Page 19 of To Wed a Witch (Reluctant Brides #3)

She moved back to the bed. Bhaltair seemed to anticipate her moves and adjust the lad so he was lying back down, but his upper body was propped up by pillows. Sìne gently placed the cold compress over the boy's racing heart.

"But how did ye ken it?" his mother whispered. "How could ye be certain?"

Sìne's hands stilled for a moment as she adjusted the cold cloth. The room fell silent save for the crackling of juniper on the fire and Drew's labored breathing.

"My grandmother, my mother’s mother, was a Norse healer from Orkney," she replied.

"When I was but a wee lass, she taught me the remedy she had learned from a Sámi healer.

They are reindeer herders who dwell beyond the edge of the world.

They called this root Fádnu in their tongue, though some knew it as Kvann . "

Sìne replaced the compress with fresh cold linen, her movements sure and practiced. All the while, Bhaltair's steady gaze and calming presence gave her strength.

The boy's breathing seemed to slow slightly, becoming deeper. His pulse, while still weak, had steadied beneath her fingers.

"My grandmother made me learn every remedy, every story of where the knowledge came from. 'The wisdom of healing is like seeds on the wind,' she would say. 'We harvest the garden that someone else planted, and plant the seeds for other hands to sow.' "

Several hours later and more doses of the tea, Sìne prepared another compress, watching the boy's color gradually shift from the blue-white of death toward the pale of deep sleep.

"Will he live?" the mother asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Sìne checked the boy's pulse again, felt the steady rhythm beneath her fingertips, saw the rise and fall of his chest growing stronger.

"The angel herb fights for him now," she replied. "If he survives the night, then there is hope yet."

At that moment, the lad's eyelids fluttered, and he drew his first truly deep breath since the poison had claimed him.

***

T HE HEALER'S COTTAGE was a hive of activity as clansfolk quietly came and went, leaving refreshments for the occupants, sending word that Aidyn was safe and well with Paisley, delivering messages from Bhaltair to the Keep staff.

Throughout it all, Bhaltair remained with Sìne, holding the lad still when the convulsions struck, helping her with the tea, never once questioning her methods or her judgment.

As dawn broke, Drew's breathing finally eased, his color improved, and he opened his eyes with recognition for the first time in days.

"Mama?" he whispered, his small hand reaching weakly for his mother.

The woman burst into tears of relief, falling to her knees beside the bed. "Oh, my sweet lad!"

Sìne finally breathed a sigh of relief because the worst was over.

"He'll need rest, warmth, and proper food," Sìne instructed, exhaustion making her voice hoarse.

"I'll have a simple broth prepared when he can take it.

He should be fully recovered within a sennight but will need to go slow.

Ye and the lad can remain here for now as I dinnae want to move him so soon.

But perhaps later this evening we can move ye both into one of our empty cottages, for he will need a quiet place to rest without folks coming and going at all hours. "

"Aye," Bhaltair said, "I'll have a cart brought around later with provisions to tide ye both over until he's well enough to return home."

"Thank ye, laird, mistress. That is most kind of ye. Ye dinnae ken how much this means to us. Ye've worked a miracle," the woman sobbed, clutching Sìne's hands. "A true miracle. I dinna ken how to thank ye."

"No thanks needed," Sìne replied gently. "Just take care of yer son."

But even as she spoke, she could see people gathering outside her cottage. Word of the healing had spread quickly through the clan, and the faces pressed against her windows showed a mixture of awe, gratitude, and for some... suspicion.

"My lady," a young lass whispered when Sìne stepped outside. "Is it true what they're saying? That ye brought the boy back from the very edge of death?"

"I treated his illness," Sìne replied. "As any healer would."

"But the traveling healer said 'twas impossible," another voice called out. "Said only unnatural power could cure such sickness."

Sìne felt Bhaltair tense beside her. "What traveling healer? I want to speak with this bloody man!"

"He left during the night, my laird," someone replied. "Said he'd seen enough to ken that dark forces were at work in Ferguson Keep."

The crowd began murmuring among themselves, and Sìne caught fragments of conversation that made her blood run cold.

"What if the rumors about her are true?"

"No mortal woman could have saved that boy..."

"The traveling healer warned us this might happen..."

"She's bewitched..."

"Enough!" Bhaltair's voice cut through the whispers. "I'll not have my wife slandered by superstitious nonsense. She just saved a lad's life with skill and knowledge, nothing more."

But Sìne could see the doubt in some faces, the way certain clan members had begun crossing themselves when they looked at her. The trust she'd worked so hard to build was crumbling before her eyes.

"Perhaps," said a voice from the back of the crowd, "we should ask ourselves why this stranger felt the need to warn us.

What did he see that we've been blind to?

" The speaker was Callan Wilson, one of Bhaltair's Council members.

The fact that even he was voicing doubts sent a chill through Sìne's heart.

"He saw a healer at work," Bhaltair replied. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"Did he?" Callan asked. "Then why did he flee in the night like a man who'd witnessed something unholy?"

"Perhaps because he was sent here to cause trouble.

After all, only a slanderous thief or a lecherous devil would hurl accusations then scurry away at night like a coward!

" Ada's voice shouted from the crowd with a furious look upon her face.

Several people murmured in agreement and nodded their heads.

"Aye, and mayhap this stranger paid Callan Wilson coin to spread vile rumors about the mistress. We all ken his son has been vying for the lairdship now that our prospects have changed!" Kenneth the blacksmith shouted.

"I agree! Callan has been acting mighty strange. How come he kens the movements of this traveling healer so well?" Dugald called out.

Soon the suspicious glares were cast upon Callan instead. He looked outraged, and an argument followed amongst those gathered around the cottage.

It ended when Bhaltair roared, "Enough! The lad was poisoned, deliberately if ye must ken it. And it was not his mother's doing. Someone else had got to the boy."

The crowd was silent as several gasped at the news.

Bhaltair continued, "Aye, someone meant the wee lad harm. But ye see, I did not ken why until right this moment when I see some of ye trying to accuse my wife!"

Sìne froze for a moment because Bhaltair had indeed read the situation the same way she had.

Whoever poisoned the lad wanted this to happen.

It could only be this mysterious traveling healer.

He knew Sìne would recognize immediately what was wrong with the child.

Sìne stared directly at Bhaltair and paled as the realization hit her.

It was a trap!

It seemed Bhaltair had come to the same conclusion.

Someone wanted the clan to turn against his wife.

To drive a wedge between them, and if the clan brought an accusation against her, they could force him to cast her aside.

The marriage would become null and void.

Bhaltair knew he would not rest until he found the traveling healer.

***

T HE REST OF THE DAY passed in an atmosphere of growing tension. While some clan members continued to seek Sìne's healing services—grateful for her skill and dismissive of superstitious fears—others began avoiding her entirely.

She noticed the way conversations stopped when she entered a room, the way people made the sign against evil when they thought she wasn't looking. Children who had played happily around her just days before now hid behind their mothers' skirts.

"It's starting again," she confided to Bhaltair that evening as they sat by the fire in their chamber. Aidyn slept peacefully in his arms, oblivious to the tension surrounding them.

"It's the work of that traveling healer," Bhaltair replied. "Whoever he was, he came here with the specific purpose of undermining ye. The timing is too convenient to be coincidence."

Sìne had been thinking the same thing. "But who would do such a thing? And why?"

"Someone who benefits from seeing our marriage destroyed," Bhaltair replied, his voice dark with suspicion. "Someone who's been waiting for the perfect opportunity to turn my people against ye."

A soft knock at the door interrupted their conversation. Ada entered, her usually composed face troubled.

"Forgive the intrusion, my laird, but there's something ye should ken. I've been speaking with the village women, trying to calm their fears, and..." She hesitated, wringing her hands.

"What is it, Ada?"

"The traveling healer. Some of the women got a good look at him. They say..." Ada's voice dropped to a whisper. "They say he bore a strong resemblance to the Sutherland laird."

Sìne felt the blood drain from her face as the full implications became clear, but she needed privacy to discuss it. "Thank ye, Ada. Yer news has been more helpful than ye will ever ken. Ye truly are a blessing."

Ada blushed with the praise, then nodded and quit the room.

"Sutherland?" Bhaltair asked, looking confused. "Why is that name familiar?"

"Laird Bryce Sutherland," Sìne replied. "Our neighbor. His land borders the MacKay's. If my father died without me wed, then they would have a claim to MacKay land. It was some stupid arrangement made by our clansmen with the king to keep the peace."

Bhaltair stiffened, his arms tightening protectively around Aidyn. "That bastard's been planning this all along."

"But why go to such elaborate lengths?" Sìne asked, though she was beginning to suspect the answer.

"Because he kens he can't make a claim while our marriage stands," Bhaltair replied. "But if he can turn my clan against ye, make them believe ye're a threat to their souls... they'll demand I set ye aside. And once the marriage is annulled..."

"Everything goes back to how it was. He then just has to wait until my father passes," Sìne finished, her voice hollow with understanding.

She stood immediately. "Bhaltair, ye must warn my father to be vigilant for his own safety.

If it is true, then Bryce was willing to risk a child's life for his own ends.

He would think nothing of being rid of my father as well. "

Bhaltair nodded and sent for Murphy. He would see that Laird MacKay had ample warning and protection.

It was a masterful plan, he had to admit. Sutherland couldn't attack them directly, for they had guarded Sìne too well. But by manipulating the clan's fears, by using their own superstitions against them, he could destroy their marriage from within.

"What do we do?" Sìne asked.

Bhaltair's expression was grim. "First, we prove what Sutherland's done. Then we make him pay for it."

But even as he spoke, Sìne could hear voices in the courtyard below, clan members gathering, their conversations growing more heated by the hour. The seed of doubt that Sutherland had planted was taking root, spreading through the Keep like poison.

And on the morrow, Bhaltair was supposed to ride to Clan MacNeil lands for a meeting with their laird that had been planned for weeks. A sennight away from Ferguson Keep, just when she would need his protection most.

She wondered if that timing, too, had been part of Sutherland's plan.

Outside their window, mist was beginning to gather in the bailey, and she could swear she heard the echo of mocking laughter carried on the evening wind.

***