by C.M. Owens
* * *
Kay’s vision swam into focus. She wasn’t in her room. The walls were filled with long shelves of jars, there were hanging herbs … she winced. She had been in the infirmary enough times over her childhood to know the room by heart. Just what had she done now?
Leland moved into sight, his face tense with worry. “God’s teeth, Kay,” he reprimanded as he ground a poultice in a mortar on a nearby table. “You should have called me before setting off after that foal. You know how bad those cliffs can be at night, never mind in weather like this.”
Kay flushed. She knew she should have waited for help, but the situation seemed too urgent to her. She bit her tongue and nodded. “I should have. I am sorry.”
“But you would not do it any differently next time,” mused Leland, his eyes gentling. “Well, then, let us see what damage you have brought onto yourself with your new injury of the week.”
Reese’s voice came from her other side. “So she comes here often, does she?” She glanced up, and he was standing beside her, looking down at her in a mixture of frustration and admiration.
Leland’s frown eased. “Not nearly as often as she should,” he responded, almost smiling. “Half the time she just tries to tough out the wound.”
Kay huffed, crossing her arms. “That is only because you treat me like a baby, when I am barely scratched! Like now, when -”
Reese glanced down. “When the blood from your leg is already soaking through your dress?” he interrupted, his voice tense. He looked around him. “That damn Anne is taking too long,” he added sharply. “Prudery be damned.”
He pulled his knife from his hip. “I am sorry, this has to be done,” he added to Kay. In one long movement, he sliced Kay’s garment up to mid-knee, pulling the fabric away to reveal the wound.
A twisted slice of open flesh, oozing blood, snaked up the full length of her calf. Reese let loose a low oath, then in a moment he had a wet rag from the table and was carefully wiping the blood and dirt away while Leland continued to finish creating the poultice.
Kay glanced down in curiosity. She had injured herself so many times in her wild youth that the sight of blood held little concern for her. She wriggled her toes, testing. She felt the pain of the injury, but could discern no other issues. The wound looked superficial – a steady stream of blood, but little danger of permanent damage.
She smiled and lay back against the bed, sighing in relief. “Is that all? I barely needed to bother with the infirmary for that tiny scratch.”
Reese looked at her, shaking his head. Leland came over to press down a layer of the green material on the wound. He took some clean rags from the table and tied them around to hold the poultice in place. Done with that, he wiped his hands on his pants, looking up at her with a smile.
“Well, my young mountain goat, is that the extent of your injuries for the night?”
Kay smiled wryly. “I should think so!” She pushed on one arm to sit up in bed. Instantly she was hit with a mind numbing pain in her stomach, and she doubled over, clutching at her middle.
The two men helped to ease her back onto the bed. Reese’s knife was at work again, separating her dress in half across the waist, pulling the fabric apart to reveal her stomach.
Leland’s eyes went wide. “God’s teeth, Kay,” he whispered in shock. “What in the world have you done?”
Kay wiped the stream of tears from her eyes and sat up gingerly to take a look.
There, embedded on her stomach, was the perfect shape of a small hoof mark.
“That is amazing!” she cried out in joy, her eyes shining with delight. “Is it going to stay that way? Really?” She reached down to trace the design with awe.
Reese and Leland looked at each other for a long moment, then both burst out with laughter, shaking their heads.
Anne stumbled into the room, pulling her robe on around her in sleepy confusion, looking between the two laughing men and the prone patient. “What insanity is going on in here?” she burst out in concern. “Is Kay hurt?”
Kay barely heard her. “I will be fine, Anne,” she soothed, still marveling at the beautiful decoration on her belly. “Just look at what I have done!”
Anne turned on Reese. “And you, sir,” she snapped, “you should not be in here!”
Reese glanced down at the exposed stomach and leg and flushed. “She was injured -”
Anne bustled him out. “Yes, injured. But now Keren-happuch is coming down to check on her, and you are not allowed to see the lady. So out you go.”
Reese held his gaze on Kay. “I will check on you later,” he promised.
Kay met his eyes, and the night flooded back onto her in full force. He had saved her life. He had saved both of their lives.
“Thank you,” she breathed, awed by the depth of what she owed him.
He nodded, and smiled, and then he was gone.
