Garreth hadn’t changed in the months since Ainsland had last seen him. There was nothing outstanding about how he looked. He was neither handsome nor ugly. He was not short nor tall, not thin nor fat. The only feature he possessed which was unmistakable was the cruelty in his eyes.
“Garreth,” she said as calmly as she could. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I’m sure you didn’t,” he spat. “You thought you got away. I’ll never let you escape from me, Ainsland.”
Instinctively, Ainsland put a hand on her belly in an automatic gesture of protectiveness for her child. It was the wrong thing to do. Garreth’s gaze followed her hand, and his eyes grew wide with understanding before narrowing with fury. He grabbed her right wrist and jerked her towards him.
“That was my right,” he hissed.
“You have no claim over me!” she cried angrily. “You killed my husband and talked of rape! You had no right to do either!”
Still holding her wrist, Garreth struck her with his free hand. Ainsland’s head was whipped to one side, and the skin on her cheek began first to throb, and then to tighten.
“What has made you like this?” she gasped. “Your mother and father were the nicest of people. I know they loved you and treated you well. You were well-liked by everyone. What turned you into this monster who hits his cousin who’s with child, who kills her first husband in cold blood?”
“You forgot the thievery and the life of raping and pillaging that I enjoy,” he sneered. “And I do so enjoy it, Ainsland. If only I’d realized it earlier. All those years of being the devoted fool, being kind to my family and my neighbors. What a waste!”
He dragged her back to the house. There, several of his fellows had made themselves at home.
“You’re right,” one of the older men said to Garreth. “She’s small and beautiful.” Glancing at the roundness of Ainsland’s belly, he added, “Too bad you missed your chance.”
The other men laughed, but Garreth remained quiet. He shoved Ainsland into the lap of a foul-smelling man whose breath stank of beer and garlic.
“Did you do as I asked?”
The older man nodded and reported, “Everything in the little house has been destroyed.”
Ainsland’s jaw dropped. Then, she pulled out of the man’s grip and clutched furiously at Garreth’s sleeve.
“You miserable cur! All of those herbs and all of the medicines….” Shaking with rage, she asked, “Did you think they were merely there for someone’s amusements? How do you think a person can treat the sick and the injured without these things? You may have killed dozens of people with your wicked desires!”
“You know nothing of my desires,” he scoffed. “Why should I care if a few lowly peasants perish?”
She tried to hit at his chest, but the man who’d been holding her in the chair came up behind her, wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders and then pulling her back. They heard the sounds of a horse’s hooves, and Garreth quickly covered Ainsland’s mouth to stifle any cry of warning she might give to the rider.
Ainsland heard Collum’s yelp of surprise and Princess’s stomping and snorts of agitation. Minutes later, two men entered the house, dragging Collum’s unconscious form between them. Blood soaked the hair on the back of his head and then trickled down his neck. He was unceremoniously dumped on the floor at Ainsland’s feet. Only then did Garreth uncover her mouth and nod for her captor to release her.
She knelt on the floor and tried to staunch the bleeding with the material of her skirt. She whispered her husband’s name over and over. Finally, he woke and vomited on the floor. When he looked up at his wife, his eyes were unfocused. He struggled to rise and made it to his hands and knees before Garreth kicked him in the ribs.
“Stop!” Ainsland cried. “Don’t do this!”
Garreth ignored her. She tried to rush forward to do what she could to halt the attack on her husband, but Garreth broke away from the others and grabbed her, dragging her out of the house.
“If I can’t have you, then neither can he,” he said threateningly in her ear.
Soon, they were at the little house that Ainsland had passed so many times over the previous months. The hermit was nowhere around, and the black dog did not appear. The house smelled like old smoke and stale air. The thatched roof was open to the sky in places.
Garreth began to tear at her clothing. When Ainsland tried to scream, he covered her mouth with his and pulled her up against him. He was stronger than she remembered, but she still attempted to free herself by twisting, kicking, and scratching at her assailant, but to no avail. In a last desperate effort to break away, Ainsland drew her knee up and caught him between the legs.
Howling, Garreth flung her across the hut. She slammed into the wall and fell forward against a chair. The instant she hit the hard earth, Ainsland sensed something give way inside of her and felt a rush of warmth between her thighs. Pain seized her, and she cried out in fear and despair.
“That’ll teach you,” Garreth said coldly in her ear. “If you would have yielded to me –”
“You would have killed my child the moment it was born!” she screamed. “Damn you, Garreth!”
He opened his mouth to refute her curse, but the black dog suddenly leapt through the doorway and lunged at him. Garreth tried to hit at the dog, but it was evident that he couldn’t remain and keep his flesh intact. He tore out of the house with the dog chasing after him.
Ainsland lay whimpering on the ground. Since her marriage, she had attended three births with Collum and had come to understand how the process progressed. It was natural and followed a similar pattern each time.
But what was happening to Ainsland was not natural. The pain was constant and terrible, nothing like the pain and pressure that came and went off and on, building and coming closer until the last final period of gripping agony, ending with a baby’s birth. This was ceaseless and sharp.
She tried to rise from the floor three times before admitting defeat. The black dog trotted back into the house and nudged at her hand with his nose. She patted him on the head and said, “Good dog, Beastie.” Then, she curled into a ball, bracing herself against the pain. She found herself tossing blindly from one side to the other and back in her attempts to endure her body’s struggle to deliver her poor, doomed baby.
Ainsland had no idea how long she lay on the ground in the little hut. She was dimly aware of the dog lying beside her, of her own moans and prayers, and of a few raindrops that fell on her hair. She tried not to think of Collum.
The sun had long disappeared when the terrible pain gave way to a dull ache. She slept fitfully, waking to the feel of a hand on her forehead. Sunlight filtered through the holes in the roof.
“Lie still, Ainsland. Help is on the way.”
“Os-oscar?” she stammered. “Collum…you have to go to the house…we –”
“Shhh. We’ve been at the house. Maggie went there to see you and Collum this morning and found him bleeding on the floor. She hurried to Elspeth’s, who sent one of her grandchildren to Jane’s. I happened to be there, and Jane, Becky, and I set out for your house after Jane had ordered her stable boys to round up men from the village. They came to your house then we set out in search of you and those who were responsible. I left Mael guarding Collum and Jane, Becky, and Elspeth.”
“How did you find me?” she asked weakly.
“The dog. As Adric and I passed by the house, he came out to the road and began to whine. We thought it odd that he didn’t growl or bark as he usually does. He kept trotting towards the door then returning to the road. We decided to see what was the matter and followed him here. Later, Adric found the old hermit dead in the grove down the hill. He’d been murdered.”
“Garreth,” Ainsland moaned. “It was Garreth.”
The tailor nodded grimly and cupped her cheek with his hand.
“Oscar, what…where is my baby?”
“Adric wrapped it in his cloak and took it to the village. He said that the child deserved a decent burial.”
A shadow filled the doorway, and a tall, lanky young man entered the house.
“Mael, you were to be guarding Collum and the others,” Oscar told his son.
“Father Adric sent me to bring the healer’s wife home,” he replied. He spread a blanket on the floor. Then he gently lifted Ainsland and lowered her on top of it. He wrapped her up carrying her back to her house.
Ainsland dozed in his arms, waking only when she was laid on the table in the surgery. Jane and Elspeth hovered over her, and she began to cry upon seeing their faces.
“Is he dead, then?” she sobbed. “Did Garreth kill him?”
“Hush, Child,” Elspeth said soothingly. “He’s not dead, although he’s in a very bad way.”
Ainsland struggled to sit up, but Jane held her firmly by the shoulders and forced her back.
“Rest, my friend. You’re hurt and feverish. Let Elspeth and I tend to you, then you can sleep.”
Elspeth ordered the men out of the room, and Ainsland lay listless on the table as the women cut away her clothing and washed the dirt and blood from her body. Her eyes burned with fever and tears, and her belly and breasts ached with emptiness.
“Have they called for a healer?” she asked, as they dressed her in a nightdress.
“Henry’s the closest one, and he’s so old and frail that he can’t make the long journey,” Jane told her. “We’ve been trying to decide what we should do.”
“Jordan,” Ainsland said urgently. “You must send for Jordan the Healer. He’ll come to help Collum.”
“But how do we send for him?” Becky asked from a corner. “I hear he travels all of the time. Where does he live?”
“Mael,” Ainsland said. “Bring Mael and the others.”
Mael soon laid her on the small bed of the surgery. Then he knelt beside her. Lowering his head, he asked her what he could do to help.
“Collum’s brother, Edward, was here two days ago and is now at Lysen with Collum’s parents and three of his other brothers. Find Edward, and tell him what’s happened and that he must bring Jordan the Healer to us. Jordan will help Collum. Promise me.”
Mael swore to it. With a nod to his father, he took several of the other young men and set out to locate Edward.
“I want to see Collum. Show me,” Ainsland demanded. “Where is Collum?”
The sea of bodies parted, and she saw him lying, battered and still, on the larger bed. He was covered with blankets, but enough of him showed so that Ainsland could see his swollen face, the bruises on his neck, and the awkward angle of his shoulder protruding on one side. Blackness seeped around the edges of her vision, and then everything was dark.
The figures of Kendall and Garreth stood out in the darkness. Kendall, ever gentle and reasonable, was trying to make Garreth listen to him. As Ainsland watched, her cousin calmly and quickly pulled the knife from his belt, and she felt the spray of her husband’s blood on her arms and hands. She looked down in horror at the blood and saw that she was holding the small body of her baby. Collum lay dead at her feet.
She woke shaking and crying. Someone was there, a woman who held her and rocked her as if she were her child. The woman spoke softly to her, and Ainsland drifted back to sleep in her arms.
The woman was still holding her when she woke again. Ainsland opened her eyes but didn’t move. She surveyed the scene in front of her. Edward was bent low, speaking quietly to his unconscious brother. Three other men, certainly the other three brothers, were gathered around the bed. Landon was surely the one dressed in the fancy clothing and shoes. Grayson wore the work clothes of a stable master, and John wore the garments of a priest.
Jane and Oscar spoke quietly somewhere in the room. Elspeth dipped a cloth in water, placing it on Collum’s forehead. Mael added wood to the fire.
Suddenly, the door was thrown open, and a large man with an expansive chest and kind eyes strode into the room. His face fell when he saw the body of his son on the bed, and the arms around Ainsland’s shoulders tightened ever so slightly.
“Vivien,” Ainsland said weakly. “You must be Vivien.”
All eyes turned to her as the woman lowered her back onto the bed. Ainsland stared up through the haze of fever at the woman’s face.
“Collum was right,” she murmured. “Like the breeze and the rays of the sun.” She drew her hand awkwardly across the woman’s damp cheeks, aware of how cool Vivien’s skin was against the heat of her fingers. She let her hand drop back to the bed and asked, “Has my baby been buried, yet?”
“Yes, my daughter,” Vivien said sadly.
“There was a…child?” Richard asked hoarsely, as he came closer to where Ainsland lay.
“It’s my fault,” Ainsland said in a small voice. “I’m so sorry. I should never have stayed. I should have changed my name.”
“No more of that,” Jane said from beside her. “That creature Garreth has done these acts of violence, not you. He’s done them before and will do them again if no one stops him. Now, lie still until the healer arrives.”
“Jordan is coming?” she asked hopefully.
Richard nodded and drew the backs of his thick fingers along her temple. He looked into the worried eyes of his son’s mother and said, “I was quite some distance away when I got your missive. Damn that I was called away early from Lysen. I sent for Jordan before heading here myself. He’ll be arriving soon, I expect. Since you sent word that Collum’s supplies were destroyed, Jordan would be forced to pack his own for the trip.”
With those words, he turned to his unconscious son and lowered himself gingerly next to the man. He kissed Collum on one of the few unmarred areas of exposed flesh just as Jordan entered the cottage.
Jordan was a short, slim, muscular man of perhaps forty-five. He carried himself with such a confident air of determination that his mere presence demanded attention and respect.
Two brown-haired boys who appeared to be eleven or twelve followed the healer in, depositing his boxes on the table. To Ainsland’s surprise, Jordan came over to her bed first, clearing the room of everyone save himself and his two apprentices. Once the others had been relegated to the outdoors, he prepared to examine Ainsland while the boys busied themselves by unpacking the herbs, medicines, and ointments.
Jordan leaned over her and said, “I must examine you, Child.” When she insisted that he see to her husband first, the healer shook his head and said, “I’ll be some time with him. If all is as it should be with you, then it shouldn’t take too long. I’d rather attend to you first. Collum would be quite displeased with me if I didn’t help his wife before turning my attentions to him.”
As he lowered the blanket, she moaned, “I feel so sick.”
“I know. What is your name, little one?” the healer asked gently. “I would certainly like to know.”
“Ainsland. You’re Jordan.”
“That I am. Were you in good health before you were injured?”
“Everything was fine.”
“Had you felt the child move, yet?”
“Yes. I was six months along.”
“How did the pain start? How long did it last?”
“Garreth threw me across the room. I hit a wall and then fell against a chair and to the ground. That’s when it began. I don’t know how long it lasted. It seemed like forever. The pain never stopped the entire time, and it was so great. It wasn’t like birth is supposed to be.”
“Your body had no intention of delivering the child so early. It was unprepared for such a violent end for a healthy infant. Was the child whole?”
“I – I don’t know,” she admitted, the tears streaming down her cheeks. “The priest took it before I came awake. I don’t even know if it was a boy or a girl. I know he didn’t mean to upset me but…but….”
“There, there,” Jordan said kindly. “I’ll find out for you. You must do as I say, and your body will heal fine.”
“Can I…will we be able to have another child?”
“I don’t see why not. I can sense nothing fundamentally wrong in you despite the miscarriage. You and Collum will have many more children, I’m sure.”
Ainsland felt the muscles in her body relax as he spoke. She had been prepared to dislike Jordan after hearing the tale of his argument with Collum and the discord between them, but, at that moment, she could see nothing to dislike.
“Can you save Collum?”
“He’s my son as much as he’s Richard’s. I’ll do everything in my power to save his life.” He raised the blanket and tucked it loosely around her then said, “You see? That wasn’t so bad. I’m done.”
He gave instructions to one of the boys, a lad named Julius, and soon Ainsland drank a dark purple mixture that tasted of flowers and honey. The other boy, Uwe, was ordered to summon the others back into the surgery.
Jordan took his time in examining Collum’s injuries. He masked his emotions as he poked, prodded, and rubbed at the wounds and bruises. Finally, he straightened and said to Collum’s father, “One thing at a time, Sir Richard. Can I count on you and your sons to assist me and my apprentices?”
“What should we do?”
“I’d like to start with the shoulder,” Jordan said. “It must be put back into place and has to be done with the right amount of strength. Too little and it won’t move; too much and it will permanently damage his arm.”
Ainsland felt Vivien’s hands on hers. The woman was trembling in anticipation of what was to come. Ainsland watched through a curtain of flowers and honey. She realized that whatever Jordan had given her to combat fever and infection must have also been laced with an opiate. She was grateful that he’d allowed her to remain awake and aware yet also removed from immediate events.
“Can’t you give him something for the pain?” Vivien asked in a quavering voice. “Should he wake –”
“He will wake,” Jordan replied. “I need him to wake. I can do little for the pain until much of my work is done. Even then, I’ll have to be extremely careful. His condition is quite precarious.”
Edward stepped forward to help the healer, but Richard motioned for him to stay back.
“I’ll do this, Edward. It will only take one of us for this job.”
He slid one arm beneath Collum’s shoulders and carefully wrapped the other around his ribcage. Jordan nodded to him, telling him to be mindful of the ribs on the other side, then took hold of the wounded man’s arm. At the master healer’s signal, they pulled against one another, and the shoulder slid neatly into place. Collum didn’t stir, and Jordan frowned.
“His leg must be set. How they managed to break it so I’m not exactly certain. Richard, stay as you are. Edward, place your hands above the knee. Landon and Grayson, hold the other leg here and here. John, see that he doesn’t flail about with his free arm. Don’t pin it tightly, but hold it firmly.”
Jordan studied the leg for a minute before calling Julius and Uwe to assist him. This time, Collum came to with a roar of pain. Richard and his sons grimaced but held their positions as the older healer worked to fix the younger healer’s leg.
“Turn his head,” he instructed Richard, as Collum began to wretch from the pain. “Don’t let him choke.”
Once the leg had been adjusted and the flesh was cleaned and sewn, Julius and Uwe held two flat wooden boards on either side of the injured limb while Jordan wrapped strips of cloth to hold the wood in place. Collum’s muscles quivered with the stress of the procedure. He sagged in Richard’s arms and then blinked in an attempt to clear his blurred vision.
“Father,” he panted. “Father.”
“Yes, Collum. I’m here, and so is your mother. Your brothers are here as well.”
“Ainsland?”
“Your wife will be fine, my son. Jordan has come to see to you both.”
“The…child?”
Before Richard could reply, Jordan came forward and turned Collum’s head so that he could look into the young healer’s eyes.
“Collum, listen to me. I need for you to help me. Guide me so that I can heal you more quickly.”
“How is our child?” Collum persisted.
“Your child is dead,” Jordan said gently. “Your wife has suffered enough. Don’t force her to mourn her husband as well as her baby.”
Tears escaped from the corners of Collum’s eyes, but he made no sound and simply nodded to the healer.
Jordan began at the crown of Collum’s head, working slowly as he asked Collum question after question. He dressed wounds and stitched cuts. He also rubbed salve onto abrasions and wrapped cloth tightly around his patient’s ribs.
“The four on the left are cracked,” Collum told him flatly. As if adding an afterthought, he said, “Oh, and the lining of my belly is torn.”
Jordan’s hands faltered.
“Where? When? I examined your belly not long ago and sensed no tear.”
“There.” He grasped at Jordan’s hand and brought it down to the center of his belly above the depression where he had once been connected to his mother. “It just now tore. I felt it come apart.”
“Do you bleed inside?” Jordan asked, as he examined the area. “Collum?”
He glanced up at the man, but Collum was beyond answering. Jordan called quickly for Julius, who administered a strong opiate slowly through the healer’s slack lips.
“All of you must leave,” Jordan commanded. “Now.”
“I won’t leave my youngest child,” Richard declared. “And what of his wife? Should we remove her to the rain in the yard?”
“She’s been sleeping for some time,” Jordan remarked, as he selected the tools he needed from the table. “She won’t wake now for several hours.”
Vivien paled as she watched Jordan withdraw a thin blade from a clean cloth. She stared at her boy, a grown man who had already lost one wife and two children in his young life. She realized that he might very well die before the dawn, and she began to swoon.
“Come, Mother,” John said tenderly. “Let us leave the healer to his work.”
“I’ll see to the horses,” Grayson announced. “Landon, will you walk with me?”
Elspeth, Jane, Becky, Oscar, and Mael reluctantly followed the others out of the cottage. Edward heard the old woman say, “We should straighten the house while there’s time. It wouldn’t do for them to return to such a mess as those evil men left.”
Once the door was closed behind them, Jordan quickly went to work as Richard and Edward nervously watched. The surgery took a considerable length of time, and it seemed to Collum’s father and brother that he lost more blood than he could spare. Jordan and his apprentices were focused on their patient and didn’t speak to the two men until after the stitching was finished.
“I’ve done all I can,” the healer announced. “Now, we wait.”
“He’ll live?” Richard asked, as he brushed a stray lock of hair from his son’s damp forehead. “If so, how long will it be before he can recover?”
“If infection is minimal, he’ll live. He may be slow to recover because of his extensive injuries.”
“It’s his mind that worries me,” Edward admitted. “That and the fact that the monster who did this is running loose as we speak.”
“We’ll find him,” Richard declared. “And then he’ll regret that he caused my son and his wife so much pain. He’ll rue the day he killed my grandchild.”