Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 92771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Shade pursed her lips and turned her head, annoyed at herself for speaking without thinking. She never spoke so openly about wounds when tending to a person for fear of revealing a skill that she had inherited from her great-grandmother. Or as her grandmother referred to it as the curse. But Quint was easy to talk with and she had grown comfortable around him, so she had responded without thinking and without caution.
“Shade,” he said when she did not answer him and took hold of her chin to turn her face toward him. “We are friends. You can trust me.”
Could she or would he think her crazy or perhaps evil?
“I thought there might be more to your healing skills than you reveal when I recalled how you immediately knew how to tend my wounds. Then I watched you run your hand over Angus’s bruised arm, and you knew instantly it wasn’t broken. Then there is the splinter you removed from your step-da’s finger, and he never flinched. What secret do you harbor, Shade?”
She had let down her guard and allowed him to see too much. Her grandmother had warned her time and again not to let anyone know of her skill, but how did she keep it from Quint now that he questioned her?
He gave her chin a gentle squeeze. “Trust me, Shade. I will never let you down or reveal anything about you. On that, you have my word.”
Shade stepped away from him, his hand falling away from her chin. “My grandmother warned me to hold my tongue and say nothing.”
“Why? Did she share this special skill with you?”
“Nay, her mum did, my great-grandmother.”
“Did she make her husband aware of it?”
Shade looked at him oddly. “She did.”
“And he made sure to keep her secret and protect her?”
She nodded again. “From what my grandmother told me, he did.”
“I will do the same. Keep your secret and protect you.”
She smiled gently. “But you are not my husband and will eventually leave m—” She caught herself and quickly said, “leave here.”
She may have caught herself fast, but he had heard in his head what she meant to say—leave me. And those words caused a painful jab to his heart.
“Your secret still would remain safe with me, and I would do what I could to see you kept safe.”
“No one knows, not even my mum,” Shade said, thinking how much she missed discussing the skill with her grandmother.
“Is it your touch that heals?” he asked, thinking it might be easier if he guessed instead of her revealing it.
She shook her head.
He was even more curious now, having assumed he was right. He reached out and took hold of her arm to draw her toward him where he sat on the bench that she had placed close to the hearth so she would have sufficient light.
“I will trust you with a secret,” he said. “So, you know we can trust each other.”
His offer appealed to her. “All right, tell me.”
“I was once wed and lost my wife, and my heart still breaks and aches for her.”
“So, that was who you kissed when you kissed me while with fever,” she said, the mystery of that kiss finally solved, though she thought that might have been the reason.“You demanded she not leave you. You made me give you my word… her word.”
“Aye, I would have done that if I could have, but I never got the chance. I got to her too late to save her and it haunts me that I failed her.”
Shade said what she felt, his hurt tearing at her heart. “My heart hurts for you and your wife and I understand why your heart continues to break.”
Quint felt a strange release sharing that with her as if it eased the pain some and was relieved when she asked no more about it.
“My turn.”
“I’m listening,” he said.
She breathed in a brave breath and said, “I can see the inside of people when they are ill or wounded. I see the blood flowing through the veins, the bones, the steady or at times the uneven beat of the heart, the lungs expanding and slowing as death nears, and I see the bairn that grows within a mother, and much more.”
Shock marred his handsome features and Shade worried that she had made a mistake in revealing her secret to him. Her stomach churned and her heart beat a bit faster as she waited for him to speak.
He never got the chance, a voice shouted out, “Shade! Shade! My da had an accident and needs your help.”
CHAPTER 7
Quint followed Shade and Walter, a lad of no more than ten years, through the woods. The scrawny lad was damp with sweat from running to get to Shade, speaking between tears, sniffling them back and using his shirt sleeve to wipe away the stubborn ones that fell.