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"We have no cart to carry back the rushes."
He clucked under his tongue with irritation, then turned and moved toward the working men, saying, "I shall send one of the men back to fetch a wagon."
Averill turned back to scouring the ground for more of the particular plant she wanted, then straightened and said, "Laddie, chase after my brother and ask him to have the other men keep an eye out for the plant as well. With so many of them watching for it, we may be done and back at the keep in no time."
The boy nodded and rushed after Will. Averill continued walking, but had only taken a couple more steps when she realized that she needed to water the bushes as well. Grimacing, she held off, preferring to wait until they returned to the castle and the privy, but by the time Will and Laddie returned, Averill was coming to the realization that she wasn't going to be able to wait.
Sighing, she straightened and gestured her brother over when he stopped to talk to the men guarding her.
"What is it?" Will asked, approaching.
Averill hesitated, then flushed and leaned up on her tiptoes to explain the situation.
"Ah," he said with a nod, then glanced around and gestured to the men before taking her arm to lead her into the woods. Laddie immediately began to follow, but Will glanced over his shoulder and shook his head. "You cannot stand guard this time, my little friend. She needs to empty the dragon."
Laddie's eyes widened incredulously. "She has a dragon?"
Will burst out laughing and merely waved him away. "I shall be right back and explain then."
When Laddie slowed but didn't stop, Averill glanced over her shoulder to give him a reassuring smile. "'Tis lady things."
"Oh." He frowned but did not stop, and said, "Then why does he get to go?"
Averill rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. You may accompany Will."
Her gaze jerked to the men now moving forward as well, and she snapped, "But not you."
They stopped at once but glanced at each other as if wondering if they should disobey her.
"I have my two guards here and that is enough for this excursion. Why do you men not look for more weeds for me?"
They grimaced, but they also nodded and began to survey the ground. Though, she couldn't help noticing they seemed to be moving in the general direction she, Will, and Laddie were headed as they looked. Shaking her head, she muttered, "I shall thank Kade for this when we get back."
Will chuckled but merely steered her into the trees and along a little path for a way. He then paused, and asked, "How is this?"
Averill glanced around and then nodded. "'Tis fine."
"Come along then, Laddie," Will said, releasing Averill to turn and catch the boy by the arm instead. "Let us move away so Avy can water the bushes in peace."
"Water the bushes?" Laddie asked, then clucked with disgust. "Well, why did ye no' say so?"
"Ladies do not discuss such things in public," Will said dryly.
"Hold on!" Laddie suddenly dug in his heels, forcing him to a halt. "I'm no suppose to let her out o' me sight. The laird said so."
"Aye, well you can hardly stay and watch, can you?" Will said dryly, catching him by the collar and forcing him on.
"Nay," he agreed, grabbing at a tree trunk to halt their progress again. "But how are we to ken does she need help?"
Laddie was a tenacious little fellow, Averill thought with irritation, wishing Will would just pick him up and carry him out of the small clearing so that she could tend business. She was fair to bursting to go.
"She will sing, will you not, Avy?" Will said.
"Nay, I will not," she said firmly. Averill couldn't carry a tune to save her soul...or even to get them to leave. "But I shall talk if you will both just please leave."
"There." Will glanced down at Laddie. "She will talk so we know she is well."
Much to her distress, Laddie took a moment to consider that before nodding solemnly and releasing the tree. "Well, all right then."
"Thank God," Averill muttered, barely waiting for them to step through some tall bushes and out of sight before yanking up her skirt. Honestly, 'twas sometimes such a trial to be a woman. Were she a man, she could have just turned her back to them and whipped it out. But nay. She was a woman who must drag up her skirts and chemise and squat without losing her balance, and--
"She's no talking," Laddie said with distress from the other side of the bushes. Those bushes then began to waggle as if he were coming back through them.
"I shall talk," Averill squeaked with alarm, and thought really she had been, just not out loud. Sighing, she asked the thought uppermost in her mind, "What do you think Kade will do about his missing men do they not show up soon?"
Averill knew he was fretting about them. The worry hung on him like an old cape, and now that his father had abdicated, he could turn his attention to other worries. Domnall, Ian, and Angus, she knew, were at the top of the heap.
"If they are not here by nightfall, he is sending a riding party out to search for them tomorrow morn," Will answered.
"What?" Averill squawked.
"I said--" he began, but she interrupted.
"I heard you," she muttered grimly, and wondered why her husband hadn't mentioned that to her. Why was it men had no difficulty talking among themselves but seemed to find it impossible to discuss things with their wives? Her mother had always seemed to be the last one to know things at Mortagne, too.
"She's stopped talkin' again."
"Oh, for heaven's sake," Averill snapped with irritation. Really, all this fuss and bother was rather intimidating her body. It didn't seem to want to go in this situation. Clucking with exasperation, she said, "Can I not have a few moments of peace to--"
"Water the bushes?" Will suggested, seeming to assume she'd stopped because using the term would offend her sensibilities. But Averill had stopped because a rustling to her side had caught her ear. 'Twas a little ways off, but too loud to be a rabbit or some other woodland creature hopping about.
"What did ye mean when ye said she was emptyin' the dragon? She doesna really ha'e a dragon, does she?" Laddie asked suddenly.
"Nay, of course not," Will answered. "'Tis just another way to say she is watering the bushes."
"Oh," Laddie said, and then after a moment pointed out, "She isna talki
n' again."
"Avy?" Will called.
"Aye?" she said absently, eyes scanning the woods nervously. She thought she heard a grunt, and was sure the rustling sounds were getting closer. Deciding she would have to wait until they returned to the keep, she dropped her skirts and chemise and started to stand. "Will, I think someone is--"
Her words ended on a shriek as a plaid-clad man stumbled out of the woods to her side. He turned his head to find her, raised a hand toward her, then collapsed at her feet even as Will and Laddie rushed into the clearing.
The man and boy paused to peer wide-eyed at the man lying unconscious on the ground. Laddie was the first to speak.
"What'd ye do to him?" he asked, the question drawing her startled gaze.
"Nothing," she said, even as Will knelt beside the man and turned him over.
"What is it?" Averill asked when he cursed. "Do you know who he--?" She stopped the words abruptly as she got a good look at his face. "Domnall?"
"Aye," Will muttered, tugging his plaid aside and raising the bloodstained shirt he wore beneath it to reveal the wound in his side.
"Let me see," Averill said at once, urging him out of the way so that she could examine the wound. She didn't glance up when the Mortagne soldiers charged into the small clearing in response to her shriek. They surrounded them, swords drawn and at the ready, but slid those swords away and murmured among themselves when they took in the situation. Domnall, Ian, and Angus had been at Mortagne for two weeks before Kade had awoken from his long sleep. The Scots were known to most, if not all of the English soldiers, and Averill heard Domnall's name murmured repeatedly as she examined the wound, then looked at the older and new bloodstains on his top.
"This wound is several days old and reopened," she announced grimly. "We need to get him to the castle."
Will nodded and moved opposite her to scoop the man up like a child. Averill watched worriedly, following when he carried him out of the woods and to where they'd tied up their horses. He handed Domnall to one of the soldiers to hold as he mounted, then took him up on his horse. As he waited for Averill and Laddie to scramble onto her mare, he glanced to the men now mounting. "Dougie, go tell the men to stop gathering the rushes and search the woods for Ian and Angus or anything out of the ordinary, and stay and help them."
