Page 85 of The Eagle

“Caith,” his tongue did not cooperate. It was as if he’d drunk too much the night before. “Caith,” he repeated louder “Wake.”

His wife jerked and sat up with a start, her eyes wide. “Stuart?”

“I n-neeth to… relieve myself. I cannot… move,” he said getting a bit impatient at his uncooperative tongue. “Am I tieth up?”

“Ye are,” Cait said slowly. “Ye were thrashing about and yer brothers were afraid ye would hurt yerself.” She began to cry.

“Ye are awake,” she whispered.

“Why… are ye… crying?” What was happening? It was as if time had passed without him and he had no idea why.

“I will fetch Darach or Ewan.”

She raced from the room calling out his brothers’ names. When had his brothers arrived?

Moments later the room became crowded, the bed surrounded by grinning loons.

“If ye… do not helth me up. I am going to lay… in my own piss,” he stuttered, with annoyance.

“Why all the crying?” he asked as Darach untied him.

Duncan appointed himself assistant to help him relieve himself. He pulled Stuart from the bed and half-carried him to the corner behind the screen. When his brother reached between his legs, Stuart swatted his hand away clumsily. “I can do ith myself.”

“No, ye cannot,” Duncan said and when Stuart tried to take a step forward, his legs would not hold him up. Luckily his larger brother easily kept him from falling and held him up while helping Stuart to manage his business.

When he was returned to the bed, Stuart frowned at those surrounding him. “What happened to me?”

“We thought ye were going to die.” His mother wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his head. She began to sob and one of his other brothers pulled her away.

“I did not expect ye would,” Gideon said with a look of superiority. “I was just telling Ewan and Duncan that earlier.”

“Ye said ye wanted these lands,” Duncan said shoving the youngest aside so he could stare at Stuart. “What do ye remember?”

Stuart frowned looking around the room for Cait but did not see her. “I remember going to the village to help after the storm.”

Before he could ask, Caelan peered around Duncan’s shoulder. “They are making great headway in rebuilding. This time the houses are being built on higher ground. All that remains on the lower road are some of the shacks used by the fishermen.”

As Caelan spoke Stuart could not bring himself to ask the obvious.

Thankfully his brothers always seemed to read one another’s minds.

“Ye have been unconscious for a long time. It has been almost a month since Dougal and Cait found ye.”

“I do not remember anything.”

“Perhaps ye will soon enough,” Cait said appearing and coming to his side, her face blotchy from crying.

“Ye need rest and food,” his mother added her reddened eyes boring into him.

Maisie entered with a tray of broth and some warm tea. Though his insides felt so hollow he’d have much rather had a big bowl of hearty stew followed by a tankard of dark ale, his mother gave him no choice in the matter. And she banned everyone from his room saying he needed to rest, but he knew it was so his brothers couldn’t slip him any forbidden food.

Despite him arguing against it, his wife insisted on feeding him. And even though he felt near to starving, his stomach only allowed him to take in a bit before it began to protest. To distract him as she fed him, Cait told him all that had happened, not sparing any detail. Drained by all that he learned and by all that had occurred, he fell asleep holding her hand, asking that she not leave his side.

It’d been several weeks since Stuart woke. His mother and brothers had remained another sennight to reassure themselves that he would fully recover. With each passing day he regained his strength, but he never regained his memory of what had occurred. She sometimes wondered if it was a way of his mind protecting itself against what he had witnessed that night.

They’d learned that the man who he’d gone to help, as well as his wife, had perished the night of the storm. Miraculously, only five people in total had died. The couple Stuart had tried to help. The young boy, Tom’s parents. And the young man that washed up on the beach while Cait and Dougal searched for Stuart.

Pushing the bad memories aside, Cait reluctantly peered out the window of the carriage and was pleasantly surprised at the view that met her on the way to the village.