A Healer For The Highlander

‘The commander said ’twill be some time, mistress,’ the woman said, holding out the cup. ‘Would you like some ale while you wait?’ Anna nodded and took the cup. As the woman filled it, she continued, ‘There is yet some porridge or bread and cheese in the kitchen if you have not broken your fast yet.’

‘Nay,’ she replied in a low voice. ‘The ale is enough for me.’ Anna nodded at the woman who curtsied as though Anna were of higher station than she was. ‘My thanks to you,’ Anna added before the woman returned to the dais and those to whom she should bow.

Anna held her basket on her lap and allowed her shawl to drop around her shoulders. Tucking her loosened hair back under her kerchief, she waited and watched the comings and goings of the mighty Cameron’s hall.

So, this was the place where Malcolm had lived.

She’d never been into the village before and certainly not the hall. Her mother had hidden her presence from the villagers and, until Malcolm had found her by accident in the woods near the falls, no one had known she existed.

This hall was grand and she could almost see him running the length of it as a lad. He would have sat on the dais next to or nigh to his father, Euan Cameron. As his son and tanist of the clan, Malcolm had been trained from birth to fight and to rule. Her breath caught then as she realised the truth of her mother’s words spoken so long ago.

His father would never have allowed their marriage—bairn to be born or not. A son of this great place would marry the daughter of another, not the penniless offspring of a healer. The tears surprised her and she wiped them away. Though it had not felt so, her mother’s actions had saved her great pain. Her mother had understood what would have happened if they’d remained.

A leman would be the only place she could claim in his life. Loved, certainly, but never to be at his side except in the dark of night or the moments of privacy they could seek out. And a son born in wedlock would supplant any place their son would have held. Anna reached up and wiped away more tears.

It was strange that this place had caused such a long-overdue realisation, but it had. Now, though, she needed to gather her wits and her control and speak to the current laird to gain a place here. So that her son could claim his place here when the truth was known to all.

‘Anna Mackenzie. The chieftain calls you now.’

That man who’d led her inside stood before her now and she glanced up to find everyone in the hall looking in her direction. So caught up in her past was she that she had missed her summons forward.

Anna stood quickly and lifted her basket on to her arm. Following the man forward, she stopped where he pointed and she curtsied to the man seated above her without looking up. She waited until the laird spoke her name, signalling her to rise.

‘My commander tells me you are a healer, Mistress Mackenzie.’

‘I am, Laird,’ she said, without raising her gaze.

‘You seem young to be such,’ The Cameron said. ‘How came you to be here in Achnacarry?’

‘My mother lived here some years ago and I wished to return.’

‘Your mother?’ Davidh asked now. She did not yet raise her eyes, but he came down the steps and stood next to her. ‘You did not say your mother lived here.’ He moved between her and his chieftain then. ‘Anna?’

‘I think I understand,’ The Cameron said from his seat. ‘Your mother was...’ She did look at him then and saw that he knew.

‘Aye, Laird. She was the one they called the Witch of Caig Falls.’ The word echoed through the rest of the hall, not because she’d said it but because those watching whispered it then. ‘Though she was only a talented healer and could cast no spells or enchantments.’

‘Surely she could not,’ The Cameron said. ‘She was a God-fearing woman. The rest were just rumours.’ He waved Davidh back; his action declared she was no threat.

Had this man, the head of the mighty Cameron clan, just defended her mother against the fanciful but very dangerous claims of being a witch? His eyes crinkled with merriment as he smiled at her. The last chieftain here would never have done such a thing, nor the one before him. Malcolm’s father had ignored the threats against her when they began. That was another reason her mother had chosen their time to flee—a woman called witch was living in a dangerous situation and it would take but one incident to spark into a life-threatening one.

‘Aye, Laird,’ she said now. ‘She had the skills of a talented healer. I only hope I can be as able as she was.’

‘Well, Old Ranald will be glad to have someone take over those duties from him. He has more skill with a saw and wooden splints than any of the finer healing talents. You will live by the falls? Davidh said the cottage there is fit for living, but remote.’ A glance at Davidh who had stepped to her side revealed his nod. ‘Will you not live here in the village?’

‘My mother’s plants yet grow near the falls. ’Tis easier to cultivate what I need there.’ Anna glanced around and wondered which of the laird’s counsellors would turn against her if she did not agree to his terms. At least one dark, narrowed gaze met hers—the man who’d escorted her in was not happy over this, over her. No need for trouble now, she thought, so, she acquiesced. ‘But, if it would please you, I can make arrangements to visit the village each day and see to any needs.’

He considered her offer seriously and for some time. She was almost on the point of giving in and moving to the village instead, but the touch of Davidh’s hand on her arm, something hidden from the view of most everyone there, forestalled her from doing that.

‘If it would serve you better to live out there, you have my permission to do so,’ The Cameron declared. ‘And my protection while you serve my clan here.’

‘My thanks, Laird.’

‘Davidh, come to me after you have seen to your son.’

She released a breath she had not known she’d held in and nodded. She curtsied then and watched as he stood and left the dais. Though others there turned their attentions away from the dais, Anna could feel their gazes upon her. They were curious about the woman just welcomed into their midst.

‘I brought what I think I will need, but I would like to see what you have been using.’

‘This way,’ he said, leading her back the way she’d entered.

‘Who was the man who brought me in?’

‘That was Struan, The Cameron’s steward.’

She stopped right then and there in surprise. The steward had been sent like a common servant to fetch her from the gate? The steward? The same man who’d stared at her with open dislike in his eyes was the steward and in charge of everything in The Cameron’s household here at Achnacarry.

‘You sent the laird’s steward to the gates?’

‘Aye,’ Davidh said. ‘Robert wished to continue the discussion and you needed to be admitted. Struan was the only one not needed in the hall just then.’

Men could be both practical and oblivious at the same time. Davidh had walked on and she rushed to catch up to his long-legged strides. They left the keep and the yard and walked back into the village. Now, people openly stared as she passed by them. Word would spread about her identity quickly, for that was how news raced through these small villages. Soon, everyone would know.

They turned down a path and she smelled the scent of hot metal and fire and knew the smithy was nearby. Soon, they walked by it and stopped at the large cottage next door.

‘This is your cottage?’ she asked, peering around him at the dwelling. ‘Is your wife within?’

Now, he stopped and turned to face her. His face had lost most of its colouring, making him appear gaunt and frightening. He took a step towards her and she fought not to shrink back away from him. He leaned down closer to her and spoke in a harsh whisper.

‘My wife died of fever a few years ago and I have raised him since.’

‘I...am...’ She could not speak the right words to him now.

‘I do not wish to discuss Mara before my son, so I pray you will not mention her within.’ His voice betrayed the emotions he must feel. She heard the loss and grief and yearning there and her own heart wanted to weep for his loss. ‘This...’ He paused then and cleared his throat making hers feel even tighter with the emotions she could see and hear within him. ‘This is where Jamie, the blacksmith...’ he nodded over her shoulder at the smithy ‘...and his wife Suisan live. She cares for Colm when I am on duty.’

‘I understand,’ she said softly.

He nodded, knocked on the door and then lifted the latch gently. She smiled at the efforts he took not to disturb those within. For all his strength and formidable size, he softened as he must for his ailing son.

The good thing about this cottage was that it was filled with light and fresh air. Often, those treating the sick closed the windows and built up the fire which allowed the smoke from the peat and wood being burned to fill the often cramped place. In her mother’s opinion, that did more harm than any possible good for most ailments and illnesses. Anna followed Davidh in, smiling at the anxious woman standing next to the pallet.

‘Suisan?’ she asked. At the woman’s nod, she introduced herself. ‘I am Anna Mackenzie.’

‘From the falls?’ the woman asked.

The damn rumours and stories always followed her and her mother before her. ‘Aye, from the falls.’

‘I am glad he sought ye out. The puir wee lad is not much better this morn than he has been these last days.’ Anna had learned early that suspicion was hard to fight and so this unexpected sense of welcome surprised her. ‘Let me show ye what the last healer gave us to treat him.’

‘I would see your son first,’ she said, lifting her head to meet his gaze.

Whether he’d known it or not, Davidh had placed himself between her and his son. The sense of protectiveness about his son pervaded his every action and deed and somehow that made her heart warm to him. It was something she’d never had in her life, so she always seemed to notice it elsewhere.

The chieftain’s commander eased his stance and stepped aside, allowing her closer to the small boy lying on the pallet. With his eyes closed, she could not tell if he slept or not. Kneeling down, she leaned in and watched the rise and fall of his chest. Not good. The rasping sounds and the shallow quickness of the breaths were not good.

A quick assessment of the colouring in his fingernails and lips told her more. His eyes fluttered and then opened when she laid the back of her hand on his forehead.

‘Good morn to you, Colm,’ she said softly. ‘How are you feeling this day?’

Anna leaned back and sat on her heels so that the boy could see those he knew behind her. Frightening him would make his condition worse. When he tried to sit up, she slid her arm behind him and used her other hand to guide him do so.

And then he began to cough.

Chapter Four

The boy shuddered in her arms, his body trembling, and his chest rattled as his body fought against the racking coughs. She heard Davidh move behind her and Suisan walked closer, but she waved them off with a nod of her head. ‘Wait,’ she whispered.

‘He needs this.’ Davidh thrust a small bottle in front of her. ‘The healer said three to four drops when he begins.’

He’d already removed the stopper and she could smell the concoction within the bottle. Juice of the poppy. A strong blend from the smell of it.

‘Nay.’

She shifted on to her knees and brought the boy up to sit. With an arm in front of him, she eased him to lean against her and she placed her hand on his back, trying to feel the source of the cough. Anna had seen this before, as had her mother. Poppy was the last thing the boy needed.

‘This will quiet the cough, Anna,’ Davidh said, holding the bottle out again before her. ‘He is in pain.’

Davidh was in pain, that much was certain. She heard it in his voice just as she heard the rattling in his son’s chest. She hated to make either of them suffer, but giving that concoction to Colm would calm the coughing even while making it more difficult to breathe.

‘Davidh.’ Suisan spoke then, whispering to the commander, and his shadow moved away.

Anna listened and watched until the boy’s fit eased and he could once more draw in breath. She did notice that he continued to pant, probably afraid that taking in too much would cause another round.

‘Now that it has ceased, can you stand up, Colm?’ The boy agreed just as his father said nay. After glancing nervously at his father for permission, Colm allowed her to help him up once Davidh nodded. ‘Come, I will help you. You may feel better sitting on that chair than lying down when the coughing strikes you.’

Once she’d seen him settled there, she took a small sack out of her basket and handed it to Suisan. ‘Would you brew this in a small pot for me? By the time it cools, ’twill be the right strength for him.’

Then she began her true work.

‘Davidh, ’tis better for him to sit up more and lie down less. Suisan, can you leave the shutters in the back of the cottage open like that for most of the time he is here? Smoke, from the fire or the smithy, is not good for him.’ Anna glanced at the pallet. ‘When he does lie there, he should not be flat. The higher his head, the better.’

She waited until the tisane had brewed and was cool enough for him to drink before saying anything else. Instead, she examined each bottle or jar and asked Colm about the taste. His remarkable sense of humour and resilience showed through as he made faces to describe each one.

‘How many years have you, Colm?’ She thought she remembered Davidh mentioning his age, but she wanted the lad to speak.

‘Eight years.’

‘Mistress Mackenzie,’ Davidh said over her shoulder.

‘Mistress Mackenzie,’ Colm repeated. ‘I have eight years.’

‘Nearly full grown, then?’ she said. His face lit up at her words and she saw the same eyes staring at her as his father had. The shape of his face and his colouring was not familiar so Anna knew those traits were from his mother. ‘So, you are old and wise enough to understand and follow instructions?’

Colm nodded and took another mouthful of the tea as if to show her how compliant he could be. ‘Aye, mistress.’

‘Firstly,’ she said, meeting his wide and serious gaze, ‘is that I want you to lay on the pallet only when you plan to sleep.’

‘He is weak...’ Davidh began.

She ignored him and spoke only to his son.

‘’Twill be hard at first because you are accustomed to lying abed, but soon you will feel strong enough to sit up or even stand all day long.’ She nodded at the boy. ‘What say you, Colm? Will you try this?’

‘Aye, Mistress Mackenzie!’ From the tears she saw in Suisan’s eyes now, Anna suspected that this enthusiasm was something not seen in the lad in some time.

‘And I fear I will have other concoctions that you must take. Some will have a terrible taste, but they will help you. Can you promise to do as I say?’

‘I will try, mistress. I will!’

* * *

Davidh could not stand this any longer. True, his son had rallied in a way he’d not seen recently, but it could not last. Had he made a mistake in bringing this woman to see Colm? Other than her appearance at Caig Falls, her claims of being a healer, and the bottles and jars that seemed to indicate it was so, he had no proof that she’d ever treated anyone successfully. And yet, he’d brought her to his son on what? His gut reaction to her?

As he listened to her voice as she spoke to Colm, her manner of addressing the boy as though he was in charge surprised Davidh. She did not coddle him or order him. Instead she explained and asked for co-operation. It was how he spoke to the men under his command.

This Anna Mackenzie seemed to know what she was about, even if her suggestions and changes so far were completely the opposite of previous advice he’d received. Watching her now, he understood that she had a plan and he waited to speak to her about that. Even Suisan nodded in agreement as the woman instructed Colm on what he would take and when he would take it.

‘Now, if you would kindly pour some boiling water in that pan and place it here on the table,’ she said, aiming her words at Suisan. ‘Colm and I will play a game.’

Davidh walked to the doorway and leaned against the frame, watching as Anna chose some leaves from a sack in her basket and then retrieved one of the thick blankets from the pallet. She shook it out and folded it in a particular way, repeating her actions until it was as she wished it to be. Curious, he watched without asking any questions—though he had many she would need to answer before long.

Soon, a pan of steaming water sat before his son. Anna crushed the leaves in her hand and sprinkled them over the water. A fragrant aroma filled the cottage within a few moments. Anna tossed one end of the blanket over the pan and then directed Colm to lean over it.

‘This is to see how long you can go without coughing. First, take in slow breaths while I count and try not to cough.’ Then she draped the rest of the blanket over and around his son’s shoulders, creating a tent over the pan. ‘Are you ready, Colm?’ His son’s muffled assent could be heard even through the thick wool over his head.

Davidh could not help it, he found himself inhaling and exhaling to her soft, slow count. As it went on, he waited and listened for signs of distress in his son and heard none. Then it came.

Colm burst out into a coughing fit and Davidh took a step towards him before Anna waved him off. She held Colm’s shoulders to steady him and softly spoke to him, telling him how to let the coughs happen and how to breathe to calm them. Rather than escalating into an uncontrollable wave that would see Colm collapsed on the pallet, with blue lips and bruised eyes, this time the coughs subsided and soon Anna was back to counting. He met Suisan’s gaze over Anna’s head and saw her tentative and yet hopeful expression.

But Davidh dared not hope too much this soon. Other treatments and medicaments had seemed effective in the past, only to stop helping his son. Would these as well? At this desperate point, as long as Colm did not worsen, Davidh would be happy. After a short time, Anna lifted the blanket off Colm and placed it with care to the side of the now-cooled pan.

‘How does your chest feel now, Colm?’ Anna asked his son.

A smile that made it hard for Davidh to breathe settled on Colm’s face and he shrugged. As the boy inhaled, they all waited to see if the coughing had truly been eased by the vapours of whatever those leaves were.

‘Better,’ Colm said, drawing in a deeper breath than he would have dared just an hour ago. ‘It doesna hurt now.’

All three of those observing the boy let out a sigh of relief, even the one who had brought about such a change.

‘I must speak to your father and Suisan about what to do and when to use these,’ she said, sweeping a gesture over the small collection of ingredients there on the table. ‘Will you sit here quietly while I do?’ At the boy’s doubtful glance, she added, ‘I want you to listen so you will know about it, too. Can you do that, Colm?’

The expression on his son’s face was the same as the one Mara would have when concentrating on something important. In the set of Colm’s chin and the tilt of his head, he saw his wife’s face. God, he missed her so. He could not lose their son, too.

‘And I will return in a few days to bring more of the leaves and tinctures and see what else might help you.’

‘A few days?’ Davidh realised he’d not been paying heed to her specific instructions. ‘You will not come on the morrow?’

‘Nay,’ Anna said, stepping back, but not before running her fingers through Colm’s hair in an affectionate way. ‘’Twill take a few days for these to do their work. If they are successful at keeping that cough under control, then I will adjust them as we need to.’ She patted his shoulder and walked to where Davidh stood near the door. ‘As I have said, I have many things to get organised and ready up at the cottage.’ He would have objected, but she shook her head.

‘If he worsens...?’

‘Send for me and I will come,’ she said, meeting his gaze now. ‘I think he will not.’

Suisan moved the supplies to a shelf near the hearth and began preparing for her noon meal. Colm missed little now, watching with an interest that Davidh had not seen in many months. Anna retrieved her basket and put what she would take with her back in it, before taking her leave—first from Colm, then Suisan and then himself. Davidh followed her outside, trying to find the words he wanted to say to her. She stopped after a few paces and turned to face him.

‘I did not wish to say this in front of them, but I cannot know if this will make him better. He may never re—’

His hand covered her mouth before he could stop himself. Her lips were soft against his fingers and he felt her gasp before he heard it.

‘Your pardon, Anna,’ he said. ‘Watching him just then, well, I do not wish to hear words of caution. I have been living with his eventual death for so long, I had not realised the weight of it until just now. Now, when he has more colour in his face and is breathing more smoothly than he has in months and months.’ He dropped his hands to his side then and shrugged. ‘Allow a father a measure of hope before tearing it apart.’

Whatever she was going to say, she did not. Instead he saw the tears filling her eyes before she turned away from him. He’d not meant to drive her to tears, for he’d simply spoken his fears aloud for the first time to someone other than his dead wife or the dark of night.

‘I will come two days hence then,’ she said.

He stood there on the path and watched her until she disappeared from view on the road through the village and towards the north. He went back inside and spoke to Suisan and Colm for a short while before returning to his duties at the castle. For the first time in such a long while, the sound of Colm’s coughs did not follow his steps away.

* * *

Anna used all of the control she could pull together not to fall to her knees and sob over this man and his son. Truth be told, she worried that the lad was too far gone to bring him back from the brink of death. But how could she say that to the man who stood there with both hope and desolation in his gaze? He knew. He knew how dire the situation was. And somehow his own survival depended on that of his son’s.

Nay, he was not ill or stricken by the same lung weakness that assailed the boy, but she thought that his son’s death would tear him apart in other ways. Anna stopped now, at the edge of the village, and turned to look back. He’d been watching her, she could feel his gaze burning into her with each step. Now, though, she did not see him there.

She quickened her pace, wanting and needing to put some distance between herself and the village. But the boy and the man were in the centre of her thoughts all the way back to her cottage. And for the rest of the day as she weeded and pruned the unruly and overgrown plants in her mother’s plot above the falls.

* * *

Davidh and his son remained her concern over the next two days as she prepared concoctions and unguents and even as she and Iain ate and talked. Methods of treating the boy’s lung affliction filled her thoughts. She had kept notes on her mother’s recipes and cures in a precious book and she consulted it as she prepared her basket for her journey back into town. Though Iain wanted to accompany her, she bade him to wait there, in the safety of the shadows.

The revelation of his existence and his connection to this clan would come, but Anna wanted it to happen to her own plan. Once it did, she would lose control over the one thing in her life that was her own to claim and she did not relish that moment at all.

Chapter Five

‘Mistress Mackenzie!’

Colm’s excited call greeted her on her approach to the blacksmith’s cottage. He sat outside the door, waving and speaking to anyone who passed by him that morn. A collection of others stood nearby, waiting or watching, she could not tell.