Highlander Claimed. Juliette Miller

fingers all the while in a vise-grip, and fell back onto his pillows. Shocked by the agonized sound he made, I used my hands to gently hold him in place.

      “Please, warrior,” I urged him, wiping away a tear from my cheek. “Sleep now. Don’t damage yourself further. The moment I’m allowed to return to you, I will.”

      The lingering agony was taking its toll; Wilkie’s eyes were directed at me even as he spoke to his brother, and they were heavy-lidded as he slurred from the effects of the strong brew he’d been given. “I’ll die. The sight of her. Her touch... She heals me like no medicine could. Let her... Roses. Angel.” His voice faded as he struggled to retain consciousness. His grip on my body loosened as he succumbed to sleep.

      “The man’s taken total leave of his senses, to be sure,” Kade said lightly, but he was watching Wilkie with worry.

      One of the sisters spoke then. “Let me get some furs and make up the bed in Wilkie’s adjoining chambers. Please, Knox. Roses can sleep in there, in case he awakens and calls to her.” We hadn’t been formally introduced, but she’d clearly surmised my name during the proceedings. She sounded as if she’d already accepted Wilkie’s pleas and would do all she could to accommodate them.

      “Aye,” said the other sister, eager excitement written into her features at the prospect of scandal. “I’ll sleep with her if you like, so she’ll be chaperoned. You must agree, Knox. There’s no need to agitate Wilkie further by removing Roses completely from his chambers when it’s clearly against his wishes. He’s obviously taken an attachment to her. And we must do everything we can to speed his recovery.”

      Laird Mackenzie looked thoroughly irritated by the situation, but perhaps he was concerned enough about his brother’s obvious distress to make allowances. He glanced once at Kade, who shrugged and said, “’Tis a reasonable suggestion. We don’t want unnecessary agitation to worsen his condition. We can check in on them from time to time.”

      The laird’s glance rested on me for a moment, as though attempting to read my motives. “I suppose we could.” With a heavy sigh, he said, “All right, then. Ailie, you make up the beds. Christie, you’ll sleep with Roses. Effie, you’ll see to the lass—the shoulder of her tunic is stained with fresh blood. She appears to be injured. You’ll tend to the lass’s wound. Kade, you’ll check in at regular intervals during the night.”

      Once, it might have occurred to me to question or protest this blatantly inappropriate scenario of sleeping in the adjoining chambers of a man, and one I barely knew. In fact, I felt wildly relieved. I wouldn’t be cast out. And I could be near him, this warrior whose blood had mingled with my own and whose eyes and mouth and fingers had already provoked a longing in me that I could neither explain nor deny.

      Effie began to gather her equipment.

      One of Wilkie’s sisters went ahead, through the door of the adjoining chambers, and the other helped me extricate myself from Wilkie’s grip. She took my arm. “Come, Roses. We’ll show you to your bed.”

      “First,” said Kade, “we’ll divest you of your weapons.”

      The abundant weaponry slung across his body, along with his size and slightly wild-eyed look, was wholly daunting as he approached me. I did as he asked. I removed my belt, holding it out, along with my small sword and knife. Kade grabbed the lot.

      I remembered Laird Ogilvie’s officers’ passing descriptions, then, of the Mackenzies. Lethal. Armed to the teeth.

      Aye, Kade Mackenzie was armed to the teeth. But his blue eyes appeared more curious than cutting; he seemed mildly intrigued by this unusual turn of events and at Wilkie’s sudden desire to have me close. “Your weapons,” he said, “will remain in our care.”

      “I trust your accommodation will be suitable,” said the laird, nodding once in a brief bid good-night. The gesture was polite, oddly, and somewhat foreign to me; it was the gesture of a nobleman, and one that might be delivered to a woman of his own class. Something I was most definitely not. It occurred to me then that he wasn’t aware of my lowly status. Tomorrow the truth would be told, but tonight, I would enjoy the plush chambers of the privileged few.

      * * *

      THE ANTECHAMBER WAS a long, narrow room with a stone-bound window seat at one end, generously adorned with fur cushions. At the opposite end of the room was a fireplace, laid with a recently lit fire. Two single beds were being draped with thick, luxurious coverings. Merely the sight of a warm fur-piled bed amplified my fatigue.

      Now, in the close quarters, I could get a better look at Wilkie’s sisters. I had noticed immediately the strong family resemblance between the Mackenzie siblings. His sisters were indeed quite beautiful. Both regarded me with blatant curiosity.

      “I’m Ailie, Roses. And this is Christie.”

      “Roses,” said Christie, the younger sister, whose manner was open and vivacious. She took my hand. “’Tis a pleasure to meet you. However do you find yourself in Wilkie’s bed? You’ll be the envy of legions.” She was exquisitely petite, and her hair was a minky shade of dark brown, which she wore loose so it waved gently around her shoulders. Her eyes were an unusual shade of light blue and sparkled with a hint of mischief. Eager questions bubbled out of her, as though she couldn’t contain them. “You must tell us the story. What has happened? And where did you come from?”

      “Stop interrogating her, Christie,” scolded Ailie. She was the taller of the two, slim and elegant in the way she held herself. Her more reserved manner suggested she was the elder sister. Her black hair was swept up in a fashionably braided twist. And her eyes were such a deep shade of blue, they might have been described as violet. “We’ll talk of all that tomorrow. Roses needs to have her injury treated, and she needs sleep. Here, Roses, lie here on this bed so Effie can look at your wound.”

      I lay on the bed, so very grateful for its warmth and its softness.

      Effie came to me, setting down her tray filled with teas and medicines, bandages and ointments. As she leaned over me, I looked more closely at her face for the first time. She was perhaps twice my age, short and rounded, with a busy bunch of red curls framing her kind, pink face. “Can you sit up, dear? I’ll need to remove your tunic. And the oversize trews you wear, whatever for I wouldn’t guess at. I daresay you look like you’ve been through the wars.”

      I could hear Kade and the laird in Wilkie’s adjoining chambers, in quiet discussion. Then the door closed.

      Effie helped me remove my outer clothing. I made sure to keep my back hidden, aware of my tattoo, as always, and careful not to reveal it. My hair still hung loose, covering me, and I lay back as Effie attended to me. She treated and bound my wound, chattering gently of its successful healing thus far, despite the blood. She described her methods as she worked, to make me feel at ease, perhaps, as Ailie and Christie watched intermittently, and attended to tidying up the room. And I was grateful for their chipper yet restful presence. Effie gave me some tea and a dose of medicine. She felt my forehead and expressed concern at the warmth, but she hoped that the medicine was administered in time, that it would override the beginnings of any danger. Then she tucked the furs to my neck and patted them.

      “’Tis brief, your underclothing,” she whispered, putting her face close to mine. “But ’twill hardly be an issue, lassie.” She was smiling kindly, with only a hint of chiding curiosity. She seemed to be most entertained by the near-scandal of my presence in Wilkie’s antechamber and pleased to be privy to the drama of it. “Ailie and Christie will find clothing for you on the morrow. Something more...suitable.”

      I wanted to thank her for the offer and assure all of them than it wouldn’t be necessary; I would be on my way on the morrow, if I could just get some bread. Some pears, maybe. But I was asleep before I could even get the words out.

      * * *

      “ROSES.”

      The darkness was too thick, the sleep too deep.

      “Roses.”

      I sat straight