“Still painful?”
“Just a little. I think it was mostly seeing you touch it that made me wince.”
“It is looking very good. I think we will leave off the bandage tomorrow,” she decided as she put the bandage back on. “You do not move much when you sleep so it should be fine.”
“I sleep like the dead.”
“You know?”
“My mother and sister complained about it as they always felt compelled to see if I was still breathing. At least I do not snore, I think. I am sure they would have told me if I did.”
“Never heard any from you and believe me, I have heard every type and tune of snoring in this house.” Mrs. O’Neal began to take off the bandage on her leg. “My eldest boy is the same. Spent many an hour setting by his bed trying to see if he was still breathing.” She sent Emily a smile as she got a cloth to gently bathe the wound. “Once I got accustomed, I thought it was sweet. He was, in that way, like a babe or a kitten, a puppy. Awake one moment then sleeping like the dead in the next. This looks like it is healing well, too.”
“Will we leave the bandage off it tomorrow as well?”
“I think not. It looks good, only a little redness from the boy bumping it. But that bullet tore a hole through your leg and it’s best to give it more time under the cover of a good bandage. It was a much deeper wound. Takes longer to close up firm and all. Needs to heal deep down inside. You will have a scar, I fear.”
Emily tried to shrug but a pain in her left arm curbed that gesture. “It does not matter.”
“Well, I have something I can try on the one on your arm that might lessen the mark left. Don’t think anything can stop the leg wound from leaving a scar but we cantry. Might make it fainter,” she said as she bandaged the wound again.
“It would be nice if the one on my arm is not too stark but it truly does not matter. I am alive and so is Neddy. My sister”—Emily fought the urge to cry—“and poor David are not.”
Mrs. O’Neal sighed and shook her head. “I am sorry. This land is beautiful round here but it is also dangerous. It took my Tommy, too. Lazy scum who didn’t want to work for money decided he should hand over what he had just gotten for our apple harvest. Stubborn man wouldn’t give it over so they killed him.”
“A hard loss. My deepest sympathy for your loss and pain. So, you came here then?”
“We ran here fast as we could because now I was a single woman, a widow with three children and easy prey, and he let us in. So we settled on what we could do for him, on pay, and then the lads built us a small cabin. That was a gift we didn’t expect. I was happy enough to be behind these walls. Saw them as we fled into the hills and thought it a good place to be. There is a chance of safety here, I thought. Been here six years this winter.”
Emily nodded and watched Mrs. O’Neal uncover a tray of food. “I do not think I have ever seen a house with a stockade fence round it. Not in all my travel to get here.” She pressed her hand to her stomach, afraid it was about to loudly announce how empty it was.
“Iain was insistent. The lad had suffered and wanted his brothers to be safe. It took a lot of work.” Mrs. O’Neal put the tray of food on Emily’s lap, careful to avoid the bandaged area around her leg. “Something more solid and filling for you this time. Want me to cut that meat?”
Since Emily had already discovered that movement hurt her arm, she nodded. “If you would, please, I would be most grateful. It all looks so good.”
“Hope it tastes the same. Been a long time since I prepared something for a lady.”
Quickly looking at the woman as she tried to hide the alarm she felt, Emily decided Mrs. O’Neal did not know anything. She had used the wordladyas no more than a simple form of address. So Emily pushed aside her concerns and enjoyed her meal. She also learned a lot about the running of the place she had been brought to as Mrs. O’Neal entertained her with tales of the brothers.
“How many MacEnroy brothers are there?” she finally asked, wiping her face and hands with the damp cloth Mrs. O’Neal gave her.
“Seven.” Mrs. O’Neal shook her head as she collected the tray and set it on the table by the bed. “Everyone of them a handsome strapping lad. Their parents must have been so proud.”
“Do you know how their parents died?”
“Their father and mother were bringing them all west. There was really nothing for them back east. Then their small wagon train was attacked. Both died in the battle.” Mrs. O’Neal shook her head. “That fool boy Iain still blames himself for not helping, thinks he might have saved them if he had joined the fight but his folk had told him to watch his brothers and watch over their money.”
“That was a very important job. Can he not see that?”
“He is a man, child. All he sees is that he ran from the battle.” She picked up the tray now loaded with the plates as well as the bowl of water and rags she had brought up. “I will wander back in an hour or so to see if you are in need of any help.”
Emily mumbled a thank-you but her thoughts were already on the MacEnroys and the place they had brought her to. The MacEnroy brothers must have been very young when they had found this place yet they had built themselves a home. They had been given skills for, rough as it was, the house they had built looked strong and was sealed tightly from what little she was able to see. And they had to be blessed with sharp wits to avoid being cheated on the price of things they had needed to begin. David and she had taken care to learn the prices of things so that he and Annabel did not lose all their money.
Settling into the pillows, Emily sighed. She had to confess, if only to herself, that she had found Iain MacEnroy a true pleasure to look at. He had apparently not found her so as he had been stiff and cold. No, she thought and frowned. He had grown cold right after she had said what the papers they protected were. That made no sense to her for surely everyone had some sort of paper to prove ownership of land if nothing else.
The man had certainly not leapt at Neddy’s offer to have her teach him to read despite his obvious curiosity about the papers. It could be simple manly pride. He might not have wished her to know that he lacked that skill. She had faced that problem with some of the tenants at home. When she was back to her full strength she would see to that.
Closing her eyes, she tried taking slow, deep breaths to ease the last of the pain tending her wounds had caused. She was still heartsick over the deaths of her sister and David, the long sleep she had taken not easing it much at all. They had not deserved it, were only trying to keep their child safe. The moment the men had demanded they hand over the child, they all knew it was not some random attack.
