Chapter 30
There was little he could do, and it was killing him slowly from the inside out. He could only watch and wait for the fever to end as it stretched on and on. It was like watching a battle from the side-lines, and being held back as he did so. Struggling to get forward and to surge to the defence of all who needed it. However, this…this he could not fight.
Wiping his hands down his face, he felt and heard as his callouses rasped against the small hairs which were trying so hard to form a beard. It did not matter when he shaved as all he seemed to do was feel more growth only moments later, only to find out it had been nearly a day. Alfred and Kendrick forcing him away from her side at least once every day, and it was how he knew that it was time to go through the routine of normality for such a small time.
He never would have left her in her condition unless both males had not wrestled him from the room the first day, and had not let him back in, using force, until he had taken some time for himself. It was easier just to go along with their wants than fight them. He was back with her quicker. But he refused to leave more than once unless a dire need arose. He had already spent too long away, and the little he had gleaned from a rather obtusely silent Alfred made him wish he could change the way he had acted. But he had needed that time to work through the plan.
He had kept an eye on her from afar. Made sure nothing was progressing overly fast with her betrothal, otherwise he would have acted sooner. It had only been after he had not seen her, or heard from the man he had hired that she had not been out in two days, that he had begun to worry. That worry only increasing after the fourth day. When he was practically camping in the crevice he ‘looked over her’ from. It had finally gotten to him when a harried looking Alfred had darted from the run down building, leaving her alone and unprotected. He had taken the opportunity presented and had not looked back.
Finding her as he had, he would never forget the image of her curled in the foetal position as he had entered. Not a whisper of movement could be found, and it took minutes for him to finally see the tiny rise and fall of the thin, raggedy blanket that was shrouding her body. It had taken all of a second for him to move after he had established she lived and his heart could beat once more. He had surged forward and with a gentility he had not believed himself capable of, scooped her into his arms and turned to leave. Only to be confronted by a panting and red faced Alfred.
The solitary thing which stopped both men from coming to blows was the woman who lay so still in his arms. So light he barely noticed her weight as he looked down upon her and could see nothing other than the woman who made him pause in life and see what he had missed in the tumultuous river that had become his life. With Alfred hot on his heels, erupting every now and then, letting off rather a lot of steam, and following all the way to the house where Artair made sure Rohesia was comfortably in his own bed. Before finally confronting the male who had been looking for a fight since the moment he had spotted him in that dilapidated room.
Again stopped from using his aching fist, Kendrick had arrived pulling Alfred free of the room and allowing Artair to see to Rohesia’s needs before he had to deal with anything else thrown his way. At least the black eye that Kendrick sported should put Alfred on his toes, for that very much had Artair’s signature all over it. Or he hoped Alfred could tell it was him who had put it there, well if not, he was sure Kendrick would have mentioned something. He also had a rather large bruise on his rib cage from the fight they had entered when events had finally bubbled over into a frothing beast. It had cooled somewhat since fists had become involved. Now his entire being was focused on the woman curled into such a tight ball on the bed before him. Her small hand cold in his grasp as her breath rasped in and out of her in laboured gasps.
Rubbing the pads of his thumbs over the closed lids of his eyes, he sighed heavily. “Artair?” His head jerked up, Kendrick stood shyly in the doorway, his lips quirked in a sad smile. Artair only blinked slowly, before turning his focus back upon the woman before him. “I have no need to leave at this moment, Kendrick.” He heard the sigh and felt the movement of the floorboards as Kendrick moved to stand beside the chair he sat in. The hand heavy as it landed on his shoulder.
“Nay, Artair, it’s just…I feel as if everything has been put into perspective. Seeing you with her, the way you are gravitated towards her constantly, your thoughts and words circling back to her when you are forced away. I think I finally understand.”
Artair snorted, “You mean the black eye and bruised ribs did not do that for you?” A harsh, singular laugh was his only response, but it was enough for now. Kendrick may not have understood, he may have acted rashly, and he may have done something Artair was still trying to worm his way out of, but anger at the situation was really not something which could be kept up. He needed Kendrick in order to gain the control over his plan which he needed to execute in order to be free of the harpy he had somehow been attached too. Not that he would ever allow it to happen.
“Lord Douglas has asked for your presence at a meal the day after tomorrow. I have tried to put it off…”
“I am not going Kendrick. You cannot ask that of me, I am not going to leave Rohesia here, alone, or allow Alfred to steal her away after the performance he put up when I brought her here. And I most especially am not going to sit in his house, eating with his daughter while I could be spending my time with the woman I actually wish to be with.” He shot a narrow eyed look at Kendrick and noted the sheepish expression that overcame him.
“I never expected you to be involved in this meal. I was going to send you apologies, whether they are real or imagined apologies.” The latter stopped Artair from speaking his mind on that issue. If it had not been for it, he may have thought that Kendrick had been trying his hand at subterfuge again…it had not gone well for him the first time around. “I am not that foolish Artair. I may have acted so when I tried to find a solution to my problems, and admit I should have brought you into such confidence sooner, but I do learn and adapt with the best of them. Especially when a fist comes flying at my face.”
Both gave a grim smile at each other, before a rather ragged breath from Rohesia cut into the moment, and he took a deep on for himself, clenching his hand a little tighter around hers, trying to place some of his warmth within her through his touch. “She will be well Artair, she is not going to go against the feared Artair MacKay. Not when she most probably knows you would follow into eternity if she dared to slip from your grip now.”
“Aye you are correct. There is most definitely nothing which I would allow to keep us apart, and death is definitely not one that I fear.”
“You have been through much in your life Artair. I do not know all, and you do not need to tell me, but my father has told me some of the role Toren had you play in your clan. You above all deserve something to hold as your own, and to show you a part of life, I think, you never thought you would be allowed. Especially when Aonghus and Sheena were brought together. I saw the way you reacted, and the despondence which brought you with me on this journey. That girl right there I believe could be your salvation, and I will not allow anyone to take that from you. I am sorry for what my actions have caused you.”
Artair did not know how to respond, but it seemed he did not need to. “I will sort this, Douglas will not need to see you again…or rather you will never need to see him. But I have searched for another house, to hide you whereabouts, it will keep Rohesia away from Robert and you from Douglas. I was telling you of the meal for a reason. When I leave for Douglas’ you need to move Rohesia. It is all I can do for you at the moment. I need to work this out for you Artair. I am the one who was wrong, and if I had not have been you could have been joined with Rohesia before God by now.”
Artair saw the image in his head, and smiled slightly. Aye, Kendrick was correct, it could be so…but it did not matter, for she was going to heal…and they would be joined before God even if it was the last act he performed on this earth.