A knock came at the door and I opened it as Morgaine cleaned her hands with the alcohol. Will Scarlet stumbled in with a bloody cloth pressed to his face, head tilted back. I put a hand under his arm and guided him into the room and helped him into a chair.
“What the devil happened to you?” I asked.
He removed the once-white cloth and said through bloody teeth, “Nosebleed. Happens all the time.”
I guessed that was where the name Scarlet came from.
“Don’t tip your head back like that,” Morgaine said, coming over and crouching in front of Will. She held his head between her hands and turned it gently this way and that, looking into his eyes. “Dante, please get Will a fresh cloth.”
I saluted behind her back and saw Will try to suppress a smirk. I tossed him a clean cloth from a stack on the shelf, and held the bucket of dirty bandages out for him to throw the blood-stained one into.
“Lean forward and pinch your nose here.” Morgaine put a finger on the soft part of Will’s nose, just in front of the bridge. “How often would you say this happens?”
“Once a week, probably.”
“And do they last long?”
He shrugged. “Some do, most are over in half a day.”
I watched Morgaine for any change to her expression, but her face didn’t give away a single thought. She was impossible to read.
“Do you tend to bruise badly or get cuts and scrapes that take a long time to stop bleeding?”
Will nodded. Morgaine stood and patted him on the shoulder. “Stay like that until the bleeding stops and try not to do anything too physical for a day or two. You’ll be fine.”
She left the Infirmary and I hurried to follow her, calling a quick “Feel better” to the two patients.
“What is it?” I asked Morgaine when I caught up to her in the corridor. “Something serious?”
“I’ve seen that kind of bleeding several times before. It always ended the same way.”
“What way?” I asked, but I felt like I already knew what she would say.
She paused. “Put it this way, not many of the others made it to Will’s age, so he’s already doing better than expected.”
That sobered me. I liked Will, he seemed like a good man. I saw Morgaine looking at me, her expression curious. Had she thought me a monster who felt nothing? I suppose I didn’t blame her, I’d felt the same way about witches, but watching her work in the Infirmary had left me conflicted. She’d helped both Arthur and Will, with no sign of a spell or enchantment, just traditional healing remedies. And she’d asked for nothing in return for her good deed. Perhaps she wasn’t the wicked and unnatural creature I had expected. The thought unsettled me, threatening to upturn my entire belief system and discredit my life’s work. I pushed it down with every uncomfortable feeling I’d ever experienced.
She was still staring at me. I cleared my throat. “That, uh, bark you gave Arthur to chew. I wasn’t aware liquorice root had pain relieving qualities.”
Morgaine rolled her eyes and strode off down the hall. Over her shoulder, she said, “That was for his breath.”
12
MORGAINE
Ihad just shoved the last few items into my satchel and fastened the flap when someone knocked on the door to my room. I opened it and groaned aloud.
“What do you want?”
The sheriff leaned in my door frame, a smug look on his annoyingly chiselled face. I felt my blood start to boil just from looking at him. I stepped under his arm and pushed past into the hall.
“I thought you might want some company, so I volunteered to join you on your little outing.”
I froze. He thoughtwhat? I turned to face him slowly and in a cool voice, I said, “Is that what you thought?”
He held up his hands. “Alright, I knew you didn’t want company, especially my company. So, I said I’d go along to protect you from wolves and bears.”
“There aren’t any bears in these woods,” I ground out.
