I heard him groaning and looked over
at him. He was starting to stir after
four days of being unconscious. He sat
up looking puzzled,
“Where are we? What’s that sound?”
“We’re in a cave near a lagoon with
waterfall. The river runs from here into
your kingdom. Do you remember anything
that happened?” I asked. He thought for
a moment.
“I remember my brother standing over
me with his sword drawn and my wife was lying somewhere nearby, injured and the
baby…” He groaned again and grabbed his left side. “I guess he tried to stab me.”
I cut him off, “No, Gavin, he did stab you and almost killed
you.”
“Yes. I remember.
What happened to my wife? Is she
safe? What of the baby?”
“Your wife is alive. And they believe the child is alive also,
but.” I paused, not sure how much I should tell him.
“ What?”
“I couldn’t heal your wife and save
the baby…“ I took a deep breath and let it out, “and you. I’m sorry.”
He put his head in his hands. “You chose to save me and not my child, why?”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him
the child wasn’t his not so soon after what had happened to him. His own brother betrayed him, slept with his
wife conceiving a child with her, stabbed him and left him for dead just so
that he could be the one to sit on the throne when their ailing father died, so
I didn’t answer.
He looked up at me, “Why?” There was
anger in his voice now.
“I cannot say. Not yet.” He tried to stand.
“No, you mustn’t or you’ll tear the...”
It was too late he was already bleeding as I rushed over to him. “Here, lean on me.” I helped him stand and we walked to the bank
of the lagoon. I sat him on a rock. “Please, be still and sit while I get
something to fix this with.”
He wouldn’t look at me but he stayed
where I put him and for that I was thankful as I hurried back to the cave. Even with all my skills as a healer, it took
everything in me to keep him from dying let alone heal the gaping hole his
brother’s sword left in him while also trying to heal his wife. I found what I needed in my satchel and tore
some cloth off my skirt to use to wash and wrap his wound. I started out of the cave, his back was
facing me. His shoulders were broad,
muscular. I swallowed hard and continued
toward him, stopping to wet the cloth from my skirt in the water. He watched me now as I sat on my knees in
front of him and wrung out the cloth.
Neither of us spoke. I tried not
to glance at him as I cleaned his wound and stopped the bleeding. I could see him taking slow deep breaths to
manage his pain. I made an effort to be
gentle as I put my hands over the gash but when I touched him a shock went
through me and I jerked my hands away. I
looked up at him for the first time since I’d sat down in front of him, he was
very handsome and it caught my breath. He
hadn’t moved, maybe he didn’t feel it, did
I imagine that?
“Everything alright?” he asked. Shaking my head and avoiding his question, I
put my hands back on his wound, “This may hurt.”
I felt his stomach tense up before
the healing force left me and went into him.
His breath quickened as did mine.
My hands were shaking, it’s
working! I saw his wound begin to
heal and then it stopped. I moved my
hands away. He looked down at me but I
could only look at the hole still in his side.
He put his index finger in the gash, winced a little then chuckled to
himself.
“That’s amazing!” he said still
laughing. I stared at him for a moment. He seemed so pleased with what I’d managed to
repair that I couldn’t help but smile a little.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t heal it
completely.” I looked down at my hands in my lap and fidgeted with a string
from my torn skirt.
“Nonsense,” He stood slowly, looked
up at the sky then closed his eyes. “Thank you, Cora.” He said as he put his
hand down to help me up. I grasped it
and stood with him until he began sniffing the air.
“Is that me?” He asked with his nose
turned up. I laughed.
“Yes, I’m afraid so. You have been unconscious for four days and I
certainly wasn’t going to assume it was okay for me to bathe you.” I said holding back a smile.
He frowned and started walking
towards the lagoon. I went back to the
cave and grabbed the bar of soap I kept in my satchel and followed after him
figuring he might want to do more than just splash water on himself. He was removing his shirt and half way in the
water when I got there. I stopped short
as he pulled his shirt off and I saw his upper body. It was like his muscles had been carved onto
him, he was statuesque and I couldn’t help but admire him. He cleared his throat when he saw I was standing
there gaping at him. I blushed and
sheepishly continued forward into the water until I was standing about a foot
or so from him.
“Here, I thought you might like to
actually bathe.” I avoided eye contact
as I broke the bar in two and handed him half.
“I thought I’d wash our clothes and maybe bathe too, over there.” I
pointed to a place across the lagoon hidden behind some boulders. “You’ll have
some privacy and so will I.” My eyes
kept wandering back to his chest as I spoke which made it hard to concentrate
on much else. I looked up at him when he
took his half of the soap. Then
something strange took place. I flung my
arms around his neck and kissed him. His
muscular arms folded around me crushed my body to his as he continued to kiss
me softly then with more zeal. Time
passed slowly and held us in this embrace and I longed for more. A
shiver went down my spine.
“Are you okay?” I heard him speak but it took me a minute to
realize what had occurred and even then I wasn’t so sure. I stared at him for a while longer before I
could catch my breath enough to speak.
“Yes, I’m fine.” I faked an awkward
smile. “I’m just going to go wash up
now.” I grabbed his shirt that was floating nearby and hurriedly made my way across
the lagoon.
“Thanks for the soap!” He shouted to
me as I practically ran from him.
When I reached the other side of the
lagoon I leaned my back up against one of the boulders that blocked my view of
this burly man and let out a long sigh. What was that? I closed my eyes playing the scene over again
in my head trying to make sense of it.
Opening my eyes I decided to let it go, sighed again and removed the
outer part of my dress to wash it, leaving my underskirt on incase Gavin were
to venture over here.
I had just finished washing our
clothes and was starting to clean myself when I heard Gavin approach. I slipped the straps of my underskirt back
over my shoulders and looked behind me.
He was smiling. As he walked to
me I turned to face him, one of his arms was stretched out towards my head.
“You have something,” he picked at
my hair, “some twigs in your hair.” He
chuckled. Immediately my hands flew up
to my head to check if there was more debris hanging out up there, thankfully
there wasn’t. How embarrassing.
“Thanks.” I smiled.
He stepped closer then stopped.
“I, um, I just wanted to give you
back your soap.” He said as he awkwardly handed me his broken half.
“Oh, right, of course.” I laughed
quietly trying my best to avoid exploring his body with my eyes. I gave him his clean shirt he smiled in
thanks and headed back toward the cave.
“I’m going back to start a fire for
us. The weather will be cold tonight.”
He called over his shoulder as he left.
I stood there puzzled as to how he knew this since it had been quite
warm the last few days and nights. I
didn’t follow after him right away like I wanted to, I thought it best to give
myself time apart from him so there weren’t any more visions or whatever it was. Instead I took a leisurely swim around the
lagoon. When I thought enough time had passed
I made my way back to the cavern.
Daylight was fading upon my arrival
and I noticed that Gavin wasn’t there but he’d managed to get a fire going. Oh
good, it’s starting to get a little chilly out here. I set my wet clothes on a large fallen tree
trunk that he had started the fire by and sat down next to them to keep myself
warm. The fire must have put me in a
daze because I didn’t notice when Gavin returned from wherever he’d gone. He was sitting next to me with his forearms
resting on his thighs and his lips pressed together in thought.
“Thank you for starting a
fire.” I smiled at him and observed his
features in the firelight. He looked at
me and returned my smile.
“You’re welcome.” He cleared his throat as if to say more then
shifted uncomfortably to avoid saying whatever it was that was on his mind and
went back to watching the fire.
“Where did you go?” I asked,
wondering why it felt awkward between us all of the sudden.
“Hmm?” He was very distracted.
“You weren’t here when I came in
from swimming.” I pressed, determined to break this weird awkwardness.
“Oh, I was walking the grounds
around the lagoon to see how vulnerable we would be to anyone finding us.” He said avoiding eye contact.
“And?”
“I think we will be fine for now but
we probably shouldn’t stay here. You did
well picking this spot.” He said,
looking at me this time.
“Thank you. I agree, we should move on soon but your wound
needs a few more days to heal before we can start traveling.” A gust of wind swept up behind us caught my
breath and made me shiver. Instinctively
he moved closer to me but then stood up and walked into the cave. He came back out moments later with the two
blankets I had obtained from the nearby village while he was unconscious and
wrapped one around me before sitting down again. He wrapped the other blanket half around
himself and half around me then pulled me closer to him. I was glad of the warmth and laid my head on
his shoulder. When I shivered again, he
grabbed my legs, laid them across his lap and hugged them to his body. It was pleasant being in his sturdy arms so I
didn’t fight him.
I must have fallen asleep because I
woke up, sometime in the night, on the floor of the cave next to another fire
only this one was smaller. I was about
to sit up when I felt a heavy weight draped over my side. I moved one of the blankets and saw that it
was Gavin’s arm. I smiled to myself he
was still a gentleman as he’d left one of the blankets between us covering me
before lying down with me. He began to
stir and gently started pulling me closer to him, I stopped him which woke him
and he sat up.
“I’m sorry, I was only trying
to.” I sat up and cut him off, “Shh,
it’s ok.” I whispered then moved the blanket that was only on me and put it
over both of us and adjusted the one he’d been using so that it too was over us
and lay back down on my side. He also
laid down, this time on his back with one arm, the one closest to me, behind
his head and let out a long sigh. I
rolled to face him and sat up on my elbow, my head resting in my hand, he was
looking up at the sky with his lips parted, his chest rising and falling with
his soft breathing. Oh how I wanted to
press my lips to his. He looked at me
then as if he’d heard my thought and smiled warmly.
“Thank you.” He said rolling to his
side, resting on his elbow.
“For what?” I asked furrowing my brow confused.
“For sharing your warmth with
me.” He chuckled softly while looking
down at his hands and picking at his fingers, he was holding something back.
“Oh,” I laughed nervously, “of
course, I mean I want to stay warm too.” I said while watching his hands
waiting for him to say what was making him act so uneasy.
“Earlier, when you gave me the soap…” He paused considering whether he should say
more and then decided to, “Your eyes, it looked like,” he struggled with
finding words, my heart stopped, “you looked like you were in a haze or trance
or something.” My eyes widened, my heart
was racing now and I quickly glanced up at him to see if he noticed, thankfully
he seemed unaware, I sighed in relief. How do I explain this without saying too
much?
“Yea, uh, I get these visions
sometimes when I touch people. It’s
usually nothing more than a quick flash of an image or two, generally of what
the other person is feeling or maybe wants.”
“It seemed to be intense, whatever
it was.” He said, pressing for more information.
“It was.
It was very intense.” I said. As
I recalled the vision of the two of us my breath quickened. He noticed.
“So what did you see?” He asked very
bluntly which surprised me a little.
I looked him directly in the eyes, “Um,
nothing, at least nothing for you to be concerned with.” I looked away before I could finish.
Not satisfied with my answer, “An
intense nothing, huh?” he asked incredulously.
I peeked up at him then turned my face away quickly. “So you didn’t see you put your arms around
my neck and kiss me then?” My mouth
dropped open and my eyes widened again as I turned to stare at him.
“You saw that?” I asked
bewildered.
“Yes.” He said then added a little
discouraged, “You didn’t?” His face was
tense, I had to look away to compose myself.
“That is what I saw, but…” Do I tell him there’s more? As if hearing my thoughts he spoke up.
“But there’s more.” It wasn’t a question, he stated it as
fact. How did he know?
“Yes.” I whispered.
“How did you..?”
“To be honest,” He cut me off and let out a deep
breath before continuing, “I was disappointed when I realized it hadn’t
happened.” I swallowed hard, my eyes searching his face.
“What?” I didn’t have time to finish
my question before he brushed the hair out of my face and put his hand behind
my head and leaned in to kiss me.
