Lan's muscles clenched. No, it was Moiraine's muscles that clenched and he was feeling each of them like it was his own. After a few moments, the tension in her body settled, and she relaxed, but Lan's didn't.
He observed Moiraine and the wisdom tending to her by the bed near the fireplace. Her eyes were closed, but a tight knot between her eyebrows, wrinkles waving on her sweat-covered forehead. The wisdom dipped a cloth in a bowl of water and tapped it gently on Moiraine's forehead. It cooled her burning skin just a little.
"She has a cold." The wisdom confirmed and sat herself on a wooden chair by the fire, with a tray of dried herbs in her hands. She glanced over to Moiraine for a second and then turned to Lan. "How did she even get herself this sick?"
"Her stubbornness," Lan said. "It started pouring, and she insisted on riding on."
The wisdom rolled her eyes and earned a chuckle from him.
"I wouldn't have the nerve to put up with her if I were you."
"I don't have a choice, do I?"
Lan got up from his chair and moved to adjust the blankets on Moiraine. Even in n her sickbed, the woman couldn't stay in one place.
"She's lucky to have you as her husband, then." The wisdom smiled at him and went back to organizing her herbs.
If it was a few years ago, it would have caught him by surprise and he would be correcting the wisdom. After years of travelling alongside Moiraine it was the standard assumption people would have. Especially when Moiraine would take her ring off and refuse to refer to being an Ase Sedai. On their first few times on the road, someone assumed they were together. Lan grew visibly red and announced as loud as he could that they're anything but together. And the remaining time they were in that town, he made sure he stayed more than an arm's length away from her.
Brushing off the thoughts, Lan adjusted the blankets around Moiraine and tucked her hot skin under the blankets. Her breathing was a lot slower and the twist in her stomach was gone. Must have been the tea the wisdom forced down her throat when she was still conscious.
They sat like that for a while. The wisdom checked on Moiraine one last time after she was done with her chores for the day and went to bed in the next room, telling him to wake her up if she needed her.
There was some ruffling of clothes heard as the wisdom was going to bed and then the small cottage fell in silence.
In the dim lights of the candles, Lan watched Moiraine's face. The slow rise and fall of her chest told him she was fast asleep. He checked in the bond. She still had a slight fever, but the tension and restlessness were gone.
Moiraine's fingers clenched and unclenched as if she was seeking something. Instinctively, Lan reached and held her hand in his, her fingers fitting just right within his. Moiraine squeezed his hand ever gently in sleep. Her eyebrows had soften in a relax line when she found what she was looking for.
For now, they were far away from danger and had no quest or no dragon reborn to look for. They could rest for a while, for now.