Page 128 of Enchantment of a Highlander

Celia appeared suddenly at his side.

“What did you take and how much?” she asked without looking at the guards, as if they were of no consequence.

The woman was going to get them both killed.

• • •

Celia tried to ignore the sting of jealousy at the image of Saraid laying her pretty head on Alec’s chest.

“My lady,” Celia said. “What did you take and how much of it?”

Saraid kept her head on Alec’s chest and turned her face in Celia’s direction.

Sweat covered the woman’s face so it shone like it’d been coated in glass. Beneath, her skin was flushed, her eyes brilliant and glossy.

“Some lavender flowers in tea and some of the herbs from yer bag.”

Celia did a quick inventory in her head. None of the dried herbs she’d brought along would have caused such a reaction.

“Along with the bottle,” Saraid added with a drunken stagger.

Ice prickled in Celia’s veins. “How much?”

Saraid looked up at Alec with a little smile curving her lips. “All of it.”

Celia’s heart slipped into her stomach. “All of it?”

Saraid nodded against Alec’s chest. Her full weight sagged against him now.

“That was foxglove,” Celia said as calmly as she could. Her heart slammed in her chest so quickly it left her head with a light, dizzy sensation. “You’ve taken far, far too much.”

The sleepy look on Saraid’s face indicated she either hadn’t heard Celia or was too far gone to care.

“Get her to the ground,” Celia said. “We have to try to get her to purge what she can from her stomach.”

Alec’s gaze flicked to the soldiers and Celia followed his glance. The uncertainty on their faces was evident in the way they looked at one another, as if to confirm whether what Celia requested was fine or not.

“Lay her down, Alec,” she said in the sharp voice she used for the stunned family of the sick and injured. “We must get her to purge or she’ll die.”

He nodded and eased Saraid forward, laying her on the ground with hands so gentle the act squeezed Celia’s chest.

She clamped her back teeth together. This was not the time to let jealousy invade her thoughts.

He did not want Saraid.

She knelt beside the woman who stared dolefully up at Alec.

“My lady, you must make yourself vomit,” Celia said.

Saraid did not move.

Celia touched the woman’s shoulder in an attempt to roll her onto her stomach.

Saraid snapped her face toward Celia. “Unhand me, you wretch.”

Her body tensed and she clenched around her stomach with a low, wailing moan.

“Alec, help me turn her over,” Celia said.