“I’ll not let her bleed him further or use any leeches,” he said.
I didn’t answer. If she were a woman to employ such methods, Kai never would have suggested her name. He never would have ridden to fetch her.
“Daveed,” I said. “Go and find Miriam and have her tend to your head. Then you should rest.”
Sebastian nodded to him, and he went out. Shortly after this, Sebastian cleared the room of everyone but himself and me. Jarrod hadn’t even twitched. His chest barely rising and falling was the only indication that he still lived.
“I’m sorry about Rolf,” I said softly.
“I wish I could be,” Sebastian answered.
Were they really so estranged that he couldn’t even mourn his dead brother? It wouldn’t be so for Kai. He had loved Rolf.
Time ticked by, and finally, I heard hurried footsteps out in the passage.
Kai ran in. “I’ve brought Abigail. We must let her try.”
Someone entered behind him. She was not at all what I’d expected. In my mind, I’d pictured a crone, an old wise woman. But Abigail was perhaps thirty. She wore a faded red gown, and her thick brown hair hung loose down her back. She carried a bag in her hands.
I stood. “Thank you so much for coming. Will you come look at his wound?” I pitched my voice to show her the respect a healer deserved, and she came to join me.
Sebastian tensed, but glanced at Kai and said nothing.
Leaning down, Abigail spoke only to me as she probed Jarrod’s wound. “The blade missed any organs, my lady, but we must stop the bleeding. He’s lost so much already.”
“How can we seal it?”
She opened her bag and removed several items. “I have thin fishing line and a small needle. I’ll need to sew him up.”
Looking up to Sebastian, I begged, “Please.”
Emotions warred across his face. “And what if her tender ministrations kill him?”
Kai strode over. “He’s more likely to die if we do nothing! Let her try.”
With a sharp exhale, Sebastian stepped away.
I nodded to Abigail, and she began to work, threading the needle and starting at the left side of Jarrod’s wound. She sewed carefully and slowly, and the process took some time. We were well into the night by the time she finished.
After tying off the thread, she drew a bottle from her bag. “I’ll need a clean rag.”
“What is that?” Sebastian asked.
Again, she spoke to me. “It’s a mixture of ground garlic and ginger in vinegar. It must be applied to the wound three times a day to stave off infection.”
I felt some of my tension easing. Kai had been right to ride out for this woman.
“Thank you,” I said, grasping her hand. “We’ll see that you are well paid.” For the first time since seeing Jarrod in the courtyard, I began to hope that Kai would not lose his father. I brought a clean rag and Abigail showed me how to apply the mixture.
“Now, all we can do is wait,” she said.
“Can you stay the night?” I asked. “We can arrange a guest room.”
“Yes.”
“What about you, Megan?” Kai said. “You must be tired.”
“No, I’ll sit with him.”
He pulled a chair over near the bed and sat. “Me too.”
“Oh, for the sake of the gods,” Sebastian said, sighing and sinking down on the end of the bed. “Then I suppose it’s a family vigil.”
I hoped this was a front on his part, and that he was more worried about Jarrod than he let on.
In the early hours of the morning, while Kai slept in his chair and Sebastian dozed at the end of the bed, Jarrod’s eyes fluttered open, and he looked at me sitting beside him.
“Try not to move,” I whispered. “You’re badly hurt.”
He watched me in confusion at first, and then I saw some cognition coming back into his face. He tried to speak and failed and tried again.
“Where’s Rolf?” he got out.
I grasped his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
The following few days were difficult for us all.
Jarrod suffered from his wound while dealing with loss on several fronts. He had valued Rolf as a son and a companion. Those two had overseen the land and the harvests and made great plans for the future together.
With Rolf gone in an instant, what would become of Jarrod’s plans?
His injury kept him in bed. I sat with him, fed him, and tended his wound.
Kai was angry and mourning and hungry for revenge. Sometimes, I felt that he was simply waiting for Jarrod to heal enough to announce a plan for vengeance upon Allemond Monvílle.
Sebastian seemed to struggle with both his obvious lack of mourning and his mixed feelings over his father’s recovery. I understood him the least. He rarely came into Jarrod’s room.
But on the second day, Kai was with me as I tried feeding his father some broth.
“I need to get out and check the west fields,” Jarrod said, pushing away the spoon. “Make sure the men there are looking after the wheat and barley.”
“Father, you can barely sit up,” Kai argued. “You cannot leave that bed.”
“The men need to know we’re watching!”
“I’ll ride out,” Kai said.
“You?”
“Isn’t Geraldo the leader of the nearest west village? He knows me, and I can make sure he knows I’m watching.”
Jarrod leaned back and nodded slowly as if this idea had not occurred to him. “Good. Don’t tell him what’s happened. Just tell him you’ll be helping to oversee the harvest this year.”
“All right.”
Kai leaned down and brushed my cheek with his lips before he left.
As the door closed behind him, I turned to Jarrod. “You need to stay calm and not move around so much or you’ll tear your stitches.”
“I’m not a child.”
“No one is calling you a child. Now eat some of this broth.”
That night near dinnertime, I went downstairs while he was resting and asked Betty to bring in our meal, but only Sebastian awaited me in the hall.
“Where’s Kai?” he asked.
“Probably not back yet. I’ve gone ahead and told Betty to bring dinner.”
“Back from where?”
At that moment, Kai strode in. He was dusty and slightly sunburned, but he also looked less angry than I’d seen him since Rolf’s death.
“Where have you been?” Sebastian asked.
“Out in the west fields, but I think the wheat and barley are both in good shape. No signs of disease at all.”
Sebastian went still. “Father sent you into the fields?”
“Well, he can’t go himself.”
A moment of silence followed, and then Betty entered carrying a large tray with a plate of roasted rabbit and potatoes. The three of us moved toward the table. Sebastian seemed troubled, possibly more than troubled, but I couldn’t see why.
As we sat, he said, “I thought if Father didn’t recover well enough to resume his duties, we might hire a land manager to take over for Rolf.”
“A land manager?” Kai echoed, sounding appalled. “You know Father would never agree to that. We look after what’s ours.”
“And you will take Rolf’s place collecting taxes?” Sebastian challenged.