
Grayson leaned against her, his cheeks flushed pink with cold, but his smile wide and real. “Ye’re nae so bad for an inland Lady,” he teased weakly.
Skylar laughed, hugging him closer. “And ye’re a fine teacher, little bird.”
Katie hovered nearby with an anxious eye, but even she smiled at the sight of Grayson’s delight.
For the first time in days, Skylar felt like she had done something right.
The sunlight still warmed Skylar’s cheeks when the sound of boots struck stone. Unmistakable.
She turned just in time to see Zander storm across the courtyard, cloak snapping in the wind like a banner of war. His face was as sharp as any blade, his eyes darker than any pit, and when they landed on Grayson bundled in her arms, the air itself seemed to tighten.
“Inside,” he barked, making her shoulders jump even though she was expecting it.
Grayson startled, then clutched at Skylar’s cloak. “Da, we were —”
“Take him inside, now. Or I will,” His tone cracked like a whip. Eyes boring into hers.
Skylar was planted, firm in place. Paralyzed. He reached them in three strides, “Fine, I’ll do it meself.” Scooping the boy into his arms with a gentleness that clashed with the rage radiating from him.
Grayson let out a weak protest, his head turning toward Skylar, but Zander ignored it. Katie wrung her hands nervously, but said nothing as she watched the laird carry his son back through the keep doors.
The bleeding nerve of this man!
Skylar’s temper smoldered with every step after him. By the time Grayson had been tucked back into his bed, cheeks still pink from the cold, she was a kettle at boil.
Zander closed the chamber door with a finality that was so quiet it might as well break the hinges off the wall. He turned on her, voice low and deadly. “What in God’s name possessed ye?”
Her arms crossed, chin high. “Possessedme? I gave the laddie some fresh air. I gave him a moment of joy.”
“Yeriskedhislife!”
“Igavehim life!” The words burst out sharp, cutting through the heavy air. “Aye, maybe nae in his lungs, but in his heart. He’s a child, nae some relic to be guarded in a dark room!”
His jaw clenched, muscles taut. “Ye had nay right.”
“And ye do?” she snapped. “Ye storm in when it pleases ye, bark orders like the world bends to yer will, and then vanish again while yer son aches for ye. He told me himself that he feels like a bird trapped in a cage. And what do ye do? Ye keep the door locked from yer own son!”
“Because the world beyond that door will kill him!”
“Nay!” Her voice softened, but the steel in it remained. “What will kill him is never letting him feel alive while he’s still breathing.”
For once, Zander faltered.
Skylar stepped closer, anger carrying her forward until she stood nearly toe to toe with him. She jabbed a finger against his chest. “Ye think because ye can raise a sword and shout down men twice yer size, that makes ye strong. But Grayson doesnae need a warrior. He needs his faither. He needs laughter and love. Heneeds to see the sky. Ye’d ken that if ye were here more than a shadow in his life.”
