Dare, Lydia - Tall, Dark and Wolfish

"She only goes if there's healin' needed." She wrung her hands.

"You mean healing like she did with Caitrin?" He shook Sorcha's shoulders. "Don't you?"

She simply nodded.

He had told Elspeth that she was not to heal anyone else. She was not to put herself in danger. It wasn't even possible that she had forgotten from the night before.

He forced Sorcha to tell him where to find her, then he took off at a run toward the Kincaids' small cottage.

As he neared, he slowed and listened intently to the sounds coming from inside. He clearly heard Elspeth's voice, clear and resonant as she encouraged the woman birthing the babe. He heard the frantic pacing of a heavy-footed man, whom he assumed was the father, in the front room of the house.

Ben rapped briefly on the door. It swung open and a man's face met him. He was a bit younger than Ben, and obviously the expectant father, if the way he chewed his fingernails was any indication.

Ben suddenly was at a loss for words. He'd come fully prepared to wrest Elspeth from the clutches of people who would suck the life from her inert body, taking all the healing she had to offer and leaving nothing. Nothing for him.

"My wife is here," he started.

The man stepped back and opened the door widely.

"She's a godsend, she is."

Yes, she was.

"Seamus Kincaid," the man said, offering his hand in greeting.

"Ben Westfield. How are things going?" he asked, although he knew he probably had better information than poor Seamus, since he could hear every word, mumble, and moan from inside the room.

"I doona ken," Kincaid said quietly. "They willna let me in there."

"I hear it's not a place we would want to be."

"Oh, no!" the man gasped. "I want ta be right there, holdin' her hand. This is my fault, ye see."

Ben clapped a hand to Seamus' shoulder. He opened his mouth to speak, and then he heard a whimper. "Ellie?" he asked as he turned toward the birthing room.

Elspeth had never attended such a frightening delivery. The woman had been laboring for hours. If the bairn wasn't delivered soon, there would be nothing Elspeth could do. She couldn't heal the dead. She could only heal the living.

The midwife instructed Mrs. Kincaid, telling her when to push and when to rest. She'd known for some time what powers Elspeth had. She'd used them in her presence on enough occasions. The first time had been an accident. But the woman had just chuckled and said, "Well, that's quite the thing," as though El had just shown her a new pair of earbobs.

The mothers never knew of her powers; they were usually too far gone by the time she intervened to notice what she did. And she'd never asked for any credit. Healing was a gift, and she was meant to share it. To do anything less would go against her very nature.

She heard the door when it opened a crack. "Elspeth," Ben called. "Are you all right?"

Elspeth got up and walked to the door, opening it only enough that he could see her face. "What are ye doin' here, Ben?"

"I had to come and find my wife," he said quietly. "You shouldn't be here."

She nodded to the man over his shoulder. "Tell him that when he loses them both," she whispered. "Because I willna do it."

He'd actually thought to keep her from her life's work? He'd thought to keep her from healing? He would be more likely to get her to stop breathing at his command.

"Ellie," he started.

"Ben, ye willna change my mind."

A muscle in his jaw clenched.

The woman in the bed behind her moaned, and Elspeth closed the door quickly despite his quick protest. She knew the door was a flimsy barrier between the two of them. But it offered some privacy for a moment.

The midwife worked to turn the baby within the mother, as only she knew how to do. With a grunt of satisfaction, she washed her hands quickly in a bowl of water and clapped them together.

"Now we can deliver this babe," she said, her eyes aglow. They wouldn't need Elspeth after all. Within moments, the mother held the bundled baby against her chest, a contented but exhausted smile upon her face.

Elspeth opened the door wide and invited the harried father inside, then quietly took Ben's hand in her own and pulled him out the door.

They walked briefly in silence as he tightened his jaw beside her.

"Ye do a poor imitation of a happy man, Ben," she finally said.

"What were you thinking back there, Elspeth?"

"I was thinkin' that someone needed me." Surely he understood.

"I need you." He took her hand and pulled it to his chest, covering it with his own.

"Aye, tell that ta the good people of Edinburgh," she laughed as she pointed toward her own cottage, where three people already stood outside, waiting for her help.

Ben worked beside her for the rest of the day, refusing to leave her side. If he left her, she would probably take it into her head that she needed to heal someone. He couldn't allow that.

She passed out bottles of herbal medicine for coughs, made poultices for wounds, and even gave a child a teaspoon of sugar to help stop her hiccoughs. Everyone received a smile and a treatment for what ailed them.

As the sun finally sank in the sky, she turned to her husband, blew a lock of hair from her eyes, and grinned. "Now it's yer turn."

"My turn?" Ben asked, placing a sarcastic hand upon his chest. "You mean to say that I get some attention from the great healer?" He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him.

"Aye, ye get me all ta yerself." She pulled a large washtub from the corner of the room and placed it before the fire. Then she began to methodically fill it with warm water, boiled on the stove. Ben took over the task, unable to watch her work when she had shadows beneath her eyes.

"Let's worry about me tomorrow, love," he said softly as he pulled her down onto his lap. She immediately curled into him, soft and yielding as she kissed his neck.

"But I want ye naked now," she said, her voice a little huskier than before, and she began to tug his shirt from his trousers. He lifted his arms and let her pull it over his head.

"You want me naked?" he joked. "All you had to do was say so." His fingers tangled with hers as she reached for the buttons of his trousers. He left that to her tender care and started on her clothes.

"What are ye doin'?" she asked as she pressed her lips to the space beneath his ear.

"Undressing you. What else?"

"But I'm no' in need of a medicinal bath," she teased, standing up. Her dress fell from her body and landed in a heap upon the floor. She stood still and proud before him, nearly naked. He groaned and reached for her. She slipped from his grasp.

"Inta the tub with ye," she said, pointing her finger toward the washtub. Ben shrugged out of his clothes and stepped into the water, sighing softly as the warmth surrounded him. She stood outside his grasp. He reached for her.

"No, no," she teased as she dropped dried flower petals into the water.

Ben sniffed. "You want me to smell like a flower?" He sniffed again. "Like a gardenia, no less?" Though he would smell like roses if it made her smile like she smiled at that moment.

"Gardenia is ruled by the moon," she said quietly as she picked up a cloth and began to gently sponge the water onto him.

"Like blueberries?" he asked, laying his head back, happy to simply enjoy her loving ministrations.

"Stronger than the blueberry." She twitched her nose. "The fragrance calls ta the moon. So it canna hurt ye ta wear it."

"Can't

you

wear the fragrance and I'll just keep you with me? I promise not to leave your side."