Kevin watched her collapse, falling forward against his wounded leg. Reaching down, he grasped her firmly by the arm so she wouldn’t slide to the grass.
“All is well,” he said softly. “Annavieve, do you hear me? All is well, sweetheart. You were a brave and true lass.”
Annavieve sobbed, now caught up in the horror of what had happened, of what she had done. “I killed three men,” she wept. “I smashed two in the head with a rock because I was afraid of what would happen if I did not incapacitate them, and then the third man… I used your dagger and I… I….”
She faded off, unable to continue. Kevin’s grip tightened on her, all of his logic and self-protection thrown to the wind. He would hold her if he could but, at the moment, he was fairly incapacitated himself.
“I know,” he said softly, soothingly. “I saw what you did. You were very brave. But I need for you to continue being courageous just a little while longer. I need your help.”
Head buried in the saddle near the lower portion of his injured leg, Annavieve struggled to control her tears, to shake off the fear that had engulfed her after the fact. Opening her eyes, she could see his big boot. Lifting her head, she wiped her nose and looked higher, spying the big hilt of the dirk sticking out of his leg. It made her queasy. The man was surely in excruciating pain but he never let on; his voice was calm and soft. No howls of agony. If anyone was courageous, certainly, it was him. Swallowing her sobs, she nodded her head.
“I will help you,” she said, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “What do you want me to do?”
Kevin reached out and put a gentle hand on her dark head, a reassuring gesture as if she were the one in need of comfort. “I am going to try to lift my leg and the dagger at the same time,” he said. “I need you to look underneath my leg to see what the dagger may be snagged on. Whatever it is, I’ll need you to reach underneath my leg and break the hold. Can you do that?”
Annavieve wiped her nose one last time. “Aye,” she said. “I can do it.”
He patted her head and removed his hand, grasping the hilt of the dagger. He grunted when he jostled it, the only hint of the pain he was in, before pulling at the dirk and lifting his leg at the same time. Annavieve got her hands in underneath his leg, trying to see the issue.
“Do you see it?” he asked, grunting again.
Annavieve couldn’t see much of anything, made worse because the horse was starting to dance around nervously. So she put her fingers underneath, realizing that some portion of his breeches had been snagged by the dagger, pinning it against the punctured saddle. Digging her fingers in beneath his big leg, she managed to get a hold of the snagged leather breeches.
“I think so,” she said. “Let me see if I can… pull this out….”
With a big grunt of effort, she managed to pull free the strand of leather that was trapping the dagger to the saddle. Almost exactly at the same moment, Kevin yanked on the end of the dagger and pulled the thing free out of his leg. Immediately, the blood began to flow.
“I will get something to bind your leg,” Annavieve assured him. “I am certain there is something in the wagon I can use.”
She bolted off towards the wagon and Kevin, in more pain now that the dagger was out, spurred his horse after her. By the time he reached the wagon, she had her linen shift in her hand, the one she had worn beneath her ugly convent dress, and was tearing it into strips. Kevin, meanwhile, dismounted his horse, feeling particularly weary now that the excitement of the attack was finished. But he didn’t think on the pain he was in. He simply stood next to Annavieve as blood flowed down his left thigh.
Fear long forgotten, Annavieve was focused on helping him. Dropping to her knees in her fine gown, she tended Kevin’s wound quite professionally, wrapping it tightly to stop the bleeding. Her only goal at that moment was to help him and shedid, feeling a sense of accomplishment once she’d finished tying off the wrap. She adjusted it carefully.
“When we reach Longcross, you should have a physic look at your wound,” she said. “You may need stitches.”
He shrugged. “It is a clean wound, through and through,” he said. “There is no need for stitches. Moreover, you are the best physic I could have. I do not need another.”
She stood up, looking him in the eye as she did. All feelings of hurt, of confusion and sorrow at his changing behavior, were forgotten. She forgot them the moment they were attacked, the moment they had been forced to fight for their lives. That fight had bonded them somehow, drawing them together. Kevin’s voice had been soft again when he’d spoken to her but her defenses didn’t go up. She kept thinking on what he’d called her moments earlier, when the fighting had been over.
Anna… sweetheart….
Maybe she was foolish to want to hear it again, but she did. Even as she looked at him now, his expression was gentle and his eyes, eyes that could be so cold, were warm and glimmering at her.God’s Bones, if only it could always be like this….
“I am not a very good physic,” she said. “I simply wrapped it for you. The wound needs to be cleaned out so it does not become poisoned.”
Kevin smiled faintly. “Your concern is noted.”
She lifted a dark eyebrow. “Mayhap it is,” she said skeptically, “but will you do it?”
“I will do whatever you tell me to do, always.”
She shook her head, an ironic smile on her face. “Somehow, I doubt it,” she said. “You are a stubborn and determined man, Kevin Hage. You will do what you please in any case.”
He shook his head, turning to collect his horse, now munching on the fat green grass next to the road. “That is not true,” he said. “I have not done anything I have wanted to dosince the moment I set foot in England. Get up in the wagon, now. We must leave before any friends of these fools coming looking for them.”
Annavieve looked around at the carnage and immediately went to the wagon, now fearful that more bandits might happen upon them. Kevin, with the reins of his horse in one hand, helped her onto the wagon bench. Even as she collected the reins, her thoughts were still lingering on what he had said.
“What do you mean that you have not done anything you’ve wanted to do since you returned to England?” she asked. “Did you mean your desire to return home to see your mother?”
