The Veiled Lass

Chapter Twelve

Breac awoke to soft groans of pain beside him.He blinked tiredly his mind blurred by sleep then suddenly becoming clear as the entirety of the previous nights events poured over him and he bolted into action.

 

He looked beside himself and there she was. Elspet lay awake in his bed; struggling to sit up and releasing small gasps of pain every time she tried.

 

"Shush donna rise Elspet yee will tear your stitches" Breac pleaded as he placed a large hand on her bruised shoulder and pushed her softly back onto his fur laden bed. The lass flinched away from his touch; whimpering before conceeding to him and laying back against the furs.She whinined softly as the action tugged at her stitched back.

 

"Why am I here sir ?" Elspet asked shyly not daring to meet his gaze.Her actions with him before are what brought her to the pain and humiliation of the barracks.she would have rather have died than experience Lady Mae's wrath once again.

 

Breac pulled his hand away as if he had been burned when Elspet flinched from his touch.The enchanting lass was scared of him.That mere thought made his mouth fill with bile.He closed his eyes and swallowed the bile and her rejection painfully before answering her."I found yee in the barrack and I brought yee back here to be tended by my mother.She is a sought after healer in these lands."

 

Elpset nodded softly "I thank yee". She shivered and snuggled closer to the farm furs as a cold breeze brushed over her body and face; making her scrunch her nose in distaste.Then she suddenly froze.

 

A cool breeze upon her face?

 

Elspet's hands shot up to stroke the veil but they merely grabbed at air.

 

She wasn't adorning the veil.

 

As soon as her mind registered that fact she threw herself self down upon the bed her stitches and cracked ribs be damned. She burrowed her face into the fur pelts muttering words of astonishment and pleads for Breac to "donna look" at her.

 

Breac watched in horror as the lass hid herself in his bed.The action tore several stitches and pulled gut wrenching sob from the lass.

 

"Elspet?!" He called as he lightly grazed a hand over the torn stitching as it began to bleed profusely.He quickly tore piece of the linen sheet below them to press against the weeping wounds and stanch the bleeding.

 

"Donna touch me!"Elspet cried out as she sobbed into the soft fur.

Breac ignored the lass's cries as her worried over her back.The lass was a wreck of sobs and hiccups and he hadn't the slightest idea why..

 

He had seen her. He had layed his eyes upon her hideous face. She was foolish.For the past week late at night once all the work was done.She had let herself slip into fantasy's as she curled up on her cot. Some consisted of having parents, other of being a member of the kings court but the majority..the majority were about a certain handsome Laird's son. She dreamed of him loving her regardless of the blasted veil.Of him being blissfully ignorant of her beastly appearance.At least then he could specalate..he could pretend perhaps his love was beautiful beneath that veil.

But those dreams were shattered all by the lose of a piece of ivory linen.