trick the devil plays. You look like an angel, but you sound… English.'
He'd roared the last of his statement and immediately started struggling. Jamie leaned so close to his right ear she was almost kissing him, then whispered in Gaelic, 'Rest easy, friend. You're safe in Scots' hands, you are,' she lied.
'Picture your next battle with the English if it will make you feel any better, but hush your talk now. Let the potion woo you to sleep.'
The soft burr she'd deliberately put in her voice sounded awful to her. Angus was too drowsy to notice, though. He quit his struggles and closed his eyes again.
He fell asleep with a smile on his face.
Jamie thought he might be counting the number of English soldiers he was going to kill.
'What did you say to him, milady?' a soldier asked over her shoulder.
'I told him he was too stubborn to die just yet,' Jamie replied with a dainty shrug.
Gavin was disconcerted. 'But how would you be knowing if Angus was stubborn or not?'
'He's a Scotsman, isn't he?'
Gavin looked over at Alec to see if they were supposed to be amused or insulted by Lady Kincaid's comment. Alec was smiling. Gavin decided his mistress must have meant to jest with him. A frown marred his brow, and he began to wonder how long it was going to take him to understand this unusual Englishwoman. Her sweet voice was as deceptive as her appearance. She was such a delicate-looking little thing. Why, the top of her head barely reached her husband's shoulder. That husky voice of hers could coax him into complying with each and every request she gave if he didn't stay on his guard.
'I would also like to help you.'
The tearful voice belonged to Elizabeth. She stood across the table, facing Jamie. The fair-haired woman still looked frightened, but determined, too, and when Jamie smiled at her, she gave a hesitant smile back. 'Angus is my husband.
I'll do whatever you tell me to do.'
'I'm thankful for your help,' Jamie told her. 'Dampen this cloth and press it to your husband's brow,' she directed.
Jamie pulled three stockings out of her pocket and slipped one of them over the wood slat Gavin had provided. Before she was finished, one of the soldiers had covered the second slat for her.
Her hands were shaking now, for the task she most dreaded couldn't be delayed any longer. It was time to straighten Angus's arm.
'In England, it has become fashionable to use a sleeping sponge to put a man to sleep, but I don't hold with that form of treatment,' she rambled. 'I pray Angus will sleep through this.'
'Would he sleep better if you'd used the sponge?' a soldier asked.
'Oh, yes,' Jamie answered. 'But he might not wake up. Most don't. The disadvantage does outweigh the merit, don't you think?'
The soldiers immediately blurted out their agreement.
'Alec? You're going to have to do this for me. I don't have the strength,' she said. 'Gavin, I'll need long strips of linen ready to bind the slats together.'
Jamie worked the third stocking over Angus's swollen hand, paused to cut five holes in the toe of the sock, then eased his fingers and thumb through the openings. Each time she touched his arm, she gave Angus a quick, worried glance to see if he'd awakened.
'Alec, take hold of his hand. Gavin, you hold his upper arm,' she directed.
'Pull, but ever so slowly please, until I can straighten the bone. Elizabeth, you must turn your back now. I don't want you watching this.'
Jamie took a deep, settling breath, then murmured, 'God, I do hate this part of my duties. Do it now.'
It took three attempts before she was satisfied that the broken ends of the bone were in the correct position. She slid the first slat under the arm, then put the second on top. Her hands shook. Alec held the slats in place while Jamie wound the strips of linen around and around the wood. When she was finished, Angus's arm was firmly locked in place.
'There, the worst is finished,' she said with a deep sigh of relief.
'But his chest, milady,' the priest reminded her. He let out a loud, painful-sounding cough, then added, 'It's got a gaping hole in it.'
'It looks worse than it truly is,' Jamie answered.
A collective sigh made her smile. When she requested additional light, she was almost blinded by the number of candles the soldiers held up for her.
Jamie asked for another goblet of warm water. She opened yet another one of her jars, sprinkled a fair amount of orange powder into the liquid, and then surprised the priest by handing it to him. 'Drink this. It will cure your cough,' she told him. 'I can tell it pains you.'
The priest was speechless. Her consideration astonished him. He took a fair gulp, then grimaced. 'Drink every bit of it, Father,' Jamie ordered.
Like a child, he balked for a minute, then did as she ordered.
Jamie turned her attention to Angus's chest injury. She worked well into the night. The wound was crusted with dirt and dried blood. Jamie was meticulous in her task, for she knew from past experience, and from her mother's instructions, the terrible damage a single fleck of dirt could do if left inside the wound.
She didn't understand the reason behind this truth but believed it to be fact all the same. Since the wound was ragged, she used needle and thread to sew the edges together.
Alec had ordered a bed carried into the great hall. He knew Jamie would wish to have her patient nearby, and Angus's cottage was a good distance away.
Angus's wife hadn't spoken another word during the long night. She hadn't moved from her position across from Jamie and watched her every move.
Jamie barely paid her any attention. She'd been bent over the warrior for such a long time that when she finally straightened away from the table, pain rushed up her spine, startling a gasp out of her. She stumbled backwards. Before she could regain her balance, she felt at least a dozen hands on her back bracing her.
'Elizabeth, please help me bandage your husband's chest,' she asked, thinking to include the worried-looking woman.
Elizabeth was eager to assist. As soon as the task was done, Alec carried his friend over to the bed. Jamie and Elizabeth followed behind.
'He'll be spitting mad with pain when he wakes up,' Jamie predicted. 'You're going to have a bear on your hands, Elizabeth.'
'But he will wake up.'
There was a smile in Elizabeth's voice. 'Aye, he will wake up,' Jamie confirmed.
She let Elizabeth tuck the covers around her husband's shoulders before she asked, 'Where did Edith and Annie go?'
'Back to their cottage to sleep,' Elizabeth answered. She brushed her hand across Angus's brow in a gentle, loving action that told how very much she cared for her husband. 'I'm to wake them when Angus… when he dies.'
Jamie gave Alec a perplexed look.
Father Murdock started snoring, drawing everyone's attention. The old priest was sprawled in a chair he'd pulled up next to the table. 'Oh, dear,' Jamie said. 'I forgot to tell him the potion would make him sleepy.'
'He can sleep there,' Alec announced. He turned to Angus's wife and said,
'Elizabeth, go and get some rest. Gavin and I will take turns sitting with your husband until you return.'
From the crestfallen look on Elizabeth's face, Jamie could tell she didn't want to leave her husband. Yet she immediately nodded and started for the door. Jamie assumed that obedience to her laird overrode all other considerations.
'Alec, if you were ill, I certainly wouldn't leave your side. Why can't Elizabeth sleep here? She could rest in a chair or perhaps use one of the rooms above the stairs, don't you suppose?'
Elizabeth whirled around. 'I would be most comfortable,' she interjected.
Alec looked from one woman to the other, then nodded. 'Go and gather your things,' he said. 'You'll sleep in
