Page 31 of Sutherland's Secret
Lachlan pressed his lips together, but there was grudging respect in his eyes when Eleanor looked up at him.
“Do you have honey?” Eleanor asked.
“Aye.” Hannah instructed one of the girls pressed against the wall, her eyes round as saucers, to ask the cook for honey. The girl ran off, probably pleased to be released from the room.
Eleanor rolled her shoulders. She wasn’t certain how long she’d been bent over Brice, but her body ached.
He moved his head to the side and everyone held their breath. Eleanor wasn’t ready for him to awaken yet. Not until she had the wound bandaged.
The serving girl came back with a pot of honey. Eleanor thanked her and took it. She nodded to Hannah. “In the bag there should be what I need to stitch the wound.”
Hannah dug around in the bag and found what Eleanor needed. In this she was confident. Thanks to her mother, she was accomplished at stitching. She’d never stitched skin together, but if she didn’t think overly much about it, she would be fine.
Her hands were shaking from a combination of exhaustion and fear, but she managed the few stitches needed to sew the round hole closed. Next she spread the honey on the wound. On the other side of the table, men murmured.
“It helps to keep the wound from turning putrid,” she said. “I’ll need clean linens for bandaging.”
“Here.” Hannah handed her a stack.
Eleanor folded two of them and pressed the bandage down on the wound. She instructed Colin to hold it there while she unwound long strips of linen. “We’ll need to roll him over again.”
Since Colin was already occupied, Lachlan took his place. Eleanor felt awkward, so close to the big warrior who held no good feelings toward her.
“My thanks,” she murmured. He grunted in response and lifted Brice when she instructed. Brice was rolled to his other side, and she had to lean over him to grab the end of cloth. She was almost entirely on top of him, and she would have been lying if she’d said she hadn’t felt some stirring inside. Even unconscious, he was so strong, somale. She knew the feel of his arms around her, holding at bay the nightmares that consumed her sleep. She knew the press of his lips against hers. Her face heated, and quickly she grabbed the end of the linen and instructed the men to roll Brice on his back. She secured the ends and stepped back.
Everyone seemed to watch him with breath held, but the rise and fall of his chest was reassuring. His face was spattered with blood, and Eleanor took a clean wet cloth and gently washed it off. “He would be much more comfortable in his own bed,” she said. Lachlan immediately ordered his men to carry their lord to his bedchamber.
Eleanor watched him disappear up the steps, gently carried by his men. Her hands hung at her sides as she surveyed the table in front of her. Bloodied linens lay everywhere. The bloody forceps rested on the bench. The offending pistol ball was sitting on the table where she had placed it. The table itself was covered in blood. It looked as if there had been a massacre rather than the opposite.
Her knees abruptly gave out, and she collapsed on the bench behind her. She drew in a shuddering breath and let herself go. Her body shook, and the tears that had been pressing against her eyes finally flowed.
Colin sat beside her. “Ye did well, lass.”
She shook her head, incapable of speech.
Colin awkwardly put his arm around her, and she was surprised to find herself lean against his strength. He was stockier and shorter than Brice but strong enough for her at the moment.
“I was so scared,” she whispered.
“Well, ye did no’ show it. That was the greatest show of courage I’ve seen yet.”
She huffed out a laugh and passed a hand over her burning eyes. “He has to make it,” she said.
“He will. Sutherland is stubborn. He’ll wake up screaming that he has things t’do and no time to lie about in bed. Mark my words.”
She smiled despite her exhaustion and fear. “I hope so.”
Colin stood, took her hands, and pulled her up. “Ye need to wash up and find yer own bed now.”
“No. He still needs me. I have to look after the wound, change the bandages, apply more honey if necessary.”
“Others can—”
“No.”
Colin looked at her speculatively. “It’s like that, eh?”
She withdrew her hands from his. “He saved my life, Colin. Not once but twice. I owe him everything.”
