Page 32 of Highlander’s Bride

She found her black carrying kit and undid the zipper. Stored in the little pockets were her monitor, her lancing device, and the box with the testing strips.

“Lass, what is all that?” Raghnall asked, alarmed.

She strained to see him clearly. “My kit…for low blood sugar.”

“Yer…what…? For what? This all looks like…witchcraft. What are all these boxes and cases?”

She really didn’t have time to explain everything. “Can you help me, please?”

She looked up at him. She could barely hold the box with the testing kit. He eyed it wildly, as if she were holding a snake to him.

“Aye,” he said. “What do ye want me to do?”

She took out the lancing device, which was a cylinder, and unscrewed it, revealing the small white halter where the lancet would be loaded. Only, her hands shook so much, she would have a lot of difficulty putting the lancet in right, let alone not hurting herself with the needle while she did it. The little purple lancets were small plastic cylinders that contained sterile needles inside.

“We both should have washed our hands, but there is no soap or clean water or time. Just please wipe your fingers with these…” She broke the wrapping of the alcohol wipes and gave him one and wiped her own hands.

He smelled it and proceeded to wipe his fingers dubiously. “’Tis uisge?”

“Kind of. Pure alcohol. Now take one of those small purple cylinders,” she said. “And insert it in here.”

He looked at the lancets like they were angry hornets. “Aye.” He went into the net pocket of the kit and took one out, then took the lancing device from her. “What is this made of? ’Tis smooth like a polished wood, but very light…almost weightless.”

“It’s plastic.”

“What is plastic?”

Oh shoot…how did she explain what plastic was? It had become such a normal part of life in the twenty-first century, it was hard to imagine times when it hadn’t been used or even invented.

“It’s…um…do you mind if I explain it later when I can think more clearly… Just insert it into this white thing…line it up with the grooves…”

He fiddled with the lancet and the device. “And how is that going to make ye feel better, lass?”

“Careful, there’s a needle in there…”

While he was doing that, she undid the cap of the plastic bottle with her testing strips and took one out. With her hands still shaking, she managed to slide the strip into the monitor and it turned on. The screen blinked, and Raghnall froze, barely breathing. And as he stopped pushing too hard, the lancet finally found its way into the grooves and snapped on.

“What is that?” He pointed at the device, backing off a bit, his eyes wide.

“It’s a glucose monitor,” she mumbled automatically. Part of her understood how confused he must be, but she just couldn’t get into the lengthy explanations and “I told you so’s” right now. “Can you just please break the cap? The little circle on top of the purple thing?”

With a stoic expression, he broke the cap, and she took the lancing device and screwed the lid on top of it. She then rubbed her fourth finger to get more blood into it, put the lancing device to the side of the finger and pressed the button. The needle prick made her wince, and when she put away the device, there was a small drop of blood.

“Lass! Ye’re bleeding!” Raghnall put his hands around hers in a protective fist. “What are ye doing?”

“Testing my blood for glucose. It’s fine.” Through the fog in her head, she knew he was sweet and worried about her, and she was probably freaking out this huge, beautiful warrior like nothing else.

She freed her hands from his and wiped the first blood away just in case there was still any alcohol left, which would dilute her glucose reading. She then pressed on her finger again to release the new blood and picked up her glucose reader and put the testing strip against her fingers and it sucked the drop of blood in.

“Lass, why are ye feeding that yer blood?”

She didn’t reply, watching the screen flashing as it calculated her glucose level.

“Is this blood magic? Are ye a witch? What are ye trying to do?”

He sounded mad, sounded like he was about to lose his mind.

It blinked: 267 mg/dl.