“I don’t have enough comfrey for a poultice. I need to go into the woods and gather some,” Purity said and waited for what she knew his response would be.
“I’ll go with you.”
She didn’t argue. She hadn’t gotten completely used to him being her shadow, but she found she did enjoy his company. Not that he said much. She talked more than he did.
Purity shook a finger at Princess, stretched out on the ground near the cottage. “You stay here and rest.” She dropped her hand to her side as she turned to King, who sat on a bench not far from Princess cleaning his paw. “Princess isn’t well. Please make sure you stay with her and watch over her, and don’t let her follow us.”
King gave a deep meow and looked to Princess.
“So you command the dog but ask nicely of the cat,” Arran said and felt a chuckle rumble deep inside him. Not having felt the sensation in far too long, it felt strange.
“It is good to know your animal. King doesn’t take well to commands where Princess thrives on them. King is also protective of Princess and having seen me remove the stone from between her paw pads, he knows she is in pain. He will keep her from staying on her feet.”
“You are remarkable with animals.”
“Anyone can be if they care enough to,” she said.
“People don’t care that much for each other, they’d never care that much for animals,” he said. “I’ll get your cloak.”
Purity wondered over his cynical remark. He hadn’t thought that way years ago. He’d always have a smile, a kind or teasing word for whoever crossed his path. It hadn’t been only women who had been drawn to him, but men as well, stopping to talk often with him. She wished he would talk to her about his time away, but he’d made it clear that would never happen.
Arran slipped the new cloak over her shoulders and together they entered the woods.
“Do you know where the comfrey grows?” he asked, taking her arm, to help her avoid some ruts in the ground.
“I do. There is a large patch not far from here. The plant has a lovely violet-colored flower with dark green leaves and it thrives in the sun more than it does shade. Winter will claim whatever remains so I will take as much as I can get.”
“I think I’ve seen a large bush of that near the MacKinnon keep.”
Purity laughed lightly. “No doubt you did since Bethany probably had much need of it for all the wounds and bruises your sister Raven used to get.”
“That she did. There wasn’t a day that went by that Bethany wasn’t chasing her down to tend a wound that she got from only God knows what.”
“I envied her such delightful freedom to go exploring in the woods, climb trees, and spend time with the horses.”
“Most of which she wasn’t supposed to do,” he said.
“And what of you teaching her how to wield a sword?” Purity said, recalling how he had just begun, a day or two before the attack, to teach Raven.
“I regret not teaching her sooner. If I had begun to teach her when she had asked, pestered me to, she would have been proficient with a sword by the time of the attack. She would have had a better chance of defending herself.”
Arran never said it, fearing that upon hearing the words aloud would make it so, but he worried that his sister had been scooped up by a group of unscrupulous men and she suffered terribly at their hands. And even if she had managed to survive, he wondered what she’d be like now.
He felt Purity’s hand on his arm and realized he had stopped.
“Trust your sister. She is courageous and I believe you and your family will be reunited with her one day.”
He wanted to believe that. He desperately wanted to believe that.
They continued on, silently this time, and it didn’t take them long to collect the comfrey and head back to the cottage. Purity carried the comfrey in her tunic, having drawn the hem of it up to form a sack.
They weren’t far from the cottage when suddenly Arran shoved her forcibly behind him and she stumbled and struggled to stay on her feet. When she righted herself, she froze. Two men were charging out of the woods, swords in hand, heading straight for them.
Chapter 6
“Stay back and do nothing,” Arran ordered and rushed at the two men with a vicious roar that sent Purity’s limbs trembling.
She wasn’t surprised when the men halted in their tracks and their eyes appeared as if they would pop from their heads in fright.
Their brief hesitation was their downfall. Arran reached them before they realized he was on top of them. With a powerful swing, he took one man down and turned with such speed that the second man had no time to react and fell from a single blow.