Naughty Temptations

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Ranulf didn’t appear to be breathing, but when she searched for his heartbeat, she could still feel the pulse of it. She leaned down to put an ear to his chest. Air still moved in and out. Sweat dappled his flesh, but that skin was cooling. Alarmed, she pressed her fingers to his throat to check the rhythm of his heart. It was stronger than she expected and steadier.

This might yet be the prelude to his sinking into a deep sleep from which he wouldn’t awake, so she said nothing to Henrik either way. But he saw something in her face and knew that her hope for the outcome was rising. “He is better?” he asked.

“Aye. But do not rejoice over it yet. It might be an interval of peace before the fever attacks again.”

It wasn’t. Another hour later it became clear Ranulf was indeed improving. Though the fever didn’t disappear completely, it was much lower, and he no longer had the periods of delirium.

Shortly before dawn, when the first rays of light began to wash away darkness, Ranulf opened his eyes and looked around. He saw her first and frowned. He said a few words that drew a shout of relieved laughter from Henrik.

Ranulf’s gaze slewed far enough to the side to see his brother. A smile struggled to form on his face. They exchanged a few more words and both chuckled, though in Ranulf it was just a bare hiccup of amusement.

“What is the jest?” Fianna asked.

“He wondered if you were a Valkyrie or an angel. He wasn’t sure, if he died in this land, which afterlife he’d find.”

“You assured him I was neither.”

“I told him you were both. But he wasn’t in any afterlife.”

Her heart did a strange little flip-flop at those words. She stared at Henrik, meeting his intent gaze, where the dawning haze of gratitude and joy lit his eyes. She wanted to go to him and throw herself into his arms. She wanted to feel him on her, around her, in her. He was a man like no other she’d met. She knew him well enough to know he felt the same, but this wasn’t the time or place.

Ranulf looked at her. His eyes were more blue-green while Henrik’s were blue-gray, but the resemblance between the two of them was even more pronounced with him awake and alert. He said something more and Henrik laughed again.

“He said he’s sorry he’s been asleep so long if he had you working on him.”

The two men had a much longer exchange. By the end of it Ranulf appeared ready to fall asleep again. Fianna got him to drink a few sips of water before he did.

“We’ll need meat broth for him for the next day or so, then some soft bread, porridge, and other light foods until he is able to sit up.”

Henrik nodded. “I’ll see to it. And I must tell my father.” He stopped on his way to the door, turned, and came back to her. He drew her to her feet and kissed her. It was much quicker and lighter than either of them wanted, but better than naught under the circumstances. “I owe you thanks and more. Whatever my father’s house can provide for you, you’ll have. Ask what you will of us.”

Fianna thought of the one request she wanted more than anything to make of him. She couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right to ask him to give up his dream to indulge hers. But, oh, how she wanted to beg him to stay. Stay here, stay with her. “I’ll think on it,” she said, instead.

He nodded and left. While Ranulf slept, she changed the dressing on the wound again. The redness and swelling around the injury had retreated. The red streaks radiating from it were fading. His fever remained mild.

The woman who’d been with him while they slept yesterday came in bearing a tray of food, which included breakfast for her and a cup of broth for Ranulf. Fianna gobbled the bread and meat. Ranulf woke again shortly after she finished. He spoke to her, but without Henrik to translate, she had no idea what he said.

“Can you understand me?” she asked in her language, spacing out the words to make them easier to understand.

His blank look and a shake of the head told her he didn’t comprehend. She held up the cup of broth and made a drinking motion. He nodded and tried to push himself up. He looked surprised to find himself so weak he could barely move at all.

Fianna sat next to him and lifted his head so that it rested on her knees. She helped him take a few swallows of the broth before he turned away from it, indicating he’d had enough.

Henrik returned with his father and several other people following behind. There was much chatter, laughter, and excitement among them when they saw Ranulf awake and lucid. Fianna backed away, giving them room to crowd around the patient.

“Tell them they must not stay too long and tire him out,” she requested of Henrik. “He still needs rest to speed his recovery.”

Henrik nodded. After speaking with a couple of the people present, he came back to her, took her arm, and nodded to the other room. Before they could leave, though, Henrik’s father came over, took her hand, and pressed it to his cheek. He said a few words in Norse that she could tell were meant to convey his gratitude.

“Tell him I did only what is in me to do as a healer,” she asked.

He nodded and passed that onto his father. The older man said something more and kissed her on the forehead.

“As I said earlier, you have but to ask whatever reward you will of him,” Henrik translated.

“I am giving it thought,” she said. When his father returned to the group crowding around the bed, she and Henrik escaped into the other room.

“You’ve eaten?” he asked. When she said she had, he said, “Come with me, then. We both need sleep. It was a hard night.”

“Aye,” she agreed. “But worth it.”

“Very much so.”

Fianna went with Henrik back to his home. Though his touch, as always, evoked that deep body hunger for him, she was too exhausted to do anything about it, and she suspected he must be, too. Still, it felt wonderful to rest with his body curled around hers, his arm under her neck, her back pressed against his chest. She slept deeply.

When she woke, he was already up. She didn’t see him in the room, so she rose, washed with a basin of water and stack of cloths left on a table, and dressed. He wasn’t in the large central room, either. Just as she was about to return to the house where Ranulf lay, he came back.

He smiled at her. “Ranulf continues to improve. He was complaining about the broth and saying he wanted real food.”

“That’s good, but do not let him get to it too quickly.”

“I told them what you said about it.”

“Good.”

He was watching her with a lazy grin that held a wicked hint of mischief in its depths as well. “Did you rest well?” he asked.

“Aye. Very well.”

“Would you like to take a steam bath?” He paused a moment and there was a hot promise in his tone and in his expression when he added, “With me.”

“What is a steam bath? I’ve never heard of this.”

“Nay. You Anglish know not how to get really clean. You’ll like it.”

“I’ll try it.”

The smile that spread over his face completely devastated her. He was so handsome, this Norseman, and so strong, loyal, and kind. He was so much all she’d want in a man, yet she couldn’t lay claim to him. Still, she could treasure every moment with him and store up memories to cling to later.