Duncan (Immortal Highlander Clan MacMar #5)

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

W aking up alone confused Nicole as much as where she was; it took a few moments before she recalled Duncan bringing her up to his infirmary to take a nap. Whatever he put in the sleeping herbs had proven quite effective; they’d worked very fast, and she still seemed fairly groggy. Tossing aside the blanket, she rose and made a circuit of the room, inspecting everything as she looked for something she could use as a weapon.

Take advantage of your environment, the ex-Green Beret who had taught Nicole during her hostage survival training had advised her . Look for thin, sharp objects you can easily conceal in your clothing. Used correctly, even something like a nail file can blind a man, or sever his carotid .

Duncan had left a few things on his work table, but all were carved from wood and seemed too small, thin or flimsy to serve as a weapon. Nicole’s stomach rolled as she tried to imagine what it would take for her to attack the healer. She’d never sensed any danger around him; if he’d wanted to hurt or violate her he’d already had ample time and opportunity to do so. When she reached the door and opened it to look out into the empty hall, she nearly ran out, but then closed it again, and went over to look through the window slit in the stone wall.

As she passed the strange black cabinet something started making a shrill squeaking sound, and then a thud sounded from inside. The moment she touched the door, however, the noise stopped.

“I wouldn’t try to open that,” a woman’s voice said from behind her. “Unless you want something Fae and magical to melt your face off.”

Nicole turned to see a golden-skinned brunette with spectacular blonde highlights watching her from the now-open doorway. The other woman, who was wearing a modern dark gray wet suit over her bountiful curves, carried a basket of what appeared to be wide, flat green and brown seaweed.

“I wasn’t trying to.” She put on her best friendly expression. “I’m Nicole Fairley. You’re Caroline Parish, the diver from Florida? ”

“Guilty as charged.” She placed the basket on Duncan’s work table and added a bulging sack that she untied from her belt. “You’re probably past the initial disbelief stage with the life-saving time-traveling, the luxury accommodations, and the hundreds of hunks who surround you, so next up is anger, denial and frustration. You won’t enjoy this part, or finding out whatever superpower the ring gave you. Hopefully it’s not as scary or dangerous as mine.”

Her blunt way of speaking made Nicole relax, as she had always appreciated strong, no-nonsense women like Caroline. “Will finding out what yours is give me nightmares?”

“Maybe, but you look pretty tough. I stop time, which freezes the world and everyone in it. The length of time doubles each time I do, so if I keep using it eventually everything will stop forever. My main job is not to use it.” The diver grimaced. “The next time I do, everything will freeze for about an hour. I’m saving it for when the island is attacked, because it doesn’t affect me or my guys. We’ll need all the extra time we can get.”

Caroline seemed to be confiding in her, which seemed unlikely, given they’d just met. “Why are you telling me all this?”

“I remember reading about a girl who looked a lot like you last year,” the diver said. “Weirdly, her name was Nicole Fair burn , and she arranged the funding for a coral seed bank to save samples from endangered reefs. Her dad gave that institute in Miami millions to hire people around the world to collect them, too.” She made a casual gesture. “I got started working as a sponge diver in Tarpon Springs, so anyone who helps save the reefs is fine by me.”

“That’s not me, but she sounds like a nice woman.” Nicole’s stomach dropped down to her heels.

“You are.” The other woman’s turquoise eyes filled with amusement. “I read about you in the Herald a couple times. Most of the articles had nice, recent pics of you, so you can drop the act now. By the way, funding scholarships to Stanford for minorities and women in the sciences through corporations that pledged to hire them after graduation was cool, too. You helped give hundreds of kids the chance to go to college and land great jobs once they finished. What was that one called again?”

“The STEM Initiative.” She realized she might as well stop trying to convince Caroline she was someone else. “Would you please not tell anyone else who I am?”

“Why? None of that stuff matters here,” Caroline said. “You won’t be the daughter of one of the richest men in the world for nine hundred years. Besides your importance to the clan, you have no influence or power in this time. Who cares that you’re Nicole Fairburn?”

“You do,” she countered, “or you wouldn’t be fact-checking me like this.”

“You’re just as smart as advertised, too, Stanford.” The diver chuckled. “If you’re someone posing as an heiress from the future, you’re very good. I don’t think a shape shifter who stole those memories would be able to answer so quickly and easily. And if you were a pureblood Fae, you couldn’t lie. As far as I’m concerned, you pass.”

We’re all suspicious of each other. The thought that the clan was just as wary of her as she was of them added another vote for time-travel over kidnapping.

“You might want to pass along your opinion to that seneschal gentleman, Fletcher. He doesn’t seem to like me very much.” Nicole retrieved her slippers, and then walked to join Caroline at the door. “How did you end up here?”

“My business partner, who was also my ex, took our boat and abandoned me while I was deep diving off the coast of Florida,” the diver said. “I was too far from shore to swim back, but I tried anyway. When I got too tired to keep going I went down one last time to drown myself. ”

Horror made bile rise in Nicole’s throat. “That must have been horrible.”

“I had always expected to go that way, so it wasn’t exactly a shock. Only I found Lady Joana’s ring on my way down to the bottom. Next thing I know my guys are pulling me out of the water and carrying me on shore here.” Caroline’s expression lightened. “For a minute I thought I’d died and gone to heaven, and angels were a lot hotter than anyone knew.”

“The MacMar men are very attractive,” Nicole agreed. “What happened next?”

“A lot more crap, and I’ll tell you all about it another time. In the end I married Nyall MacMar, who is the clan’s captain of the guard. I’m also lovers with Jamaran, the commander of the Selseus garrison. He’s Nyall’s best friend.” The diver grinned. “If you don’t approve of threesomes, you should skip hanging out with us.”

“I don’t judge, but I admire your stamina. Are you doing anything after this round of questioning ends?” As Caroline shook her head, she slipped on the cloth shoes. “Can we go for a walk outside? I came here at night, and I can’t see much of the island through these skinny windows.”

A short time later she and the diver walked through the final gate in the towering wall surrounding the castle, and followed a shaded, stone- lined path toward a sprawling forest of pine, ash, oak and willow trees. The sun had disappeared behind some clouds, but left the air warm and soft, with a slight salty tinge. On the left Nicole could see the enormous crescent-shaped bay where she had surfaced on her arrival, which was partially hemmed by tide pools, shoals and a series of smaller islets. Out in the distance a wall of white fog encircled everything, and stretched so high she couldn’t see the top of it.

“That’s where I live,” Caroline said, pointing to the second-largest islet on one side of the bay. “The laird let me move into an old cottage there. Communal living at the stronghold was not my thing. It also gives me and my guys the privacy we need. Some of the clan and most of their vassals don’t approve of our menage a trois.”

“You’re very considerate of the narrow-minded.” She stopped as a strange sense came over her, and turned to face inland. Something dark in the distance caught her eye; it had a faint, almost menacing glitter. She pointed to it and asked, “What’s that?”

Caroline looked in that direction. “It’s called the Stone Forest. A spell by some woodland Fae that used to live here petrified everything. Want to go check it out?”

“It seems like a bit of a hike. Maybe another day.” She turned away and spotted a shimmer of water through the trees. “Why don’t we head down there?”

The diver led her to another, sloping stone-lined path that took them down to a shimmering, mist-covered spring roughly the size of a swimming pool. Around it a grove of trees encompassed and shaded the spot, which looked quite inviting. Nicole crouched down by the edge of the water and tested the temperature with her fingertips, and discovered it was just hot enough for a good soak.

“My guys and I like to get together and have a drink here when they’re too busy to spend the night, or we just want to relax,” Caroline said. “It’s like the medieval version of a hot tub.” She glanced in the direction of the sea, her brows drawing together. “Strange. I think I forgot something I need to do, but I can’t remember what. That cove down there is where my guys meet up sometimes on official business, too.”

“It’s pretty.” She glanced at the other woman. “May I ask you a personal question?”

“Turnabout time, huh?” The diver chuckled. “Shoot.”

“Why did all four of you ladies stay here?” She gestured toward the stronghold. “As you pointed out, the men are all very handsome, but the living conditions and lack of amenities are very primitive. I assume you all left people, homes and jobs you liked back in the future as well.”

“None of us had much in the way of friends and family, so you’re wrong there,” Caroline said briskly. “We were all dealing with some major trauma, too. Valerie’s husband killed himself a year before she came here, when his lover tried to murder her. Lark was left at the altar, literally, by her fiancé and best friend right after the last member of her family died. I dumped my partner for cheating on me right before he left me to die. Julianne’s husband murdered her parents and then conned her into marrying him so he could get their land.”

All of that very personal information took her aback. “I had no idea.”

“We’ve managed to overcome,” the diver said. “It is odd that the first MacMar we encountered on Caladh ended up becoming our husbands, but maybe the ring did some match-making. I got a little bonus with Jamaran.”

From what Caroline told her she and the other women had been in multiple romantic relationships, Nicole thought, experiencing a surge of envy. Although most men were attracted to her, she had never wanted any of them. Her father would never have allowed her to get involved with a man anyway.

“So the MacMar who rescued you made up for the pain and betrayals by your former lovers?” Nicole asked her.

“It’s more like we needed each other,” Caroline said. “Connal was suicidally depressed after Lady Joana killed herself, something Valerie certainly understood. Lark has always believed her bad luck kills everyone she loves, exactly like Fletcher did. Shaw has been dealing with the killer Pritani spirit that possesses him since he was a boy, just as Julianne has been coping with intellectual and emotional limitations after being kept like a pet for centuries by an otherworldly being.”

She noticed Caroline didn’t mention what she and Nyall had in common. The diver seemed quite protective of her husband as well as her privacy, which probably had something to do with whatever they’d both suffered.

“I don’t have anything like that, and Duncan also seems to be fine.” She stood up and dried her fingers on the hem of her leine. “I’ve also never been in a romantic relationship.”

Caroline started to reply, but the sound of a horse screaming made them both go still. Nicole ran toward the sound, and when she emerged from the trees she saw a heavyset man trying to catch the loose reigns of a big chestnut work horse on the forest trail. The animal had a long, bleeding gash on its back, foam streaking its sides, and was rearing and pawing the air.

“Stay back, Mistress,” the panting man warned when he saw her. “My cart overturned, and dragged my Bertie into a tree. He bolted, and yet ’tis scared out of his wits.”

“It’s all right, I’ve worked with horses since I was a girl.” She slowed her steps as she approached the pair. “Hello, Bertie, I’m Nicole. I have a horse back home, too. Her name is Lorraine, and she has a beautiful gray color. I bet she’d really like to meet you if she could.” As the animal calmed she asked, “Are you hurt? Maybe I can help. Can I take a look?”

As she’d hoped, the soft sound of her voice distracted the horse long enough for his driver to catch his reigns. She reached out to touch Bertie’s sweaty neck, and stroked it as the man freed the horse from the twisted harness. The animal calmed at once, and looked at her with trust in its frightened eyes.

Caroline stopped at the edge of the path. “What’s wrong? Why are you shivering like that? Did it kick you?”

“No, I’m fine,” she lied.

A sharp, cutting pain had shot down from Nicole’s shoulders to her waist, but she ignored it until Bertie’s fear and pain had subsided. Then she backed away from the horse, and saw that the wound on its back had also disappeared.

“Caroline, some help, please?” She held out her arm as her knees knocked together.

“Oh, crap.” The diver hurried over and grabbed her from the front as she fell forward. “I think I know what your superpower is.”

Duxor emerged from the sea, and cleared his gills before he made his way from the surf to the dock where a small group of fisherman had gathered. All looked young and strong, and since a fight between his creatures had killed a dozen of the newly-transformed, he needed more mortals to change and fill in the ranks. As he approached them, however, they parted to reveal an older, shrewd-eyed male who regarded him as he might a small and annoying rodent.

“Dinnae think you may take any of my lads,” the older fisherman warned. “I’ve vowed I shallnae slay the living, but you’re no’ from this realm.”

“My kind came here long ago.” Explaining himself seemed tedious and pointless when he could simply grab a pair of the men and jump in the water, but something told him not to try. “I’m Duxor, next in line to the Selseus throne. I need some of your mortals so I may challenge the old king, defeat him and his warriors, and free my people from tyranny.”

The old man sniffed the air. “I allowed an enchantress to eat some of my lads in hopes of appeasing her, but ’twas in vain. No more of my people shall die for the cause of a selfish immortal.” To his men he said, “In the boat, lads.”

Duxor took a step toward him, gathering his power from the golden purple amulet he’d stolen from another Selseus. “I’m no’ an enchantress, dafty.”

The old fisherman made a gesture that seemed insulting, and then a wave of water rose behind his boat, stretching up so high it detached itself at the bottom from the sea and hovered, a great swath of shimmering green and blue. It reflected the light coming from the old man’s eyes, which now glowed with otherworldly power.

“Stay back, eejit,” he said.

He had to be Fae, Duxor thought. “The world here, ’tis overrun with mortals. Give me two, and I shall permit you live.”

“Touch even one of them, and I’ll flatten you like a flounder,” the old man warned.

Duxor eyed the hanging water, and then turned and dove off the dock. He watched through the water as the wave came back down to crash into the sea. The displacement sent a shockwave that buffeted him back into a current that twisted around him like a giant invisible serpent. By the time he wriggled free and surfaced, the old man and his crew had weighed anchor, and now sailed toward the north horizon.

“Selfish bastart,” he muttered. Why should a powerful being like him protect the likes of landcrawlers? Duxor would never understand the Fae.

That left bargaining again with Derdrui, who had hinted that she would provide him with shifters to transform if he would first lead her to Caladh and the MacMar. He had told her he would think on it, but he suspected the moment he gave the enchantress what she wanted she would no longer have any obligation to fulfill her end of the bargain.

No, Duxor decided, he would have to parlay directly with the shifters himself. If they agreed to be changed, he could add them to his army. Once he had enough transformed to challenge Jamaran and the garrison, he could then lead an attack on the Selseus settlement. While his creatures tore apart Merrick’s warriors, he would kill the king himself, and take the crown and the throne. By doing so Duxor would have absolute power over his people, and would end the foolish truce they had struck with the clan. Whatever mortal females they desired would be theirs again, even those already claimed and wed to the MacMar. As far as he was concerned, Derdrui could spend eternity searching the mortal realm for Caladh.

You cannae deceive the enchantress, master.

The mocking thought that came through his mind made him dive and swim down to confront Fiacail, who hovered in her shark form just on the edge of the shallows. She smelled of changed blood and death, but he saw no signs she had fought or been wounded.

How can you hear my thoughts? he demanded.

She ducked her wedge-shaped head. Mayhap you left your mind unguarded, master. Only ken that if I may read your thoughts, so shall Derdrui.

I dinnae wish be slain by that Fae hoor. Attend me. He gestured for her to come closer, and when she did he seized her neck and dug his fingers into her gill slits. Reckon you the betrayal of he who saved you a better notion than the loyalty you vowed me, you hideous slut?

Fiacail bared her jagged teeth in a caricature of a human smile. The enchantress meant to end me. You gave me new life. What think you, my beloved master?

Duxor could only sense the flat coldness that had replaced her mortal emotions since he’d transformed her dying body into one of his creatures. Bid the Cait Sith meet with me. Speak with that fat, ugly one who leads them, he told her. Say I shall await her near Insii Orc.

You intend betray my sisters and the enchantress. The shark shifter changed into her mortal form, and grinned with human teeth at him. I hear your every thought, you see. So do the others.

More of his creatures swam up behind Fiacail and moved to flank her, until dozens hovered in the water, each one staring at him as if he were prey instead of their creator and master.

I gave you life, Duxor thought to them. You pledged serve me forever.

A few lunged forward as if to attack him, but as Fiacail glanced at them they subsided. She then regarded him with those flat, dead eyes.

We never asked you save us. You forced our vows on us. Since then you’ve only used us like weapons. Never did you protect us. She shifted into her pure shark form. For the life you gave us, we shall spare yours. Only go.

Derdrui shall surely end you. He imagined the shifter’s head hanging from the railing of the merchant trader the Cait Sith sailed. And I shallnae save you again.

Fiacail swam right up to him, and snapped her teeth in his face, making him recoil and dart away. As he swam for the depths, he heard her laughing in his head.

Duncan finished examining one of the clan’s gardeners, who had a fiery, painful rash on his torso. The condition wasn’t life-threatening, but he always kept watch for signs of disease among the clan’s vassals. Plague, which had never yet reached Caladh, could wipe out a mortal population in weeks.

“You say you didnae work bare-chested, Gus,” he said to the man as he went to his shelves and took down a jar of salve. “Your wife, did she change how she launders? Or did she serve you a dish you’ve never before tried?”

“No, Healer.” The gardener eased down his tunic. “’Twas a tingling and burning for days I suffered before the rash came. My brother reckoned ’twas morphew, and told me buy a charm from Mistress Angalan.”

“Her charms won’t heal you.” He knew Gus to be in his sixties, but he had not been born on Caladh. He and his brother had been shipwrecked on the island as young men. “In your boyhood on the mainland, had you the itching pox?”

“Aye, all over me.” Gus grimaced. “The sores came out even inside my mouth.”

That told Duncan the origin of the man’s rash. He carefully spread the salve over the spots, but didn’t bandage it.

“The itching pox stays in your body after you heal, and returns as a rash much later as you age. You must take cool baths every day now and wear clean, loose tunics of soft linen.” The sound of a woman shouting made him glance through the gates, where he saw Caroline carrying another lady over her shoulder and running toward the portcullis. “’Twould seem I’ve another I should attend. Come see me again after the evening meal, Gus.”

Duncan picked up his bag and hurried toward the gate, reaching it in time to see that the diver carried over her shoulder Nicole’s limp body. On the back of the unconscious woman’s gown bloodstains bloomed. “What happened?”

“She passed out after touching a spooked work horse with a long, nasty cut on its back. I’ve never seen anyone calm an animal so quickly.” Caroline knelt down with him before she eased her into his arms. “Looks like she can absorb injuries the way you do pain.”

He turned Nicole over on his lap, and unlaced the top of her gown. A jagged gash followed her spine from her neck to disappear under the remaining laces. The edges of the injury appeared raw and deep, as if she had been hurt only a few moments past, and yet only a little blood seeped from the wound. He also experienced none of the pain he always endured while treating the injured .

“How long has it been since she swooned?” he asked Caroline as he gathered Nicole up against him and stood.

“Maybe five, ten minutes at the most.” The diver followed him into the stronghold and up to the infirmary. “What can I do?”

“Close the door.” Duncan gently placed Nicole face-down on his exam table, drawing his dagger to cut the rest of her laces and expose her back to the waist. The gash looked raw and even uglier once fully revealed, but the only blood he saw simply stained her gown with some minor splotches. “Such an injury should have bled a great deal. How did you ken of my weakness?”

“Everyone knows, Healer. Your brothers haven’t said anything because you’ve tried so hard to hide it. They don’t want to wound your pride or something.” When he eyed her Caroline spread her hands. “What can I say? I believe in being honest, even when it hurts. That’s also how I got Nicole to admit who she really is, unlike you dumbass men.”

A low groan came from Nicole, who whispered, “Don’t call him that.”

“Stay still,” Duncan told her when she made to roll over. “I cut apart your gown, and I must still dress your wound. Do you suffer much pain?”

“Probably about as much as that horse did.” Nicole began to tremble as she turned her head to the side to look at him. “The same kind of transference happened to me when I removed a splinter from Lark’s hand this morning. Her wound vanished, and my finger hurt and bled a little. Oh.” She swallowed. “I think I’m having a nervous reaction, too.”

“The horse, ’twas frightened?” he asked the diver, who nodded. “You took from the beast more than its wounds, my lady.”

“Boy, and I thought my superpower sucked,” Caroline said, shaking her head.

“The wound on my finger disappeared about an hour later, so it looks like I also heal a lot faster than I used to.” Her eyes closed. “I think I’m going to pass out again, sorry.”

The door to the infirmary opened, and Connal came in, followed by Fletcher and Nyall.

“The watchers alerted us,” the laird said as he came to stand beside Duncan. After he surveyed Nicole’s wound his jaw tightened. “Who attacked her?”

“No one and nothing.” He hadn’t intended to snap at his eldest brother, but he wouldn’t apologize for it. “I need treat the lady now, my lord. I shall report on the event once she’s bandaged and out of pain. ”

“I’ll brief them about what happened,” Caroline offered, and lead the men out.

Duncan focused on carefully cleaning the wound before applying the seaweed-based salve he used for such deep injuries. He had several vests lined with clean linen that he used to dress large wounds on the torso, and found one that covered Nicole’s gash. He could hear the voices of the diver and his brothers out in the hall, but paid no attention to what they said. Now and then he fumbled, and was obliged to stop until his hands ceased shaking.

“An injured horse can trample and kill a mortal in seconds,” he muttered to her. “No boon may protect you from such, either. What had you in mind? You cannae treat animals the same as people, you silly wench.”

Nicole made a low sound, as if she were trying to respond.

What plagued him was the manner in which she had been wounded, Duncan knew. Over the centuries he had treated many mortals injured by animals. Those least likely to survive their wounds were those trampled or kicked by horses. One plowman in particular had been brought to him with horrific blunt injuries to his head, limbs and torso; the moment Duncan had touched him he knew he would not survive the night. He had barred the door to the infirmary, and dosed the mortal with enough of his strongest sedative to keep him unconscious until his end came. Shortly after that the pain Duncan had absorbed from the vassal made him collapse.

By dawn he recovered, and went to check his patient, who had died in the night. Duncan never considered such ends merciful, for the druids had taught him to regard all life as precious. Yet if the man had survived he would likely be addled and crippled for the remainder of his days. When he left the infirmary to inform the laird of the mortal’s passing, he found Connal with the mortal’s wife and brother. The two vassals had also been injured while dragging the horse away from the plowman.

“Dinnae touch me, demon’s slave,” the plowman’s wife said, clutching her broken arm when Duncan took a step toward her. “Ye shallnae steal and devour my spirit.” She hobbled out of the great hall, leaving the echoes of her wrenching sobs in her wake.

“Forgive my sister, Maister,” the plowman’s brother said to Duncan as he wiped away the tears running down his face. “Anga follows the old ways. Among our tribe, only women chosen by the Gods may tend the sick and hurt.”

The ridiculous superstition should have faded over time, but the females who belonged to Anga’s bloodline continued to spurn Duncan and practice their supposed healing art, which was little more than charlatanism. Angalan, a direct descendant of the plowman’s widow, currently worked in the village and did almost as much harm as good with her mostly useless remedies. Over the last several months the woman had grown even bolder with her antagonism, forcing Duncan to avoid her whenever he went to look in on a villager.

A rush of air brushed him, and Shaw appeared on the other side of the table, startling him out of his thoughts.

The chieftain surveyed Nicole before he regarded him. “Shall she survive?”

“If the wound doesnae fester, aye.” He noted Shaw’s gray eyes looked almost black, which was never a good sign. “She wasnae attacked.” He repeated what Caroline had told him, and added, “It seems she heals by absorbing wounds and the distress they cause with a touch.”

“A wretched boon. Who should enjoy being hurt?” The chieftain’s dark expression eased. “Keep her here in the infirmary, and bid one of the guards sit with her when you must leave.”

He frowned. “A guard, and no’ a maid?”

“Caroline claimed she’s lied about her name, and Fletcher near wants her dead. Since she came I’ve sensed she’s hidden much from everyone as well,” Shaw told him. “Behind her easy smiles and understanding words she’s terrified—and I should ken, Healer.”

The chieftain had spent centuries hiding from the clan his fear of the murderous Pritani spirit that lived inside him, Duncan thought. “What more shall I do so I may reassure the lady?”

“Naught, brother. She must decide for herself.” Shaw reached out and rested his hand on her bright apricot hair for a moment. “I shall come if you need help calming her. The beast’s half in love with her.” After that astonishing statement he left, and then the voices in the hall dwindled as the others departed as well.

Duncan finished dressing Nicole’s back and went to his work table to prepare a tincture for a brew that would ease her pain when she woke.

I’ve never seen anyone calm an animal so quickly.

The beast’s half in love with her.

What the diver and the chieftain had said about Nicole made him think of the gulls that had surrounded him and Nicole in the dunes. She had attracted birds, calmed a terrified horse, and even charmed the murderous Pritani spirit inside Shaw. Her effect on Merrick’s messenger might be something similar, for the aquatics had come to the mortal realm thousands of years in the past from another world. For centuries they had bred with mortal females they transformed to live underwater with them, yet they were still not human.

Could her boon be this control over non-human beings? If that were so, then why had she acquired the ability to take the wounds and emotions from any living thing she touched?

“I lied about my name because I thought I’d been kidnapped,” Nicole said from behind him, her voice low. “I wanted you and the others to think you’d grabbed the wrong girl. Being abducted has always been a danger for me because my father is worth billions. But I don’t believe you brought me here to hold me for ransom, at least, not anymore.”

Duncan went on working. “You feign swooning so you may eavesdrop on others.”

“Of course I do. I have to protect myself, and no one here seems particularly guarded about what they say.” She sighed. “Where did Shaw go?”

“Out.” He recalled what the chieftain had said about his beast and Nicole. “’Tis something I should warn you; Shaw cannae lose his temper. Such a thing, ’twould permit the beast overtake him.”

“I’ll remember that.” She closed her eyes. “By the way, my back doesn’t hurt at all now, and I’ve gotten over the shaking, too. Thank you for taking care of me. ”

He set a kettle of water on the hearth crane hook to boil before he went to her, and saw some color had returned to her pale cheeks. “’Tis my duty, Mistress Fairley.”

“It’s Fairburn.” Nicole sounded regretful now as she looked at him. “I told you my real name when we spoke through my aunt’s pendant. Why didn’t you tell everyone that I was lying?”

“When you called yourself Fairley, I reckoned I’d misheard you.” Duncan couldn’t resist reaching to touch her hair, and then saw her give an odd wriggle. “If you’re in pain, I’m making a brew that shall help.”

“Honestly, my back doesn’t hurt, but it is starting to itch.” She tried to reach back with one hand, and then looked up at him. “I think the dressing is irritating my skin.”

He eased back the collar of the lined vest, but all he saw by her nape was a fresh pink scar. He eased the material away, watching for fresh bleeding, but all he exposed was more scarring and some loosened scabs.

“Your wounds, they’ve healed.” He realized something else. “I never took on your pain, either, lass. I think touching you removes my own mortal weakness.”

“That seems unlikely.” She sat up, catching and holding the front of her bodice against her breasts. “ Maybe you were so distracted by what happened that you didn’t notice it this time.”

“With her touch, every lady from your time ousts the mortal weakness from the MacMar that finds her.” He couldn’t judge if she believed him. “Your boon, ’tis more than absorbing the wounds of others. I reckon within an hour you heal yourself as well.”

“How nice for me.” She climbed off the table and turned away as she eased her arms into her sleeves. “Could you find something you can use to fasten the back of my gown?”