“You saved my life,” she whispered.
“As you did mine.”
“So brave were you when you faced that bear,” Abagail murmured. “I was frightened for you. I wish you to live, Skenan. I wish you to live. You could have stayed in the cave, but you didn’t. You came out and faced that…that…”
“Of course I did,” he murmured. “Did you expect me to leave you to fight a bear on your own?”
“Come,” she said. “Let me take you to my own bedding, which is more comfortable than yours. And, there you shall rest while I attend to these wounds.”
He said, “I think my wounds will need little attention. They are only scratches.”
“Scratches? I will be the judge of that. Come.”
Placing her arm about his waist, she helped him to walk, taking a good amount of his weight upon her, and then together they limped slowly back into the cave.
Placing him on her bedding of soft pine boughs and deer hide, she left him temporarily to go outside the cave to the stream which was located close by, and, tearing off a portion of her blood-soaked dress, she wet it. Returning to him, she began to wash the blood from his chest and his arms.
She said, “We must disinfect these wounds somehow.”
He merely nodded, then said, “Bring me my bow and arrows. I wish to ensure they are in good repair. Also, if you could bring me my gun, I will care for it and reload it in case the bear decides to return.”
Abagail arose to find his bow and his arrows, as well as his gun. When she returned, she asked, “Why did the bear not back down when you were growling so loudly at him, and when we were clearly retreating?”
“He was threatened by me, and a bear’s temper is bad even in the best of circumstances. He must have been hungry, too, for he dared much to come after a human being. Usuallythey are frightened away by the sight of a man. I think the beast was tired and wanted the cave to rest, and could think of nothing else. Or perhaps he was trying to put his brand upon me.”
“Place his brand on you? He was trying to kill you!”
“And, he might have done so had you not rushed in on him and startled him with the fire. He backed away a little.”
“He did not back away!”
“No, but he was frightened enough to pause, giving me a chance to aim a shot at him.”
“Yes,” said Abagail. “And, thank the good Lord in Heaven for you being a good shot.”
“Thank my uncles and my father, too, who taught me to shoot at a moving target. But, the bear is not dead, only injured, and he might take it into his mind to come back here. We must stand watch tonight and be ready to do battle with him again.”
“Here,” she said. “I will help you to lie down in full.”
“But,” he said, “I do not wish to sleep here and bleed all over the robes and pine boughs I set here for you. I will sleep on my own robe.”
“No! You are injured. I am not. You are to sleep where I say, and I do not wish to hear another word about it.”
“But—“
She frowned at him.
Looking up at her from where he sat upon her robes, he grinned, then said, “I will sleep where you tell me to, little Miss Abagail. Believe me, I fear what you might do to me if I say another word.”
She laughed. “Oh you. Do not make me laugh. This is serious.”
“It is not serious,” he countered. “I will heal soon enough.”
“You must rest,” she said. “I will stand watch.”
He chuckled a little. “Sleep? When there is the possibility the bear might come back?”
“Yes,” she said. “I do not wish to hear one more word about it. Until you are well, you are to do as I say.”
