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“A woman running a physician’s business? I thought we agreed ye wilna lie.”

Nerves trembled within her like a feather on the wind. In cases like this, she always fell back to her defense mechanism—bubbliness.

“You know what, at my work, I see twenty to thirty children every day. I spent years studying medicine and surgery and years building my practice…my husband’s practice, I mean. And get this. While I was working hard, my dear husband cheated on me!”

Aulay’s face darkened. “Ye worked in his business while he was bedding other lasses?”

But she didn’t get to reply. A woman passed by her, coughing violently. She held a baby in her arms. The baby was probably about six months old. It was crying and had a dry, chesty cough that made her desperately wish for her stethoscope. She needed to listen to its chest because it might have a chest infection.

Following, despite Aulay’s protests, Jenny saw the woman sit with the baby in her lap on a heap of firewood by one of the houses in the inner bailey. The small homes were hidden behind the kitchen building with a small garden, chicken coop, and a cow barn, as well the stables and barrack buildings where the warriors slept.

Jenny knelt on the dirt-packed ground before the mother and the baby, the earth cold against her knees.

The baby was swaddled in a woolen blanket, but it cried so hard its chin trembled. Its cheeks were red, and its eyes were feverish, but no tears came.

“I’m a physician,” she said to the woman. “I want to help you.”

The woman didn’t look well. She was tall and red-haired, her eyelashes and eyebrows were light and almost golden. Her pale green eyes were red, and her gaze was milky, like the woman didn’t understand completely what was going on around her. She must be exhausted.

“There’s nae need,” said the woman. “I already have a physician.”

“What’s your name?” Jenny asked.

“Ailis,” said the mother. “And this is Una.”

“Jennifer, please let Ailis alone,” boomed Aulay’s voice behind Jenny. She turned over her shoulder to find him glaring at her with his trademark stare of death. “She’s Beathan’s wife.”

Jenny looked up at Aulay, who towered over her, almost as tall as the thatched-roof stone house.

“I’m sure Beathan wants the best care for his wife and daughter. Besides,” Jenny said, “based on how bad their coughs are, her physician isn’t much help.”

“Are ye sure ye are a physician?” asked Ailis, and Jenny turned back around.

Jenny sat down next to her on the pile of firewood. Splinters pricked her skin through the thin fabric of her green dress, which now bore a few dirty smudges. She guessed it was good. She was blending into the surroundings where everything was dirt and stone and wood. The pointy shoes Aulay had given her kept her feet warmer than her flip-flops, small mercy at least.

“What do you mean?” she said. “Of course I’m sure I’m a physician.”

“’Tis just ye look more like an expensive whore than a physician.”

Jenny sighed. Right. No time to reflect on something she could do nothing about. She needed to be a doctor for this baby and this woman. She straightened her back and looked at the baby again. She needed to listen to its chest even without the stethoscope, measure its pulse, and so on.

“Ailis, may I touch Una?” she asked.

“Jennifer…” Aulay said in a warning. Jenny threw a glare at him.

Ailis’s eyes widened. “Bhatair never asks this.”

“Is Bhatair your physician?” Jenny asked.

“Aye.”

“I will check her fever and her vital signs, look into her throat and so on. Is that all right with you?”

Ailis looked at Una and her eyes filled with worry. “She isna getting well. I suppose this wilna harm. Aye, ye may.”

People were gathering around in a wall and watching her with somber faces. They stared at her like she was a threat. She was a stranger who looked like nothing they’d ever seen. And now she wanted to try to heal one of their own…

Behind them, the actual walls of the castle shot into the sky like a granite prison. Guards and warriors patrolled on the gallery over the walls. Down the slope, hidden behind the barracks, stables, and other buildings were the gatehouse and the gate.