Highland Grace (36 page)

“He fought hard all these days past, and he
limped not,” Derek said, surprised.

“Aye, which is why I thought he’d spoken the
truth about the nature of the wound.”

Derek nodded. “But when he failed to meet us
in the south tower....”

“Aye, I did begin to worry then. Tho’ when I
hurried up here afterward, I never believed I’d find him laid so
low,” Daniel confessed. “All I had time to do was to bathe him down
with cool water, pour
uisge beatha
on the wound, and force a
ptisan down his gullet before I returned to the fray.”

“And now he grows worse;” Derek said, “he
awakens not from his fevered slumber.”

Daniel’s worried gaze traveled from his
brother’s damp brow to the blood-soaked binding around his upper
thigh. He took in a deep breath and released it slowly as he rubbed
the back of his neck and pondered his dilemma. When he finally
spoke, he did so with a new determination, saying, “I must tend
this, I
must
. There is no choice.”

Derek nodded. “Aye,” he agreed. “But we will
need to bind his arms and legs beforehand. And even then, it may be
necessary to bring another soldier in to help me hold him while you
clean the wound.”

“Aye,” Daniel said and moved swiftly toward
the door. He opened it and told the guard to gather rope and bring
it back to the chamber with due haste. He turned and walked back to
stand at his brother’s bedside once more. “Why does he fight me
so?”

Derek shook his head as he gazed down at his
friend and commander. “I know not.”

“My brother endured a different kind of
torment from our scurrilous sire than the man gave to me. Mayhap
this odd reaction is due to some evil on that man’s part.”

Derek nodded.

The guard came through the open doorway with
the rope and handed it to his laird. Daniel and Derek quickly tied
down Bao’s appendages. Afterward, the guard and Derek took their
positions beside their lieutenant as Daniel cut the binding away
and doused the festering wound with
uisge beatha
. Looking up
at Derek and the other man, Daniel said, “Get a good grip on him,
for I must cut out the dying flesh. But be you careful that the
stitches of his other injury are not opened.”

The two men nodded grimly as they pressed Bao
even further down into the mattress.

* * *

Bao was deep in a vivid nightmare. He was a
lad of ten summers once more and under his father’s control.
Thrashing his head from side to side, he began to yell as he
strained to free himself from his father’s black-hearted soldiers
who held him down while his father came ever closer with the dirk
he would use to cut the horrid emblem into his flesh.

* * *

Daniel made the first cut, slicing out part
of the rotting tissue.

“
You have already put your mark on me! Why
mark you me again?”
Bao cried.

Daniel looked up anxiously when he heard his
brother mumbling incoherently.

“He still slumbers,” Derek assured him.

“Aye, but I hope not for long after the wound
is cleansed,” Daniel replied. He turned his attention back to the
surgery he performed. “The edges of the flesh are too ragged for me
to stitch; I’ll need to burn them closed instead.”

Derek and the other man nodded.

He doused the wound once more with the
uisge beatha
.

“
Nay!”
Bao yelled and fought even more
furiously against their hold.

Daniel waited for Derek and the other soldier
to gain control of Bao’s appendages once more. When his brother
finally settled, he asked, “Have you a grip on him?”

Derek nodded curtly.

Daniel went back to his task, dressing the
injury with a poultice of cobwebs to stop the bleeding. He then
took the cautery iron from his healer’s box and held it over the
flame of the small brazier. It didn’t take long for the iron tip to
become red-hot. “Bao will undoubtedly fight this with even more
strength,” he warned Derek and the guard.

“Worry not, we’ll keep him still,” Derek
replied determinedly as he braced himself to take the brunt of
Bao’s resistence.

Daniel lifted the poultice from the wound and
pressed the ragged edges of the gash together as much as he could
before setting the red-hot tip to his brother’s tender flesh,
searing it closed.

* * *

Bao screamed in agony.
“Why father?
Why?”
he asked as his father pressed a hot firebrand to his
groin.

“
Because you would not go with my soldier
and do as he asked,”
Jamison Maclean said evilly,
“you have
earned my wrath!”

“
Nay! Nay!”
Bao pleaded once more,
tossing his head from side to side.

“
Do you forget you are my slave? You will
do anything I tell you to do!”
Jamison roared.

“
I will not submit to him, no matter what
you do to me!”
Bao screamed back.

* * *

Daniel lifted his eyes once again to his
brother’s tormented countenance. He’d understood his words this
time, but not their context. It was evident that Bao was in the
midst of a terrible dream. Daniel quickly finished cauterizing the
wound and placed a poultice on it to soothe the ache before binding
it in clean linen. He sat back and took a deep breath. “It is
done,” he said. “Now, let us untie his bonds and allow him his
rest.”

A few minutes later Daniel closed the door to
Bao’s chamber behind him, resting his back against it and closing
his eyes. His brother’s fever was still raging, but at least he’d
been able to tend the injury that had caused the illness. Bao was
strong. Surely, he would fight this fever and recover. He must. For
‘twould be cruel indeed for fate to have brought his brother back
into his life only to take him away before he’d had the chance to
know him well.

* * *

Branwenn and Prince Llywelyn rode their
mounts through the gateway of the keep the next morn, picking their
way over fallen and charred debris. It was as quiet as a tomb
inside the courtyard, as all who resided there stood silently
gaping at the procession before them. A stench of death and
scorched wood permeated the air. So this is what war looks like,
Branwenn thought sadly. This is what her brothers trained
themselves to do, trained their soldiers to do. This is what Bao
had been a part of most of his life. Branwenn’s eyes fell upon a
cart that was loaded six-deep with the bodies of fallen soldiers.
She quickly dropped her gaze to her hands, fearing she would
recognize some of their youthful faces, fearing that she may have
even danced with one or two of them the night of the
Hogmanay
feast, and unable to bear the thought that it had
been their last.

Prince Llywelyn halted his destrier and
Branwenn followed suit. Lifting her gaze, her eyes immediately
locked with her brother, Daniel’s. He stood just outside the door
of the keep, at the bottom of the steps.

Branwenn leapt from her mount and flew into
Daniel’s embrace, her eyes streaming with tears of joy and sadness.
“So ‘twas Bao, then, that was wounded? Please, tell me he still
lives!”

Daniel kissed her damp cheek and hugged her
tight. “Aye, he lives. But he’s quite ill, Branwenn. I thought
cleaning his wound would revive him, but he has yet to awaken and
his fever still rages.”

“I must see him!” she said, struggling out of
her brother’s arms.

Daniel looked up into the visage of the man
who was now her guardian. “Aye,” he said. “And while you are there,
your cousin and I will share some ale in the great hall.”

Prince Llywelyn nodded curtly and dismounted,
handing his reins to the stableman who rushed up to attend him.

No one spoke as they ascended the steps and
entered the keep.

“We will not stay long, only a day or two
while we replenish our supplies, and then we will depart for my
kingdom,” Prince Llywelyn said as he stood beside the two in the
antechamber of the great hall a few moments later.

“I cannot leave here without knowing my
brother will recover!” Branwenn cried.

“Then we must hope that your brother becomes
well before we leave this place two days hence,” Prince Llywelyn
replied staunchly.

Branwenn fell to her knees before the prince.
“I beg you, Your Highness, please do not force me from my brother’s
side while he is in peril of dying!”

Prince Llywelyn’s eyes softened as he gazed
at her. He lifted his hand to her face and held her chin in his
palm. “How can I say ‘nay’ to a request so sweetly given?” He
nodded curtly. “We shall stay until the man is well out of danger.”
After only a brief pause, he continued, “Whether he be fully
recovered or nay. Will that suffice, my dear?”

Branwenn took her cousin’s hand in both of
her own and kissed the top of it in gratitude. “My thanks.”

Daniel’s worst fears fled as he watched the
exchange between the two. ‘Twas plain that the prince held
affection for his young charge, that he would not treat her ill
once she was officially given into his care. “We have much to
discuss, Your Highness.”

“Yes,” Prince Llywelyn replied as he helped
Branwenn to her feet. “And this lady is anxious to leave my
presence to attend her brother.”

Branwenn bowed her head and performed a quick
courtesy before scurrying toward the stairway and quickly ascending
them.

The two men watched her leave.

“She’s a high-spirited youngling, but quite
beautiful,” Prince Llywelyn stated.

“Aye. And that is why she will need a strong,
but patient, man for her mate,” Daniel replied. He turned his eye
to his guest and studied his profile. “Is her intended such a man,
Your Highness?”

“He is strong, for certain. He’s a highly
skilled knight in the Earl of Pembroke’s legion. In fact, until
only recently, he’s been undefeated at tournaments.” Prince
Llywelyn turned and followed Daniel into the great hall. “As you
surely know, it takes great patience to become so skilled.”

Daniel waited for his guest to settle himself
into one of the chairs by the hearth before asking, “Aye, but will
he be so patient with my sister?”

Prince Llywelyn sighed. “I will gain a
promise from him that he will treat her thus before I allow the
marriage contract to be signed.”

“That eases me greatly,” Daniel said.
“Because Branwenn surrendered herself into your hands, you have no
obligation to negotiate further terms regarding her welfare. But as
a brother who loves her dearly, I must know the details of the
contract.”

Prince Llywelyn nodded. “You already know the
pith of the thing, but ask me what you will and I will answer you
honestly.”

Over the next two hours, Daniel did just
that. By the end of that time, his worries had been lessened and he
was assured that the man to whom Branwenn would be wed was as
worthy of her as any he or his grandmother might have found for
her.

“And now,” Daniel said, “we must sign our
truce so that I can bring my other family members home.”

The two men rose from their seats and settled
at the high table.

Prince Llywelyn indicated that his man should
bring the rolled document up to them and he and Daniel quickly did
the deed.

“It is finished,” Prince Llywelyn said
afterward.

Daniel gave his steward the signal to have a
missive sent to the Donald holding. If all went well, he should
have his wife and babe in his arms by sennight’s end. “Aye, it is
finished,” Daniel agreed. “And now, instead of enemies, we are
allies.”

“That is good. I’ve a need for more allies,”
Prince Llywelyn said.

* * *

‘Twas nearing the hour of midnight four days
later and Jesslyn sat at Bao’s bedside anxiously bathing him with a
cool, damp cloth. Daniel told her that Bao had awakened briefly
several times o’er the past days and his fever had lessened, but
not completely fled. His recovery had looked good, in fact, until
sometime early this morning when another infection set in and he’d
had to open the wound near his groin, clean and drain it, and then
close it up again. The infection had put Bao into another fevered
stupor.

Maryn and Lady Maclean were tending to Bao Li
and Nora at Jesslyn’s cottage. Until Bao’s fever broke, they must
keep the babes as far from the illness as they were able. The two
ladies had agreed to sequester themselves in that cottage until the
danger had passed.

Bao moaned in his sleep and his hand trembled
and jerked. Jesslyn lifted the cloth from his brow and gazed
worriedly down at him. The images his fevered mind conjured must be
of the evil sort, for he did not rest easily. “Bao?” she said for
what seemed the thousandth time that eve. “Bao, can you hear me?
‘Tis Jesslyn, your wife.” She took his trembling hand into both of
her own and placed a kiss on the abraded knuckles. “We’ve a son, my
love. A strong and handsome
son
.” She started to laugh but
it turned into a choked sob. “You were so certain ‘twas a lass we
made that day that you had me believing it as well. We never even
spoke of a name for a lad! I hope it pleases you—I named our son
Bao Li. Branwenn told me that ‘twas the name of your mother’s
father.”

Bao opened his eyes. “He...was a
great...warrior,” he rasped.

Jesslyn smiled through her tears and grasped
Bao’s hand even more tightly in her own. “Aye, love, just as
you
are. Just as our
sons
will be someday.” She
placed the palm of her hand on his brow. “You’re still quite warm.
Does your head ache? I can make a ptisan of betony for you.”

“Nay, lovely enchantress, I need naught more
than to hear your sweet voice and feel the touch of your gentle
hand on my brow.”

For the first time seeing the glassy look in
her husband’s gaze, Jesslyn’s own brows came together in
consternation. “Know you not who I am?” she asked anxiously.