Chapter 4

4

“ H ow does he fare this morn, daughter?”

Exhausted from another night of caring for the stranger, Caitlin shifted in the chair next to the pallet and touched the man’s brow yet again. Shaking her head, she looked at her mother. “He still haes the fever.”

Caitlin slid down to the dirt floor and picked up the basin of water. Gathering up all the used rags, she rose and limped to the doorway, favoring the injured foot. “I will freshen the water and begin again.”

“Nay, lass, I can see to him now. Now that ye can put yer weight on yer foot, ye need to clean yerself up. And get some rest.”

“But, Mam...” she began to argue.

“’Twill be no arguing wi’ me, lass. Ye are nigh to fainting wi’ exhaustion and havna even washed since we brought ye both here. Go. I put a jar of ointment and some fresh bandages to wrap yer foot in on the table for ye. Wash at the cave and use it.”

Caitlin started to tell her mother that she was fine but one look at the older woman’s face told her not to bother. “I’ll bring the fresh water to ye first.”

At her mother’s nod, Caitlin ducked through the low opening and fetched cold water from the outside well. After taking one last look at the unconscious man, she gathered a drying sheet, clean clothing, a small container of soap and the healing salve made by her mother.

Following a path around the perimeter of the village crofts, she soon reached the loch. Looking for signs of anyone close by and finding none, she followed a rough trail off to one side of the loch and soon came to the cave. Pushing back the brush that grew wild at the opening, Caitlin stepped inside.

Allowing herself to adjust to the darkness, she stood and listened to the quiet. Gradually, the bubbling, gurgling water sounds came to her in the dim cavern. Since she was a common visitor to the hot spring that flowed through the cave and out into the loch, she could find it with or without light. With a hand on the wall to steady her steps, Caitlin made her way into the steamy room.

Stepping carefully along the wet floor, she put her things down on a dry rock. She unlaced the bodice and skirt and dropped them into the heated pool at her feet. Her chemise followed next. Upon her return, her mother had cleaned up the cuts as best she could. Now, Caitlin untied the end of the braid and shook her head until her hair hung loose and long down her back. ’Twould feel good to remove all traces of the touch of those villains.

Bending down and sliding into the hot water, Caitlin submerged herself for as long as she could. The pool’s water came to her waist when she stood so she sat on the bottom, letting the heat and motion of the water bubble over her, removing the first layers of blood and grime.

When she stood, she twisted her hair behind her head and let it hang with its edges in the water. She reclaimed her clothes and with quick efficiency scrubbed some soap in the blood and dirt stains and dunked them to rinse. Repeating the motions with each garment, she twisted them and piled them next to the pool. Then she turned the soap on herself, lathering up and scrubbing every inch of her skin where the filthy men had touched.

Suddenly, the waves of panic poured over her again, the terror filled her mind as it had when she’d first realized what her fate was to be at the hands of these outlaws. Her throat tightened until air would not enter and fill her chest. Tremors moved through her limbs, making standing in the slippery pool difficult. She leaned back against the side wall and let her head fall back on the edge. Gradually the heat soothed her quaking and her terror subsided.

Tears filled her eyes and Caitlin let them fall in the water as she remembered when she’d finally realized the danger she was in. She’d been manhandled before by boys in the clan but their gropings were filled with a misguided need for attention and a desire for her. The other night had been something different, something evil. Not misguided attempts to fondle or caress. A prelude to danger and pain and death.

Even as she allowed the words in her mind, she rebelled against them. She wanted to return to the sense of security being under the protection of the Clan MacKendimen offered her. She could go where she wanted or needed, she went about her mother’s errands and never thought about danger. Until now. Now she realized that her world had shifted and fear had entered.

And, so had a stranger.

Caitlin sunk down deeper into the heated water. Her breathing was almost back to normal. The scratchy tightness left her throat. Finally she would admit it to herself, he was not really a stranger.

She’d seen him before... in her dreams.

The fire dream came often in the last weeks. He stood surrounded by flames as tall and taller than he. She stood outside the circle of fire and could hear his moans for help. Her hands pulsed and throbbed in her dream until she touched the flames around him. Her hands pushed through the fire without injury and soon she stood before him.

Look at me, he would beg without saying the words. Open your eyes and look at me. She would raise her head and eyes to him and he would gasp. Then she would raise her hands to his cheeks and draw the heat from him.

But before she could finish she would be pulled from him, taking her healing touch away. His final words haunted her dreams and her waking hours—Please stay... help me.

Caitlin shivered at the power of the dreams even now. She could not even believe that the same man was here now, in her home, in her life. She hadn’t recognized him at first. When he’d burst through the trees yelling the MacKendimen battle cry, he sounded so much like her cousin Craig that she thought he’d followed her into the woods after all.

But this man was not Craig, although he carried a strong resemblance to the clan’s men. His coloring was similar to that of her cousin as well.

She’d not gotten a thorough look at his face until he faced her in the moonlight, just as the outlaw MacArthur turned her to drag her deeper into the forest. The moonbeams revealed the face she’d come to know in her dreams. Overwhelmed, she’d fainted and awoke in Craig’s arms, being carried back to her parents’ cottage.

How could that be? How could she know him already when they’d not yet met? How could he look every inch a MacKendimen and yet be a stranger to her?

She shook her head at her own questions. Scooping more soap from the small jar, she rubbed it into her hair and spread the lather through the long, wet curls. Dipping once and then again into the spring-heated water, Caitlin rinsed the soap and then stayed low in the water. The warmth seeped into her body and soothed her frayed nerves. More tired than she realized, Caitlin felt herself drifting off to sleep.

She opened her eyes and he stood before her at the side of the pool, a torch’s light flickering over his manly form. Without saying a word, he loosened and dropped his plaid and stepped down into the heated water. Caitlin sat up straighter but stayed below the waterline. She’d seen him naked but he would not see her that way.

He walked toward her in the water steadily, his gaze never straying from hers as he came closer. He was but a step away from her when he reached out and placed his hands on her waist. Lifting her from the water, he pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. Flesh to heated flesh, he held her and then lowered his mouth to hers.

The kiss was unlike any she’d had before. Her mouth opened to his probing tongue and waves of heat and pleasure swept through her as his tongue moved into her mouth. She moaned at the sweetness and the strength of the feelings pulsing through her body. His hand slid down her back and under her buttocks, lifting her even closer to him. She could feel his hardness—his muscles rippled beneath her touch. And, at the place where all of the sensations coursing through her body seemed to meld, she felt his hardness and his heat.

The kiss went on and on; his tongue teased hers and drew hers into his mouth. He tasted of some unknown spice. She swirled her tongue and met his again and again, tasting... teasing... licking.

He lifted her more now and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She gasped in his mouth as she felt his maleness move between her legs, against her, making her crave the motion he’d begun, the hardness, the heat.

The heat!

The heat built around him, from him until she could no longer stay near him. She pushed at his shoulders and he released her; he backed away, his eyes filled with pain and fear. Flames encircled him and his screams echoed through the steamy cave.

“Help me, please, help me.”

Caitlin awoke at the sound of his plea. Blinking, she looked around and knew no one else was with her in the cave. She still sat low in the water and yet she knew he had called to her. Her body tingled, pinpricks covered her skin and she rubbed her arms and shoulders trying to rid herself of the sensation. She had to return home. Now.

Dipping once more, she rinsed her hair and then twisted it into a knot. Caitlin lifted herself from the water and then stood next to the pool, balancing herself carefully until her foot could take the weight. The ankle had lost its stiffness and soreness.

After wrapping it tightly as her mother had directed, she slipped a loose leather shoe over the bandages to keep them dry. Using the large cloth, she dried her body, surprised at how heavy her breasts felt. The tips of them hardened to points as she moved the cloth over them. And Caitlin was startled at the moisture that seeped from the place where the stranger had touched with his hardness in the dream.

She knew that this was the place where men sought their pleasure and where bairns came into the world, but this throbbing wetness was something new to her. Her mother could explain it to her. Pulling her clothes on and braiding her hair quickly, Caitlin gathered up her supplies and left the cave.

“He drifts away from us, daughter, farther and deeper away.”

Her mother’s whispered words struck fear in her heart. Would he die without ever speaking to her of his identity and of the dreams? Nay, she could not let that happen.

“I heard his cry for help and came as quickly as I could.” Caitlin dropped the bathing supplies she carried and approached the still form on the pallet.

“Ye heard him?” Moira turned to face her. “’Tis true then... ye and he are connected in ways not seen.”

“In the dreams, Mam, he speaks to me in the dreams.”

Caitlin leaned down to test his forehead for the remnants of the fever. His brow was hot to the touch. Even in this deep unhealthy sleep, the stranger responded to her touch by turning his face into her palm.

“’Tis time, lass. We canna wait any longer or he will sink too deeply for even your touch. Are ye ready?”

Caitlin thought of the ritual ahead. Was she ready to call him back from death’s door? It would take all of her physical strength and her faith in her gift for it to work. No distractions could be permitted once she began.

“But, I dinna ken his name, Mam. What should I call him?”

“Douglas MacKendimen is his name, lass. Now, call him back to you afore ’tis too late. ”

“Douglas MacKendimen? He’s of the clan?” Caitlin looked at her mother, waiting for an explanation of this knowledge.

“Aye, he’s of the clan but of a distant branch, I think. He has mumbled his name several times in his sleep. Now, Caitlin, call to him now.”

Caitlin knelt beside the pallet as her mother moved aside. Moira went to the hearth and added a few more chunks of peat to the fire. Then she lit a tall candle and brought it nearer to Caitlin.

Taking his hand in hers, Caitlin closed her eyes and took three deep breaths, pacing herself to a slow count. Then three more and three again. Clearing her thoughts, she brought the image of the man on the pallet to her mind.

“Douglas MacKendimen, can ye hear me?” she whispered. “Douglas,” she called out a bit louder. Leaning closer, she whispered her words into his ear. “Douglas, come to me now.”

She let his hand drop to his side and placed one of her hands palm down on his head wound. The lump had decreased in size but was still too prominent to her. The bleeding had ceased after stitching the wound but the swelling still frightened her. Then the fever had taken hold of him....

Touching his cheek with her other hand, Caitlin took three more deep breaths and sighed his name again. Feeling a pulse of heat moving through her hands into him, she entered that black emptiness in her being where the healing happened. Caitlin could see nothing—not the man beside her or the room around her. This was the way... the touch... the healing.

Then, he was there. Standing before her surrounded by flames as in the dream. She parted the flames with her hands and walked to him. His moans grew lower and lower and she could see that he neared the end of his strength. In her thoughts, she came nearer and reached up for his face, placing her palms on his cheeks.

The heat, Holy Mother, the heat! It surrounded her when she touched him. How could he stand it? How did he yet survive with it sapping away his strength, his life ?

She began to feel the pulsing in her hands as she drew the fever’s heat from his body. In the vision, his face soon felt cool to her touch and he stirred. Looking into his eyes, she recognized his fear and his uncertainty.

“Come to me, Douglas. Come back to me now,” she coaxed.

The flames that had once danced tall and wide around them began to lower and thin until they were gone completely. Caitlin released Douglas and backed away from him calling out, “Come with me now.”

Caitlin once more was in the black emptiness. She felt the heat in her hands recede and the pulsing eased in its intensity. Then her vision cleared and she could see the dimly lit cottage and the man on the pallet. His brow felt cool beneath her hand and the lump on his head was gone. Her gift worked once more.

Suddenly her vision clouded over and she began to sway, unable to steady herself. After a moment, she could feel her mother’s strong arms slip under her own, pulling her back, lifting her. Then her father picked her up like a bairn and carried her to her own pallet. This was the price of the gift—her own strength in payment for the one she healed.

Her head felt as though someone had hit her from behind and the heat spread through her own body until she could hardly draw a breath without pain. A moan escaped and she slid into the darkness.