Her Healing Touch.

Chapter 1.

It took a better part of the remaining day and the next morning to sew up the gash on the wounded man. Thankfully no one bothered to disturb us last night. The last thing, I needed was for any of my brother's men to know about the injured man, I was treating in my cottage all alone. The villagers already accused me of being a witch,  and the last thing I needed was for my reputation to become even more sullied by being accused of being a whore as well. 

As I reached over to the bowl of cool water that I had retrieved from the small Creek behind my cottage, I feared this might happen, that even though I tried my best to heal him, a fever had settled in. I was afraid that if he became restless that he would tare apart the stitches that I so patiently set in him.  I heard him moan. He then tried to retrieve his sword that used to be attached to his scabbard on his belt, but thankfully, I removed it from him before I even began treating his wound.

At the sound of his raised voice, and the threshing of his arms brought Bella out of her thoughts. I then laid her hand on his chest and watched him relax instantly. Inside, I smiled, at least some part of my healing was helping him.  When I opened my eyes, I was shocked to see the man's eyes open and staring at her. At first, she was about to ask him how he felt, or what his name was, but then she noticed that his eyes clearly showed that he was still fevered. Sighing, Bella calmly patted him on his chest, and just as she was about to get back up to change the water and maybe brew another fever-reducing remedy, she felt his large beefy hand grab a hold of her arm. Bella looked down and questioned him with her eyes instead of her words.

Wanting to settle him down, Bella gently brushed aside his dampened hair and began to sing to him softly. 

      "Sir, you must relax, you are safe with me in my healing cottage. I know not what happened to you, but I stitched your wound the best that I could. Here drink this, and sleep and when you awaken again, I will explain everything." 

The sound of her voice must have calmed him, for he simply nodded and took the drink, sighed and closed his eyes and slept.

Cambryn Mckladdon stared at the woman and wondered where she came from, or how she got in his bedchamber. Just then he smelled herbs and a musky earth smell emanating from within the room. Suddenly he noticed that he wasn't in his bedchamber back with his Clan, nor was he anywhere near his home in Mckladdon Keep, but somewhere else. 

The last thing, Cambryn remembered was fighting on the battlefield. He was in a fierce battle with Laird McKenzie and remembered being fatefully wounded when the McKenzie, slashed him with his broadsword. But he also remembered that before he collapsed, he too wounded Laird Taiglach McKenzie pretty badly.

As he slowly opened his eyes, Cambryn watched the woman putter around the room, she was gathering dried herbs that hung about the ceiling, then she was gathering them to a stone table in the corner of the room where she began grinding them.

The woman was a tall beauty. She had long black hair that hung to her mid-waist. Her skin was alabaster without any blemishes, but it was her eyes that drew him in. They were a deep ocean blue, and when the light from the candle she was holding was near him, it reflected stars in her eyes. He didn't know yet her name, but he ached to know it, he wanted to know the maiden who saved him.