The Brightest Star in the Highlands: Jennie and Aedan (Clan Grant Series Book 7) Read Online Free PDF Page A

gaze roamed for other wounds, she stopped to run a finger across a puckering on his buttock, wanting to be certain it wasn’t related to a fresh wound.
    She decided it was a scar from an old wound, possibly from an arrow. A sudden memory popped into her head. The arrow. She reached up and brushed the hair off his face, moving the tallow closer.
    Recognition dawned, and she gasped. It was him. The man lying near death in front of her was the very same man she had hit with an arrow a few years ago in Lothian. Her hand fell away from his backside just as the door opened and a servant brought in clean linens.
    The maid set the linens atop a nearby chest. “Help me move him so we can change the linens please.” The servant nodded and followed Jennie’s crisp instructions.
    Jennie’s mind jumped in so many directions, she had difficulty focusing on her tasks. First she needed to drain the wound of as much poison as she could. This took a considerable amount of time, but her patient never moved. She applied a poultice to the open wound and covered it with clean linen strips. Once she and the servant girl had washed him and changed all the linens, Jennie thanked her and sent her out with the instructions to burn anything putrid.
    Now that her task was completed, she ran fresh water over her face and hands. Lady Cameron came inside and stood at the end of the bed, a shocked expression on her face.
    “Oh my. I had not thought…the other healer…”
    “What you did was common. Do not feel as if you erred in any way. ‘Tis my family’s belief about illness. We prefer to work with everything clean.”
    “Why?” She glanced at Jennie in awe—a look she had grown used to receiving.
    “My mother believed in washing: hands, linens, clothing. I believe it helps. We have yet to reason why. Though in my mind, I think a person feels better if not lying in filth. Do you not agree? I would prefer it. The smell alone would be enough to help me improve. If nothing else, it cannot hurt.”
    The lady of the castle gazed at her son with tired but hopeful eyes. “He still lives. What do you think, my dear? Will he die soon?”
    Jennie liked that part of healing most of all, giving people hope. “I cannot answer yet. The body fights hard after a wound. Some are strong enough, others are not. I’ll know in another day. I need to see which direction the wound takes, watch for creeping lines of poison on the body. He has none yet, which is a good sign. I applied a poultice to his wound to draw it out of his body.”
    Lady Cameron hugged Jennie. “Many thanks to you. I’ll have my guards escort you back to your room. Will you return on the morrow, please?”
    “Nay, I’ll stay here for a couple of days.”
    “I would be truly thankful if you did. I’ll prepare a chamber for you.”
    Jennie nodded and Morag Cameron left the room. A large, high-backed chair sat in front of the hearth. After blowing out most of the tallows, she dragged it closer to the bed and curled up on it with a plaid, facing Aedan. The soft rise and fall of his chest was the only movement in the chamber.
    His brown hair was long and curled a touch at the ends, now that it was clean. He had high strong cheekbones, but the flesh was gaunt and pale at the moment. She tried to reconcile the image of this weak man in front of her with the strong lad she’d sparred with years ago. How incredibly handsome he was. She found herself wondering how it would feel to have his hands and his lips roam her body.
    Embarrassed to have such thoughts over a sick man, she convinced herself they were old feelings—a memory of how she’d reacted to him years ago. He had stayed in her memory, but she had been young and not able to recognize her feelings for what they were.
    Lust. Pure and simple. It was a new sensation for her. Alex still protected her from any lad’s attention, refusing to consent to anyone courting her even though she was now ten and seven summers. He was blind to her