Saber shook his head. He pointed to her garments and at the door, then pointed to her healing herbs and tapped the table, then he repeatedly pointed to the door and tapped the table, hoping she would understand, since his throat was already sore from the few words he had forced himself to speak.
Elysia was ready to shake her head in frustration when it dawned on her. “I am to keep the cottage as my place to heal those in need, but I will make my home with you at your croft.”
Saber nodded, relieved she understood.
“A perfect solution,” she said, her concern that Annis would not have a home to return to and that she would not have use of whatever she needed if Bliss should require her help no longer a worry.
She got busy gathering what she would take with her. She made sure to take what she needed for Saber’s throat, but decided to leave the garments that required mending at the cottage. It would fill her time when no healing was needed and if need be she would take some to the croft.
Saber slipped the bundle on his arm that Elysia handed him and opened the door and went to step aside for his wife to precede him when he saw a young man rushing his way. Instinct had him stepping in front of her, causing the young man to stop abruptly a few feet away.
“Please, my wife needs Elysia, the bairn comes,” the young man pleaded.
Elysia tried to get around her husband, not an easy task, since his body all but filled the doorway. She eased under his arm, giving him a poke in the side, and he raised his arm and moved aside so she could pass.
“Is Brit alone, Kevin, or have some women come to help her?” Elysia asked.
“She asked for no one but you. She says you know best that you have helped Bliss birth many bairns,” Kevin said, worry turning his eyes wide. “You can help her, right?”
“I can,” Elysia said with more confidence than she felt. “Go fetch Lendra, Kevin, so I may have extra hands to help me. I will be with Brit when you get there.”
Kevin bobbed his head and ran off.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be,” she said, turning to her husband.
He nodded and pointed to the bundle he held, then in the distance.
His gesture was easy to understand. “You will take my things to your place.”
He tapped her chest, tapped his chest, and hooked two fingers.
“Our place,” she corrected and he nodded, leaned down and brushed his cheek against hers before he kissed her gently. Her instinct was to melt against him, feel his arms wrap around her, and get lost in his embrace. But she stopped herself.
She stepped away from him. “I must gather what I need and go to Brit.”
Saber took hold of her arm and stepped in the cottage with her, turning questioning eyes on her. He could tell something was wrong. He saw it in the way she scrunched her brow and how her hands grabbed and scrunched the sides of her garment.
When she turned her head away, his hand quickly went to her chin and gently turned it so their eyes met. He didn’t say anything, he simply stared at her.
Elysia held his concerned gaze until she no longer could. “I have helped Bliss deliver many bairns, but never have I delivered a bairn on my own. No one will listen when I tell them I am no healer and while I enjoyed helping Bliss when necessary I had no thoughts of my own to be a healer. I fear what will happen when I cannot help someone.”
Saber wished he had his voice so he could encourage her. She was wise in the ways of healing, perhaps not as much as her sister Bliss, but still enough to help those in need. Though, he understood healing was not something she wished to do, sometimes the choice wasn’t left to you. And that was something he knew well.
“I must go. A bairn waits for no one,” she said.
Saber did the only thing he knew that might offer some comfort. He kissed her and he was glad to see that his kiss returned her smile.
“I will see you later,” she said.
He managed gestures that let her know he would walk her to where she had to go.
“It is not necessary,” she said and discovered how stubborn her husband could be when in the end he walked her to the cottage and took his leave once he saw her inside.
“You did good. Bliss would be proud of you,” Lendra said, smiling when she turned and looked at Brit cradling her daughter in her arms and Kevin touching the bairn’s little fingers from where he sat beside the bed amazed by the tiny lass.