Soon a knock came on the door, and she hurried to open it.
“Where is Moira?” Jack asked as he entered the room and put the woman on the bed. “She was stabbed, and she is bleedin’. We need the healer.”
“I can take care of her,” Isla said. She had never treated anyone alone, but she had learned enough already to do it on her own, and she wanted to.
All she had to do was stop the bleeding, and then feed the woman the right tonic to help fight any infection from her cut.
What if the blade that cut her was poisoned?The question entered Isla’s mind like doubt, but she shoved it out quickly. Moira would be here soon. In the meantime she just had to do what she already learned.
“We need ye to nay make any mistakes,” Jack told her as he stared deep into her eyes. “I must find out who attacked her in the fields, so I need her to stay alive. Are ye certain ye can dae this?”
“Trust me,” she replied in a steady voice that surprised her too.
“Always.”
Isla nodded, then swallowed hard, and turned to the woman on the bed. Her gaze finally settled on the woman’s face and her heart did a slow dive in her chest as she stammered. “Penny?”
The woman on the bed was a striking replica of her friend Penelope Harper.
* * *
Isla managed to stop the woman’s bleeding regardless of her own nervousness, then she wiped off sweat and grit from the woman’s forehead and neck before feeding her the tonic.
She couldn’t help but gawk at the uncanny resemblance this woman had with her friend Penelope. She had never believed in reincarnation or any of the Gods or religions, but with this and all that had happened to her in the past months how could she deny that it was real?
The woman murmured something in her pain-dazed state, and Isla bent closer to her so she could listen. The door burst open, and Moira rushed in.
“What has happened?” Moira asked.
Isla briefed her on all she had done to keep the woman alive, and Moira smiled at her. “Ye did it all perfectly, like I would have done it. Good work, Isla, ye saved a life.”
She pressed a palm to her heart and sighed. “Thank goodness. I would have hated to make a mistake,” Isla said.
The rest of the day she stayed with Moira by the woman’s side, and she silently hoped for the woman’s recovery. Isla wanted to learn what had happened more than anyone else, and she also wanted to confirm if this woman was Penelope Harper, her friend from England in 1973.
By evening when she dined with everyone at the Great Hall, Jack made a toast to celebrate her.
“Ye saved a life today,” he said as he lifted his quaich and toasted her. “To Isla.”
“To Isla,” everyone at the table chorused except Jamie. Isla drank from her wine as she watched him feign a smile when Elliot began talking to him. She wondered if Jamie wasn't pleased that she had a saved a life, or he just wasn’t pleased that she had saved that woman’s life.
A wild thought entered her head as she sat there and enjoyed the Howtowdie with drappit eggs served.
“It’s young hen with poached eggs,” Moira whispered to Isla’s comment on how amazing the meal tasted and motioned for the servant to bring her more.
She had her fill of wine and was a little bit light headed by the end of supper. As she walked toward the stairs to get to her chamber, she saw Jamie standing with two guards, ordering them in a native dialect.
Isla stopped walking and listened in on his conversation. “Ha mi airson gun toir thu cunntas dhomhas agus chan ann don uachdaran.”
Isla could only understand some words of what he said because he spoke rapidly, and she repeated them to herself. “I want you to report to me—”
She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand when the sound drew Jamie’s attention. Jamie’s frown deepened. He placed a hand on his sword’s sheath and walked over to her.
Isla took a step back, swallowed hard, and hiked her chin high defiantly. “Sir Jamie,” she called. “A word if you may?”
“I have been meanin’ to speak with ye too, My Lady,” he said, then bowed his head. “Ye did a great thin’ savin’ that woman’s life today. I never would have believed that ye do such kind work.”
Bold.Isla arched a brow and waited for him to say more. When he didn’t, she cleared her throat and spoke. “We have barely said a word to each other since I arrived at this Castle nearly two months now. I take it that I am not going to be a friend or ally of yours.”