He choked on the spoonful she had managed to get by him while asking her questions. His movements were so slow that, if he did not know her so well to anticipate her reactions, he would not have had the time to put up a hand to stop her when she thoughtlessly leaned forward to pound on him. Now he simply scowled at her for the pain she would have inflicted by trying to help.
Defensively, Kristen scowled right back and said huffily, “I have never pretended to a great skill in tending the ill or wounded, Brother.”
“Or even a small skill,” he agreed. “Youare more apt at inflicting wounds than fixing them.”
She ignored that, continuing. “But you are stuck with me for the nonce, so you will just have to bear with me.”
He was grinning at her after that, and willing to accept another mouthful of food, saying around it, “Somehow I will manage—to survive your tender—nay, you cannot box my ears just now.”
She sat back, smiling. “A shame. They need it.”
He was no longer grinning, but was eyeing her with chagrin. “I suppose the very day I am recovered—?”
“Aye.”
“Verily do I wish your memory were not so long.” He sighed. “Actually, I could wish mine were not so lacking now. Explain to me that ‘three’ days.”
“’Tis how long you were imprisoned.”
“I do not remember it being so long.”
“What do you remember?”
His expression altered drastically, became fraught with deep anger. “The pain…and her laughter. Always her laughter. I never knew a woman could find pleasure in another’s suffering.”
Kristen gritted her teeth upon hearing that. “I was not going to tax you, but mayhap you had better tell me all of it.”
That brought a sigh from him, draining some of the anger. “It will not tax me, Kris, there is so little to tell. We were attacked whilst still inWessex; thieves, I suppose. They fell from the trees, and so many of them.”
“Aye, the rumor finally reached us that you might all be dead. ’Twas where Royce went, to investigate. And you took a blow to your head?”
“From behind. Clubbed, likely, since there was no blood that I could find. It felled me instantly. When I woke, I was alone, in clothes not mine, and with such pain in my head I could barely move. Also, I was puking for no reason, and seeing two of single things, and as weak as a babe. Thor! I have never felt so wretched.”
She cringed, feeling wretched for him. “The blow had to have been severe,” she speculated. “I have felt the small lump you still bear. Likely ’twas thrice that size or more, if received so long ago.”
“Likely,” he agreed. “But when I woke, I thought myself still in Wessex, that only a day or so had passed, since I had no beard to account for longer. Yet I was in East Anglia, as I learned that very day to my regret, and have no memory of how I came to be there.”
“Nigh a fortnight with no memory?”
“Aye.”
“And no beard?”
“Aye.”
She was thoughtful for only a moment. “’Tis obvious someone took you with them to East Anglia and cared for you the while, though you slept through the whole of it. I wonder why they then abandoned you.”
“I merely wonder who they were and why they bothered with me at all. I cannot imagine Saxon thieves hiding out in East Anglia.”
“Nay, so mayhap they were East Anglian thieves come down to Wessex.”
“And decided I was worth ransoming?”
She nodded. “But they gave up waiting for you to wake up and tell them who to send their demands to.”
“Possibly,” he allowed.
Kristen sighed. “Most like we will never know. But if you never woke during that time, ’tis doubtful they got much food into you, if they even bothered to try. That at least explains the lack of flesh on your bones. And I take it your head still pains you?”
