Until now, her actions had resulted mostly in good. Levi was safe, and free to return to his home and family.
But Leonard ... One of Laurent’s own, who had taken an oath to protect and provide for the village, had died as part of this debacle.
She squeezed her eyes shut as the shivers grew stronger. Pressing her hands into her coat pockets, she pulled the covering tighter around her.Lord, forgive me.
A yell from the other side of the fallen rocks jerked her eyes open. She stepped forward, then paused to listen. Had that been a person? As she replayed the sound in her mind, it could have been made by a bird.
Still, she would go see what was happening with Levi.
As she strode around the rocks, her teeth began to chatter. Now that she was moving, she thought the shivers would fade. But they didn’t.
When she rounded the boulders, a ledge appeared ahead, about level with her eyes. If she’d gauged the distance correctly, that should be where Leonard lay. She quickened her step, straining to hear any voices as she walked.
A movement on the ground shifted her focus to the left. Realization pressed a cry through her lips.
A body lay among the stones and half-melted snow.
She broke into a run. Had Leonard’s fall knocked him all the way out here? Yet the body was moving. Could he still be alive?
Then the figure turned so she could see the face, and a jolt passed through her.
Levi.
She sprinted faster, then slowed as she neared him to take in what might be wrong. Panic tried to well, but she forced it back. He was moving. Maybe he’d only tripped and had the breath knocked from his chest.
He opened his eyes, and relief swept through her. She dropped to her knees by his side. “What happened?”
His eyelids dropped to half mast, pain cloaking his face. “My leg.” He touched his right leg, near the hip.
Fear gripped her chest as she ran her gaze down the length of him. Nothing looked out of place.
“I fell. Or tripped. Can’t move it.” His words grated out through his clenched jaw.
She honed her focus on the limb, scanning from top to bottom. His leggings didn’t show any sign of swelling. The knee and foot pointed inward, but not enough to be abnormal. She needed to feel the limb all the way up to learn what her eyes couldn’t see. “I need to remove your boot and check for injuries.” She worked to settle her insides as she glanced at his face for a response.
Pain twisted his expression. “Do it.”
She worked as quickly as she could, forcing her mind to focus on all the possible injuries and symptoms she should watch for. Broken bones were most likely, and also easiest to discover, as there would be swelling and heat, and sometimes an awkward angle or protrusion.
After removing the boot, she used both hands to start with the toes. “Tell me if I touch the place that hurts.”
“That’s ... numb. I only feel ... a tingle.”
She still had one hand gripped around his toes and the other around his heel, but she stilled, thinking through what numbness might be a symptom of. Only one type of injury sprang to mind, but surely there were others. With careful movements, she kept going. Down the foot. Over the ankle, pressing with all her fingers to touch each bone. Up the lower leg, over the knee.
He didn’t alert her to new pain, and her fingers found nothing unusual. Except ... the leg seemed to move so easily, any direction she prodded, though it always came back to rest pointed inward. She cocked her head. Perhaps leaning a bit too much to the inside? That would go along with the symptom of numbness in the toes....
She pressed the thought away, focusing on finding heat or swelling or anything abnormal. She was working her way up his thigh bone now. How much farther did she dare go? When she’d checked halfway up that part of the limb, she pulled her hands away. She couldn’t ignore what her instincts kept pointing her toward. Better to address that possibility head-on before making this inspection even more awkward than it was becoming.
She did her best to give her voice the tone of a healer working with a patient. “Can you point to the place where the pain is the worst?”
He pressed a hand to the outside of his hip. Her own stomach dipped. That would match everything else.
Inhaling a breath for courage, she focused on the area. “I’m going to touch it to feel if the joint might have come out of place.”
He moved his hand away, giving space for her to do what she’d said. His eyes were closed, his breathing thick and labored. She couldn’t delay any longer.
As her fingers worked over the outside of his leg, she probed for the knot that would tell her for certain. The entire joint seemed to be swelling, but there it was, the telltale sign she’d only felt once before. Madame Maiser had been white-haired and wrinkled when she began to teach Audrey some of the ways of a healer. Many of their ministrations stood out boldly in Audrey’s memories, for she’d soaked in every tidbit the woman shared.
