“We’ll see.”
*~~*~~*
“’Tis a clean wound.”
A gentle voice was speaking through a fog. She forced her eyes open to see Royce and Gabriel bending over her, their faces filled with concern.
“If it’s so clean why are you both looking so worried?”
Their gazes shot up to her face and she tried to give them a smile. “Well?”
“It is going to leave a scar,” murmured Royce, his hands gentle as he touched a very sore place on her side.
“Well, I doubt too many people are going to see it. Unless you’re all going to loathe the very sight of me without my clothes on…”
Her attempt at humour failed, since the two faces bending over her didn’t respond with the grins she’d hoped for.
At a loss, she breathed out. And burst into tears, wincing as her sobs pulled at a spot on her side..
“Ohsweetheart,” Gabriel gathered her close, clearly trying not to hurt her. “Everything’s all right now, love. You’re safe, you’re in one piece, with just a few little cuts…it’s over, Gwyneth. Can you hear me, darling? It’s all over. We’ve taken the bad man away…”
Gwyneth found herself snorting out a laugh amidst her tears. “I’m not five, Gabriel.”
He kissed away her tears. “Oh believe me, sweet lady. I know.” His lips returned to hers, light touches that soothed away her outburst.
“I’m sorry. I don’t quite know what made me do that. I don’t like to cry.” She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand.
“It could have something to do with the fact you had a knife at your throat and a nasty stab wound in your side.” Gabriel tried to look stern. “Five minutes. I leave you for five minutes and I come back to find you in the arms of someone else. I was…I amdistraught.Overset. I could say almost shattered.” He looked up at Royce, a begging expression writ large over his handsome face, sucking in a big breath. “Royce. Hold me.”
Royce rolled his eyes. “No.”
Her tears eased and she chuckled, trying not to move too much. “Seriously, gentlemen. How bad is it?”
Gabriel wiped her eyes with his handkerchief as Royce sat on the other side of the bed. “The cuts to your neck are trivial. No more than a man regularly gets while he’s shaving.”
“Only if he’s clumsy,” inserted Gabriel, running his fingers idly over the pristine skin of his chin.
Royce ignored him. “The one in your side, however…well, that could have been nasty. But your guardian angel must have been watching over you, since it went in clean and came out clean. It missed anything important, as far as I can tell.”
“I’m sore,” she commented, exploring her body. “But everything seems to be working.”
“No reason it shouldn’t.” Royce nodded, satisfied. “But you will wear a bandage for a while, and you must be careful not to reopen the wound. I’ll keep an eye on it to make sure there’s no infection, but the one thing in Kilham’s favour is that he seems to prefer his weapons clean. There was no rust on that blade at all.” He shook his head. “Bayonet wounds were not dissimilar, but a dirty blade did more damage than the cuts themselves sometimes.”
“I know war is hateful, but I cannot but be thankful for the skills you learned, Royce.” She put her hand on his. “Thank you. And thank you for rescuing me.”
“Hey.” Gabriel tapped her gently on her shoulder. “We were all there, you know. Giles kept him talking so that Jeremy and Evan and Royce could creep up behind him.”
“I remember hoping it was something like that. Because all I could hear was Giles being so…so…Giles, and all I could see…” she turned to him. “Was you, Gabriel, just behind him, staring at me.”
“Ohhh,” Gabriel’s beautiful green eyes filled with tears. “Don’t, Gwyneth. You’ll make me cry too.”
“And I believe I’m finished here,” Royce sighed and got off the bed. “No more moving around for a couple of hours at least. I know you’ll want to come downstairs at some point, so I’m going to ask you to rest, stay put and we’ll see how you do later on this afternoon.”
“All right,” she nodded. “I’ll be a good patient, Royce. I promise.”
“You’d better be, or there will be trouble.” He leaned over with a grin and flicked the tip of her nose. Then he left her with Gabriel.
“He didn’t kiss me. I wonder why.” Her thoughts rambled a little. She’d been expecting his lips on hers, and his face had held all the affection she’d become used to.
