Page 80 of The Red Wolf’s Prize

“Serena, there are others—” Renaud urged.

“Nay! I’ll not leave Steinar in the hands of others, but Iwould be grateful if you could ask your Norman healer to set the leg. We mustmove him where we can clean the wound.”

“I will carry him,” said Renaud. His words brought hercomfort.

“Let me first try and staunch the bleeding,” she said.“Fetch my satchel, Rhodri, and two sticks.”

Rhodri returned with two sticks and her satchel containingthe herbs and bandages she had brought with her. She did what she could withRhodri’s help, and then stood wiping her hands on her tunic.

“I can do no more here.”

Renaud lifted Steinar and began to stride away. She andRhodri trailed behind the tall knight whose strength never wavered as heplodded through the muck of the field to where the Norman tents were clusteredsome distance away.

“Serena!” Jamie exclaimed as she followed his master intothe tent. She gave the boy a quick hug. Jamie’s face looked stricken when herecognized the one Renaud carried. “Is Steinar—?”

“I do not know, Jamie,” she said, setting to work.

“Mathieu,” the Red Wolf addressed his squire, “fetch somewater from the stream and see that one of the king’s healers is summoned. ’Tismy lady’s brother who lies wounded.”

“Yea, my lord,” said the squire, darting a glance at thewounded English warrior laying on the pallet before hurrying off to do hislord’s bidding.

Serena lifted Steinar’s tunic off his leg and, as carefullyas she could, peeled down his hose. With a sharp knife, she cut the braies fromhis thigh. Tears rolled down her cheeks and blurred her vision as she took inthe terrible wound he had suffered. A sword had cut him to the bone below theknee and the blow had left the bone sticking out of the wound. The damage wassuch she could not be certain it would heal, or that he would even survive.

Rhodri and Jamie dropped to her side offering their help.

As she worked on Steinar, Renaud’s knights returned, one byone, to report to their lord. Sir Alain was wounded with a slash to his face.There was so much blood on the men it was difficult to tell whose blood it was.

Her husband expressed his thanks to God his knights werestill on their feet, though he had lost a few men-at-arms.

Sir Geoffroi entered the overcrowded space. She barelynoticed him as she gave her attention to Steinar. But she heard the knight say,“I have news, Ren.”

Renaud and Sir Geoffroi stepped out of the tent to confer inhushed tones.

Serena was weary when her husband returned to the tent,vaguely aware that he donned a clean tunic as she finished her work.

Coming to where she knelt, Renaud looked down. “I go to seeWilliam, but I will not be long. The healer should be here shortly. When Ireturn, we have much to discuss, my lady.”

Seeing his stern countenance, Serena could only imagine whathe wanted to say.

Chapter 23

Renaud headed toward William’s tent, Geoff silently walkingbeside him. He was relieved the battle was over and Serena was safe. There wasa chance her brother might live, and because he knew what Steinar meant to her,he prayed it would be so. He could not bear to look into those tear-filledviolet eyes if her brother were to die from wounds inflicted by a Norman sword.

“What of Sir Maurin’s condition?” he inquired of Geoff, notsure he wanted to hear the answer. The news Geoff had brought him earlier—thathis knight lay gravely wounded—had chilled him to the bone.

“He took a blade in his side near the end of the battle. Mysquire tells me Sir Maurin still bleeds.”

“Where is he now?”

“In his tent. One of the healers is seeing to him.”

“Will he live?” Next to Geoff, Maurin de Caen was his mostsenior knight, with him since Normandy. While he would not want to lose any ofhis men, this knight was also a friend.

“It is not known.”

“As soon as I’ve seen William, I will go to him.”

Renaud acknowledged the guard posted in front of the tentflying the royal banner, then entered. William’s tent was larger than theothers and set apart. Inside, the king sat upon a chair, his retinue standingaround him discussing the day’s events while they studied a map of the city ofYork spread on top of a small table.