Highlander Enchanted(32)

Was she supposed to speak about her discussion with Cade?

“We had planned on Cade wedding th’ MacDonald lass so we had a home.”

She studied him. “You have nowhere to live.”

“Not if Laird Duncan keeps the MacDonald’s land!” Fianna said in a sing-song voice, oblivious to the danger of having no shelter in winter. “Cade will find us a home. He always does!”

“Of course,” Brian agreed with a quick smile at the girl. He motioned for Isabel to join him in the hallway. “We havena the supplies for those who are injured.”

“Marie does not need supplies,” she said.

“My Lady,” he said severely, “we canna use her magic. No one can ken what we are. Cade alone decides who we tell.”

“If your laird will not permit it, then we will find material for bandages,” she said and began walking down the hallway. “Old clothing? Kitchen rags? Drapery?”

Brian considered. “Yea, Lady Isabel, we can strip the windows.”

“Then do it and tell Laird Cade to keep the rain outside.”

Brian laughed.

She left him in the hallway and retreated to the chambers on the second floor she had converted into infirmaries for the ill and wounded. The scent of pungent herbs reached her the moment she set foot in the hallway, along with the occasional cough or moan of those in need of assistance.

The chambers were in disarray. For a man as disciplined as Cade, he appeared to be an anomaly in his home. Or … they were not accustomed to treating those who needed help when they had their own healer.

Lady Isabel frowned upon entering the chamber where the wounded lay. Not one of them had been bandaged though there were three youths Fianna’s age present. She bit back sharp words for them, understanding they had no need to know what most normal household servants and members did.

“Come here,” she called to them and knelt beside an unconscious man near the door. “I will teach you to bind a wound.”

The three looked at one another before gathering around her.

“You must stop the bleeding,” she told them. “Do you understand?”

They nodded.

“Have you any knowledge of this at all?”

One giggled and the other two shook their heads.

Isabel began explaining and showing them how to bandage a man, when to use poultice, how to determine if a limb was broken. She imparted all she knew on the topic of dressing wounds and then stood back to correct the three youths as they began tending the injured.

Fianna returned from pallet making, only to be placed in charge of straightening the room and driving out the rats that nibbled on the food.

Satisfied they would not let someone bleed to death, Isabel ordered for Fianna to follow her and left the three to attend to the injured. She went to the adjacent chamber, where those who were elderly or ill were left alone.

Frustrated by the complete lack of sensitivity Cade’s clan showed for the ill and injured, Isabel began tending to those closest to her. “Fetch Liam,” she said to Fianna.

The girl went to the chamber beside them and returned with her cousin. Isabel began explaining once more how to tend those who needed it and worked fast to help those who were waiting for someone to feed them, bring water, or make them healing teas.

Hours later, she was finally satisfied with the results of her tutelage and the now six youths working in the chambers to assist the MacDonald men and women survive the night.

No sooner had she stopped for a brief rest than word came from the kitchens of a fire that destroyed half their grain crop. Isabel raced downstairs, only to discover one of the seillie in control of the flames.

She watched in astonishment as the woman drew the fire into her and squashed it. Their magic, subtle and gentle, was nonetheless powerful when it needed to be.

“Why did you not stop it sooner?” she asked, approaching the small group of people gathered in the seed and grain storage room.

“We waited for Eachna to use her fire magic,” one of them answered.

Shorter in temper than usual after the long few days, Isabel did not say what she wished to, that someone could have removed at least half of the lost grain from the storage chamber instead of waiting for the fire seillie to appear.

“Let us clean this mess up,” she said instead and began working to separate the burnt and useless grain and wood bins from that which was useable. By the time she was finished, her dress was covered in soot, blood from the wounded and wine Fianna had spilt on her accidentally upstairs.

Another crisis, this one in housing warriors in the barn with the horses, drove her into the rain and was soon followed by the matter of a scuffle between one of the English knights and a MacDonald.

The issues continued, one replacing another, occupying her without rest throughout the night.

Dawn peered through the windows as she made her way to the main hallway once more. Music poured out of the Great Hall still, and she found herself again drawn to the soothing sounds.

The MacDonald’s and the English knights were sleeping where they had been sitting. The seillie, however, were dancing and chanting. The sound of rain pattering the stones of the bailey, coupled with the music, unwound the tightness of her body and caused her shoulders to drop. Isabel was soon lulled into calmness by the bewitching music and leaning against the doorway, exhausted and at peace.

“We love dawn, too,” Fianna said, interrupting her tired peace. “This is our mornin’ song. We welcome the sun from its slumber.”