Geordie opened his mouth to say no, and then thought better of it. As weak as he was, he wouldn’t be able to manage on hisown once his brothers were gone, and big as he was, Dwyn couldn’t get him there, so he muttered, “Aye. Mayhap.”
“Good, then we can have Mavis send someone to change the bed while we take ye there,” Rory said, and dragged the furs andlinens the rest of the way off of him, revealing a large folded linen square across his hips. There was another larger oneunder his arse too, he noticed, and grimaced, knowing what it was for. He’d been on his back for two weeks, unable to usethe garderobe. They’d been protecting the bed and beddings. On the bright side, neither linen seemed dirty, he noted as thetwo men dressed him in a nightshirt that fell to his knees. But then he hadn’t eaten or drank for two weeks, and, for allhe knew, they may have changed the cloths just minutes before he woke.
“I’ll go ask Mavis to see to the bed, and tell Dwyn to take her time. There’s no sense her coming up to stand about whilethe maids work,” Rory said once they had him dressed.
Aulay nodded at that, but said, “Leave the door open,” and then bent to scoop up Geordie.
“Oy,” he complained as his brother started to carry him to the door. “I could walk with a little help.”
Aulay snorted at that. “Ye could no’ even raise yer arms or move yer legs to dress, Geordie. We’d have to pull yer arms overeach of our shoulders and drag ye there.”
“’Twould be less humiliating than being carted around like a bairn,” he grumbled with disgust.
“Aye. So yer wife said many times as she was carried to the garderobe and back the last couple weeks,” he said with a smile.“She grew quite impatient with no’ being able to walk. I suspect had Rory no’ said she could start putting weight on bothfeet again yester eve, she might have done him bodily harm.”
“What?” Geordie asked with surprise. “But she was nearly healed before I was injured. Rory thought another day or two andshe’d be able to take off the bandages and walk again.”
“Aye, well, that was before she ruined them in the woods trying to save yer sorry hide.”
“How badly?” he asked with concern.
“Her already healed foot took the worst damage. She somehow lost her slipper and Jetta and Rory think she must have impaledthat one on a broken branch on the ground or something. She had a lot of slivers, cuts and a nice-sized hole between her heeland the meat under her toes. Fortunately, it did no’ get infected like yer wound did. Her other foot made out better. Thelinen wrappings protected them for the most part, though they had unraveled and were hanging from her ankle by the time wegot her back to the keep,” he said, and then ordered, “Open the door.”
Geordie glanced around to see that they’d reached the garderobe. He automatically tried to reach for the door handle, buthis arm merely flopped down at his side when he took it from his stomach and lap where it was resting. Mouth tightening, hemuttered, “Sorry.”
“Nay. I’m sorry. I forgot,” Aulay said quietly, and then turned slightly to catch the door handle with the hand under Geordie’slegs. He tugged it open a bit with that hand, and then shifted quickly to slide his foot between the bottom of the door andthe frame, then first dragged and then shoved it open with that foot so that he could quickly carry Geordie in before it swungclosed.
By the time Aulay carried him out, Geordie had decided he was going to eat and do whatever else was necessary to regain hisstrength as quickly as possible. Truly, having to be helped to the garderobe was a humbling experience. He hadn’t even beenable to lift his own nightshirt.
“So, Dwyn was stuck abed with me the last two weeks?” he asked, to get both their minds on something else as Aulay carriedhim out of the small room.
“Aye. But she kept busy, sewing, visiting and constantly spooning broth down yer throat. I think if she could have breathedfer ye while ye healed she would have,” he added with an affectionate smile.
“Ye’ve accepted her as family,” Geordie said with satisfaction. While he’d known his brother liked Dwyn before the marriage,it was obvious he felt affection for her now too. That just seemed to validate his own feelings, which was nice.
“Aye. So have the women,” Aulay assured him. “They’ve spent a lot of time up in yer room with her and her sisters, helpingas much as they could with tending ye.”
“The other husband-hunting lasses?” he asked with a frown, finding it a little disturbing to think of having that bunch ofyoung, unmarried women helping tend him.
“Nay, our sister and our brothers’ wives,” Aulay corrected him. “I sent the other lasses away a couple days after ye wereinjured.”
Geordie raised his eyebrows at that. “Have Rory and Alick picked brides, then, already?”
“Nay. And they were no’ going to,” he said dryly. “Both o’ them barely left yer room those first few days. Rory was tendingye, and Alick was helping, both to tend ye and to carry Dwyn around when she needed to go to the garderobe and such.” Grimacing,he added, “Keeping the women here when neither of the single Buchanans were paying them any attention seemed a waste. Andthen when the family started arriving we needed the bedchambers so I had Jetta send them all home.”
“Sorry,” Geordie said on a sigh as Aulay carried him back through the still-open bedchamber door. When he paused abruptly,Geordie glanced around to see that Mavis and a couple of maids were changing the bed and cleaning the room.
Mavis glanced over now and beamed at him. “Hello, love, ’tis good to see ye awake again at last. Ye gave the wee lass a finescare there
