Twigs snapped as she crawled behind the warrior. Careful to keep his left shoulder immobile, she slid her hands beneath his shoulders.
He groaned.
“I must move you, monsieur,” she whispered. Sweat beaded her brow and every muscle rebelled as she dragged him through the brush.He was a goliath of a man, taller and more muscular than she’d first believed.
After several brief stops to rest between tugs, she reached the entrance of the cave. Muscles aching, she collapsed against the rocky ledge and glanced skyward.
The moon had set and the first rays of sunlight streamed across the heavens in a prism of blues and purples. Marie frowned. Moving him had taken longer than she’d expected. Ignoring her body’s protests, she dragged him inside and then shifted him onto his uninjured side. Opening her water pouch, she pressed it against his lips. “Drink.”
With a grimace, his mouth worked as he swallowed, then he shoved the water away.
Rubbing the fatigue from her eyes, Marie secured her pouch and set it aside. ’Twould hold him for now. “Rest. I will return shortly.”
A quick sweep of their path with a pine bough erased any sign of their presence. After, she picked several herbs that she’d need to treat the man’s wounds and then gathered pieces of ash, wood that would burn without a trail of smoke.
Sunlight trickled through the forest by the time Marie coaxed the first embers within the pile of dried moss and twigs into a flame. After feeding several larger branches into the fire, she turned.
Her breath caught.
Until this moment, she’d caught glimpses of the warrior through flickers of moonlight. Now, embraced by daylight, she took in the fierce warrior. Long, whisky-colored hair rested upon broad shoulders honed by muscle. Hard, unforgiving planes sculpted his face. Unease trickled through her. Until she reached her father and informed him of the Duke of Renard’s treachery, she could trust no one.
Turning to her task, Marie knelt beside the warrior. She clasped the arrow firmly in both hands.
His mouth tightened as he glared at her through half-raised lids. His gaze, even sheltered beneath dark lashes, burrowed deep into her consciousness with a potent reminder of the risk of helping this stranger.
Nonetheless, if he were to have any chance of survival on his own, the arrow must come out. With a jerk, she snapped the shaft as close to the skin as possible.
He gasped and then slumped back.
Thankful when he remained unconscious, she divested him of his mail and gambeson, careful to avoid brushing the embedded arrow.
As she began to remove his undershirt, she paused.
Whorls of dark hair swirled around aged scars, unknown stories chiseled across a battlefield of sinewy muscle.
As a healer, she’d aided many a man injured in combat, but this war-ravaged fighter exuded a dangerous edge. She eased farther back. Only a fool would allow herself to offer this seasoned warrior her trust.
Trust.
Her heart tightened as she recalled the price of allowing herself to have faith in any man.
A mistake she’d never make again.
Marie shoved her thoughts away. She must finish removing the arrow, not wallow in painful memories.
After taking the arrow from his shoulder, she cauterized the torn flesh. Once she’d applied yarrow and toadflax over the wound, she secured the poultice with strips she’d torn from her undergown and prayed he wouldn’t grow feverish.
With her body screaming its weariness, Marie lay down and closed her eyes. A warm haze fogged her mind. Images of her escape from Renard’s knights, of the terror guiding her every step as she’d fled, flickered through her mind. Exhausted, she pushed her fears aside and fell into sleep’s welcome embrace.
Chapter 2
Colyne MacKerran, the Earl of Strathcliff, shifted to his left side. Pain tore through his shoulder. On a curse, he rolled onto his back, and his body nudged against a soft, pliable form.
What in blazes?
Groggy, he opened his eyes and sat up. Sunlight streamed into a cave he had nay memory of entering. Ashes of a recently used fire smoldered a short distance away. And at his side slept an incredibly beautiful woman.
A woman he’d never seen in his life.
