“What happened? How did ye get locked out?”
“I… The handle on the door just came off.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “It was so cold…”
“Aye. It was, and ye are still cold. Best ye get back under the covers.” He got out of the bed on his side and held the covers up for her. “I’ll get ye some warm bricks.”
She shook her head and suddenly started shaking the fabric of her chemise. “I am not cold. In fact, I feel very hot.”
Rory blinked, then looked closer. Her face was flushed again, and he hadn’t said anything to embarrass her this time. Swiftly, he walked around to the bed to her side and laid his hand to her forehead. She felt like she was on fire, and the room was only minimally warm. And she hadn’t been pressed against him for nearly ten minutes.
“Ye have a fever.”
She shook her head, then stopped and put out a hand on the mattress to steady herself. “I feel fine, just a bit warm.” She shivered again. “Or maybe not. Is it chilly in here?”
“Nae, lass. Ye need to lie down.”
She looked up at him, her eyes overly bright. “Are you going to join me?”
His cock jerked, even though he knew she didn’t mean the words as an invitation. Of any sort. Delirium could very well be setting in. He’d seen it before with high fevers. “Lie down now, lass. I…”
But he didn’t need to finish the sentence. She’d already fallen back on the pillow.
“Ye should get some sleep, Mr. MacGregor.”
Rory roused himself from the chair where he’d been dozing sporadically, waking himself up when his head nodded too far to one side or the other. He looked at Sima now, standing in the doorway to Juliana’s bedchamber, holding a candle.
“I could say the same for ye.”
She smiled, and he saw how tired she looked even in the light of the fire that had nearly gone out. He pushed himself out of the chair, gesturing for her to take it while he stoked the fire. He chided himself for letting it die down to near embers.
He glanced at the bed where Juliana lay. It didn’t look like she’d moved at all, but what if she’d needed him? Some responsible caretaker he was if he couldn’t even stay awake.
Sima had ignored his invitation to take the chair and gone over to check on Juliana. Both Greer and Aileen had come down with fevers, too, and he knew she’d been on her feet since yesterday morning taking care of them. He followed quickly.
“How is she?”
“About the same, I think.” Sima rearranged the sheets over Juliana. “Her night rail is wet with sweat from the fever, but I doona see a reason to change it. She’ll only dampen the second one, and exposing her skin to the air might make it worse.”
“Are your daughters as bad off, too?”
“Aye. The fever still runs high with both of them.”
“Mayhap we need to get a physician?”
“The closest one is in Fort Augustus.” Sima’s face set. “He probably wouldna come with the storm, even if one of our men could get through.”
Rory felt a muscle twitch in his own jaw. Sima was right. The damn English dragoons would probably not deem it worthwhile to send their physician to help out a Scot. Although… “Juliana is nae only a Sassenach, she’s sister to the Countess of Woodhaven. Would that nae make a difference?”
She shrugged. “It might, if the weather were fair, but they’ll nae risk themselves or their horses in a blizzard.”
Rory knew how easy it was to get lost in those conditions. Someone could become disoriented and travel in circles, even with excellent tracking skills. Still, he’d take his chances and ride the seven or eight miles to the fort.
“I am going to go.”
“No…”
The sound had come from the bed. He and Sima both bent over Juliana. “Are ye awake?”
“No…do not…” Her eyelids fluttered. “No…do not.” She took a shuddery breath and drifted back off to sleep.
