Diane Gaston – The Lord’s Highland Temptation (страница 3)

Davina touched the stranger’s forehead. ‘He feels hot to me.’

The man was pale, but fine-looking. Fair-haired. A chiselled chin, strong nose, and lips befitting a Greek statue.

‘Is he dead?’ Niven asked.

Mairi forced herself to press her fingers against the side of his neck. She felt a pulse. ‘He is alive.’ She placed her palm against his brow. ‘He is feverish, though.’

‘Do you suppose the Druids got him? Mayhap he came here at midnight.’ Niven spoke in all seriousness.

Tales of the Druids had abounded for generations. It was said their spirits would rise to attack anyone disturbing their midnight frolic amid the stones.

His clothes were damp.

‘More likely he was caught in last night’s rain,’ Mairi said. What had he been doing on these hills in the middle of their land? The dampness of his clothing indicated he might have been there all night.

Davina’s voice rose. ‘We must be like the Good Samaritan.’

Davina had heard the sermon on Sunday? Mairi had thought she’d been too besotted with Laird Buchan’s youngest son to heed Vicar Hill.

‘We cannot leave him here,’ Davina went on.

Leave him was precisely what Mairi wished to do. She wanted to run from him and take her brother and sister with her.

‘No, we cannot leave him,’ she said instead. He was ill, even if he was also drunk. He was in need.

And he could pose no danger in the state he was in. Could he?

She reached out her hand, but almost took it back again. She made herself shake the man’s shoulder. ‘Sir! Sir! Wake up.’

His eyes opened—blue eyes, vivid blue eyes—but they immediately rolled back in his head. They would never get him on his feet. And he was too big for them to carry.

Mairi turned to her sister. ‘Davina, run back to the stables. Tell MacKay or John to come and bring a wagon.’

MacKay, older than their father, had stayed on as their stableman, and John was his only stable worker. In better times they’d had five or six men keeping the horses and carriages in fine order.

‘Me?’ Davina protested. ‘I want to stay. Have Niven go.’

‘I’ll go,’ Niven said.

Mairi didn’t want Davina anywhere near this stranger, but nor did she wish to explain why.

‘Very well,’ she conceded. ‘Niven, you go get the wagon.’

He dashed off.

It would take a long time for a wagon to wind its way around the hills to the stone circle. They would have to wait with him all that time.

‘We will take him to our house, won’t we, Mairi?’ Davina asked. ‘Not to the village, surely.’

Why not the village? Mairi thought.

‘Who would care for him in the village?’ Davina went on. ‘We can nurse him until he gets better.’

Mairi did not want this man under their roof, but it made better sense to take him to their house. The village was further away and there was no guarantee someone would agree to care for him.

‘We should summon the doctor, too,’ Davina said.

How would they pay the doctor, then? This man would have to pay. If he had money. And if he had money, why had he been caught out wandering in the hills and not in some snug and dry inn?

‘Should I run to the village for the doctor?’ Davina asked.

Davina go alone to the village? Mairi hated it when Davina walked alone to the village, although no one but she knew to worry about it. On the other hand, she certainly did not wish to leave Davina alone with this strange man. Mairi trembled at the thought.

And at the memory of when she’d encountered a stranger while alone, a man who’d also been full of drink. Mairi did not want to be alone with another stranger.

But this man was obviously very sick. How would she feel if he died for lack of a doctor’s care? Her heart pounded.

What if the man died before help arrived? And what if Mairi left Davina alone to care for him? Davina was too young for such a burden.

‘Yes.’ Mairi nodded. ‘Excellent idea. I will stay here and wait for Niven to come with the wagon. We will meet you back at the house.’

‘I will run like the wind,’ Davina said dramatically.

Mairi watched her run down the hill where she’d meet the road and still have another three miles to go until she reached the village.

Mairi sat on the still-damp grass next to the man. ‘At least you are no threat to me,’ she murmured.

His eyes opened again and he suddenly lurched forward, seizing her by the shoulders.

She shrieked.

‘My brother,’ he rasped, his eyes wild. ‘Bradleigh.’

He tried to stand and she scrambled away from his grasp.

He staggered, touching the stone to steady himself. He looked around, staring in her direction, but she had the notion he did not see her. He was somewhere else in his delirium.

‘Must find Bradleigh,’ he said again.

Mairi could not breathe.

He took a step towards her, but swayed and reached for the stone again. ‘Must... Bradleigh...’ He slid down the stone, insensible once more.

Mairi sat with her hands pressed against her face. He didn’t move.

Was he dead? She was not so heartless that she wanted him dead. But she was still afraid of him. She remembered a man’s fingers around her neck, forcing her to the ground...

She made herself stare at the stranger until she could see his chest rise and fall. He was still alive. She approached him once more and manoeuvred him so that the stone shaded him from the sun. Then she sat on the ground again.

At a safe distance.

* * *

The shade of the stone lengthened as Mairi waited for Niven to return with the wagon. After what must have been more than two hours, she finally heard the horse’s hooves and the creak of the wagon wheels. There was only MacKay, the elderly stableman, to help, and the three of them had a struggle to get the man in the wagon.

* * *

By the time they reached the house, Davina was already there. ‘I left word for the doctor. He was out.’

He was the only doctor for three villages. It could be hours or days before he’d come.

‘Did you tell Mama and Papa about the man?’ Mairi asked.

‘No,’ Davina answered. ‘They have not returned from calling on Laird and Lady Buchan, Mrs Cross said.’

It was a wonder Mrs Cross, the housekeeper, knew the whereabouts of their parents. With only maids Betsy and Agnes to tend to the whole house, she spent a great deal of her time working along with them, cleaning and polishing and cleaning some more.

‘We can tell Mama and Papa later,’ Mairi told them.

Niven jumped down from the wagon box. ‘What now? Where do we put him?’

Mairi climbed out more carefully. She certainly was not going to place him in a guest room. ‘In the butler’s room.’ Their butler had left the family’s employ over a month ago.

One of their two remaining footmen helped carry the man into the house and into the butler’s room, far enough from the rest of the house not to give their parents any bother. Mairi would wait until dinner to tell them of the stranger.

‘We must get him out of his wet clothes.’ Mairi looked from Niven to the footman. Both avoided her gaze. She put her hands on her hips. ‘You two must do it. You cannot expect me to. Or Davina. We will find some dry clothes for him.’

‘Oh, very well,’ Niven grumbled.