Cien stayed at her side until Tilda brought Maggie up to the chamber to bathe her. "Cien, she is a maiden. Surely you would not disgrace her so." Cien shook his head without speaking, and slowly stood up. He still held her limp hand in his, clutching it like a last life line. Maggie was silent as she watched him. "Does she know ye care so greatly for her, Cien?" He shook his head slowly after a moment, never taking his eyes off of her. Maggie smiled a gentle smile. "Then I shall have to make sure ye may tell her, shan't I?"
At her words, Cien looked up quickly at her, giving her a surprised look. "If she survives tonight, she may not wish my intentions upon her at all." Maggie smiled a secret smile.
"Oh Cien," she almost laughed. "As if ye were to know the way of a woman's heart." She shook her head at him, and waved her hand toward the door. "Be gone with ye now, lad." Cien looked a last time at Rose and turned away, walking quietly to the door.
Closing it softly behind him, he turned and stopped. Half of his soldiers were crowded up on the landing, and those who couldn't fit on the landing were milling about below, casting worried glances up at the door. Glancing about quickly, Cien's voice boomed. "Maggie says she will be well upon the morrow."
There was a general sense of relief among the men, as the seemed to relax as a group. Cien forced himself not to smile. How was it that a woman who had only been here a short number of days, had made such an impression upon the men? Cien wanted to laugh. Who cared, he thought, as long as the change remains.
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The pounding in my head was extreme. It was like there were a hundred tiny elves in my head pounding at my brain with a hundred tiny hammers. I groaned and clutched at my head, praying silently that it would help the pain. It didn't. I sucked in a hissing breath and brought my other hand to my head. Jesus, what was wrong with me?
"Do ye not remember, lassie?" That voice, so familiar.... I opened my eyes and looked up with veiled lids. Maggie stood above me, holding a candle above my head as if to light my face. "Ye have been gone a long time, lassie. Days now."
I groaned again and wanted to die. Why wouldn't the pain go away? "Drink this," she said as I felt a cool metal cup at my lips. I opened my mouth and sipped lightly. It was foul. I gagged and almost threw up on Maggie.
"Have no stomach for it, eh, lassie? Well, that just be to bad. Drink," this time, my lips were forced open and drink was forced down my throat. I gagged and choked, but I must have gotten enough down to satisfy her, because she stopped forcing me and cleaned my face up with a wet cloth. I cracked an eye open and gave her my best death glare. She smiled back.
"What," I groaned, "happened to me?"
Maggie sat back in the chair and regarded me with curiosity. "Ye truly do not remember," she shook her head. "This be the way of it." Over the next hour she told me of Alex trying to murder me and how Cien had banished him from Fraser land. She said I had been delirious for a few days, and unconscious a total of a week. That she had taken care of me every moment I was ill, and that
