Erin (book 1 of Erin Series)

twenty

Dakota barks a few times.
"Tell Rune I will smell out the cabin and just to follow me closely."
I turn to Rune. "Rune." I lift my hand to his chest, my voice barely audible.
He looks down at me. "Follow Dakota."
His lips tighten, but he nods and looks at her. She sniffs for a second and then starts heading out again. Rune follows her once more.
Sleep pulls at my body and I keep dozing off but I force myself to stay awake. Eventually, I see a light not far away from me. How did we get here so fast?
Once the light is close enough that I can see its coming from a window, Rune dismounts his horse still carrying me. I hear another voice talking, a man's voice.
"Get yourselves inside. I'll take the horses to the shed." The man says.
Rune walks up a couple stairs and suddenly we are inside a cabin. The wind has stopped and the head from a fire place washes over my face, though I still shiver. A woman greets us in panic and I turn to her.
She is an older woman, with her grey hair pinned up in a bun and a brown dress on. She touches my forehead.
"Oh hun. You're burning up. We need to break the fever." Rune nods at her words and she directs him to an old bed made of hay. He lays me down on the bed and covers me up with the blankets she offers. His face full of worry.
"It's going to be alright now." He reassures me, though I already know it will be. I just feel awful at the moment, but it will pass. He kneels next to the bed brushing hair our of my face.
"Where's Dakota?" I ask.
"She stayed outside. The couple didn't see her, and she ran off before they would." He cups my face with his hand. "Get some sleep now."
I nod and close my eyes. I feel his lips on my forehead and jolt my eyes open, my heart fluttering. He stands up and turns away before he saw I had opened my eyes and walks out of the room. I suddenly feel real lonely, and want to hold onto him. Or anything really. My entire body aches as it still shivers. I close my eyes once more turning on my side and slowly drift into sleep.
What felt like minutes later, the door opening to my room opens, causing me to wake back up. Rune walks in with a bowl full of something steaming.
"Here, this will help." He kneels down next to the bed again and I sit up. He hands me the hot bowl and I take it, and start to scoop the soup into my mouth. The flavors explode inside my mouth, my stomach in pain from the lack of food I've had. I take another scoop and another. Rune lifts his hand to mine.
"Slow down, you'll make yourself sick." His hands are so warm on mine. I look at him and nod and eat the rest of the soup, much slower than before.
Suddenly I go into another coughing fit almost dropping the empty bowl, but Rune catches it in time, setting it on the night stand. I cough hard, and it hurts my lungs and my throat. Rune sits in the bed next to me, rubbing my back.
The woman enters the room with some bottle of liquid in her hand. "This will help with the coughing. Drink it." She hands the bottle to me.
I cough a few more times and open the bottle. The aroma stunk horribly, making me cringe. I lift it to my mouth and drink the awful tasting liquid. I cough a few times only because of the awful taste, and Rune take the bottle from my hand. He hands me a glass of water and I take it, drinking it all.
"I'll go grab some more water." The woman says and leaves the room. She comes back with a bucket of water, setting it down next to the bed and Rune scoops water into the cup handing it to me again. I take a few more drinks and give it back to him. He sets it on the night stand and looks at the woman. She motions for him to go to her and he does. She whispers something to him and he nods. The woman leaves the room. I look at them confused and Rune comes back to the bed sitting next to me. I scoot myself back down on the bed, turning on my side, my back facing Rune.
I continue to feel sudden chills, even in the warm house and under the heavy blankets. I feel Rune shift his body, I turn my head to see him, he is laying behind me, his body turned toward mine, and he starts to stroke my hair. His hand is warm and I want to feel more of his warmth on my body. I close my eyes for a moment enjoying his hand stroking my hair and open them when he moves again.
He lifts the blankets and crawls under them himself. My heart races and I begin to sit up but he stops me.
"I'm not.." he pauses to think. "I'm doing this to help keep you warm."
I look at him for a long moment and finally nod my head, shivering at the sudden air coming under the blanket from him lifting it up. He pulls my body toward him, closing the gap between us. I still continue to shake, though I don't know if it's from being cold anymore, or nervousness of him being so close to me.
He then sits up for a moment and touches my shoulders.
"I'm not trying anything on you. I'm taking your cloak off." He warns me, then reaches over my shoulders and grabs the ends of the fur cloak slipping it off my body, and tossing it on the floor. I shiver at the sudden chill and he pulls me into him once more, laying back down. His body curves with mine, almost perfectly. He rubs his hand on my arm once more, this time I can feel it more with out the cloak. It sends shivers down my body unintentionally.
My heart is racing so fast and hard I feel like it's vibrating the bed, and I wonder if he can feel it as well. He doesn't say anything about it though. I close my eyes, realizing how comfortable I feel. Now I understand why a man and woman sleep together when they marry. It feels like heaven. I start to fall asleep almost immediately.

I wake with Rune shaking my body gently. "Erin." He whispers in my ear. I shiver from his breath on my ear, and I suddenly feel extremely uncomfortable. My body aches and I feel wet all over. I turn to him and he is sweating just as bad. I see the woman standing behind him and sit up but feel light headed and lay back down. "Mary is going to help you. She has a remedy to cut the fever faster but wanted you to rest first."
Her face is soft, and wrinkled. Her brown eyes still bold in her old age. I sit up with Runes help, and he starts to lift me off the bed. He stands up and carries me out of the room following the woman. We are by the fire place and there is a porcelain tub in front of it. Hot water steaming from it. He stands me up, but my legs are weak and has to help me stay standing. I shiver from not being under the blankets any more.
"I'm going to need your help keeping her steady as I get her in the tub." She says to Rune. My eyes widen slightly. "Gotta ahead and start taking her clothes off. I'll grab some towels and wash rags." She starts to leave and turns back to see we are still standing there having not moved. "Well get on with it. The water won't stay warm forever." With that she leaves.
I turn to Rune, his face stained pink as he turns to me. "I.. I can do it myself." I say.
He wants to believe me, I can see it. But I hardly even believe myself. I turn away from him and start to unbutton my top, I sway a bit and catch myself on the tub as I start to fall over. Rune also caught me. We look at each other realizing that he is going to have to help me. My face feels warm.
The woman comes back and sighs when she sees that I am still dressed. "What's the matter? You two are married and haven't even seen each other before?"
I feel my face turn a million shades of red. She then has a look of realization on her face. "I see. You don't want me to see. I understand that. But hun, I have the same parts as you, just older. I raised daughters of my own, it doesn't bother me."
Rune almost chuckles.
"Uh.." I start to speak.
"Here." She comes up to me and unbuttons the rest of my shirt while Rune is still holding onto me. "Take the top off. And I'll take the wrap around the chest off." She orders Rune.
He slides my top off my shoulders and I begin to shiver again. She helps me unbutton my pants and take my sheath off my belt. She let's me take the pants off, I almost turn to see Runes face but decide otherwise and just take my pants off. I lose my balance, and fall back into Runes chest. The woman also catches my arms.
"You're as pale as a ghost child." She says looking at my body. My skin is a sickly pale, and the sweat doesn't make it look any better.
"Now, I need you to hold her waist while I take her wrap off." She tells Rune. He stands me up straight and moves his hands to my bare waist. I flinch at the touch, having never felt this before and the woman looks at me for a moment. She smirks. "Ticklish, are ya?" I know she is trying to brighten up the mood, thinking that we are both worried just because I'm sick. I force a chuckle and lift up my arms so she can unwrap the cloth around my chest. Once my entire body is bare, I feel a sudden chill over my body and want to curl into a ball.
"Come on, let's get you into the tub quickly." The woman turns me around with out even giving Rune or I a chance to register what's happening and begins to help me into the tub.
Rune never leaves my side, as he helps me into the tub as well. I don't know if I should feel violated by it, or if I should feel cared for.