My Highlander: A Cree & Dawn Novel, page 19
“Oh my God, Elsa,” Neil said as he hurried to squat down beside his wife.
Dawn hoped Neil understood what she gestured, telling him she would go for help. She was relieved when he told her to hurry and that was just what she did.
Her shawl fell off her one shoulder, trailing behind her as she rushed through the village and strands of her hair fell loose from her braid. She bumped into the edge of a bench when she entered the Great Hall as she made her way to the stairs.
She took the stairs as fast as she could and flung open the door to the bedchamber to find her husband almost dressed.
Cree’s heart slammed against his chest as he hurried to his wife standing in the doorway, her hand gripping the edge of the door so tight it turned her knuckles white, and her face pale.
“What is it?” he asked. “Are you hurt? Did someone harm you?” He looked her over, searching for an answer.
Dawn shook her head and waved her hand, letting him know she was fine. She grabbed his hand and tugged.
“Is it Ann?” he asked.
Dawn held up two fingers.
It took a minute, then Cree said, “Elsa. Has something happened to Elsa?”
Dawn nodded and hit the top of her head with her hand a couple of times and ran her fingers down her face slowly.
“Someone has harmed her? She is bleeding?”
Dawn nodded again and tugged for him to hurry.
He slipped on his boots and they were out the door.
Flanna approached them once in the Great Hall.
“Elsa has been hurt and Ann is—” Cree looked to his wife.
Dawn shook her head, unshed tears shining in her eyes.
“Oh my lord, Ann is dead,” Flanna said.
A bark had them turning, Beast, having heard the commotion, had come to see what was about.
Cree pointed to the steps. “Guard the twins now!”
Beast did not hesitate, he rushed back to the twins.
“Find out what servants have been up and about,” he ordered Flanna, then he took his wife by the arm and they left the Great Hall.
Dawn was not surprised when he stopped first at Sloan’s cottage.
Cree banged on the door. “Trouble, Sloan. Meet me at Elsa’s cottage and bring Lucerne.”
“Aye,” Sloan yelled through the closed door as Cree and Dawn walked away.
Cree grew incensed when he saw his healer lying on the floor of her cottage, a bloody cloth around her head and blood in a small pool beneath it, and an upset Neil kneeling beside her.
“She just started groaning, but has not spoken,” Neil said, looking ready to shed a tear.
“Let me get Elsa in your bed in the other cottage where Dawn and Lucerne can look after her.”
Neil nodded and stood aside, and Cree leaned done and lifted his healer up in his arms.
Dawn hurried out to the other cottage and pulled the blankets down on the bed, then placed a couple of towels on the pillow, knowing Elsa would have done the same.
Cree placed Elsa down on the bed and she groaned.
“Oh my God, what happened?” Lucerne asked, entering the cottage in front of her husband.
“From what I can see, someone smashed Elsa in the head,” Neil said.
“Was Ann harmed?” Lucerne asked.
“Ann is dead,” Cree said.
Lucerne gasped, her hand going to cover her mouth and tears rushing to her eyes.
“Dawn needs help tending Elsa,” Cree said and Lucerne nodded and joined Dawn at Elsa’s bedside.
Cree placed a firm hand on Neil’s shoulder. “Leave the women to tend Elsa and let us see if we can discover what happened.”
Neil looked to his wife.
“We will take good care of her,” Lucerne assured him.
“You will come get me when she wakes?” Neil asked.
Dawn nodded while Lucerne spoke. “I will fetch you right away.”
Neil gave his wife’s hand a squeeze. “I will not be far, my love.”
Sloan and Neil followed Cree into the healing cottage. Cree went directly to Ann and bent down to have a look at the lifeless young woman. The way her head hung off the bed, the pillow on the floor. It was obvious she had been suffocated.
“This makes no sense,” Sloan said. “It was common talk in the village that you had spoken to Ann and she did not know who had harmed her. So why kill her?”
“Unless she could say and was too frightened to do so,” Neil said.
Sloan disagreed. “That is not likely since Ann knew as do all that Cree would have seen to the culprit immediately. The very reason she had not said a word about Lara meeting an unknown person in the woods. She knew Lara would face punishment.”
Neil shook his head. “Then why kill Ann if she knew nothing?”
Cree stood. “And how did the culprit get in here without being seen by the sentinels?”
“That is impossi—” Sloan shook his head, not believing his own thought. “No one unknown could get past our sentinels. That would mean—”
“Someone known to us, known to Elsa, did this?” Neil asked, anger sparking on his face.
“While I would prefer not to believe it, it would be the most logical conclusion,” Cree said.
Lucerne sat on the bed beside Elsa, gently cleansing the wound while speaking softly to her. “It is not a deep wound and I remember you once telling me that head wounds can fool you. That a minor head wound can bleed a lot.”
Dawn could not help but envy Lucerne, sitting there comforting Elsa as she worked. Without a voice, she could never console like that, and when trying to fight your way out of heavy darkness, a voice could be the light that led you out of it. Lila’s constant talking had done that for her.
“After I cleanse the wound, Dawn will help me bandage it and hopefully by then you will wake,” Lucerne said.
“Ann,” Elsa mumbled.
Lucerne looked to Dawn.
Dawn almost shook her head at Lucerne, warning her not to tell her that Ann was dead, but Elsa would not want it that way.
Dawn nodded and Lucerne agreed with her own nod.
“I am sorry to tell you that Ann is dead.”
Elsa’s eyes fluttered open as she fought to break out of the fog. “No. No. She was doing well.”
When Lucerne looked to Dawn again, Dawn covered her nose and mouth with her hand and widened her eyes as if fighting to breathe.
Lucerne shook her head, her eyes filling with sadness. “Someone smothered her, Elsa.”
Elsa’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, good Lord, poor Ann. Who would do that to her and why?”
“Lord Cree will find out and see the person punished, but right now, I am relieved that you have woken,” Lucerne said.
Dawn stepped closer, smiled, and nodded, letting Elsa know she felt the same.
“Let me get, Neil,” Lucerne said. “I promised him I would fetch him as soon as you woke.”
“First tell me about the wound and bandage it, since I would like a little time for this fog to leave my head.”
Lucerne detailed it for her and answered her questions while she finished cleaning it.
“Your mind is far from foggy,” Lucerne said as Dawn helped her wrap the wound. “Does your head pain you?”
“It does, but that is to be expected,” Elsa said with a wince.
“You will rest and sleep—”
Dawn interrupted, shaking her hands and head.
“Dawn is right. Sleep will not help right now. I have seen too many sleep after a head wound never to wake from it. I will take things easy, rest a bit, but not sleep. Late tonight will be time enough for me to sleep. You can get Neil now. I have left him worrying long enough.”
Lucerne stood and Elsa patted the spot for Dawn to sit as Lucerne left the cottage.
Elsa took Dawn’s hand, squeezing it. “I thought it was you who came to help me, since not a word was spoken as the door creaked open. I was about to turn and send you back to bed when I felt a pain and all went black until waking up here. I don’t understand it. Why did someone want Ann dead?”
Dawn shook her head and shrugged, telling Elsa she was just as puzzled over it.
“Elsa!” Neil called out in relief as he hurried into the cottage.
Dawn quickly got out of his way as he rushed to his wife to sit at her side.
“I am fine, do not fuss,” Elsa ordered gently, though relief at seeing her husband was apparent in her eyes.
“I will fuss all I want,” Neil said and kissed her cheek.
Dawn went to Cree as soon as he entered the cottage and his arm went around her waist. Sloan did the same with Lucerne after he entered the cottage.
Cree waited a few moments, then said, “I am glad you woke and look well. I will not tell you to rest since you are the healer and know better than anyone what you must do to heal. But do tell me what happened.”
“There is not much to tell, my lord,” Elsa said. “Ann’s fever had gone down and I was hopeful the worst of it was over. I dozed while she slept. It was mostly a quiet night. I felt safe with the sound of the sentinels passing by the cottage several times, the peaceful hoot of an owl and the crackle of the fire. All was well. When the door opened, the only sound a creaking noise, I assumed it was Dawn, returning to help. I was about to turn and send her home when I felt a blow to my head and all went dark.”
“So you saw nothing,” Cree said.
“Nothing, my lord, though I wish I had. Something. Anything that would have helped.”
“I am glad you did not see anything,” Neil said, relief obvious in his voice. “If you had, the crazy person would not have allowed you to live.”
A tear caught in the corner of Elsa’s eye and Neil wiped it away with his thumb and rested his brow to hers.
“I will stay in the healing cottage and look after whoever seeks your help today,” Lucerne said.
“I can rest in there as well as here,” Elsa said and rested her hand to her husband’s mouth before he could protest. “I am a healer and I will heed the advice I would give to others if they had received such a blow to the head.”
“If you recall anything else, Elsa, let me know,” Cree said, then looked to Neil. “Keep her here until I send word that all is taken care of in the healing cottage.”
Neil nodded and Elsa remained silent, understanding that Ann’s body had yet to be moved.
Cree stepped outside with his wife and Sloan and Lucerne just as Ann’s wrapped body was being carried out of the cottage by two warriors.
Dawn gestured to Cree that she would help Lucerne clean the healing cottage.
Cree reluctantly agreed. She had been through enough and the sun had just risen. “Once you finish, return to the keep and prepare for the Lord of Fire’s arrival.”
He eased her closer to him and while it was on his tongue to tell her she had been through enough for so early in the day and she should rest, he held his tongue. He had made her a promise and he would keep it.
He smiled when he saw her brow narrow and he knew her thought, which would have been correct if he had allowed his thought to reach his tongue.
“I love you, wife,” he whispered and kissed her cheek and he got what he wanted from her… a smile.
She tapped his brow, then his lips and shook her head, continuing to smile.
“Are you saying that was not what I was thinking?” he asked with a soft chuckle.
She nodded.
He kissed her cheek, then nipped playfully along her ear before whispering, “You know me too well, wife.”
Dawn was well aware of what her husband was doing. He was trying to chase her sorrow away and she was grateful to him for it. It had been a difficult morning and she did not want to bring her sorrow to the twins when she saw them. There would be enough of it once word spread of Ann’s death and Elsa’s close brush with it. And with the Lord of Fire’s arrival that would not be good.
She nodded and tapped his brow again, then hers.
“Aye, I know you just as well.” He let her slip from his arms after she kissed his lips lightly and watched her and Lucerne enter the cottage, then he turned to Sloan. “Do you know what is wrong with what Elsa told us?”
Sloan nodded. “Aye, our sentinels are silent in their rounds of the village. She would have never heard one, which means someone else was prowling about outside the cottage.”
Chapter 20
Dawn headed back to the keep, Lucerne having chased her off after they both helped Elsa get settled in the bed they had dressed with fresh bedding, in the healing cottage. People started arriving just as she was taking her leave, not looking for the healer to tend them but to pay respects to her and see for themselves that she was well. All were worried for their healer. Seeing Elsa sitting up in bed and giving advice to those she knew needed it, did well to alleviate their fear of losing her.
With thoughts heavy on Dawn’s mind, she went to visit Old Mary.
As usual Old Mary opened the cottage door before Dawn reached it. “I am glad to see you.”
Her words made Dawn realize she had not spent enough time with the old woman who meant so much to her.
“You have much on your mind. You do not need to worry about seeing how I fare,” Old Mary said, as if hearing her thoughts.
Dawn smiled and shook her head, making it clear she did not agree. By the time she got done gesturing, Old Mary was in tears.
“I am pleased to know I am like a mum to you, for to me you are the daughter I never had, though it seems I have one after all.”
Dawn gave her a hug and gestured again.
“Aye, I am now a true grandmum and pleased I am to be, though I think Lizbeth will be a handful, far wiser than I first believed, just like her mum.”
Dawn beamed with pride.
“What worries you, Dawn?”
Dawn was startled by Old Mary’s direct and unexpected question and giving it thought, she wondered what did worry her. There were many things she could choose from, but what one troubled her the most? She could not say.
“There is something unsettled in you and soon you will have a chance to see it settled,” Old Mary predicted. “I wish I could be more clear, but for some reason Fate will not let me see all of it.”
Dawn gestured and Old Mary nodded and smiled.
“You are right. Fate serves us many challenges, what we do, how we approach them, how we handle them, is inevitably ours and ours alone, and in the end the choice lies with us as to how we will deal with them. It is obvious where Lizbeth gets her wisdom.”
Laughter shook Dawn’s chest as she gestured.
Old Mary laughed along with her. “You are right again. Wisdom comes to us in ways we do not expect and often do not want.” Her laughter faded along with her smile. She reached across the table and rested her hand over Dawn’s. “Fate has not been easy on you, but you not only survived Fate’s barrage you have thrived and I am so very proud of you.”
Tears tickled Dawn’s eyes and she squeezed Old Mary’s hand, then gestured.
“It is I who am lucky to have you,” Old Mary said.
Dawn continued talking with Old Mary, sharing memories of her mum. Lizbeth was named after her and while the woman had not given birth to Dawn, she might as well have, for she had been Dawn’s mum in every sense. And Dawn missed her to this day.
“Your husband searches for you,” Old Mary said and chuckled.
“Dawn!”
She jumped at the roar in her husband’s voice as he called out for her. She stood to hurry to the door, but it burst open before she reached it.
“You were to go to the keep. I looked for you and you were not there.”
He sounded as if he accused her of purposely disobeying him, but she was used to that since she usually did ignore his orders. But this time was different. It had been different since her abduction and return home. Having been ripped away from her family, from Cree, had been more heartbreaking than she had ever imagined and she never wanted to experience it again. And she understood that Cree felt the same.
She felt bad that she had been the cause of his fright when he could not find her, even more so now with Ann’s death and Elsa’s attack.
She was quick to apologize to him.
He was just as quick to take her in his arms and hug her tight. “Not one sentinel could tell me that they saw you after I discovered you were not at the keep. It will not go unpunished.”
His words gave her pause.
“Dawn has duties to see to,” Cree said to Old Mary in a way of them taking their leave.
Old Mary nodded. “Aye, much goes on today and you thrive once again, Dawn.”
A slight shiver overtook Dawn. If Old Mary predicted she would thrive today, then that meant she would need to survive something to do so? What more had Fate in store for her?
Cree kept hold of Dawn’s hand as they walked toward the keep.
Dawn signaled with one hand, once again that she was sorry.
“I know it was not intentional,” Cree said, squeezing her hand as if reassuring himself she was there beside him.
Dawn did her best to speak with one hand. She pointed back toward Old Mary’s cottage and shook her head, then pointed to the keep.
“I understand that you did not intend to go there that it was a moment’s decision and I imagine you did not intend to stay long.”
Dawn nodded, having planned to let him know that time had gotten away from her.
“It will take time for fear not to grip and squeeze relentlessly at me when I cannot find you.”
Dawn grabbed his hand that held hers and brought it to her chest.
“You feel the same,” he said, releasing a pent up breath of relief. “I wonder if that fear will ever leave either of us, though I think what happened to Ann and Elsa worsened it.”
Dawn stopped, recalling his words in Old Mary’s cottage that had given her pause. She slipped her hand out of his and gestured.
“Are you asking me why no sentinel saw you?” Cree asked.
Dawn nodded.
“It is a question I intend to find out and punish whoever failed their duty.”
Dawn gestured and Cree followed along with questions.
