Explanation in itself, she supposed. “Very well. I have sent for Ranulf. Best you have one of my ladies attend your scratches ere he gets here, for he will want a full accounting of what happened.”
She found Florette already bent over Walter in his chamber. Her face was colorless again, but she was not rendered useless. Carefully, she was removing the makeshift bandage that had been wrapped about his head.
“Leave that,” Reina said briskly. “The bleeding has stopped there, but his side still seeps.”
“Will he—die, my lady?”
“Why should he do a fool thing like that?” Reina said, though until she saw the wounds, she could not really say for sure.
The most difficult task was removing Walter’s heavy hauberk so they could get to the wound. It took two men to manage this with the least amount of movement. The rest of his clothes were quickly cut away, to reveal more clearly the extent of his blood loss.
Too long, Eric had said, and had not exaggerated. Walter’s whole left side was soaked red clear down to his boots, the wound ragged and still dripping. The weapon, whatever it was, had pierced the hauberk just above the lowest rib. But instead of entering the body for a death wound, it had been deflected off the rib to slice a long tear straight across beneath his hauberk. ’Twas deep, but did not seem dangerously so; at least it would not be had it been closed up sooner. The danger now was in whether he had lost too much blood, and so would be too weak to fight off infection.
Reina worked swiftly, cleaning the wound and then applying a salve to immediately stop the blood flow. She let Florette do the stitching while she then saw to the head wound. This was just a small break in the skin, though there was a thick lump under it. A helmet could have prevented it, had he been wearing one at the time. As he was certain to have a splitting headache for a goodly number of days, he was not about to leave Clydon without a helmet again.
Walter did not awaken once, which was fortunate as there were so many stitches to apply, but ’twas not so easy getting the tonic she had prepared into him. She left Florette to see to that while she checked on the younger knight.
Searle’s loud complaints, grown louder still while Hilary worked on him, were heard clearly in the next chamber. He had only quieted down now that she was almost done with him.
When he saw Reina, however, his voice rose again. “You are cruel, lady, to set this witch on me.”
“That witch has gentler hands than I, sirrah, so be grateful I was too busy with Sir Walter to attend you myself.”
That shut him up nicely and brought a chuckle from the stout dame. “Did you ever hear a boy make so much fuss over a little prick?”
“Little?” Searle choked.
“Only three stitches, my lady,” Hilary informed her.
“So few? Sir Walter had nigh a full score. Did you hear him screaming for mercy?” Reina grinned then, taking pity on the young man now blushing. “Nay, Searle, we only tease you. Yelling ofttimes eases the pain. You should have heard my father when he would get a mere splinter from the exercise yard. We had to stuff our ears with cloth ere we could remove it.”
“Is Walter—will he—”
“You have no need to worry over him. He is still unconscious, but that is a good thing just now. His wounds were not as bad as they seemed, but they will be very painful once he rouses. Now drink this.” She handed him a decoction of white poppy mixed in warm wine. “’Twill ease your own pain and put you to sleep, which is what you also need just now.”
“But Ranulf—”
“Eric can answer all his questions.”
At that moment, the door in the next chamber crashed open and Searle swiftly gulped down his tonic. “How quickly will this work?”
Reina frowned at him. “What is wrong with you?”
“He is going to be furious. I would just as soon sleep through it.”
“But why should he be angry, unless you three did wrong? Did you?”
“We have one dead and two wounded. There were only fifteen of them. We should have given a better accounting of ourselves, lady.”
“How many rode with you?”
“Six.”
Reina gave him a look of disgust. “Go to sleep, lackwit. Hilary, see to it my lord husband does not come crashing in here to disturb him.”
“You do not ask for much, my lady.”
Hilary got a disgusted look, too, for her unneeded sarcasm. “Very well, I will see to it myself,” and Reina left, mumbling, “Jesú, three to one is even odds? Does he think his men are all giants like himself?”
