Together we settled Gilda beneath another blanket, and once the older woman finally closed her eyes, Darcy sat back on her heels with a weary sigh.
She looked as though the battle had dragged her through every bramble in Sussex. Smoke tangled in the dark strands escaping her braid, soot marked one cheek, and the hem of the wool gown was torn and muddy. Dried blood stained her hands.
I held out a wooden cup.
Darcy eyed it suspiciously. “What is that?”
“Ale.”
“How bad?”
“Very.”
After one swallow, her face twisted. “You weren’t exaggerating.”
I sat beside her, and for a time we watched the camp without speaking.
Someone had found the goat. I did not know who had brought the beast to the second camp, and no one admitted responsibility. It now stood tied to a young oak while chewing contentedly.
Darcy nodded toward it. “Did we own a goat this morning?”
“Nay.”
“Good. I was worried I’d overlooked him in the head count.”
The laugh escaped me before I expected it, rich enough that Darcy turned toward me with surprise softening her face, and for one breath I simply looked at her.
“They lost a lot today.” She gazed over the villagers and refugees.
“Aye.”
“I’m sorry.”
She did not tell me the shelters were only wood, nor that pots could be replaced and barley planted again, because whatever place had shaped Darcy, it had taught her that a thing need not breathe to leave an empty place when it was gone.
“My hall may already be lost,” I said quietly. “My father built part of it, and his father before him. Aelfwyn planted herbs beneath the southern wall.”
I had not meant to speak her name, but Darcy did not stiffen or look away.
“What kind?”
“Feverfew. Mint. Sage.”
“She sounds practical.”
“She was.”
The silence that followed was not painful, merely full, and when Darcy handed the cup back, our fingers brushed. Neither of us moved.
It was such a small thing, the touch of her fingers against mine, and yet I felt it more keenly than I had felt the spear tear through my tunic that morning. Her hand was cold from the night air, the skin roughened in places, and there was still dried blood caught beneath one nail despite all her washing.
I should have taken the cup, but instead, I let my fingers remain against hers.
Darcy looked down at our hands, then slowly lifted her eyes to mine.
“You saved them today,” I said, though the words had little to do with what had suddenly passed between us.
“We saved them.”
