Page 70 of All In Good Time
Logan was amazed at how Lettie was handling this. It was obvious that she was the matriarch of the family and was used to keeping things under control at Dunaill. As they visited, Nick’s brothers Duncan, Aidan and Lockie joined them. Lettie introduced them to Logan and Sara.
“How is Rory?” Lockie asked.
“Yer brother is quite ill,” she said. “He is being attended to right now by two kind people who have come a long way to see him.”
Solemn faces gazed back at their mother on hearing this news.
“Will he live?” Lockie asked.
“We must have hope,” Lettie answered, taking his hand.
* * *
Isla and Merryreturned with the plants Edna needed. She’d requested several - dandelion, red clover, stinging nettle and burdock root to name a few.
“Thank ye,” she said. “Please stay. Yer positive energy will help me.”
Using a mortar and pestle she found by the bed, Edna cleaned it out, making sure no residue of the oleander was left in it. Then she carefully ground up the plants into a poultice which she placed directly on Rory’s wound.
Aisla held tightly to Rory’s hand as she sat next to him on the bed.
“These plants are to draw the toxins from his body.” She placed her hand over the poultice and the wound and began to chant. It was an incantation that would have been unrecognizable to the others, but for Edna, it was the perfect spell for the occasion. She repeated it over and over, occasionally removing and replacing the poultice, which she threw into the fire, causing it to flare and spark. The others appeared silently mesmerized by her ritual and well they should be, by witnessing Edna’s work, they were adding their own healing thoughts into her spell and that was exactly what Rory needed.
Long minutes passed and well into the second hour Rory gasped and finally opened his eyes. He gazed around the room at them and a smile lit his eyes. “Why are ye all here? Why do ye stare?”
His sisters shrieked with joy and hugged each other. “How do ye feel, Rory?” Edna asked.
“Perfectly fine, why do ye ask?” He seemed unaware of his circumstance.
“Ye havenae been perfectly fine for some time now,” Edna said. She turned to the sisters. “Would one of ye be so kind as to go get the others.”
“Aye,” Merry said. “I’ll go.” She ran from the room and they could hear her receding footsteps all the way to the stairs and down.
“Aisla, have ye been here the whole time?” Rory asked
“Nae, love. Only a few days. Are ye well, then?”
“Aye. I’ve never felt better,” he said.
She held his hand to her mouth, kissing it as happy tears ran down her cheeks.
Rory sat up in the bed and pulled her close. “Don’t cry, love.” He cradled her head against his shoulder. Isla hurried to the other side of the bed and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “We thought we were going to lose ye.”
“It would take much more to ever get me to leave ye,” he said.
“Yer will to live is as much responsible fer saving yer life as is Edna Campbell. Everyone did their part to help, but ye were the most important piece of the puzzle,” Dr. Ferguson added.
The door opened and a rush of people entered. First was Lettie Mackall, then Nick and Kat, then Logan and Sara and finally Merry and the brothers. They all crowded around the bed wanting to see for themselves that he was well.
“Wow!” Sara exclaimed. “Compared to just a short time ago, it’s like you were never sick.”
“How do ye feel?” Nick asked the question on everyone’s mind.
“Fine, I’d like to get up and come downstairs, if that would be alright,” he said.
“I think it would be fine. If ye feel at all weak, please tell us,” Edna said.
“What are ye all waiting fer? I cannae get dressed while yer all standing there gaping at me,” Rory laughed and there was no more wonderful sound to the group gathered there.