[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Caitrina insisted cloths, bandages, and bedding be boiled with lye and scrubbed her hands and instruments with soap and whiskey.Isabella took another sip of the broth.If Katherine were hale, she would surely tell Caitrina her thoughts on the Scotswoman’s backward methods.“Where did you learn to heal so?”Caitrina lifted one shoulder.“My mother taught me some and old Morag too, most I learnt on me own.” She nodded toward a table near the fire.“Colyne brought me books when he came back from the wars.”The precious books, three in all, were stacked lovingly beside the girl’s herbs and pots.“You can read?” Isabella asked, surprised.“Aye, nae many here can or care to.Father was nae much for letters either, but Mother tasked the old priest to teach Colyne some.” She smiled, shaking her head.“He would slip away the moment the poor man’s back was turned and run off to hunt or play.”Isabella imagined the MacKimzie as a copper-haired boy, his gray-green eyes full of mischief as he escaped his teacher.“I pestered Mother till she tasked the priest to teach me as well,” Caitrina said fondly.“He was near eighty then, and grateful to have one eager pupil, even if it were only a lass.” Caitrina shifted on her crutch.“Ye may look at the books, if ye’ve a mind to it.”Isabella carefully lifted one, a well-worn and clearly oft-referenced tome, as Caitrina turned her attention to her herbs.“John of Arderne,” Isabella read.She did not know the author but he was plainly a surgeon, not a physician.She wrinkled her nose at the illustration of a man, plainly intended to be John himself, sewing another’s posterior.Kat would discourage her from even looking at such a book.But this man, like Caitrina, knew so much about healing—“I spoke with Colyne,” Caitrina said over her shoulder.“He would not have ye restrict yerself to this room.I’faith, he has given ye freedom of the castle and wishes ye join the company as ye will.Ye may go about as ye please if ye nae cross the bridge.”“That is very kind.”He had little to risk by allowing her some measure of dignity to move about the castle.Even if she could get past the clansmen who guarded the gate and cross the bridge, where could she go in this strange country for help? And how, even with a horse, could she hope to find her way without escort or guard? Not that it mattered, as he must well know.She would never leave Kat.Only once had she ventured below stairs to dine.Thinking of that evening now, Isabella glowered at the fire.Kat and William were sleeping and Isabella found herself unbearably restless.Impulsively she threw her cloak over her shoulders and told Caitrina to send for her if she were needed.Outside, she pulled her cloak tight and breathed in the icy air of the hall.Even bitterly cold, the fresh air was welcome, as she had spent days surrounded by the smells of illness, unwashed bodies, and Caitrina’s healing herbs.Isabella smoothed her hair by the stairway rushes’ faint light.Mary had been tasked with serving her and offered enthusiastic, if inept, efforts as a lady’s maid.The girl proved so hopeless at the task of hair arranging that Isabella followed the Scots’ custom for unmarried women, and let her hair hang free.Still, she wished she had thought to brush it before she left the solar.Isabella took the stairs slowly, her fingers on the stone to keep her balance.She recalled the MacKimzie’s russet hair against her cheek when she stumbled, the warmth of his hand, the feel of mouth on hers.Would he seat her at his side again?Her indoor slippers were silent against the wood floor of the dim outer hall.Light and noise spilled out from the archway of the great hall and Isabella hurried to join the company within.A movement in the shadows caught Isabella’s attention and she hesitated.There stood two in a pose such that they could only be lovers seeking a moment alone.She took a few uncertain steps closer, then stopped short.A shock ran to her fingertips as she recognized the pair.Alisoun brushed her mouth against Colyne’s.She lingered there a moment, then gave a throaty laugh.The MacKimzie’s gaze never left the woman’s face as her hand trailed down his chest.Alisoun bent toward him again and quickly Isabella ducked into the shadow of an alcove.Her heart hammered and her throat tightened; the hollow emptiness in her chest surprised her.She pressed her palms against the wall.The edges of the cold stone dug into her skin.How could she have put his mistress so completely out of her mind? As if that one kiss might have preoccupied the MacKimzie as unrelentingly as it had her! What was one kiss with her measured against bedding a woman like that?Isabella tried to quiet her breathing.They must not discover her here.How could she escape unseen? Isabella strained to hear the voices and music from the great hall.Do they linger still?When she gathered the courage to look, she saw that the MacKimzie and his woman had gone.She lifted her skirts and ran back to the stairs.Since that night, Isabella made every effort to avoid leaving the sickroom.She did not think she could bear to look at him.Isabella finished the cup and handed it back to Caitrina.“Yer very devoted to her,” Caitrina said, glancing at Katherine
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]